Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex - The Laughing Man

The Laughing Man is a compilation feature assembled from the storyline of the same name in Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. Kenji Kamiyama directed the roughly 159-minute picture, Yoko Kanno composed the music, and Production I.G handled the animation.

The affair traces back to 2024, opening with the abduction of Ernest Serano, who headed Serano Genomics, and spreading into blackmail aimed at firms that build micromachines and medical equipment. What followed was a run of terror aimed squarely at corporations, reportedly the heaviest such wave since the war. The perpetrator remained a cipher, with nationality, sex, age, and any accomplices all unknown, the lone certainty being a first-rate hacker at work. Investigator Yamaguchi, tracking the case, reaches out to Togusa and then dies under strange circumstances soon after. Days later the culprit seizes the broadcast of a police briefing to voice his regrets, and Section 9 is put on the trail of the invisible figure who has finally broken his silence.

The film opened in Japan on October 23, 2005, and reached the United States on October 2, 2007. Manga Entertainment handled the American release while Madman Entertainment served Australia and New Zealand, and the picture carried a 13+ rating. It leads into the later compilation feature, Individual Eleven.