Motoko Kusanagi

Kusanagi is the main protagonist in the movie Ghost in the Shell, where she is Aramaki's second in command in Section 9. She is a very effective leader and is able to use her wits and cybernetic body in bringing criminals to justice. However, despite the number of cyborgs in Section 9, Kusanagi hand-picks Togusa, who has undergone only minimal brain modification, to balance the roster, an interesting expression of her belief that homogeneity is a weakness and that versatility is a strength. Kusanagi is often contemplative and brooding, whilst her counterpart Batou is more extroverted and lively. She usually wields an M-23 submachine gun that, while fictional, bears a striking resemblance to a P90 - though with the magazine mounted vertically on the underside instead of horizontally as is the case with the P-90.

Since she has a full cybernetic body, she is not certain her ghost - her soul - retains any humanity. In fact, she speculates on the possibility that she's entirely synthetic, with artificially generated memories designed to fool her into thinking she was once human. She goes scuba diving for relaxation, although she is so heavy that she would sink like an anchor if any malfunction in her buoyancy devices were to occur. Her fatalistic attitude towards her diving thoroughly confounds Batou, especially with her mentioning feeling hope along with fear and loneliness while diving in the ocean. Throughout the movie, she seeks to find answers to her questions and finally meets the Puppet Master, a rogue AI who became sentient and who is similar to her in its quest for existential meaning. By the end of the movie, Kusanagi and the Puppet Master merge to form a new entity that propagates itself artificially.

In Innocence, the Major's first verifiable appearance occurs in Kim's manor, where she breaks into the hallway component of Kim's looping false memories and inserts herself (represented by the little girl prosthetic body Batou got her at the end of the first movie), a basset hound, and clues to alert Batou to a ghost-hack attempt on him and Togusa (their private code 2501 from the first movie is part of the clues). Later, the Major's ghost returns to help Batou on the Locus Solus' gynoid factory ship. However, only a fragment of her is downloaded as the host gynoid had insufficient memory. Her personality has not changed much from the first movie, except for gaining Project 2501's master-hacking skills. Her mind now operates from a satellite, and is even further detached from humanity.

While her actual appearance is mainly a cameo, she is ever present, and retains her fondness for philosophical musings, saying such things like "We weep for a bird's cry, but not for a fish's blood. Blessed are those with a voice. If the dolls could speak, no doubt they would scream 'I didn't want to become human.'" Before departing, she tells a despondent Batou, who realizes she is going to leave him again, that whenever he connects to the net, "I will be right beside you."

There is, however, a sequence early on in a convenience store in which a voice resembling the Major's voice can be heard warning Batou that he is in danger. Whether the warning genuinely came from her, or was part of the hack attempt, or was perhaps simply a thought of Batou's, is unknown. If it is genuine, it would predate the appearance in the major sequence as the first appearance, but if it is false, then it was simply part of the hack attempt.

Major Motoko Kusanagi's formal introduction in the first season comes during the first episode, when Section 9 is called in to resolve a hostage situation at a Geisha house. Throughout the series, The Major maintains her signature commanding presence and authority. Unlike other members of Section 9, The Major could best be described as a lone wolf, relying very little on outside help to accomplish her goals. Among the various members of Section 9, Kusanagi is usually the one Chief Aramaki singles out to accompany him on official and off the record business.

About half-way through the first season, Kusanagi starts having reservations about the use of the Tachikoma sentient tanks, which have begun showing signs of individuality and curiosity not befitting their use as combat weapons. When Batou's Tachikoma escapes Section 9's Tachikoma storage facility and proceeds to go on an unauthorized joy ride through the city and spends the day with a young girl looking for a lost dog, Kusanagi begins to seriously contemplate having them returned to the lab. This feeling is further increased when the tank that was supposed to be watching her back wanders off. Ultimately, she decides to have them stripped of the weaponry and sent back to the lab that manufactured them for analysis and further work.

During the last of the episodes of the first season Kusanagi, like the rest of the members of Section 9, becomes a target of Narcotic Suppression Squad (NSS) agents and the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Forces (JMSDF) after discovering the truth behind the Laughing Man scandal. She is first targeted by the JMSDF, who damage her prosthetic body, forcing Kusanagi to seek much needed repairs. During her prosthetic body swap, an NSS agent attempts to kill Kusanagi, but fails after the real Laughing Man saves her. After Section 9 is disbanded, its various members are captured by shock troopers of the Umibozu (an unofficial JMSDF special forces unit adept at paramilitary operations) until only Batou and Kusanagi are left. It was only after the three remaining Tachikomas sacrificed themselves to save Batou that she realises that their individuality made them better weapons. She even speculated that they might have gained ghosts becoming truly alive. As Batou and Kusanagi attempt to leave the city, Umibozu commandos ambush and subsequently arrest Batou, and supposedly assassinate Kusanagi.

After Section 9's fall, Togusa sets out to assassinate the man responsible for its dissolution when he is intercepted by Batou, who brings him back to the team's new headquarters. Here, all members of Section 9 — including Kusanagi — are revealed to be alive and in good health, and the first season concludes with the reinstatement of Section 9.

As in the manga, Kusanagi maintains her unique dress, wearing thigh-length boots, a strapless leotard with no trousers, and a leather jacket, as except in cases where this is inappropriate; during such times she will usually appear either in a tan military officer's uniform with markings that denote her rank as a Major, or in a black and grey tight-fitting combat suit that the team uses on its raids and other paramilitary operations. In rare cases, Motoko will adopt other styles of dress appropriate to her surroundings, such as a London police officer and a garbage lady. She maintains a dim view of sexism in all forms and methods; even going so far as to empathize with sex robots.

Kusanagi's personal life is not alluded to much in the first season, although the events of the episode "Missing Hearts" suggest that she underwent cyberization at a very early age (approximately age 6~9), and that she had trouble adapting to the use of the body which resulted in her inadvertently breaking one of her favorite dolls and crying at the same time. She is usually a private person but has opened up to Batou, particularly in the episode "Barrage," where The Major brings Batou back to her safe house to hide from the JMSDF and the Niihama City police. The two share a moment of closeness that hints they would like to go further, but don't. The next day as they attempt to flee the city at the airport, Batou notices the laser dot of a sniper rifle aimed at Kusanagi's head. Calling out to warn her, Batou calls her by her first name, Motoko, instead of "Major," before she is decapitated and killed.