As the screenshot says, the title is Chat! Chat! Chat! and it is exactly this episode's content: chat!
But instead of a regular chat or a more serious conversation, the format chosen is innovative. The "Chat" of the title is exactly that: a chat room. But not a regular chat room - it's a virtual chat room belonging to the Ghost in the Shell world. It is here that we have the "twist", so to say.
I'm pretty sure that in another series an episode like this one would be virtually impossibel, no pun intended, trusting its running time only in dialog between the characters. The only example I can remember comes from another animé, more exactly the fifteenth episode of Ergo Proxy, which goes for a game show format, and it deserves to be checked out too, even if it has different intentions.
The twist, actually more the production craftsmanship in its intelligent scripts than a twist by itself, is exactly using a commom internet tool and making it fresh, so to say. In the GitS world, a chat room looks like this:
Frankly, who wouldn't want to be in one of those? Or a forum? IRCs? Or even instant messangers?
Who knows if the future of those tools is here?
To not spoil any surprises, nothing that you will not see coming, I only say that there's a fairly interesting meeting, mirroring the relationship between Motoko and the Puppet Master in the first movie, where one knows the existence of the other way before their actual meeting. Maybe it's the case here, maybe not.
It's interesting to see the parallels between a future chat room and today's.
With technological representations left aside, chat rooms are, deep down, conversational tools; always full and to prove this, you just need to visit one in any major internet portal; and, for good or evil, are used, ultimately, to chat. In this specific episode, people gather to discuss the Laughing Man case phenomenon.
In my specific case, once in a while, I use them to promote this website and my book blog.
Wether through chat rooms, forums, IRCs or any other resources, as long as we use them for good, I'm in favor of all of them.
