It's real simple folks, this is the second season of the TV series, same people behind it and everything. 2nd GIG(which is NOT an acronym like people seem to think, but just the word, meaning a preformance, and in this case, a second preformance) recently finished its initial run with the last two episodes airing in January on PPV, and is a whole new story arc. We still have alot of great action, lots of manga references, and not just to both GitS and MMI, but also some material from GitS 1.5. Animation quality was occasionally cruder than normal, partially due to several different Production-IG studios working on it, but overall it still looks fantastic. The writing this season was fantastic, and included the involvement of both Shirow himself and Mamoru Oshii, who directed the movies. No individual writeups for these episodes are going to be availible at this time, Bandai is posting briefs on the individual episodes on the official site, and I really don't like just copy-pasting official bits of synopsis.
A brief overview of the season on the whole is in order though. Section 9 is back after the events at the end of season 1, there's a new Prime Minister heading the country and trying to establish her power base, and while there may be more scrutiny, they continue on mostly as they have before. However, early on Section 9 finds that it has a rival, the Cabinet Intelligence Agency. Headed by Gohda, the CIA seems to operate as a counter-terrorist agency like Seaction 9, but almost purely from the standpoint of information warfare, relying on other groups to carry out any physical operations they need taken care of(whereas Section 9 often does it all). With the CIA around, and seemingly working at odds with some of Section 9's objectives, the team find themselves having to work much harder for their victories, providing much of the tension, and half of the core plot for the season.
The other half comes in via early epsiodes that find Section 9 dealing with a string of terrorist actions being done by a group called the Individual Eleven(which doesn't refer to the group having 11 memebers). While investigating these, Section 9 fends off an attack by a member of the Individual Eleven on the new Prime Minister, but fails to capture the assailant(who later goes on to play a key role in the storyline). The members of the Individual Eleven movement are shown to be fighting over the status of the refugees living in Japan from the end of World War IV. They're there in Japan, living lives, taking jobs from regular citizens, and have very little in the way of rights or status in the country. Over time, this has caused bad feelings to rise between the citizens and the refugees, which is a big part of what this season's plot is about.
Individual(IN): Though the initial Individuals may lead you to believe that they're the non-plot episodes, it turns out that they really function as the episodes for telling the story of the refugees. Be sure to pay attention to these ones. I'd say the word Individual was chosen in regards to the Individual Eleven group that shows up a lot in these episodes.
Dual(DU): These are the episodes that deal primarily with Section 9's interactions with Gohda's CIA, furthering the plot by fleshing out the opposition. My guess here is that Dual refers to the Dual agencies preforming similar roles, and possibly a wordplay pun on Duel, as the Japanese love their puns.
Dividual(DI): Here, finally, we have our episodes that don't serve to further the plot(though it usually gets a 2-3 minute nod in each episode). Rather, these ones are all about the members of Section 9, fleshing out the backstories of Saito and Paz, adding to Togusa, Batou, and the Major, and reliving a number of moments from the manga in new ways. Couldn't tell you where the heck they came up with Dividual though :/
01 - DI : Reactivation, REEMBODY
02 - DI: Well-Fed Me, NIGHT CRUISE
03 - DI: Saturday Night And Sunday Morning, CASH EYE
04 - DU: Natural Enemy, NATURAL ENEMY
05 - IN: Those That Have The Motive, INDUCTANCE
06 - DI: Latent Heat Source, EXCAVATION
07 - DU: Rhapsody - The Melody of a Bygone Nation, Pu239
08 - DI: Vegetarian Feast, FAKE FOOD
09 - DU: The Hope Named Despair, AMBIVALENCE
10 - DI: The Man Who Goes Insane, TRIAL
11 - IN: Grass Labyrinth, AFFECTION
12 - IN: To Those without even a name, SELECON
13 - DI: Face, MAKE UP
14 - DI: Pay Attention to the Left Eye, POKER FACE
15 - DI: Afternoon of the Machines, PAT
16 - IN: The Fact of Being There, ANOTHER CHANCE
17 - DI: Repaired Mother-Child Relationship, RED DATA
18 - DI: Angel's Poem, TRANS PARENT
19 - IN: Chain Reaction of Symmetry, CHAIN REACTION
20 - IN: Confusion at the Northern End, FABRICATE FOG
21 - IN: Escape of Defeat, EMBARRASSMENT
22 - DU: Abandoned City, REVERSAL PROCESS
23 - IN: The Day the Bridge Falls, MARTIAL LAW
24 - IN: Air Raid on Dejima, NUCLEAR POWER
25 - IN: Beyond Paradise, THIS SIDE OF JUSTICE
26 - IN: Return to a Nation with an Uncertain Future, ENDLESS GIG
