Batou

"If the essence of life is information carried in DNA, then society and civilisation are just colossal memory systems, and a metropolis like this one, simply a sprawling external memory."

- Batou Batou is the deuteragonist and male lead of the Ghost in the Shell franchise. He is a former JGSDF ranger and a member of Section 9, being Major Motoko Kusanagi's second-in-command and best friend. Like the Major, his body is entirely synthetic, though in his case it's more obvious due to his electronic eyes, which he uses to scan objects.

Appearance
Batou is a tall (about 6'1), highly muscular man with a fair skin complexion and white hair that he keeps tied back. He has electronic eyes in place of his normal ones, which he has had since his JGSDF days. His usual attire is a white shirt with a coat over it, dark-green trousers and black shoes.

Personality
Batou is a battle-hardened special operative with a long military career and a no-nonsense attitude. Unlike the Major, he is very emotional and tends to get angry very easily, especially at those who harm the innocent. He is also quite trigger-happy and tends to shoot first, ask questions later, much to Togusa's chagrin. He tends to be the jokester of the team and has a very dry, sarcastic sense of humour, something that eventually rubs off on Togusa.

Batou is often assumed to be quite stupid due to his huge physique and hot-blooded, reckless personality. However, he is actually far from it; he's the best hacker in Section 9 after the Major and Ishikawa, has a base grounding in sociology, religion, politics (even if he doesn't usually care, it's clear that he understands it when he explains things to Togusa), and is more than capable of keeping up with the Major in advanced philosophical debate, though his stances tend to be more empirical and down-to-earth. He is also very collected and professional when on the scene, and is usually the one to warn others, usually the Major and Togusa, not to do anything stupid.