Lithium Flower

The song was written as the ending song to the Ghost in the Shell :Stand Alone Complex series. It is in reference to Motoko Kusanagi or "the major". The meaning of the song can be traced to the title of the story, ghost in the shelll is written about the evolution of robots becoming so advanced they start to wonder if they have human feelings, a ghost or soul in this metal shell. Also make the world seem borderless and can surf any where at anytime hence "How is she when she doesn't surf?." The line "She's so number nine" is in reference to the group she is invoved with and leads, section 9.

Keep 'em Comin. :-)

The song is about how everyone views the major. to everyone, she's so calm and collected to the point where it isolates her from everyone else. i.e "so golden solo". "so number nine" probably, makes reference to being on cloud 9, meaning that she appears to be in a state of perfect happiness. "she's incredible math" is repeated showing something like a double meaning. the first time is said in the meaning of how its so difficult to be that perfect. the repetition shows that she isn't at all happy and perfect and is, instead, is more complicated.

the second grouping voices a growing uncertainty on how perfect she is actually perceived. the smelling of lithium also has a double meaning. the despair she is trying to hide, i.e. lithium as a treatment for such, and how everyone is smelling lithium, i.e. people are starting to realize she might have problems.

"when she doesn't surf" might mean when she isn't calm and collected. kinda like surfing to get by. "when she wakes up" references that she is alone when she wakes up, and is able to act more naturally and not have to hide her problems in front of everyone.

the next set of lines is more or less a repetition of the same idea as the beginning of the song. matadors have to keep their cool when fighting bulls. oil on fire says that she can go a long time being collected and calm. sonic wave gives the impression that its an overwhelming calm.

"never seeing the girl wipe out" means that the other people never see her loose her cool.

finally, the "i wanna go surfing with her" means that everyone wants to be able to hide their problems like the major.

as for the problem the major has...

Coming to terms with what it means to be an "android" and "alive". the overall tone of the first movie was that of finding her place in the world and how she grows to fit in both categories. i.e. the boat scene. when she's floating to the surface she says something along the lines of "whenever i float back to the surface i feel like i'm becoming someone else...it's probably the decompression." a metaphor for her becoming more alive, but her android side fighting it with reason. thus, she is constantly conflicted.

i don't remember a whole lot of this theme in the series, with the major, herself.

Definitely one of the better anime shows going on out there and definitely one of the better characters too. If you've seen the movie or series it's pretty obvious what it's about. Catchy song.

i'm assuming that the song refers to lithium because it is commonly used in batteries and in high-performance alloys, alluding to the fact that major kusanagi is a cyborg

Well besides the reference to Ghost in the Shell, I believe this song has a general meaning.

About a girl, the singer is in love with, comparing her to all that he is in love in his life. For example math, lithium and surfing. Besides the cyborg part, I really enjoy this song when I'm thinking about a special girl in my life. Also a very happy song from this point of view :D

Surfing is a highly intuitive sport, more art/emotion than science/logic. The man in the song expects that this would be unbelievably hard for a cold, rigid and robotic person to be good at let alone master, and yet she does. The man is thoroughly impressed by this, not only because her machine like qualities didn't get in her way, they also made her better at it "You know I've never seen the girl wipe out" "How does she so perfectly surf?" The symbolism behind a lithium flower is quite elegant since lithium is associated with high tech and batteries and yet a flower is something organic and represents blossoming life. A perfect description of this cold yet very soulful and human woman that clearly moved him.

Explication of Lithium Flower: This comes from Ghost in the Shell, set in a time when world culture is coping with full cyborgs, and widespread AI inserted into humans through cyberization. Digital brains process information in linear=logical fashion. Thus linear / logical cyborg brains are fully capable of processing thoughts, including emotional thoughts, and physical feelings, but they fail at experiencing and appreciating gestalt brain functions such as pure emotions and interpersonal feelings because these are processed and stored in analog / parallel circuits. Consequently, full cyborgs and cyberized humans have a disturbing sense of inadequacy in situations that evoke gestalt pure emotions and interpersonal feelings, feeling less than human. The search to experience and understand these analog functions becomes a need to understand/become fully human or possessed of “a ghost.” This ghost is variously understood as a soul or god — it is the analog experience that includes what we understand as emotions and interpersonal feelings. In this song, the Major (i.e., she) “does what humans do” — that is, she has all the linear / digital human functions that fit her well for the logical thinking required as a policeman and sometimes assassin in Public Security Section Nine (i.e., “she’s so Number Nine”). She is filled with “incredible math,” i.e., linear / logical abilities, but is inadequate without analog personal feelings — can she be “really human” without a heart? Without analog emotional warmth (i.e., “so cold and human,” she experiences aloneness and she “stays so golden solo.” Without analog interpersonal feelings, she struggles with interpersonal relationships. In a neural net model of AI, a synthetic brain is capable of forming analog / parallel connections without programing — if this is beginning to happen the Major might be “waking” and “about to bloom” with emotions and interpersonal feelings. Lithium is an unstable white metal thought to be formed in the Big Bang event. Lithium ignites in air and is used for pyrotechnics — a metaphor for burning like emotion. As an ion, lithium powers electrical mechanisms (like a cyberbrain?) but as lithium chloride it substitutes for calcium in brain cell membranes and stabilizes neurons so they do not fire too easily. In bipolar disorder, lithium chloride helps emotional excitement — in the Major, is a metaphor for keeping her new emotions under control. As full humans, we wonder how she can live in a vast inter -net, using its linear functions but never traveling in a random, nonlinear , i.e., “surfing” mode, leading us to wonder what she will do when she wakes up” to full digital/logical plus analog/gestalt emotional function.

This is my opinion and I hope this makes the other view for people who never thought in this way.

Japanese people use an idiom of 'net surfing' (I am Japanese and so I am not sure whether non-Japanese use this idiom or not, sorry :x) I guess the term of "surfing" in this lyrics is referring to it. So, surfing here means how she acts (because most of the time she is connecting to internet or electrical devices and etc...). Waking up might mean that when she does not connect to those things, so when she is truly herself, I wonder what she does.

Also 'surfing' here means how she solve the problem and communicate with people to go through her life. Thus, she perfectly surfs, in the story (not about her past).

This was my view. I hope people understand what I try to say.

Thank you for reading :)

p.s. I try to watch this anime in English, but it was hell difficult for me to understand. However, I could see it a little different from how the characters speak and I like both in English and Japanese.

Lithium Flower is about The Major's bi-polar disorder, brilliance & depression. When one takes meds, one tastes them when they hit the tongue and nasal passages.

Number 9 includes section 9, but can also include John Lennon's Number 9. Also, The Major is a 9 out of 10, as there is no such person that is a perfect 10. The Major is as good as she gets.

"Just incredible math," refers to her mind and body.

& The Major is so sexy, like a flower.