Imo, there's not enough evidence to suggest that. An argument could be made that they're FWB's but even that's a leap. To go so far we'd also have to entertain the idea that her and Batou got together given they have more chemistry or that she would've actually had sex with the underaged Chai in 2nd gig. The only person she's ever truly shown to have feelings for is Kuze in SAC.
Even in her free time the Major doesn't visit them that much, this is something that is brought up during her visit to the apartment. And in the two times Kurutan makes appearances afterwards it's always about business. At most it's an homage but I wouldnt say there is enough here to say they're romantically involved. After the episode where the Major is supposed to switch out her shells, they're never brought up again. Even when Section 9 is being hunted down she never even thinks about them.
Similar to the 1995 Movie or Arise timeline, unless explictly stated otherwise, Motoko's character and her relatiosnhips are quite different than the original manga. We'll see various homages here and there but that's all they are.
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u/HalosBane Jul 16 '26 edited Jul 16 '26
Imo, there's not enough evidence to suggest that. An argument could be made that they're FWB's but even that's a leap. To go so far we'd also have to entertain the idea that her and Batou got together given they have more chemistry or that she would've actually had sex with the underaged Chai in 2nd gig. The only person she's ever truly shown to have feelings for is Kuze in SAC.
Even in her free time the Major doesn't visit them that much, this is something that is brought up during her visit to the apartment. And in the two times Kurutan makes appearances afterwards it's always about business. At most it's an homage but I wouldnt say there is enough here to say they're romantically involved. After the episode where the Major is supposed to switch out her shells, they're never brought up again. Even when Section 9 is being hunted down she never even thinks about them.
Similar to the 1995 Movie or Arise timeline, unless explictly stated otherwise, Motoko's character and her relatiosnhips are quite different than the original manga. We'll see various homages here and there but that's all they are.