[The Captain]

Call me a fan if you like, I already watched both movies, the entire stand alone complex and am now watch SAC2

Same here. GitS is definitely my favorite anime franchise. As far as SAC is concerned, it excels in all areas -- presentation, story, characters, music (everything was written by Yokko Kanno). I'm sure you can find an anime that may be better in one of those categories, but not all of them.

As far as order is concerned, it doesn't really matter. You may want to read the GitS manga, though, since the first movie is based off of it.

I think I like 2nd Gig more than the first season because of the story line. I can't wait to see how it ends (only 2 episodes left!)