This Week in Anime - Ghosts in the Shell

Sylvia
Coop, I could not be more excited to talk to you about Ghost in the Shell today. It's been way too long since we last covered it in this column, especially for it being such an institution in anime and manga. In fact, I wonder why it's taken us so much time to return to it. I can barely remember the previous column. Perhaps a dive into my screenshot folder will elucidate things.

Ah. That's right. That's what I was trying to forget. Time to erase my memory banks again.

Coop
After seeing that, I'd probably infect my cyberbrain with a memory virus too, Sylvia.

Thankfully, Science SARU's refreshingly retro take on this foundational text is right around the corner, and woo boy... We've all been thoroughly reminded why almost everyone has had a thing for the Major at one point or another.

It helps that there are so many Majors to choose from! And I guess it's appropriate that a series thematically invested in the notion of identity should itself have so many of them. Look at all of her. There are plenty more, too. Which one is the "real" Major? Does that even matter?

Truly, a Major for all seasons.

But I see why Moko-chan and the gang at Science SARU are going back to the original flavor Major for their adaptation. Masamune Shirow's original manga is bursting at the seams with character and charm. Yes, the cyberpunk grim and philosophical questions are there, but it reads with a strong sense of humor, never taking itself more seriously than it has to. The world is lived-in for sure, but I wouldn't call it cynical. If anything, Shirow's tightrope walking reminds me a lot of The Fifth Element for similar reasons. And now "Motoko Kusanagi Multi Pass" is stuck in my head.

It's interesting that with all the independent anime adaptations, Shirow's role in creating the series seems to have taken a backseat in the cultural consciousness. I guarantee there are plenty of people out there with vehement opinions about which GITS adaptation is best who have never even touched the manga. And I'm not ignoring my own part! I've only read a small fraction of the manga, yet I've seen at least part of every anime adaptation to date. Which definitely makes Science SARU's approach all the more appealing to my curiosity.

Personally, adapting all of the unadapted shit from the manga is exactly what I want to see in the upcoming anime! I want unfiltered Shirow weirdness. Especially the horny stuff.

And I especially need more of the Major being an unbearably hot lesbian dirtbag. This shot has had a stranglehold on my cyberbrain for a full week. I am so unwell.

I know you're probably thinking all about that boat too...

There's been a great story making the rounds regarding Shirow's random horniness, and I'd probably do the same, dude.

The late great Toren Smith once regaled us with a tale of an event that occurred during the translation/localization of one of the extra smutty Ghost in the Shell arcs; when asked "Why all this sudden fanservice?" Shirow replied "Ah, that was when I didn't have a girlfriend!" 😆

— Elin Winkler (@doronjosama.bsky.social) May 15, 2026 at 1:55 AM

Aside from Tenchi in Love, I can't think of another DVD at the video store that had me going "I can't let my mom catch me looking at this" when I was un bébé.

That must've stuck with me, because I didn't watch the Mamoru Oshii flick until 2017-ish...and I wasn't a fan of all the philosophizing at the time. I came around on it a few years back, but that was probably because I'd sat through most of the Patlabor series by then. Oshii's GITS would be right at home in a double feature with the first Patlabor film, as both are tight action films with a little more to chew on hiding under the surface. We are talking two completely different source materials, but the Oshii connective tissue does a lot of heavy lifting here. Two properties about highly specialized public servants surviving their day-to-day while futzing with deeper personal questions? It's in Oshii's wheelhouse.

It definitely feels more like Oshii's story than Shirow's. And I was also not brave enough to pick up at Blockbuster in front of my parents. However, I think it was one of the first anime films I watched in college. I might have even downloaded it from another student via the campus' DC++ server. That in itself felt a bit cyberpunk at the time. And when I did watch it, its philosophizing tickled my pretentious college student brain. It still does. It's an all-timer. And Oshii's sequel, Innocence might honestly be even better. Maybe a controversial opinion, but seeing it in theaters two years ago really made things click for me. Plus, it's one of the neatest-looking anime films ever. Oshii wields the unwieldy CG of the mid-2000s to a beautifully uncanny effect.

Speaking of uncanny, the handful of CG scene recreations in Ghost in the Shell 2.0 are fascinating from a weird, cool stuff standpoint, but they don't really hold a candle to the original hand animation in my opinion.

I would agree there. But again! It's so interesting in a meta sense that we not only have multiple takes on adapting GITS, but we also have multiple versions of one of those takes. Copies of copies of copies. Swapping out one part for another. And so forth.

True! As you said, that factor oddly fits in quite well with the work's explorations of identity in a world that's boiled people down to the electronic pulses in their brains.

Transhumanist cinema in form and function. There's something there for a proper essay, maybe. But we've still got plenty more ghosts and shells to go through.

I know that I'm far from alone in saying that Stand Alone Complex was my first proper go-around with Ghost in the Shell. The Bandai Entertainment DVDs were something I'd pick up from the local FYE on occasion in the late aughts, and I remember being kind of mesmerized by the show's highly watchable procedural format. I never did finish the first season, but 2nd GIG aired so much on Adult Swim that I know it's broad strokes fairly well. But after revisiting that first season for this column, I can safely say that's still one hell of a compelling series. It's seriously styled, but there's a bit of a "you caught a random episode of Law & Order on TV and ended up watching the whole thing" whimsy to it.

And back on my earlier Patlabor point, there's just enough difference about Ghost in the Shell's jump to television from its film that makes the two series feel like kindred cop procedural spirits. Not to mention the likely handful of shared staff between properties, films, and series. With the right bit of thread pulling, someone could make a convincing argument about how the Major is the next evolutionary step in the Lum line after Noa Izumi.

Good point! And beyond the Major, I really like how the episodic format gives Stand Alone Complex plenty of space to devote to the other members of Section 9. Batou is always great, of course, but Togusa especially emerges as a good counterpoint to the Major, with his minimal cybernetic enhancements contrasted against her full cyborg body.

Speaking of Section 9...

SAC's English voice cast is iconic. Be it the sultry tones of Mary Elizabeth McGlynn as the Major, Richard Epcar's wisecracking as Batou, or the sharp comebacks from the late William Knight's Aramaki, the entire cast absolutely kills it. Not to mention the explosive chemistry they all have with each other. It's hard for me to imagine any other people in these roles. Seriously, this is probably one of the strongest dubs of its era. Then again, the series has had rock-solid dub work from the very beginning.

Seeing these for the first time last week was simultaneously fascinating and delightfully baffling. Looks like it was just a few hairs before my time on the internet.

And yet its legacy lives on. Warms the cockles of my cybernetic heart.

On the topic of those official subs, the series' Blu-ray release (from 2017) is deeply bizarre when compared against what fans are used to today. No chapter breaks within episodes, weird audio quirks, noisy video, and a screen that asks you to do this at the end of each disc.

I haven't seen that since the last time I played Metal Gear Solid. Well, at least this release can easily be found in your local Walmart and the like.

I'll always go to bat for CG anime as it continues to evolve, warts and all, but I frankly just can't do that for SAC_2045. Despite the immense talents of the returning voice cast, designers, and animators involved, the visuals on display are simply not ready for prime time. Movements feel weightless, gestures haphazard, and the environment lifeless. There are also moments in which the characters are speaking to each other in cyberspace, and their models are clipping into each other. Perhaps you could write that off as "they're in cyberspace," but it doesn't look great. I really feel this series needed more time in the oven to reconsider its approach and style. As is, SAC_2045 simply doesn't work, and that's even before the plot slid off the side of my head.

I hate to say it, but if the Alien vs. Predator show that Disney allegedly shelved looked like this, it was probably for the best.

I guess I can sort of respect it for taking big swings—that's what GITS adaptations are all about, after all. I might have suggested that some of those swings actually aim for the ball.

Still, if you want to see more batshit material from the first season, Micchy and I provided an entire column's worth. You sickos.

And to its credit, I actually remember some stuff from SAC_2045. I can't really say the same about Arise outside of its excellent opening and ending songs.

I revisited Arise's first episode in preparation for this column, and it does a solid enough job of setting up a "here's how the band got together" story while dipping its toes in the same procedural goodness that makes SAC sing. I'm intrigued enough to watch the rest of the series, perhaps, but then again, I've got SAC just sitting there under my TV—weird discs and all. Though, for what it's worth, I believe both SAC and Arise do an amazing job of selling the Ghost in the Shell cast as characters you can plop into all sorts of situations.

Meanwhile, the Scarlett Johansson flick does not.

I was hoping I would not have to be reminded of that film's existence. You have dashed those hopes.

Arise, at least, was hotly anticipated and mostly positively received from what I can recall. It's probably worth another look from me. The live-action movie, on the other hand, was a joke from announcement through execution. Scarlett Johansson's casting is probably its most lasting legacy, and that legacy is a punchline about Hollywood whitewashing.

As someone who has actually seen the movie, it's so confusing whether it wants to rehash material from the Oshii film or S.A.C. 2nd GIG, and it becomes mush in the struggle. Johansson shouldn't have been cast in the role, but a keen filmmaker could've pulled on that thread even if they couldn't talk the producers out of this terrible choice. There's some real meat in a story about someone who's had their identity, culture, and heritage stolen from them, realizes it, and fights like hell to reclaim it. Hell, it would've fit right in with a good chunk of the series' themes, but that idea's punching way way way above this film's weight.

Its opening cinematic goes so hard. I remember seeing it on G4's Cinematech back in the day. Also, I feel like this intro was remastered a while back and disappeared, but I'd love to see the laserdisc this clip came from go through one of those Domesday Devices...

I believe it got closest in tone to the manga of any animation we've gotten to date—at least as far as the horndog aspect goes—so it's pretty neat in that respect, even if it was isolated to a PS1 disc. Although I'm sure the upcoming series will give it a run for its money. Shirow sure does love his skintight bodysuits.

And oil, but that's a story for another time.

If that's not truly powerful, I don't know what is.

The things you see while on the net.