Review of Ghost in the Shell

Even though this is my favourite anime film and I place it as my second favourite anime of all time and two days ago marks the third time I have watched it (five in total if you include the times I watched 2.0) I never attempted to review it because I do not consider myself up to the task and so many people already covered it there is very little left to say about it, but since I finished the most recent entry I might as well go back to the (technically second) beginning of it all.

You most likely know the gist by now, three years from now in the Ghost in the Shell universe technology is so advanced most people have prosthetic cybernetic implants all over their bodies and computerized brains and there’s a unit within the Japanese forces, branded as Section 9, supposedly dedicated to hunting down major terrorists and criminals and keeping other brands and forces and politicians part of the government in check and extra officially they also specialize in assassinations, this is the consistent premise across all versions of the same concept. The major case which the movie revolves around is about an advanced artificial intelligence developed by the Section 6 going rogue, hacking cyberbrains and creating fake memories and even getting itself into an unfinished cyborg body in the making, all for the sake to make contact with the protagonist Major Motoko Kusanagi. 

The common criticisms of this movie are that it is slow, lacks action and the plot is confusing, which is all a surprise to me. It sits at a little above 80 minutes, of which around five are spent on the iconic Making of a Cyborg scene and the credits at the end, so the movie is actually a little bit shorter than that and wastes no time in getting into the action and graphic violence and progressing the plot further.

The actual story starts at the third scene where the case is presented, after that the possible responsibles behind it are discussed, a chase and action sequence developed, the main antagonist introduced, its first monologue brings part of the themes to the table, and the last third of the movie is a whole chase and fight sequence followed up by the dialogue between the main character and the not villain, right before the finale. The only scenes that do not progress the plot are the first one that still shows up the process of how a cyborg body is created and it may or may not be the origin of Motoko herself and explains why she feels the way she does without a single word, the diving one where she lets out of all her feelings to Batou and the panoramic one displaying the city and exploring the Major’s sentiments further. Even then those convey the mentality of the protagonist and the core themes of the film, so it is not wasted screentime either, thus I do not see how the pacing of the movie would be referred to as slow. 

You would probably think, well, it is because of the second point, the lack of action, but there are three whole action sequences. The killing at the beginning, the chase of the garbage truck and the fight against the not hacker at the market around when the movie hits its first quarter, and most of the last third of the film. So it is not that the anime does not have action scenes, but more like they are spread out throughout the whole duration, plus quality is better than quantity and although relatively short, the action moments in here are very good, combining shootouts and hand to hand policial restriction techniques, plus more graphic violence than people remember from it, and without coming off as edge or gore. 

It is true that the focus is not on that but rather the philosophical themes about identity, the self, and being human or machine, as the bodies of most of the characters are mostly prosthetic cybernetic implants to the point where the main character doubts her own life and existence. People that prefer the manga or that don’t like this version much claim that the plot is too complex because of that, and blame it on the director, Mamoru Oshii, but the truth is that those moments were already present in the source material, and now that the 2026 anime is out, you can see how much the movie actually simplified the monologues of the main antagonist. He did not inject them on the film on his own, nor Motoko’s about her identity crisis, they were always part of the franchise.

In fact I can prove it to you by sharing to you where those moments are present in the original, and the newest, most faithful adaptation. Let it be my addition to the ocean of reviews and interpretations online of this movie.

-The famous opening sequence can be found in the first five minutes of the 2026 anime and the prologue of the manga which is 14 pages long.

-The body creation sequence of Motoko is based on the fifth chapter of the manga which was adapted at the 17:39 minute mark in the third episode of the 2026 anime. An important difference is that the body made there is not Motoko’s.

-The foreign interpreter being hacked at 10 minutes in the movie appears at eleven minutes on the second episode of the 2026 anime and page 8 of the third chapter of the manga. An important difference is that she used to be a girlfriend of Togusa in the original, which I wish the movie kept the same to give him a personal motivation in the conflict. But oh well I guess it would not make sense to underutilize him in the plot afterwards if that detail was included.

-At 40 minutes Batou tells Aramaki that Motoko has behaved weirdly ever since the case with the Puppetmaster. This actually is done better in the ninth page of the tenth chapter of the original and the eighth episode of the 2026 series, because over there she had a cerebral connection with the antagonist at that point, unlike the film. 

-At 42 minutes, Motoko tells Batou that maybe she died and is a replica made with a cybernetic body and a computerized brain, you would probably think that was Oshii’s doing but Motoko does tell that to the women building that cyborg body in the last page of the fifth chapter of the manga and at 21:20 minutes of the second episode of the 2026 anime, in a comical manner, not as an existential crisis like the movie, thus the 1995 version improved on it.

-The iconic scene at 1:05:20 in the movie in which the tank grabs Motoko’s head with the intent of smashing it for her to be saved by Batou, is based on her fight against Soma Toru from the chapter 8 of the manga (pages 38 and 39, but the fight starts from pages 28 to 32), and episode 6 (minutes 19:39 to 20:10, but the fight starts from 15:40 to 16:30) of the 2026 anime. Over there she is saved by her boyfriend from Section 1 and Boma instead.

-This leads directly to Batou connecting the two cyberbrains and their final fusion, based on the chapters 9 (pages 31 to 44), and 11 (pages 16 to 18) of the manga and episodes 7 (from minute 14 onwards) and 10 (minute 17:20 to 20:20) of the 2026 anime. This is way too different to point out the differences.

-And like I said, the monologues of the Puppetmaster appear in episodes 7 (minute 7:30 to 8:30) and 10 (minute 11 to 17:19) of the 2026 anime, and chapters 9 (page 14) and 11 (pages 10 to 15) of the manga.

So, as you see, Oshii should not be criticized for those scenes, he took them from the manga and built the themes around the closest thing to a story and continuity that was present on the source material that was the Puppetmaster story and chapters. For the same reason he should not be overpraised to the point of dismissing the original version and the newest anime, as some people have been doing ever since the trailers dropped, which is why others were worried and Shirow even published a disclaimer.

 

What Oshii added were the scenes of the Major looking outside the window and the city, feeling overwhelmed, not sure of her being herself nor her own, as she sees other cyborg models very similar to her own body or even herself at some restaurant from a boat, which I never fully understood but I imagine it follows the same line I have been writing about for a while now. Proof of which is that the sequence ends with mannequins and transitions to the first appearance of the Puppermaster, all without a single word. Talk about good exposition and character fleshing through what is now referred to as environmental storytelling. He also replaced the Buddhists concepts of the original for Christian symbolisms and in turn self-references to Tenshi no Tamago/Angel’s Egg, but the idea remains mostly the same.

What he definitely changed was the tone, since on top of unifying all those scattered scenes and elements from the manga and more, such as Malles, Gavel and others, he also gave them a much more serious tone. The not hacker and the man driving the garbage truck being brainhacked, Motoko’s existential crisis, her responses to the Puppetmaster at the end, are all more serious, somber, sad even, contrary to the funny and ironic presentation of the manga and new anime. He also replaced the male body at the end for one of a little girl, which I guess makes sense for the merging together as a new entity theme/aspect.

Beyond that, I appreciate the contrast between the protagonist and the antagonist as far as the theme exploration goes. Whereas Motoko doubts her own humanity due to the advanced mechanization of her body and mind, the Puppetmaster is convinced of being a living organism due to developing conscience and even claims that science cannot define life yet, which I guess makes sense in that society. “He” only sees “himself” as an incomplete living being due to the impossibility of dying and leaving offspring. Basically “he” sees death and a living legacy as necessary aspects of a fully realized life, which leads directly to the ending of the movie. On that note, we see the main character changing from being overwhelmed, confused and anxious in the beginning, to being amused with the idea of the vastness of information and models she got access to at the end of the film. 

Besides those two, the cast serve more as plot devices than actual characters, even though Togusa still rejects automatization more than Motoko fears it, reflected on him using old guns and having a body composed mostly of human flesh, unlike the rest of the unit, and Batou is the supportive one that confronts the Major about her doubts of her humanity. They are interesting and do something story-wise, but are nowhere near as fleshed out as the previous two characters, obviously. Everyone has a more serious and calm demeanor compared to the loud, funny and sarcastic personalities of the original and the newest anime. Thus, even though they are well written for this type of story, they do lack a bit on character appeal and likeability, not for me on a personal level though.

The only thing I sort of criticize about the writing is how little it explores the setting and sociopolitical elements of the world and plot, even if they still are present in the story somewhat, but that is to be expected in such a short film. Both the manga and Stand Alone Complex expand on those aspects a lot more, especially the latter. Even the ending which I always felt ambiguous and that does not tie all loose ends, I now appreciate as not as such and actually appropriate for both of the important characters and the theme exploration.

Presentation wise Ghost in the Shell has been rightfully praised for thirty years. Impeccable artwork, detailed backgrounds and fluid motions all hand drawn on celluloid, and well made special effects, even the little bit of 3D for the holographics and infrared vision through visors. Even the static moments are captivating due to angles, perspectives and the feeling that everything manages to convey, it is the result of accomplished cyberpunk aesthetics with a clear bleak vision in mind. Despite the neon lights and signs present even over buses, the coloring is dark, brownish and greyish for the most part, despite the combination of blue and green which are also dark, partly because of what technology allowed at that time. More neat details in the style itself include Motoko’s doll like blank and often lose stare, every character looking different and more serious than their manga counterparts, nudity treated normally and casually instead of something sexy, even with the slender yet kinda muscular, definitely not curvy figure of the Major, contrary to her original design, and she getting naked at least three times throughout the film. And finally the city is always seen as gigantic, massive, full of huge grey lifeless buildings directly seen in front of the characters or the market which has a lot more color but still looks dull and conveys a sense of poverty, like a clear class difference shown by the surroundings alone. The panning general shots show a lot of people just moving through life without a single shred of happiness, talk about a dystopia. 

The only dated part of the visuals for me is some of the technology used, which is understandably partially taken from the source material and partially because of what was available at the time. Well I guess this happens in an alternative reality and history that survived a third World War and even a fourth one, yet there are still public phones with card readers on the streets.

What has definitely not aged as well was the audio aspect, yet is still very good. When you watch the movie, that soundtrack is plain fantastic. Those chimes, those choruses, the tribal singing in ancient Japanese, the slow shamisen, a little bit of slow clean guitar here and there, traditional slow drumming, string tunes in keyboards, long notes and repetitive track structures, really add to the absorbing yet oppressive feeling of the film. But, if you go to listen to it outside of the anime, most themes will feel long and dragged, and the whole album repetitive, partially because that amazing Making of a Cyborg song is part of a trilogy of sorts of a type of suit called “Uta”, composed of that and two other very similar tracks out of eleven total, and even aside of them some others feel like continuations of the whole piece, with Ghosthack as the prime example and being only a low volume slow traditional drum solo, all of which can be tiresome for some people.

The voice acting is impeccable with every seiyuu fitting their character perfectly and listening to Atsuko Tanaka now that she is gone will get me a little bit emotional. Obviously the most stand out casting is the also late Iemasa Kayumi in the body of the Puppetmaster, which is eerie by itself and is a bit of a shame that no other version ever replicated that decision. Another interesting choice to point out is replacing the male cyborg body from the end of the source material with that of a little girl, which I guess adds to the theme of death and reincarnation and leaving an offspring as a legacy, and also set Maaya Sakamoto for the perfect replacement to Motoko’s original voice for life. The sound effects were good for their time but will feel outdated now, even more after watching the newest anime. Even so, they also fit perfectly what the visuals are doing at the same time on screen.

So in conclusion, the movie is short, goes to the point, has a tight focused plot with no time nor scene wasted, yet also a little bit of downtime to convey the feelings and mentality of interesting, memorable and well established characters, complex themes, good theme exploration, an appropriate finale, an absorbing and captivating atmosphere, a dry feel that is excused in-story, setting and characterization, and masterfully done aesthetics, visuals and directing, with the only downsides being that the sound effects are dated, the script could not possibly fit aspects that were expanded upon on later entries, and that the characters are not as likeable as they are in other versions. Other than that, I absolutely adore it and consider it amazing and an easy entry among the top best anime of all times.

Since it exists for some reason, I bothered to rewatch it, and there won’t be other excused chance to talk about it, I might as well comment here the 2.0 movie, which is a version released thirteen years later on its own as a new edition, yet it has very little new content to justify its existence, other than being a marketing plot to promote another Oshii film called The Sky Crawlers that aired the same year. It is a minute longer than this but there isn’t really new material in the script, as far as I can tell, the increased runtime is due to some longer shots and credit rolls.

The obvious differences are present in the visuals and were already covered by many people who are more qualified than me to talk about the technical aspects. First of all there’s obvious CGI which wasn’t all too bad for its time but like most of it, it is aged by now. It obviously can’t compare itself with north american cartoon movies of 2008 like Wall E or Kung Fu Panda, but even anime from the same year like its sister movie Sky Crawlers, Eve no Jikan or Real Drive (also by Masamune Shirow) integrated the animation technique better, because they were animated with CGI in mind from the beginning. Heck, Oshii himself made Innocence earlier and it looked better than it, which transitions from the computer generated images to the 2D visuals weirdly and randomly. A lot of the blue & green effects for the backgrounds were replaced with orange, which apparently the director wanted to use from the beginning but couldn’t due to limitations at the time, and since obviously the movie wouldn’t be redrawn completely, they were also made with CGI. This color works and makes sense for things like sunsets and infrared detectors effects but otherwise don’t really add much to the experience. Even the iconic initial credits that inspired The Matrix were lost. The image itself was updated to look cleaner, clearer and brighter, which for some reason is considered as better by lots of animation fans in general, even when it goes against the original intention. I mean when you look at the example I’m referring to here, it loses a lot of the appeal and atmosphere of the 1995 version.

The audio aspect is what was updated the best and still loses a bit of appeal compared to the original as well. For all the comments I have read claiming that the soundtrack is fantastic in this version, I could hardly notice any difference, let alone improvements. The sound effects were changed to more modern and realistic ones, which was an improvement, but sometimes don’t match what’s happening on screen, such as everytime there are gunshots, and even lose some impact. The voice acting was redone mostly with the same cast and although also not as good as the original, is still of high level. The Puppetmaster has had his gender changed from a he to a she in the script and Iemasa Kayumi was replaced by Yoshiko Sakakibara, who does not match the same level of creepiness but still pulls off a very solid result. As a whole, at least the version I have heard is not really better than the original.

I would like to focus instead on what the changes bring to the table as far as the themes and story are concerned but even then it is very little to count. 3D holographics and sensors make more sense for the setting but are not that well pulled off as mentioned before, the helicopters, buildings, aquariums, rooftops and Motoko’s models don’t give the same feeling of things that should look futuristic for the better experience of the viewer. I mean I guess with a movie about technology you would want to explore newer animation techniques but this result is just not it. Changing the gender and voice of the main antagonist from male to female is interesting because of fusing with another woman, to die and reincarnate as a new form of offspring together. I don’t think there were plans for it in the script but it does convey the possibilities of the technology of the world and setting of the anime, and even reflects a little bit of a possibility of our current world, so that was a nice detail. Despite that, it is not nearly enough for me to consider the entry as worth watching, even after doing it two times. As far as plot goes I should give it the same score as the 1995 movie, so that would be a 9/10. When I consider how much the other aspects affect it negatively, that drops it to an 8/10, as I think how little its existence is justified, that makes it a 7/10, but when I start contemplating it the same as a videogame remaster that only takes away aesthetic identity from the original by “updating” the visuals and artistic aspects, and this isn’t even excused for being released on a newer console and make a lost work available again, that drops it even further to a 6. I can even justify it mathematically by comparing the two versions.

VISUALS

Original 10/10

2.0        6/10

Artwork

Original 2/2 (Impeccable)

2.0        1/2 (Great for 2D, dated for 3D)

Character designs and figures

Original 2/2 (Unique, mature, impeccably drawn)

2.0       2/2 (The same, minus the times where Motoko is done in CGI)

Backgrounds

Original 2/2 (Amazing details and even add to the storytelling)

2.0       1/2 (Same thing for the 2D, but not for the 3D)

Motions/Animation

Original 2/2 (Fluid and detailed with extreme care)

2.0       1/2 (Again, great when 2D but the 3D looks robotic and plastic)

Special effects 

Original 2/2 (Greatly done and revolutionary)

2.0        1/2 (That goddamn dated CGI)

AUDIO

8/10 both

They are actually matched in this category, as they get the same points for music and voice acting, while the sound effects are technically better in the remaster but they do not fit as well with the animation.

Voice acting 2/2 both (Impeccable)

Sound effects 3/4 both (Very good for their time but the originals are dated while the newer ones do not match the visuals as well).

Music 3/4 both (Amazing but repetitive and not used much tracks, and is the same for both versions, I do not get what is supposed to be 2.0 about the redone soundtrack. I tried to find it on YouTube but most of the list was deleted and when I look up “Ghost in the Shell 2.0” Innocence and Man Machine Interface come out instead).

STORY 

9/10 both, it is the same

Premise 2/2 (Interesting)

Pacing 2/2 (Not a second wasted)

Complexity 2/2 (Not in the plot itself but certainly in themes)

Credibility 2/2 (Everything fits and is well excused)

Finale 1/2 (Yes for characterization and themes, the plot feels like it has some loose ends that were not resolved on screen).

CHARACTERS

7/10 both, they are the same

Presence 2/2 (Unforgettable)

Personalities 2/2 (Dry but excused and well established)

Backdrops 0/2 (Non existing)

Development 1/2 (A little bit for the protagonist)

Catharsis 2/2 (Yes for the protagonist and the antagonist)

VALUE

Original 10/10

2.0        5/10

It was to be expected, the original is a landmark in anime, animation and sci-fi history and even directly influenced even more famous works. The remaster is only seen as the inferior version of it.

 

Fame 

Original 3/3 (Well known)

2.0       2/3 (Only fans of the original know about it and as an inferior version)

Memorability

Original 3/3 (Unforgettable)

2.0        2/3 (Memorable but not for the best reasons)

Rewatchability

Original 4/4 (Extremely worth revisiting every few years)

2.0       0/4 (I did and it was not worth for a single second)

PERSONAL ENJOYMENT

Original 9/10 (Favourite anime movie)

2.0       1/10 (Just to be clear, I do not hate it, but I did feel like I wasted every second of my time watching it, the two times).

As you see, mathematically my scores round up to a 9/10 for the original and a 6/10 for the remaster, but since I genuinely cannot see a reason for its existence or a genuine merit from it over the original, I cannot consider it worth watching nor recommending it, at least not for anyone outside the most devoted fans of the franchise, thus I am dropping its score to a 5/10 with a label of a mediocre product (keyword).

FINAL VERDICT

There is not such a thing as a “must something” title for me, everyone should watch/read/listen to/play what they are genuinely interested in, as long as they are not obligated to engage with it in any way for any reason. The 1995 movie is an easy top 10 anime of all time for me, so it would be close to that label, the 2.0 version is only something to consume (keyword) out of curiosity, and even then I honestly would not recommend it.

Recommended titles

Anime

The other versions that are not Arise and 2045

Serial Experiments Lain

Ergo Proxy

The first two Patlabor movies

Akira

Jin-Rou

Kaiba

NieR: Automata Ver1.1a

Cartoon

Pantheon

 

Manga

The original and 1.5 

GUNNM (Original only)

Eden: It’s an Endless World

Akira

Pluto

Movies

Blade Runner

The Matrix (Only the first one)

Ex-Machina

I did not venture into them much myself, (I should), but are commonly associated for a broader similar repertoire 

Black Magic M-66 (Anime and manga)

Appleseed (Anime franchise and manga)

AD Police (anime)

Mardock Scramble (Anime trilogy)

Armitage (Anime franchise)

Oni (Videogame)

NieR: Automata (Videogame)

Deus Ex (Videogame franchise)

Altered Carbon (Book and TV series)

The Neuromancer (Book)

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheeps? (Book)