Ghost in the Shell

攻殻(こうかく)機(き)動隊(どうたい)(Armored Shell Riot Police/Ghost in the Shell)^A) is a Japanese sci-fi franchise. In the West, the most well-known entry is the 1995 film, which also happens to be quite bad. In Japan, I’m guessing the most popular entry is Stand Alone Complex.^B)

• External Memory
  • Refers to memory that is ‘external’ in relation to the brain. Any digital storage medium can technically count,^C) but it seems to generally be used to supplement regular memory.
• Ghost
  • Refers quite clearly to the soul. Some analog thing inside the brain that they don’t quite understand in their world. When reading it, it comes off as static.
  • I’m not sure why they call it a ‘ghost’ rather than a soul. It could be the case that, in universe, it is called a soul in English and this is some weird Japanese borrowing. In the primary world, this is probably because it sounds cool or the writer just didn’t realize that ‘soul’ and ‘ghost’ don’t have the same meaning.^D)

The Manga that started it all, written by Masamune Shirow. Now, I read this and…I wasn’t particularly impressed. ‘Masterpiece’ is waaaay too generous to describe this. It’s average at best. Note that I’m only covering the first manga and not that weird sequel, which I haven’t read yet.
Now, the manga’s main issue is its aversion to explaining anything. Reading through the manga is confusing…since:

• Individual chapters are linked together very loosely. It’s extremely episodic^E).
• Characters are barely explained. If you thought Paz and Borma were not focused on in the later entries…oh boy. That isn’t even including all the characters that have a unique or eye-catching design who appear once and never again…
• Worldbuilding concepts (and concepts) in general are poorly explained.

I predict a counter-argument will be leveled against me: the author notes at the end. Masamune-sensei decided to explain several things at the end of the volume in footnotes. These footnotes are interesting to read…but they don’t actually change much. Since you’re supposed to explain things in and through the story…not at the end of it. Not all the notes explain stuff that is needed to understand what is going on, but the ones that do should have been in the story itself. I also personally don’t know how bad the explanations are in the manga…since I’ve already seen the film and all of SAC, meaning I’ve already got a good idea of what all the things are. Though one example I’m sure about is ghost dubbing which, as far as I remember, isn’t explained at all in the manga.
Besides that, I’ve found some plot points were contrived. Particularly the Major’s acceptance of the Puppet Master’s proposal. Within a few panels she goes from skeptical to fully accepting^F).
The manga also focuses on the philosophical themes too much…to the detriment of the story. The later SAC handles this far better. Something else I noticed is that the name ‘Ghost in the Shell’^G) isn’t even thematically appropriate, since there’s no exploration of that as a theme.^H)
I will note this: it’s pretty shocking going from the rest of the franchise to back here…since it’s radically different in places. The Major has a more playful and less stoic personality. She also goes on dates^I). Besides that, the æsthetic is also different…way less grounded than the later SAC. I don’t personally think this works, since the world doesn’t feel ‘real’ in the way that SAC does.
What reading the manga told me is that, somewhat ironically, Ghost in the Shell did better outside of the hands of its original creator.
As far as I see it, the manga is an interesting footnote. It’s most relevant in regards to the film…which I previously thought deviated from the manga…but it turns out it didn’t. Well it did in the characterization of Kusanagi…it would honestly be interesting to see an adaptation that adapts her character properly, but that’s a whole different can of worms.
Would I recommend reading it? No, if you aren’t big on Ghost in the Shell…yes, if you are.

This was the first part of the Ghost in the Shell franchise that I experienced…and I was deeply disappointed after I first saw it. You see, I had heard for years that it was a certified masterpiece…one of the best anime films ever made!
This turns out to be untrue and it only reaffirmed that the western anime community is the least reliable source for determining the quality of any piece of media.
Now, after having read the manga, I found that the film was more accurate than I initially thought. In fact, it’s probably one of the more accurate adaptations of a manga that I’ve seen. It does throw the manga’s æsthetic out the window for its own (Patlabor 2-like) and it makes the world more grim in general…but the plot regarding the puppet master is on-point. It actually improves upon the manga by hinting at the Major’s reasons for accepting his proposal early on.
Like the manga though, it focuses too much on its philosophical nonsense to the detriment of the story. It also has too many ‘static’ scenes: where we see some landscape image with music playing over it…while nothing actually happens. This is similar to Patlabor 2, but Patlabor 2 actually achieved something with it^J). And, just like the manga, it has an issue with explaining things.^K)
There are positives here: like Blade Runner, the portrayal of the worldbuilding was masterclass but, unlike SAC and like Blade Runner, the world doesn’t come off as believable. The issue here is that Ghost in the Shell portrays a world so grim that it’s hard to believe it could be this grim.^L) This is the only part of the franchise, as far as I currently know, that has this problem. Well…the manga technically counts, but for a different reason. What the worldbuilding gets across extremely well is just how cyberized the world is: everyone has cybernetics, there are androids all over the place and most people don’t double-take when they see some ridiculous enhancement. Even the military is heavily cyberized.

One day we will find something that is the best of the franchise that isn’t simultaneously my favorite.
Stand Alone Complex is unquestionably the highest-quality thing to come out of Ghost in the Shell. The only thing that comes close to the first season is the second season.
S.A.C. is interesting regarding adaptations, as it could be argued it’s not a good adaptation. However, S.A.C. is not an adaptation…it’s a spin-off that’s heavily inspired by Ghost in the Shell. It’s even in the name itself ‘Stand Alone Complex’. The subtitle, which is carried by all of its derivative works (unless I’m missing something) also indicates to the audience that it is not related to the rest of Ghost in the Shell. And for those who like comparing adaptations/spin-offs/whatever, it’s interesting just how the various things in the Manga were adapted into S.A.C. The Puppet Master’s adaptation was particularly…intriguing.
Both seasons (and the film) are also dripping with the 2000s, which I very much like. Just like Kidō Kēsatsu Patlabor. There are optical(?) discs in caddies, there are barcodes everywhere…for some reason…? The film has a rap by Heartsdales. It’s freaking great.
Before I move on to the individual entries, I think I should mention something I found interesting. One thing that I’m quite sure about is that I saw the Laughing Man logo years before I even knew about Ghost in the Shell. That either speaks to S.A.C.'s influence, or to how damn good of a design that logo is. The Laughing Man may also be the reason S.A.C.'s first season is so iconic and why 2nd Gig might not be remembered as well^M) since it doesn’t feature anything like it.
Further, it’s difficult to find official merchandise with it.

This is the first season, with all the Laughing Man shenanigans.
I think that S.A.C. takes the basic ideas that Ghost in the Shell presented, in the Manga and the film…and elevated them to something that is almost a masterpiece. Although I don’t think S.A.C. is perfect, I think that it is near-perfect.
The series is episodic, but it does have an over-arching plot that it does go into (and quite fast too, by episode 4 we’re already on the Laughing Man track).
Besides the Laughing Man thing, this is probably the first GitS property that actually explores the ‘Ghost in the Shell’ theme, mainly in Episode 3 ささやかな反乱 / ANDROID AND I and with the Tachikomas. But I think Episode 3 is more subtle about it. I remember being super excited after that episode, for that reason.^N)
I’d just recommend watching it, don’t bother listening to me (except for the ‘watch it’ part).

The second season of S.A.C. and…I don’t think it’s worse than S.A.C., it just lacks the Laughing Man. That’s about the main downside. It’s also a bit confusing as to what the antagonist wants (he’s also super obvious about being the bad guy).
Maybe a re-watch will make it clearer to me.
I’d still recommend watching this, particularly if you want more S.A.C., since it’s very comparable quality-wise. There’s another brief ‘Ghost in the Shell’ thing in here and not just from the Tachikomas, so yay!

There’s a 2-year time skip between SSS and 2nd Gig, during which a few interesting things happen. Kusanagi has left Section 9 for some reason, I guess she wanted more freedom. Section 9 has been expanded and Bato is like a Maverick now. A grumbling old man, I guess.
Something mysterious and kinda spooky is going on involving children being…kidnapped? Kidnapped by old people, no less, who are connected to the internet via care pods. It’s pretty spooky. There’s a particularly tense moment involving Togusa, our guy.
Anyway, other changes include the fact Togusa apparently told his family he works for Section 9 instead of a security company. Togusa is also more cyberized than before and he’s stopped being sentimental about what weapons he carries. Less naïve, more badass.
In the end, it’s revealed that the antagonist is just some guy? Yeah, some bureaucrat who developed a conscience. Except no! Plot twist! The guy was actually a ‘shard’ of Kusanagi, who developed self-awareness, took control of this bureaucrat’s body (who had died from mysterious circumstances, my favorite) to start delivering what he/she viewed as justice. That seriously spooked the Major, who decided to go back to Section 9(?). The implications of that alone are worth analyzing or exploring in future installments.
Unfortunately, that’s not what happened.

Since I decided to move most of my criticism to a dedicated section where I criticize SAC_2045, I’ll focus on just the review portion here. Or, rather, I had a dedicated section, but I decided to refine that first before releasing it.
I was initially hesitant when I first heard about this for several reasons. Netflix, 3D and aesthetic differences. As I watched it, though, I did get into it. Unfortunately, once it ended I was left dumbfounded.
Is SAC_2045 good? No. No it is not. Would I recommend watching it anyway? Probably not.
Since I’m not going to be focusing on critique here, I’ll take the…space…to focus on something else. Right, there are two seasons. No there aren’t. There’s one season split into two for some reason.
The animation is pretty good. It’s not quite Monty Oum-level action, but the action was still quite nice. Unfortunately, they didn’t quite take advantage of the 3D animation to do anything too crazy. I’d say the action in SAC_2045 doesn’t get as good as the action in S.A.C. or 2nd Gig though.
Some might like that the aesthetics of SAC_2045 got updated more to the modern day…I didn’t. Although I have to admit that they did a pretty good job of updating the looks of some things. Similar to Kidō Kēsatsu Patlabor’s attempt to do so.^O)
Also, the critics of this show (skimmed Wikipedia a while ago) are probably too harsh, especially when it comes to action and animation. When it comes to philosophy…well, I don’t remember what they said, just that I thought they were being stupid about it. The writing in SAC_2045 isn’t good and the philosophy presented here is completely bonkers, but I don’t think it was presented any differently from the previous S.A.C. entries.
The way I’d rank this among the rest of Ghost in the Shell is…well, I should note first that I initially thought that SAC_2045 was better than the 1995 film. I’ve since changed my mind: SAC_2045 is probably worse than the 1995 film. The film has pretty animation to look at and doesn’t quite break the world/story as much as SAC_2045. However, if both were standalone, SAC_2045 would probably rank higher. Unfortunately, that’s not the case.
Also, a big surprise to hear Mili perform the first season’s ED.

There are times where Ghost in the Shell appears to make mistakes in relation to the technology being used. This is nitpicking of the highest order.

While I believe this to be an error…I am declaring it an error based on an assumption. Basically, there’s a point in the manga where Kusanagi connects to the other Section 9 members through their electronic telepathy thing. And at this point, the others start to hear her ghost in the form of static, or she tells them not to get ‘closer’ (whatever that means in this context) to the static because that’s her ghost. (I’ll have to check later for sure.) However, if we assume the communications are digital (why wouldn’t they be?), then why can the ghost be heard as noise at all? Part of the plus of digital data is that there’s no interference or noise…so her ghost shouldn’t be audible through those communications at all.
I’ll add that the way the telepathy works in the manga is really strange anyway…with everything else treating it as just electronic communication.

In the film, after being knocked down and severely injured, we get to see the scene through Kusanagi’s eyes…and they have scanlines. Scanlines are only a thing in CRT Displays (Will check for sure later) and I doubt her android eyes are CRTs. Now, this could be excused if: A. Her vision is interlaced for some reason (unlikely). B. Her vision has scanlines by default. The first makes some sense but, logically, her eyes should be sending her raw (or at least properly processed) visual data, rather than any kind of…whatever we see.

The UN existing is a serious flaw in the worldbuilding of Ghost in the Shell. The UN’s main goal is to prevent another World War from occurring.
The Ghost in the Shell universe has two world wars happen back-to-back – needless to say, the UN should not be able to survive this.
To elaborate further, the UN would have serious trouble justifying its own existence after another major war, let alone a world war…let alone two of them back-to-back. Even if the UN doesn’t suddenly collapse, it would definitely ‘rot away’ over time, as member states might choose to leave due to the UN’s lack of legitimacy. The UN could only survive if it seriously reformed into something completely different.
For example, I can see the UN disappearing, but organizations like UNESCO (or at least their World Heritage thing) surviving in some form. Or the WHO surviving. But the UN as a whole, with peacekeeping operations? Nah.

The term 攻殻機動隊 is a rabbit hole I wasn’t expecting to go down. This is the name that the franchise is known under in Japanese. Ghost in the Shell is the name of the film and the subtitle of the initial manga, but all the other productions use that.
Wikipedia translates it as ‘Mobile Armored Riot Police’¹⁾ which is described as the literal translation…which is, uh, a choice.
I wanted to check whether this was accurate, so I looked at the individual Kanji to piece things together. 機動隊 is pretty straightforward, as it’s ‘Riot Police’. This is also, probably, where the ‘mobile’ comes from, because the 動 means ‘motion’. So, if we work backwards from Wikipedia’s ‘literal’ translation, the first half 攻殻 should mean ‘armored’. But…
It doesn’t. The 攻殻 is an invented word presumably created just for the franchise. The first character (攻) means ‘aggression’ or ‘attack’^P) and the second (殻) means ‘shell’, as in ‘electron shell’ going by the specific reading, though it means ‘shell’ as in ‘husk’ more generally. You’ll notice that only ‘shell’ could be considered to be included in the translation.
The thing is that this is a pretty complicated term, so it’s understandable that there’s confusion. I couldn’t really think of how to translate it myself. I settled on ‘Armored Shell Riot Police’ because it makes the most sense as a literal translation: they are cyborg riot police, they have an ‘armored shell’. Though an alternate translation could be ‘Offensive Shell Riot Police’ or ‘Offensive Armored Shell Riot Police’. I am technically excluding the ‘aggressive’, though I can understand why that’s excluded, since it’s assumed in ‘riot police’. In-universe, it makes half sense, since they’re mostly an offensive force rather than defensive.
It’s confusing and annoying.

• SAC Official EN website
• https://www.productionig.com/contents/works_sp/02_/index.html
• Cyberbrain - I’ll read it later.
• aniDB - For the movie.
• aniDB - For S.A.C.
• AniList - For the movie.
• AniList - For S.A.C.
• AniList - For the Manga.
• These are links to the first film and the first season…the remaining content can be accessed via ‘clicking on stuff’.
• There’s something I forgot to note when comparing SAC to the film. The film is pretty clearly ‘dystopic’ in tone. The world it portrays doesn’t look very nice. SAC, in comparison, looks pretty normal, just that technology has moved into a weird place. This key difference makes SAC way more interesting. This is just how the world is now. The manga is just weird.
• I have just found out (2025-04-27) that there’s going to be another adaptation of Ghost in the Shell, the manga, coming out sometime in 2026. The poster suggests it’s going to be more faithful so…cool.