Must see anime: Ghost in the Shell

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Written by suske

MUST SEE ANIME

GENRE: SCIENCE FICTION/POST CYBERPUNK

CREATOR: MASAMUNE SHIROW

ORIGINAL JAPANESE TITLE: Kōkaku Kidōtai ( Mobile Armored Riot Police )

ADAPTATIONS: MANGA,T.V. SERIES, MOVIES, VIDEO GAMES,NOVELS


          Ghost in the shell began life as a post-cyberpunk manga by Masamune Shirow back in 1989 and published in Young Magazine. Ghost in the shell (GITS) is a crime drama that takes place in the distant future where it is commonplace to augment the human body with cybernetic prosthesis...even to the point of full body replacements and brain implants. revolving around the cyborg character major Motoko Kusanagi squad leader of Public Security Section 9, (a fictional division of the quite real National Public Safety Commission) charged with solving crimes that involve technology.

          One of the main underlying themes of the GITS movies/t.v. series is the majors' inner struggle as a full body replacement cyborg and weather she still has a soul or "ghost" (hence the name ghost in the shell) and she even at times thinks she might be entirely synthetic....a robot possessed of fake memories. her full body replacement gives her strength and abilities beyond normal humans and even other cyborgs......due to the fact her body or "chassis" is actually a rare classified military model...

          Ghost in the Shell-animated movie 1995 from Production I.G.
          In the first anime movie kusanagi is portrayed as dark and brooding...opposite of her colleague Batou. she seeks an answer to the question of her own humanity and eventually crosses paths with the puppet master...a rouge experimental artificial intelligence that has become sentient.

          This movie features some of the very first computer generated graphics... a Production I.G. trademark. when otaku talk about ground breaking shows this is one of them. easily in the top 5 influential productions and still holds its own today.

          Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence   2004 from Production I.G.
          This sequel to the 1995 movie picks up 3 years later and focuses of the major's team member and friend Batou. In the major's absence he has become quite like her...dark and brooding. the major herself is absent from this sequel untill her voice gives him the cryptic warning "you have entered the kill zone" during a very intense scene where his augmented body is "ghost hacked" by an unknown entity. This film has one of the highest production values of any anime.... and most western made live action movies. Production I.G. has made a name for themselves using hybrid animation pioneered in the first GITS movie and perfected in the sequel. visually stunning CGI backgrounds with hand drawn 2-d characters provide a breathtaking world...while maintaining an organic feel to the action. in all honesty there are scenes in this that would make george lucas green with envy.

          Ghost in the Shell S.A.C Solid State Society 2006 Production I.G.
          In this third installment we pick up two years after the second season of the t.v. series Stand alone complex: second gig. The major has left section 9 and this film focuses on togusa a squad member without any cybernetic enhancements...a pure human. section 9 is confronted with the suicides of 13 operatives of the siak republic. a former siak colonel commits suicide in a japanese airport after warning that the "puppeteer" is coming. while a interesting film this one follows the story of the t.v. series and has slightly weaker production values then the second movie.

          The GITS franchise encompass comics published by dark horse, t.v. series, movies and video games. If you are looking for some cyberpunk.....look no further. this is definitely a must see franchise.