Director Oshii’s stunning animated 2029-set anime classic centres on Public Security Section 9’s hunt for supreme hacker The Puppet Master.

One of the most influential anime films of all time, raising philosophical questions around transhumanism that are more relevant than ever, 30 years after release.

Perhaps best known for Ghost in the Shell and Appleseed, mangaka Masamune Shirow is seen as one of the key figures in the development of the genre of Cyberpunk in Japan in the 1980s and 1990s. Ghost in the Shell has enormous historical significance, one of the greatest works of the cyberpunk movement, the manga looks at cyberpunk as more than just an aesthetical choice. It looks at transhumanism and the philosophical concepts about the boundary between human and machine.

Though William Gibson is rightfully seen as the creator and pioneer of the genre of cyberpunk, the manga itself full of nods to the seminal Neuromancer. Mansamune Shuirow’s work takes cyberpunk, embraces it and expands on what would have happened if Japan’s economic boom of the 80s had continued to propogate into a future where human, machine and corporations are the dominant forces. Something that still echoes to this day…  

Mamoru Oshii himself deserves a significant chuck of the credit towards the sucess of the 1995 movie. Taking from the manga and creating a pondering, beautiful, engaging, and stunning, cinematic adaptation. Often many people’s introduction to the world of anime, if not the other cyberpunk masterpiece Akira (perhaps more on that next year…).

Oshii’s movie is a more clinical, philosophical and introspective interpretation, than the slightly more mirthful tone of the manga. Building on his previous experience with the beautiful and accclaimed Patlabor films, taking the manga and, whilst reamaining true to the original plot, taking a more philosphical approach.  

Oshii cited films such as 2001: A Space Odyssey, Day for Night, and Blade Runner as essential to Ghost in the Shell’s creation. The latter, he considers one of the greatest examples of cinematic world-building. A meticulously crafted movie, though a short film in runtime by modern standard it takes time to breathe and let you luxuriate in the world, backed by an perfect mood setting score by Kenji Kawai.

For its short 89 minutes, Ghost in the Shell is more than a movie and can be an existential experience for some audiences. Touching on themes of identity, human existence and what consitutes a soul in a atsmosphere dense rendition of an alternate future of the Japan that could have been.

Ghost in the Shell is seen as one of the masterworks of Japanese Anime, revered, and re-iterated multiple times (and rumored to be soon re-interpreted once again), but 3 decades later, the 1995 film is still seen as the best.

If you’ve not seen it, you owe it to yourself to watch one of anime’s jewels in the crown.