Masamune Shirow’s original manga deals heavily with political machinations both geopolitical as well as those internal to Japan. One of the reasons I mentioned politics and the Japanese self-defense forces in the intro is that Ghost in the Shell has always been a very political beast. At that point, creating a new origin story for Kusanagi and her compatriots, with new voice actors stepping into these roles was definitely a risk, and unfortunately, it was one that didn’t quite pay off. When Arise came out, Ghost in the Shell had already been through three films, two TV arcs, and a slew of novels and games in addition to Masamune Shirow’s manga. Even at its least-engaging, I’ll take most versions of Ghost in the Shell before a lot of the other stuff that’s out there. And I’d take “worst” with a grain of salt, here. What follows is my completely subjective ranking of the various envisionings of the worlds of Ghost in the Shell ( recently voted #1 cyberpunk anime by readers of Otaku USA), from worst to best. Although Ghost in the Shell has maintained its core team of Major Motoko Kusanagi, Batou, and the rest of the counterterrorism group of Section 9 trying to keep the peace (to a greater or lesser degree), all of its various permutations have responded to world developments as well as the visions of their creators and interpreters. It’s particularly true for a franchise like Ghost in the Shell, which is over 30 years old (the first chapter of the manga came out in April 1989) and has developed through events like the collapse of Japan’s bubble economy, the Lost Decade(s), the increased deployment of Japanese self-defense troops abroad, and seventeen prime ministers, just to name a few. Anyone who writes science fiction has to worry about the present overtaking their futuristic fantasies.
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