The Ghost in the Shell – Episode 1

Content warning: Violence against children, minor fanservice.

What’s it about? In an alternative timeline, cybernetic technology has become commonplace and the world order remade, with some states coming out as winners and others as losers. Cyborg Major Kusanagi has successfully lobbied the government to create a special operations force of other cyborgs, and she has some clear enemies: government corruption and those who would harm children.

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Whenever a remake is announced, particularly of a beloved franchise, the question arises: why? My roommate phrased it to me thusly: “If something was revered enough to inspire a remake, then why would it need to be remade in the first place?”

This question can be answered in a number of ways when one examines successful remakes. Sometimes a series was only partially adapted, as in the case of Fullmetal Alchemist. Sometimes a series was largely butchered in adaptation and not completed, as in the case of the original Fruits Basket anime. Sometimes a remake can deepen the underlying thematic currents of the original source material, as Devilman Crybaby excavates the queerness of its source material.

Ghost in the Shell is an altogether different phenomenon, because arguably the Mamoru Oshiii anime film is far more well known than the manga that inspired it. This film has inspired countless revisions and sequels all existing in its shadow. Because of how large this film has loomed in the cultural imagination, what we have not gotten is what this new series offers: a largely faithful, 1:1 anime adaptation of the original manga.

And boy, is that adaptation beautifully executed.

The Ghost in the Shell is truly Ghost in the Shell as only Science Saru could have adapted it. It preserves the charm of the original manga character designs (from the extremely-late ’80s bob on Major Kusanagi to the ape face of her boss) while providing a lightness that moves with the kinetic energy and playfulness the studio brought to recent action series Sanda and Dan Da Dan. The adaptation overall captures much more of the comic sensibility of the original manga than previous adaptations.

Despite this comic sensibility, the writing is every bit as dense and political as the manga, most notably questioning the role of police within structures of justice. Kusanagi herself is a profoundly ambivalent hero: one second she’s talking about how she lives to stop corrupt politicians and structures that brainwash kids, the next she’s telling a kid from a brainwashing trauma-factory orphanage to essentially pull himself up by his bootstraps as she walks away.

It is a fascinating, vital representation of the psyche of an agent of “justice” within a corrupt state. Her only tools, after all, are violence and espionage, which are not enough to save a child. She cannot remake the orphanage, she can only remove the tools of the worst of its corruption. So much for a heroic police.

The geopolitical implications of the show are cutting. It seems that imperialism has so progressed that states can be thought of as slaves to other states, and there is in fact a real slave trade occurring. It is notable that the orphanage they are infiltrating is for orphans due to war, and that the government is in fact systematically brainwashing them. The observation feels especially prescient given the real-world abandonment of so many refugee children.

Then there are those whose bodies have been literally alienated from them due to their place in the war machines or turned against their own people, like the guard in the orphanage who, in his last thoughts, realizes his need to escape the cycle before he is blown to bits by his own government. It is, in fact, violent state actor against violent state actor from the same government in this show, and nobody is actually there to free the orphan from captivity. Chilling stuff.

You should watch this show, regardless of your previous knowledge of the franchise. Consider this the highest recommendation.