Why I Love Anime: Ghost in the Shell

There are a select few anime that I regard as being a must-watch for any anime fan. There are even fewer that I would say are must-watch for anyone, regardless if you like the genre or not.

This is one of those rare few that belongs at the top of both lists, and came out in that wonderful golden age of anime.

When I say that this is a must-watch film, I mean it. I like to compare it to Blade Runner - a film by Ridley Scott that if you haven't seen, what are you doing with your life? Just... go watch it for crying out loud. My god. Make it a priority this weekend. Take two hours out of your life and WATCH IT. Just make sure it's the Director's Cut. The theatrical release is... oh god it's horrible.

Anyways, I'm getting side-tracked. Ghost in the Shell is in a similar vein as Blade Runner. It's a look at what the near future might be like - a future where technology has outpaced the ability to regulate it properly.

Where Blade Runner asks questions that touch on what humanity is, Ghost in the Shell asks a different question: Where does humanity end, and where does it begin? Similar to the question raised in the book Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (which Blade Runner was based upon), we are tasked with pondering what happens to a person when they become replaced with technology. Does someone who has their entire body, and perhaps even their physical brain, replaced with augmentations or substitutions still remain human? And in a world where the line between man and machine is blurred so as to be indistinguishable to the naked eye, what would it be like to live there?

But like any great work, it tries not to tackle these issues directly. Instead, it dances around them, and while it plays an important role for the characters in the story, there's no clear-cut answer given. Is a person still responsible for their actions when their bodies and minds have been hijacked by another? When a person can dive into a computer network, and then return, what does it say about humanity? And when one's own reality can be altered, from the things they see and hear to the memories that they have, how does one prosecute, or even fight back against, such a thing?

The story follows Major Kusanagi, a member of Division 9 - a black ops counter-terrorism organization based in Japan. Her job, quite frankly, is to keep society safe, and the future is a very scary place with technology that can be pretty terrifying. Behind all the cybernetic eyes and the enhanced prosthesis and replacement designer parts lies a thin veneer of something sinister.

Make no mistake: this is one of the greatest animated movies of all time. Miyazaki's films are amazing, and have obsessive amounts of detail, but Ghost in the Shell is on a whole different level. Before this movie, Akira was the one must-see Japanese Anime based purely on visuals (and don't get me wrong, it's still on that list). But Production IG went even farther with Ghost in the Shell. It is a visual spectacle with a thrilling plot, laced with deep philosophical quandaries that someday soon we must have an answer for. And the technical and mechanical designs were unlike anything we had ever seen before.

When I think of anime, I think of this movie. The only thing missing from it are the visual breaks that are so often common even in modern shows, usually to exaggerate actions or emotions, but this takes a more realistic approach, and wants to be taken as seriously as one might a standard live action film. It succeeds at just that.

The main reason I think of this movie when I think of anime, however, is that short of those jokes I mentioned, it has everything else the genre is famous for. Awesome visuals, brilliant storytelling, interesting characters in impossible scenarios, and a unique storytelling perspective. It has amazing machines and brilliant dialogue. It tells a story that you rarely find in the Western world.

It embodies everything I love about anime in a serious tone.

I can't overstate the impact this film has had on my life, and the series as a whole. You don't often get a work of art that really tries to explore some of the various philosophical problems that we will be encountering soon, and rarely do you get one that is half as gorgeous as this. It has influenced me as a writer, and as a creator.

For the life of me, I can't imagine that there is much more I can say about Ghost in the Shell. It is amazing, and everyone needs to watch it. It is one of those gems with which I hand off to people who don't watch or even understand anime, and I say, "this here is the reason I watch this stuff". People like my father, who suddenly understood the depth of storytelling available.

It hasn't converted him, mind you, but it did open his mind to taking animated films just a little bit more seriously. This isn't just the domain of children - and it never was. It's just that we, as a Western culture, let Disney ruin us with child-friendly material and those damned Saturday-morning cartoons.

Ghost in the Shell proves that they can be taken seriously, and sometimes should be.

Watch it if you haven't already. Seriously. You'll take something away from it.