Ghost in the Shell

Ah, Ghost in the Shell, a memento from my childhood, though I didn't understand the complex plot and boring political banter at the time I still loved it because it represented something special to me: night.  I used to sneak out of bed in the middle of the night and watch anime on the movie channels of satellite TV as a child with the volume extremely low.  Anime always came on late at night for some reason, probably partly due to the mature nature of what was shown and the fact that most anime fans were night owls anyway so Showtime could successfully market to them without alienating the mainstream watchers.  Whatever the reason, as a child anime symbolized late night (at the time roughly 1:00-3:00 AM which is early for me now) because late night was my time.  Everything was silent and dark and only the flicker of the big CRT TV with the volume barely audible from a foot away (I didn't want to wake up my parents and be sent back to bed) and in a way those nights were almost romantic in their nostalgia.  I ran across a few gems of the medium as well at the time such as Bubblegum Crisis, Gunsmith Cats, Cowboy Bebop, Ninja Scroll, and of course Ghost in the Shell.  One of my favorite things about Ghost in the Shell is that it truly is a science fiction movie (rather than a science fantasy movie like say Star Wars) [for anyone who does not know the difference science fiction is always focused on technology including how it works, how it changes things, and how it fits into our lives, science fiction is almost always based strongly in reality on current or potential technology, whereas science fantasy tells a story in a futuristic setting and simply explains "magic" by saying "because science!"].

As a child I liked Ghost in the Shell because it represented freedom, it represented maturity, and most of all it represented staying up late without my parents knowing.  On top of that the unusually dark (for my experience) science fiction setting was an interesting change and the cool gadgetry of the world intrigued me. As an adult I like the movie for different reasons (although those original reasons still apply too, go staying up way too late without my parents knowing even though I'm an adult!), mainly because it has an extremely interesting plot despite being a bit over-complicated by political banter which is used to set up the background story.  To put it simply: Ghost in the Shell is the anime equivalent of Blade Runner.  What I mean by that is they both ask similar moral questions.  But, for simplicity the plot revolves around a group of counter-terrorists who specialize in cyber terrorism and are led by Major Motoko Kusanagi, who is probably my favorite female character in anything ever.

As a character Major Kusanagi is very quiet and stoic, she talks during the movie with the people who are around her because she knows and and trusts them but seems to rarely talk unless necessary and when she does she is very efficient with her words.  She doesn't have much respect for authority but she does have respect for those around her, including her superiors and her subordinates.  She respects people rather than positions.  The word efficient is probably the best way to describe her because her personality is like a well-oiled machine (which is intentional but more on that later).  Watching her in action scenes is incredible because the animators made sure to imbue her with a sense of power and, again, efficiency.  The way she runs: taking steps just long enough to not be cumbersome and not moving any other part of her body, the way she shoots: double tap with straight, realistic aiming, and pinpoint precision, and everything about her scream perfection.  She is someone who is very careful with how she moves and controls herself and makes sure every action is perfect, almost like a machine.  This is interesting because she is a machine!  Mostly.  She has part of a human brain inside of a cyber-brain enclosure that provides increased thinking and information processing capabilities as well as networked links to connect to the internet, and the brain is stored inside an entirely cybernetic body.  The title suddenly becomes clear here, Ghost in the Shell is in reference to her, the partial human brain is where her creativity, instinct, and human soul come from, i.e the ghost, and the cybernetic body is the shell.  However, in the world of Ghost in the Shell fully cybernetic and partially cybernetic humans are the norm and the only thing that sets her apart from most people is that she has a extremely expensive body with a lot of capabilities because she works for the government in a job where she would definitely need those enhancements.

In fact, nearly everyone has some sort of cybernetic enhancement in this world, even Togusa who is the only member of the anti-terrorist team that is almost entirely human (his only cybernetic enhancement is a brain augmentation that allows him to connect to communication systems such as the internet).  The movie adequately explores the dangers of these enhancements through a practice called "Ghost hacking" in which a hacker will break into the cyber brain of an individual and either take control of the persons body or mess around with their memories.  Both instances happen in this movie, in one situation a senators assistant is hacked into in order to force her to assassinate the senator and in another instance a mans memories are replaced which leads him to committing crimes he doesn't realize he's committing.  The movie, and the TV series Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex investigate the possibilities both good and evil in great depth.

As far as plot goes Section 9 (the aforementioned anti-terrorist team) is given the assignment of hunting down a hacker known as The Puppet Master.  The name The Puppet Master comes from the fact that he ghost hacks people and uses them as human proxies to ghost hack other people.  He has a whole series of these ghost hacked puppets which he uses to commit various crimes and due to the way he has some puppets hack other people to turn them into his puppets he is very hard to trace because even if the team captures a cyber brain in the process of being ghost hacked it will only lead to another puppet.  The setup is both eloquent and complex and the sort of person who could control such a system must be incredibly intelligent and calculating, a great foil the the Major herself.  So what we have is a spy thriller about a cyber criminal, but it is also a great personal journey for Major Kusanagi because she has been in a cybernetic body so long that she has no memories of when she was a human.  In fact, she doesn't even know for sure if she has actual human brain cells in her cyber brain and so throughout the film she is seeking an answer to whether or not she really is human.  One particularly good scene involves her going scuba diving with one of her close friends and subordinates, Batuo, after having seen someone else with the same cybernetic body as her earlier in the day which made her question her individuality.  She states that she can let herself go when she scuba dives and the conversation that she and Batuo have about both their individuality and their cybernetic bodies is extremely well presented.  She really comes across as someone who has been so focused on making her professional life perfect that she forgot who she was on a personal level.  She is an extremely strong, independent woman who knows her place in the world, but doesn't know who she really is or if she is even human.  She is quite a well developed and subtle character.

The movie also has a few action scenes that are sporadic but extremely realistic in their presentation (based on the rules of the world) and while the movie does have several scenes with grotesque violence, the violence is there for a reason, not just to shock.  Ghost in the Shell is outstanding and, considering most of the scenes are incredibly simple, they work perfectly.  Overall the main character is extremely interesting as is the villain, and both are products of the well-realized and eerie world of future Japan.  This film is an absolute must-see for any fans of science fiction, crime drama, or action.

Verdict
9/10