One of the things I really wanted to see at Anime Expo this year was the premiere of the new Ghost in the Shell anime by Science Saru. Ghost in the Shell is one of the first manga I ever got my hands on way back around 1995.

Now, back then, manga was flipped and printed left-to-right in the normal Western fashion. Getting anything from Japan in English was a challenge, which thankfully, Dark Horse did. Dark Horse was ahead of the game at that point in time and helped bring a lot of things to America. Japanese companies did not want to take the risk (and in a lot of cases, still do not want to take the risk).

I encountered Ghost in the Shell as a big ol' trade paperback at Barnes in Noble, which is where my dad used to bring my family to spend time for free. We'd grab a bunch of books (or comics, in my case) and just spend hours reading away. At some point I managed to convince my dad to spend $25 to buy it. My original trade paperback would end up being confiscated by the teachers at school as not being fit for children because of the Puppet Master's robot breasts. The violence, the gun fights, the blood, they were willing to overlook (begrudgingly), but nope, no breasts. Now, single-digit age me didn't think anything wrong about any of that be it blood or breasts. Wouldn't have known it was "bad" unless you told me. And thus, I had to go buy the trade paperback again. I've actually just bought it once more in the form of the recently released Ghost in the Shell Legacy Edition box set. If you don't already have the manga, I'd pick that one up. It's running about $100 but includes Ghost in the Shell, 1.5: Human error Processor, and 2: Man-Machine Interface, all in hardcover edition, plus some posters from the 1997 Cyberdelics collection, and a set of fuchikoma stickers.

So that's my history with Ghost in the Shell. I've been an avid fan ever since. When I first heard about the new Ghost in the Shell project, I was ecstatic. Ghost in the Shell is up there as one of my most cherished franchises for three decades. They say that things you encounter during a certain age range really stick with you Ghost in the Shell is proof of that for me.

At last year's Anime Expo, the Ghost in the Shell panel was on the same day as the J-Pop Sound Capsule concert. As a VIP ticket holder for said concert, one of the benefits was a quick meet-and-greet (more like high-five) with many of the music artists. Unfortunately for me, the high-five portion was before the concert, and before the panel. I ended up entering with my VIP ticket, doing the high-fives, and then leaving to go to the Ghost in the Shell panel. I later came back for the actual concert itself with a second ticket I had.

For this year, thankfully, there wasn't any time conflicts. I blocked out the two hours and barely made it into the screening. It's a bit of a gamble for any panel at Anime Expo and it's impossible to gauge just how early you have to get in line. With the panel being at the JW Marriott, it can be impossible to just get into the building.

Upon entering the room, it was almost completely full. The only seats still open were those reserved for industry and press. Clearly, a lot of people were looking forward to this screening. I took a seat on the side and waited anxiously. While the United Kingdom had a screening a few days prior, this would be the debut for North America, and of the first two episdoes, to boot. The wide public release itself would be on July 7 on Amazon.

Everything was familiar, in a good way. The art style. The characters. The progression of each episode. Everything was as it should be. Every moment of those first two episodes were things I remembered from the manga and I had a wide grin plastered on my face the whole time. The teaser bits we were shown at Anime Expo in 2025 gave hints of this, but this cemented things. This is Ghost in the Shell. The best way to describe this anime is that it is, for at least these two episodes, a scene-for-scene adaptation of the manga. If you read it, you were now getting to watch and hear it. This is the first time that the original manga has been touched upon in an animated format.

And that's the next thing you'll hear from me about: the divide between the existing animations and the manga.

Oshii's 1995 film was his interpretation of Ghost in the Shell. He took the framework and the world of Ghost in the Shell and ran with it. He took elements from the manga, but at some point, it was no longer Shirow's. It was Oshii's. And that's fine, because he was given license to do what he wished. Oshii made Motoko Kusanagi very stoic and philosphical. The stories for both the Oshii's first Ghost in the Shell and Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence are both slow and methodical. They are more about the human condition and the philosophical issues of existence, and what it means to be human. These are all things that Shirow included in Ghost in the Shell, but they were not focused upon as heavily like Oshii did.

The varied Stand Alone Complex anime (Stand Alone Complex, 2nd Gig, Solid State Society, and 2045) all are a world where Motoko never encounters the Puppet Master and never splits off. Section 9 is kept together. I really liked all the Stand Alone Complexes because I wanted them to stay a team. Arise is a prequel to Ghost in the Shell and the formation of Section 9, showing the lives of the various team members before they were gathered.

You're probably going to hear a lot of noise online about this divide. Some people have never touched the manga at all (shame on theme) and hold only Oshii's two films as "true" Ghost in the Shell, and maybe others will include Stand Alone Complex universe. They reject the manga, and by extension, this anime. They reject the art style, the humor, the personality of the major. She's described by her team as a "she-gorilla," and she is very much human and enjoys the pleasures of the world (you'll see what I mean in episode two). 

But this is Ghost in the Shell. This is what I embraced all those years ago. And this is what the creators on stage also embraced. A lot of people, myself included, all literally grew up with Ghost in the Shell. After the screening of the first two episodes, the creative crew came on stage. The director, Mokochan, said he was in high school when he first read the manga, and couldn't believe how he was now the director for this anime. The character designer, Shuhei Handa, read it when he was ten years old. A huge fan of Motoko, like we all are. Producer Kengo Abe, who has been a fan since he was a teen. Every one of them has had their lives steeped in Ghost in the Shell. Representing Shirow would be his longtime editor, Takeshi Katsurada, who brought the following words from the mangaka himself: "Thank you for bringing my classic work to life. The visual work is stunning." 

Mokochan remarked that all of the other directors for all of the other animated films and series had made their own interpretations of Ghost in the Shell. The team had three things they kept in mind: theywanted to make a new series that both old and new fans could enjoy, they wanted people to see the charm of the original manga in an animated form, and last but not least, they wanted it to be interesting. 
Shirow used a very 80s style in his work and one of the team's priorities was to follow everything about the original, be it the clothing styles, the emotions, and the feelings. They really put in effort to capture those retro vibes. The team drew inspiration from Shirow's previous works like Appleseed, Dominion Tank Police, and Black Magic M-66. 

Towards the end of the panel, the English voice actors came on stage. Let's talk the English dub for a moment: I had no complaints. In the past, English dubs of Japanese anime were quite horrid. Thankfully the English dub industry has stepped up and has gotten much better overall for various forms of entertainment, be they anime, movies, or video games. There are still subpar dubs out there, but they're less in number than they used to be. Tony Weaver Jr (Saito) said he was "super happy to be on this journey with you." Nick Apostolides (Togusa) hoped everyone would enjoy the anime. Bill Butts (Batou) said he "wanted to share the love with the audience for this amazing show." and Suzie Yeung (Motoko) said "this is a foundation series and it is a deep honor to be entrusted with this huge responsibility." 

If you're a fan of Ghost in the Shell, the manga? You're going to love this. And if you're a fan of Ghost in the Shell's films and anime? Give it a shot anyway. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.