History Anime / GhostInTheShell1995

* EvilCounterpart: While ''Evil'' is a bit strong, Chief Nakamura, as head of Section 6, is the direct counterpart to Chief Aramaki of Section 9. And Nakamura is presented as being more rude and antagonistic compared to Aramaki, and while Aramaki is depicted as a force for good or at least isn't bad, Nakamura, and Section 6 as a whole, engages in particularly corrupt and skeevy methods, [[spoiler: such as taking Project 2501 from Section 9 headquarters through a false flag operation and then directly targeting Kusanagi, a fellow member of the government, for assassination]].

* CoolGuns: Many. For example, the thug the Major chases down carries a Micro Uzi while she uses a fictional submachine gun conceptually based on the [[http://www.imfdb.org/wiki/Ghost_in_the_Shell_(1995) FN-P90]]. The animators [[ShownTheirWork worked hard to get the details right]].

* DarkerAndEdgier: The films abandons virtually all of the comedy and wackiness of the manga in favor of dour brooding and dead-serious philosophizing, a shift already somewhat present in the manga's last few chapters.

''Ghost in the Shell'', Creator/MamoruOshii's 1995 animated film adaption of Creator/ShirowMasamune's [[Manga/GhostInTheShell classic manga]] about a cyborg policewoman in PostCyberpunk Japan, condenses the original manga's plot by focusing entirely on the "Puppet Master" story. It also takes a much, ''much'' more serious tone than the manga, focusing on the series's psychology over most action hijinks. The film's visuals, action sequences, and large amount of both [[ContemplateOurNavels philosophical ponderings]] and {{technobabble}} all but defined Western conceptions of {{anime}} for the better part of a decade.

* CloningBlues: Kusanagi, when she sees how similar she is to the Puppet Master's "shell" (they were made by the same MegaCorp). In one scene, she [[AloneInACrowd wanders around the city alone]] and notices just how many people look like her, including a mannequin.

* OminousMusicBoxTune: The entire sequence set in Kim's mansion is accompanied by the world's biggest music box ("The Doll House" [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89WWqjxhXrE versions 1]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9m8ZManV_A 2]]). The score composer Kenji Kawai said in an interview that he wanted it to sound like you were ''inside'' said music box -- and he most certainly succeeded. In the Making Of extras on the DVD, it's shown how they did it: they had a company specializing in music boxes make them a huge one to play the tune, and then took it into some empty mine shaft to record it. Sure, they could have just electronically added the echo, [[ShownTheirWork but it just wouldn't have been]] [[DoingItForTheArt authentic enough]].

* GunPorn: Oh yeah. The movie's guns are so [[ShownTheirWork detailed and realistic]] that "Firearms consultant" even gets its own place in the credits. For a trip down that rabbit hole, look into the [[http://www.imfdb.org/wiki/Ghost_in_the_Shell_(1995) IMFBD page on the first film]] and [[http://www.imfdb.org/wiki/Ghost_in_the_Shell_2:_Innocence the second one]].

* ATeamFiring: Corgi shooting at Batou and the SpiderTank shooting at Kusanagi both absolutely obliterate the scenery on either side of their target without landing a single bullet on what they were actually shooting at.

* MsFanservice: The Major. Her "Thermoptic camouflage" suit in the first movie is basically a nude-colored skintight bodysuit that leaves very little to the imagination.

* WhatMeasureIsANonHuman: A central theme of the film.

* AdaptationalModesty: Inverted with the thermoptic camouflage suit used by Kusanagi. The film makes it skintight and flesh-colored, making the Major look naked while wearing it, whereas in the manga it was blue and bulky and didn't really differ from her usual combat uniform.

A remastered version of the first film, ''Ghost in the Shell 2.0'', saw the light of day in 2009; among other changes to the film, this version mixed in modern-day CGI with the original animation (in the vein of ''Innocence''), all under the supervision of Oshii. A high-definition transfer of the original version came with the Blu-ray version of ''2.0'', and a separate high-definition "remaster" release of the original version showed up a few years later. A [[Film/GhostInTheShell live-action American entry]] into the franchise that partially draws upon this film was released in 2017.

* PrecisionFStrike: The producers of the English dub find the word "fuck" less offensive then mentioning a women's monthlies.

* EvilCounterpart: While ''Evil'' is a bit strong, Chief Nakamura, as head of Section 6, is the direct counterpart to Chief Aramaki of Section 9. And Nakamura is presetned as being more rude and antagonistic compared to Aramaki, and while Aramaki is depicted as a force for good or at least isn't bad, Nakamura, and Section 6 as a whole, engages in particularly corrupt and skeevy methods, [[spoiler: such as taking Project 2501 from Section 9 headquarters through a false flag operation and then directly targeting Kusanagi, a fellow member of the government, for assassination]].

* MergerOfSouls: [[spoiler:Motoko Kusanagi and the Puppet Master merge souls (or rather, "[[OurSoulsAreDifferent Ghosts]]") to become a new being with the personalities of the two, only now moved to the body of a teenage girl android.]]

* MergerOfSouls: [[spoiler:Motoko Kusanagi and the Puppet Master merge souls (or rather, "[[OurSoulsAreDifferent Ghosts]]") to become a new being the with personalities of the two, only now moved to the body of a teenage girl android.]]

* CutAndPasteTranslation: In the Japanese original voice-track, Kusanagi had "noise in her brain" because of her monthlies (just like in the [[Manga/GhostInTheShell manga]]). In the English dub, it was "a loose wire".

** Also, Director Mamoru Oshi, in toning down Kusanagi's very ebullient manga persona, envisioned her as a mature woman, hence her more soft-spoken demeanor in the film. He speculated that she was older than the young woman that even her regular adult body suggested. Given her rank (unusually high for a woman who appears physically to be only about thirty), she may very well have been at least well into middle age.

The 2004 sequel, ''[=GiTS=] 2: Innocence'', revolves around Motoko's team working to solve a rash of murders involving berserk robots while dealing with her absence following the events of its predecessor. ''Innocence'' featured heavy usage of integrated CGI and cel animation -- and it explored the UncannyValley even further than the first film.