Trivia / Ghost in the Shell

• Licensed Game: Has a few, notably Ghost in the Shell for the PS1 being the first.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes: The PS1 game, despite its well-known positive reception, has never been re-released in any form, not even on the PlayStation Network.
  • The artbook of the PS1 game is also pretty hard to come by and will cost you a pretty penny if you do manage to find it for sale online.
• Orphaned Reference: All the English-language releases Bowdlerized the scene in the manga where Motoko has cybersex with two female friends, but retained Shirow Masamune's endnote explanation of it despite having reduced it to a single panel of them frolicking on a boat in swimsuits.
• The Other Darrin: The PS1 video game replaced everyone on the Japanese side of things, most notably with Hiromi Tsuru replacing Atsuko Tanaka as Motoko herself. Bizarrely, Shinji Ogawa, who appeared in the first movie as a foreign minister, replaced Akio Ōtsuka as Batou. Soichi Ito replaced Tamio Oki as Aramaki, Hirotaka Suzuoki replaced Kōichi Yamadera as Togusa, and finally, Kiyoshi Kobayashi replaced Yutaka Nakano as Ishikawa. Mostly averted with the English version, which kept most of the original movie's cast, the only exception being Ishikawa, whose original actor, Michael Sorich, was replaced by the late Bob Papenbrook.
• Technology Marches On: While most of the original manga has aged surprisingly well, there are a few bits beside the Soviet Union still existing that remind you this was made in the late 80s/early 90s. The Etorufu storyline features records of illegal real estate deals being stored on half a dozen big ol' CD ROM disks; non-wireless connections are made using thick, industrial-looking cables – though this gives the work a nice tangible quality – and a lot of the computer equipment is big, boxy and covered in dials, switches, and oscillographic displays.

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