After almost 20 years, this movie looks as commandingly bizarre and mysterious as ever. It reminds you what a rarity an animation intended purely for adults still is. Shot-for-shot, Ghost in the Shell has the visual grammar of a live-action movie, but it has dated much less than live-action films like, say, Total Recall, and its visual boldness is often breathtaking. It’s set in a future world in which cyborgs co-exist with humans, and artificial intelligence constitutes an evolutionary leap from Homo sapiens as we know them now. The story revolves around an AI entity, an abstract-thinking life form called the Puppet Master, which has arisen in cyberspace – the pool of digital information – and now seeks a body to inhabit. It is a dizzying, headspinning film, replete with violence, alienation and tech-porn. I confess I find it too opaque to make the kind of investment that would qualify me as a real fan. But it should be seen.
Ghost in the Shell review – a rare slice of adult animation fantasy
Blending violent thriller, tech porn and sci-fi epic, this headspinning manga cyborg quest has dated better than its live-action rivals, writes Peter Bradshaw