Ghost in the Shell 2.0

To coincide with the release of his latest feature The Sky Crawlers, director Mamoru Oshii revisits his 1995 production Ghost in the Shell, retuning the classic animated feature for (assumed) contemporary tastes. This update entails jettisoning entire sequences in their original cel form, replacing them with brief, computer generated inserts. The effect can be jarring, especially since some of these additions aren't particularly sophisticated. In certain shots, during the opening assassination, Kusanagi's figure presents as rounded and polished of detail. Aesthetically, it could be argued that Kusanagi's 'clean' appearance serves to further accentuate her status as a mostly artificial being. Kusanagi does look synthetic, moulded and airbrushed like a garish person shaped doll: a choice that prefigures many of the film's central themes of identity. A shame then that this layering occasionally registers as primitive. The new digital intrusions work best when visualising the vast, all-consuming information mindscapes. What existed previously as blocky green readouts are now a seething, autumnal deluge. If the intention of this update was to salve near-sighted speculation on the future's technologies, then these unfathomable information clouds do succeed. The change of hue also creates a technological through line between this Ghost in the Shell and its sequel Innocence; as well as differentiating this piece from the heavily indebted, green keyed Matrix series.