One of the things that gives me pause is that we’re only two years out from the year in which manga creator Masamune Shirow’s massively influential cyberpunk series, Ghost in the Shell, takes place.
In the years since its debut in 1989, we’ve seen myriad iterations of its story and its leading lady, Motoko Kusanagi, in Mamoru Oshii’s animated film adaptation, in a slew of shows, Scarlett Johansson’s live-action film (best left forgotten), and soon a new anime by Dan Da Dan studio Science Saru. From what little we’ve seen in teasers for The Ghost in the Shell, due out in July, the anime already stands apart from its predecessors in its aesthetic, lifted straight from Shirow’s colorful manga.
But my biggest hope is that it’ll also have a ton of its affable humor by bringing Kusanagi back to her goofier roots.
Serving as the directorial debut of Scott Pilgrim Takes Off episode director and Toma Kimura (aka Mokachan), The Ghost in the Shell follows Major Kusanagi, the cyborg leader of an anti-cyberterrorism group called Section 9. Throughout the series, she and her squad are tasked with defusing and neutralizing all manner of red-tape-crossing cases of cybercrimes from the government and terrorist organizations. Typically, many, if not all, of these cases are steeped in philosophical intrigue where the human condition and technology meet in the not-so-distant future of 2029, with tons of cool action to boot.
Ghost in the Shell creator Masamune Shirow really said it best when it comes to adaptations of his works.
It doesn’t surprise me that his favorite of the GitS movies is Innocence precisely because it has more of Mamoru Oshii’s style in it. pic.twitter.com/fbnGGUJd44
— Dream’s Longest Day (@Dreamboum) February 4, 2026
As mentioned up top, every permutation of Ghost in the Shell, following Oshii’s 1995 film, has all but shaped the series and, by proxy, Kusanagi, as a bit of a self-serious series. There’s some levity here and there, sure, thanks to her right-hand man and best boy, Batou, but outside of a few pithy asides from Kusanagi, virtually every iteration, from Stand Alone Complex to Netflix’s Arise, sees her as a stoic hero with a steely, determined glare on par with how film bros would regard John Wick.
That could not be further from the truth of the original version of her. Shirow’s Kusanagi is born to whimsy and forced to lock in.
The Major in the manga is peak goofiness. She’ll crack jokes about how Section 9 is yet again given an impossible task from their gorilla-faced dispatcher, Daisuke Aramaki. She’ll get drunk after hacking the person who hired them to punch himself in the face. And, depending on which version of the manga fans are fortunate to own before Shirow revised them, she’ll go on trippy braindance sexcapades with her gal pals while on shore leave.
At her core, this Motoko is scrappy, fallible, and delightfully goofy—a far cry from the hyper‑competent archetype fans have come to treat as canon. And with Science Saru stepping in, a studio that’s proven it can swing from the bleak brutality of Devilman Crybaby to the wild, madcap energy of Dan Da Dan and Sanda, there’s both the skill set and the perfect opening to bring this version of the Major roaring back into the mainstream.
CD: Shuhei Handa pic.twitter.com/bVUUh9Jp7h
— 假情报师 (@cjAus101723) April 12, 2025
From the tidbits of emotive facial expressions we’ve gleaned from character sheets from designer Shuhei Handa‘s production materials for the show in earlier teaser trailers as well as a few stray key frames featured during its big art exhibit in Japan, it’s looking like Science Saru will be bringing that Kusanagi to the dance when The Ghost in the Shell premieres later this year. I can’t wait for fans of other adaptations of the series to meet her for the first time in all her goofy glory.
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