Ghost in the Shell (1995 film)

Director Mamoru Oshii in 2008

Director Mamoru Oshii stated, "My intuition told me that this story about a futuristic world carried an immediate message for our present world. I am also interested in computers through my own personal experience with them. I had the same feeling about Patlabor and I thought it would be interesting to make a film that took place in the near future. There are only a few movies, even out of Hollywood, which clearly portray the influence and power of computers. I thought this theme would be more effectively conveyed through animation."[7] Oshii expanded on these thoughts in a later interview, noting that technology changes people and had become a part of the culture of Japan. He commented that his use of philosophy caused producers to become frustrated because of sparing use of action scenes. Oshii also acknowledged that a movie with more action would sell better, but he continued to make these movies anyway.[8] When Oshii went back to make changes to the original Ghost in the Shell to re-release it as Ghost in the Shell 2.0, one of the reasons he gave was that the film did not resemble the sequel. He wanted to update the film to reflect changes in perspective.[9]

Hiroyuki Okiura, the character designer and key animation supervisor, designed a more mature and serious Motoko than Masamune Shirow's original portrayal of the character in the manga. Okiura chose to depict a physically mature person to match Motoko's mental age, instead of the youthful twenty-something appearance in the manga.[7] Motoko's demeanor lacks the comedic facial expressions and rebellious nature depicted in the manga. Oshii based the setting for Ghost in the Shell on Hong Kong. Oshii commented that his first thought to find an image of the future setting was an Asian city, but finding a suitable cityscape of the future would be impossible. Oshii chose to use the real streets of Hong Kong as his model.[10] He also said that Hong Kong was the perfect subject and theme for the film with its countless signs and the cacophony of sounds.[7] The film's mecha designer Takeuchi Atsushi noted that while the film does not have a chosen setting, it is obviously based on Hong Kong because the city represented the theme of the film, the old and the new which exist in a strange relationship in an age of an information deluge. Before shooting the film, the artists drew sketches that emphasized Hong Kong's chaotic, confusing and overwhelming aspects.[10]

Ghost in the Shell used a novel process called "digitally generated animation" (DGA), which is a combination of cel animation, computer graphics (CG), and audio that is entered as digital data. In 1995, DGA was thought to be the future of animation, which mixed traditional animation with the emerging use of computer graphics, including digital cel work with visual displays. Editing was performed on an AVID system of Avid Technology, which was chosen because it was more versatile and less limiting than other methods and worked with the different types of media in a single environment.[7] The digital cel work included both original illustrations, compositions and manipulation with traditional cel animation to create a sense of depth and evoke emotion and feelings. Utilized as background, filters like a lens effect were used to create a sense of depth and motion, by distorting the front background and making the far background out of focus throughout the shot. Ghost in the Shell used a unique lighting system in which light and darkness were integrated into the cels with attention to light and shadow sources instead of using contrast to control the light. Hiromasa Ogura, the art director, described this as "a very unusual lighting technique".[7]

Some special effects, like Motoko's "thermo-optical camouflage", were rendered through the use of TIMA software. The process uses a single illustration and manipulates the image as necessary to produce distortions for effect in combination with a background without altering the original illustration. The effect is re-added back into the shot to complete the scene. While the visual displays used in the film were technically simple to create, the appearance of the displays underwent numerous revisions by the production team to best represent visual displays of the future. Another aspect of the CG use was to create images and effects that looked as if they were "perceived by the brain" and were generated in video and added to the film in its final stages.[7] The opening credits of the film were produced by the CG director, Seichi Tanaka. Tanaka converted code in a computer language displayed in romanized Japanese letters to numbers before inserting them into the computer to generate the credits. The origin of this code is the names of the film's staff as written in a computer language.[7] Animation director Toshihiko Nishikubo was responsible for the realism and strove for accurate depictions of movement and effects. The pursuit of realism included the staff conducting firearms research at a facility in Guam. Nishikubo has highlighted the tank scene as an example of the movie's realism, noting that bullets create sparks when hitting metal, but do not spark when a bullet strikes stone.[7]

Ghost in the Shell's recording was done with a high-end studio to achieve superior sound throughout the film. A spatializer was used to alter the sound, specifically in the electronic brain conversations, to modify the voices.[7] Composer Kenji Kawai scored the film. For the main theme, Kawai tried to imagine the setting and convey the essence of that world in the music. He used Classical Japanese in the opening theme "Making of a Cyborg".[7] The composition is a mixture of Bulgarian harmony[11][12] and traditional Japanese notes; the haunting chorals are a wedding song sung to dispel all evil influences. Symphony conductor Sarah Penicka-Smith notes that the song's lyrics are fitting for the union between Kusanagi and Project 2501 at the climax of the movie.[13] Kawai originally wanted to use Bulgarian folk music singers, but used Japanese folk singers instead.[11] "See You Everyday" is different from the rest of the soundtrack, being a pop song sung in Cantonese by Fang Ka Wing.[14]

The ending credits theme of the film's English version is "One Minute Warning" by Passengers, a collaboration between U2 and Brian Eno. The song appeared on the album Original Soundtracks 1, and was one of three songs on that album to actually be featured in a film.[15][16] Andy Frain, the founder of Manga Entertainment and an executive producer on the film, was a former marketing director for Island Records, the record label that publishes U2's songs.[4]

In Japan, the film was released on VHS on April 26, 1996.[18] The DVD version was released on February 25, 2004 as a Special Edition release. For the 2004 Special Edition release, the film was fully restored and digitally remastered from the original film elements in 4x3 original fullscreen form and in 16x9 anamorphic letterboxed widescreen form, and the audio was digitally remixed in English & Japanese 6.1 DTS-ES and 5.1 Dolby Digital EX Surround Sound for superior picture and sound quality and for optimum home theater presentation. Ghost in the Shell was released on Blu-ray on August 24, 2007.[19][20] A special edition was released in December 2004.[21] The special edition contains an additional disc containing character dossiers, a creator biography, the director's biography, Ghost in the Shell trailers and previews.[22] The film was released in DVD and Blu-ray on December 19, 2008, in Japan.[23][24]

In the United States, the film was released on VHS on June 18, 1996, through Manga Entertainment, and on DVD on March 31, 1998, by Anchor Bay Entertainment.[25][26] Like the much later Japanese "Special Edition", the DVD is a fully restored and digitally remastered cut with multiple language tracks, but unlike the Japanese release, it includes a 30-minute documentary on the making of the film.[27] Manga Entertainment released the film on Blu-ray on November 24, 2009; this version contains the original film and the remastering, but omits the audio commentary and face-to-face interview with Oshii, which are listed on its box.[28][29] Manga Entertainment and Anchor Bay Entertainment re-released the film on Blu-ray with a brand new HD film print on September 23, 2014.[30] The release was met with criticism for its poorly-translated English subtitles and lack of special features.[31] In August 1996, Ghost in the Shell became the first Japanese film to top the Billboard video sales chart, with over 200,000 VHS copies sold.[32] By 2002, the film's home video releases sold more than 1.6 million units worldwide,[33] including over 100,000 units in Japan and more than 1 million units in the United States.[34] At a retail price of $19.95,[35] the film grossed approximately $32 million in video sales revenue. In 2017, the Blu-ray release sold 26,487 copies and grossed $675,002 in the United States,[36] bringing the film's total worldwide video sales to 1.63 million units and approximately $33 million gross revenue.

Kenji Kawai's original soundtrack for the film was released on November 22, 1995.[14] The last track included Yoshimasa Mizuno's pop song "See You Everyday".[37] After the release of Ghost in the Shell 2.0, an updated version of the soundtrack was released on December 17, 2008.[38] A Photo-CD of the film was released in Japan on November 20, 1995.[39] A spin-off novel written by Endo Akira, titled Ghost in the Shell: Burning City (攻殻機動隊灼熱の都市, Kōkaku kidōtai shakunetsu no toshi), was published by Kodansha and released on November 1995.[40] It was followed by a sequel, titled Ghost in the Shell 2: Star Seed (攻殻機動隊2: Star Seed), released on January 1998.[41] A book titled Analysis of Ghost in the Shell was released on September 25, 1997, by Kodansha.[42]

An updated version of the original film, titled Ghost in the Shell 2.0 (GHOST IN THE SHELL／攻殻機動隊 2.0, Gōsuto in za sheru / Kōkaku kidōtai 2.0), was made in celebration for the release of The Sky Crawlers in 2008.[43][44] The Ghost in the Shell 2.0 release features replacements of some animations with the latest digital film and animation technologies, such as 3D-CG while retaining sections of the original footage. It includes a new opening, digital screens and holographic displays, and omits several brief scenes.[45] The original soundtrack was also re-arranged and re-recorded. Kenji Kawai remixed the Version 2.0 soundtrack in 6.1 Channel Surround. Randy Thom of Skywalker Sound reprised his role as sound designer, having worked previously on Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence.[43] In the new soundtrack, the Japanese voice dialogue was also re-recorded, with some variation from the original script to modernize the speech. Yoshiko Sakakibara replaced Iemasa Kayumi as the voice of the Puppet Master.[43]