


And the third, Cannon Fodder – directed by Otomo – follows a young boy and his father whose livelihood depends on loading and firing cannons at an unknown enemy. Stink Bomb, the second, is about an exceedingly dumb lab assistant named Nobuo Tanaka who accidentally transforms himself into a biological weapon. The first of three installments, Magnetic Rose, is generally acknowledged to be the best. Four space travellers chance upon an abandoned ship, which houses an entire world created from one woman’s memories. Split into three distinct episodes, Memories is a sci-fi anthology executive produced by Katsuhiro Otomo, who directed the groundbreaking Akira seven years earlier. It’s like the onion of anime: the many layers that make up the film mean that even after several watches there is still more to discover. The soundtrack – which employs an ancient Japanese wedding song to heighten the blistering drama – is so left-of-centre it’s a thrill to see it work in tandem with the animation it serves. Devoted to stopping the most dangerous criminals and extremists, Section 9 is faced with an enemy whose singular goal is to wipe out Hanka Robotics’ advancements in cyber technology. The opening credits sequence is widely considered to be one of the best of all time. Ghost in the Shell follows The Major, a special ops, one-of-a-kind cyborg who leads the elite task force Section 9. The film so heavily influenced the Wachowskis while making The Matrix that they had to ask permission from the director to continue filming their era-defining sci-fi blockbuster.

This should go without saying, but it would be criminal to see Sanders’ 2017 adaptation of Ghost in the Shell without seeing the 1995 original upon which it is based. For those casual fans just discovering the mature underbelly of anime via these new Ghost in the Shell teasers, here is a crash-course in X-rated, high production anime to adequately prepare yourself for the cyberpunk adaptation. Underneath anime’s surface layer of cheery Studio Ghibli lies a much, much darker side. To now call Rupert Sanders’ version starring ScarJo as The Major highly anticipated would be an understatement.Īlthough the fanbase for the original anime is cautiously approaching the remake, there are still those who may be coming to these teasers without background knowledge of what they represent, kind of like those kids who wear The Smiths t-shirts and have no idea what “How Soon Is Now?” sounds like.

The short clips were quickly dissected by film geeks everywhere. New trailers were cut together by fans with the original anime’s bleating soundtrack. True to their name, the teasers razed the internet. Last week, five ‘viral teasers’ were unleashed for the upcoming live-action adaptation of anime classic Ghost in the Shell.
