Koukaku Kidoutai (TV)

In the year 2029, Niihama City has become a technologically advanced metropolis. Due to great improvements in cybernetics, its citizens are able to replace their limbs with robotic parts. The world is now more interconnected than ever before, and the city's Public Security Section 9 is responsible for combating corruption, terrorism, and other dangerous threats following this shift toward globalization.

The strong-willed Major Motoko Kusanagi of Section 9 spearheads a case involving a mysterious hacker known only as the "Puppet Master," who leaves a trail of victims stripped of their memories. Like many in this futuristic world, the Puppet Master's body is almost entirely robotic, giving them incredible power.

As Motoko and her subordinates follow the enigmatic criminal's trail, other parties—including Section 6—start to get involved, forcing her to confront the extremely complicated nature of the case. Pondering about various philosophical questions, such as her own life's meaning, Motoko soon realizes that the one who will provide these answers is none other than the Puppet Master themself.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Kusanagi, Motoko Main

Sakamoto, Maaya Japanese

Batou Main

Yasumoto, Hiroki Japanese

Togusa Main

Nakamura, Yuuichi Japanese

Aramaki, Daisuke Main

Yamaji, Kazuhiro Japanese

Project 2501 Supporting

Inoue, Kikuko Japanese

Saitou Supporting

Nara, Tooru Japanese

Ishikawa Supporting

Gotou, Kousuke Japanese

Pazu Supporting

Uchida, Yuuya Japanese

Unipuma Supporting

Kumagaya, Nina Japanese

Annapuma Supporting

Hisakawa, Aya Japanese

Abe, Kengo Producer

Sasa, Daichi Producer

Shindou, Shuuhei Producer

Taniguchi, Hirokuni Producer

Reviews

Jul 21, 2026

CarbonRuiner

Recommended

Preliminary (3/10 eps)

Without a doubt, this is a fantastic adaptation. The task Science SARU had on their hands was anything but easy, yet the result is simply outstanding. Honestly, the very first trailer already gave me confidence that this project was going to deliver, and considering the studio behind it, I never really expected anything less.

So far, it has lived up to every expectation and to the high standard a series of this caliber deserves. With only three episodes released, it's already clear that this is a high-quality production: well directed, well written, visually stunning, and backed by exceptional animation. Science SARU's style fits the series surprisingly ... well, blending fluid movement with expressive character animation while remaining faithful to the original work.

One thing that may catch some viewers off guard is the tone, especially if their only experience with Ghost in the Shell comes from Mamoru Oshii's films, Kenji Kamiyama's Stand Alone Complex, Arise, or the other anime adaptations. Those works are much darker, more solemn, and considerably more restrained in their presentation.

This anime, however, is a remarkably faithful adaptation of Masamune Shirow's original manga (almost panel for panel). And while the manga explores the same complex political, philosophical, existential, and technological themes that made Ghost in the Shell so influential, its presentation is noticeably lighter. It features more comedy, exaggerated expressions, occasional fan service, and a distinctly late-80s manga aesthetic. (It's worth remembering that this fan service was already part of Shirow's original work, even if later entries took it much further. Ghost in the Shell 2: Man-Machine Interface, for example, leaned heavily into ecchi territory and, in my opinion, strayed quite far from what made the original story so compelling).
Because of that, the anime naturally includes some light fan service, more playful facial expressions, and character designs that differ from what many anime-only fans have come to associate with the franchise. But that's precisely the point: this isn't trying to imitate Oshii's interpretation or SAC's style. It's adapting Shirow's manga as faithfully as possible, and in that regard it succeeds brilliantly.

Another aspect worth praising is how much respect the production shows toward the source material without feeling creatively restrained. Rather than modernizing or toning down the manga's personality, it embraces it completely, making this feel less like a reinterpretation and more like the definitive animated version of Shirow's original vision.

Of course, with only three episodes available, it's still too early to judge the story as a whole. But as a longtime Ghost in the Shell fan, I couldn't be happier with what I've seen so far. While I personally prefer the darker, more serious tone of the modern adaptations (especially Oshii's films and Stand Alone Complex) I have a great deal of respect for what this series is trying to achieve. Rather than following those interpretations, it fully embraces Shirow's original vision, and it does so with remarkable confidence and care. If the series can maintain this level of quality throughout its run, I have little doubt it will become one of the strongest adaptations the franchise has ever received.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Sep 1, 2026

GrumpyMoogle

Mixed Feelings

Preliminary (8/10 eps)

One thing I've learned from watching a lot of anime and viewing the fandoms therein, is that people will forgive poor writing and characters as long as the show is pretty. As well as the opposite, poor animation is a death sentence no matter how good the story and characters. The Ghost in the Shell falls under the former. Its biggest fault is a common issue among sci-fi stories. Making up a lot of words and terms, and just assuming the audience knows what they are. The dialogue is filled with mumbo jumbo, gobbledygook, that just feels like a slog you have to force yourself ... through. I've never seen a show before have so much on-screen text to explain what the dialogue is talking about, because they can't bother doing it themselves. It's a very episodic show too. Which can be fine, but combined with the confusing, unexplained dialogue, just makes for a very boring show. The "bad guy of the week" is never interesting. The primary characters are pretty one note, and don't really grow or become interesting at all. But it's pretty, and has a great English cast. So I think a lot of its issues get forgiven. But I'm just so tired of these mediocre at best shows that get a pass because so many people only care about the visuals.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Sep 6, 2026

Gentropy

Not Recommended

Preliminary (8/10 eps)

THE Ghost in the Shell—so named aptly for all the shilling it has received online as the apparent "true" version of this story—is the closest adaptation we have to the original source material. If you're just like everyone else and HAVEN'T read the original manga, I'll give you a run-down: take the setting and characters from the Oshii films and SAC, and then take the most raunchy, unfunny, infantilizing approach you possibly can when writing them. Somehow, recency bias dictates that writing dark, gritty, and most importantly—sincere—stories are OUT: juvenile, lackadaisical, half-baked "thrillers" are IN. This series is for fans of Benchwarmers; because the Sandlot ... chads are off watching something a little more genuine.

First, I wanna get the positive(s) out of the way. Mainly, that the show looks good. The art style is pleasant, the animation is oftentimes very fluid and dynamic (especially in action-packed sequences), and the color palette is vibrant. Visually, I don't have much to complain about. As for the sound, the OST isn't anything to write home about, and the sound effects get the job done. Nothing really praiseworthy or worth mentioning in that department.

Second, it's a lot more accurate to the source material. If you like the manga, I guess that's cool.

.........................................................................................................................................................................................

Now, onto the negatives. Who could have ever guessed that the sci-fi genre would be REVOLUTIONIZED by a crippling porn addict who had seen Blade Runner one too many times? In a lot of ways, Shirow's storytelling was ahead of its time: both in its influence on the science fiction genre, AND on prototyping the insincere, tonally deaf modern writing we've all come to know (and for many, love.)

EVERYTHING is a joke. Every serious scene has to be framed with an unserious, mocking undertone:

"Oh, the elementary school just blew up? 33 children died in the explosion? Oh, well... (*insert smug Matoko in lingerie*)

"The victim was found with her skin flayed? What? You're saying the culprit left her sensors on so that she'd feel it? (*insert goofy Batou dancing in the background*)

"What? You're saying he has an army of subservient maid cyborgs? And all of their Ghosts were hacked so that they're aware of their surroundings, but they can't do anything about it? Naruhodo..." (*insert Aramaki monkey face getting a nosebleed*)

It wants its cake and it wants to eat it too. It won't commit to being a comedy, it won't commit to being a psychological thriller, and it won't commit to being an ecchi. It does a little bit of everything, and yet never really succeeds at anything: it's not funny, it's not engaging, and it's not arousing. It's like an indecisive girl that doesn't know what she wants: SOMETIMES she's fun, yet most of the time you're pulling hairs to have her commit to ANYTHING because she doesn't have a single neuron firing in her synapses.

Anyways, let's talk about the cast now:

- Togusa is completely incompetent. At no point is he framed in a positive light: he's just the bumbling rookie that has to be constantly saved by his more experienced coworkers. He never grows or learns from his mistakes, and everything he does is just laughed off and mocked, like he's a particularly unlikeable character from "The Office" or some other crass sitcom. Pretty much just the designated punching bag.

- Batou is le heckin goofball. He spends all of his time... goofing around. It doesn't matter what the scene's tone is; he's always going to have a douchey, smug look on his face.

Fuchikoma acting out? :3

The Major dying two feet in front of him? :3

Finding out he has colon cancer? :3

He's shown to take a situation seriously... once in the entire show? Twice? Three times may be pushing it. Even if he does anything serious, it's always overshadowed by the Major. God, I fucking hate him.

- Ishikawa does his job. Nothing else can be said about him. Good job, Ishikawa.

- Not-Batou is there. He's big, and he's bald.

- One-Eye is also there. I guess he and Not-Batou are partners or something; they never really explain it.

- Aramaki is le monke. Super funny gag. Him being hyper-emotional over trivialities is also super cool. One minute he's Michael Scott; the next he's Q with a bad character design. Most of the time he's Michael Scott without the humor or likeability.

- And Motoko is the super-duper sexy (debatable), but also totally perfect-at-her-job female lead. She takes everything lightly until it's time to convey some worthless theme or message, at which point she does a 180 and probably shoots an unarmed prisoner or something. Other than Ishikawa, she's the only competent member of Section 9. Girl power FTW.

None of the characters are likeable because they teeter on the threshold of "goofy assholes" (a la "Trailer Park Boys") and "uber-serious professionals." Depending on the scene, they'll jump into one side or the other, and sometimes, even double-dip into both. They're all pretty much gag characters in a show chock-full of unfunny gags. Instead of Section 9 feeling like an assortment of trained specialists working towards a single goal, it comes off as a band of inept misfits just being strung along as the plot demands it. They don't do detective work, they don't do extensive planning, they don't do negotiating, etc. They just stumble upon something that needs to be taken care of and do so guns-blazing. It just so happens that it always ends up working out in their favor.

The pacing is decent, although the series doesn't bother with proper world-building, long-running plotlines, or character exploration, so that wouldn't be too difficult. Things just happen with no rhyme or reason, and you're just expected to not think about it and stare at the pretty colors they're flashing you on the screen. You never get a sense of WHY things happen, WHO's involved, or WHERE it's taking place. This is made even more difficult when you figure out that the studio was cowardly and omitted the real-world tie-ins, instead opting for made-up gibberish locations. No more America or Soviet Union, and SURELY we couldn't have Israel mentioned as being involved in subterfuge or anything else nefarious. Fucking pussies.

You have about 7 episodes of unfunny, uninteresting, episodic shit with no real overarching purpose before it delves into a REAL plotline that does little more than come out of left-field with meandering "OMG, I'm 14 and this is deep!" dialogue and the animators jerking themselves off over how many colors they can vomit on the screen before they give you a seizure. Why should I give a fuck about these surface-level philosophical questions when the series itself doesn't give me a reason to care? I don't like the characters, and the world isn't interesting, so why does it matter? The proposed introspection is incumbent on the fact that you AREN'T drawing these reflections from what you've seen in the series itself but from elsewhere. Motoko doesn't think, Batou doesn't think, and Togusa doesn't think; they act. If that's the case, then what was the point of bringing it up? Any quandaries to the meaning of life or any other existentialist question always devolve into some uninteresting resolution of "it doesn't matter; do your job." Definitely a quintessential Japanese work.

No ideas presented in the story have any weight because the story itself doesn't have weight. It's a glorified OVA with a runtime that's too long for how elementary its themes are. This adaptation is the equivalent of Resident Evil 1.5: I'll concede that the prototype existing is pretty neat, but the game is NOT better than 2. Elza is NOT better than Claire, and this gremlin slag quirk chungus Major (OMG (S)HE IS LITERALLY ME!!!) is NOT better than her granny counterpart(s).

Watch it if you like the manga. Otherwise, don't bother.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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New 'Ghost in the Shell' TV Anime Announces Supporting Cast Pair

The official website for the new Koukaku Kidoutai (The Ghost in the Shell) television anime announced a supporting pair of cast on Thursday. The new TV anime premier...read more

Aug 20, 2:29 AM by nirererin | Discuss (2 comments)

New 'Ghost in the Shell' TV Anime Announces Additional Cast Pair [Update 8/13]

The official website for the new Koukaku Kidoutai (The Ghost in the Shell) television anime announced an additional pair of cast on Thursday. The new TV anime premie...read more

Aug 5, 10:42 PM by nirererin | Discuss (3 comments)

	Poll: Koukaku Kidoutai (TV) Episode 6 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) tsubasalover - Aug 11	105 replies	by teraphIl1000 »» 2 hours ago
	Poll: Koukaku Kidoutai (TV) Episode 5 Discussion ( 1 2 ) tsubasalover - Aug 4	84 replies	by teraphIl1000 »» 2 hours ago
	The Latin American dub of 'Ghost In The Shell' was the only one that kept the mention of Israel. curvedtree - Sep 4	19 replies	by tchitchouan »» 5 hours ago
	Poll: Koukaku Kidoutai (TV) Episode 9 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Stark700 - Sep 1	67 replies	by rohan121 »» Yesterday, 7:29 AM
	Poll: Koukaku Kidoutai (TV) Episode 1 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page ) tsubasalover - Jul 7	396 replies	by goastgoat »» Yesterday, 2:22 AM