Ghost in the Shell's new anime goes back to Shirow's manga — and the directors explain why

Science Saru's new Ghost in the Shell anime premiered July 7 on Prime Video, and its directors say the goal was simple: stop reinterpreting the manga and just adapt it. Director Mokochan and character designer Shuhei Handa spoke with Polygon at Anime Expo about the philosophy driving the series — a direct, one-to-one approach to Masamune Shirow's original work.

Every previous adaptation took liberties. Mamoru Oshii's 1995 film turned the manga into a meditative cyberpunk art piece. Stand Alone Complex leaned into police procedural drama. SAC_2045 rewrote Motoko Kusanagi's backstory. Science Saru's version deliberately breaks that pattern. "For this new series, we completely based it on the original manga," Mokochan said. "The previous series all developed their own different styles and interpretations, but this time we wanted to return directly to the original. Even people who have never experienced Ghost in the Shell before can naturally understand the original work through this series." The visual identity follows the same logic — instead of the increasingly realistic character designs that defined Stand Alone Complex, the new anime leans into Shirow's manga aesthetic, with a colorful, neo-1980s look running through everything from background art to character design. "This time, our concept was to make it feel like the manga," Mokochan said.

Rereading Shirow's manga during pre-production also left Mokochan genuinely surprised. The original work was published over 30 years ago, but its treatment of AI and cybernetic technology reads as remarkably prescient today. "When I reread the original manga, I was surprised by how accurately it understood technologies like AI," he said. "It was written more than 30 years ago, but it foresaw many of the technologies we have today." Despite adapting one of sci-fi's most AI-forward stories, the team at Science Saru reportedly avoided leaning on cutting-edge production techniques — prioritizing craft over technology, much like Yoshitaka Amano's hand-drawn series ZAN.

The series is now streaming on Prime Video. With a stated goal of being accessible to first-time viewers while staying faithful to the source material, it positions itself as both an entry point and a reset for a franchise that has spent decades reinventing itself.