Ghost in the Shell

Mamoru Oshii's beautifully animated and disturbingly prophetic anime classic about the hunt for a supreme hacker in a transhumanist dystopia.

Mamoru Oshii's beautifully animated 2029-set anime classic centres on Public Security Section 9’s hunt for supreme hacker The Puppet Master. This is a world where governments are dependent on computer controlled systems, and cyber terrorists pose the biggest threat to global stability.

Part-funded by UK's Manga Entertainment in response to the runaway success of Katsuhiro Otomo's Akira (1988), Ghost in the Shell remains one of the most influential anime films of all time, inspiring a continuing franchise and a Hollywood live-action remake with Scarlett Johansson. Yet it's Oshii's original vision that remains the most powerfully prophetic, raising philosphical questions around transhumanism that are more relevant than ever.