Ghost in the Shell (movie)

Winner of the "Best Animation Film Award" at the 1st Animation Kobe (1996)

More successful in the U.S. than Japan, likely due to Shirow not being a popular manga-ka in Japan as much as the West.

Features the Song 'One Minute Warning' by 'Passengers' (a pseudonym for a collaboration between Brian Eno, U2 and several other artists) The song is originally from the album 'Original Soundtracks 1', described by Bono as "a soundtrack for a selection of imaginary movies", 'Ghost In the Shell' was one of many features to source ambient music from the album.

"Ghost in the Shell" have inspired many projects afterwards, such as video game "Oni" or more wider known "The Matrix" movie.

There are multiple references to Oshii's earlier film "Angel's Egg" in the final climax. The tree of life in a room filled with fossils is taken directly from Angel's Egg. Also the feathers are in the climax of both films.

Motoko intentionally doesn’t blink her eyes throughout the whole film. Mamoru Oshii's intention was to portray Motoko as a “living doll”.

This was the first anime feature film to be released simultaneous in the countries of Japan, England, and the United States. Its intended goal was to bring anime to a more mainstream audience in the UK and the US. It didn't, but it did however became a sleeper hit when it was released on home video.

Mamoru Oshii was so obsessed with the use of realistic movement in every frame of the movie. This is most notable in the shooting scenes which were achieved by having the production team travel to Guam to fire actual guns into different materials in order to see how they reacted to the impact of the fired bullets.

While in the original manga, Motoko was depicted as being more youthful in her appearance and would sometimes make exaggerated facial expressions to make the situations she’s in more humorous. In this movie, Motoko was depicted as being older and acts more serious.