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Prime Video’s new The Ghost in the Shell is somehow both futuristic and retro at the same time. According to the creators of the series at renowned anime studio Science SARU, that unique juxtaposition was no accident.
The technology used by Major Motoko Kusanagi and her subordinates in Masamune Shirow’s original The Ghost in the Shell manga (which Science SARU’s anime follows more faithfully than any adaptation before it) is decidedly cyberpunk, but the visual aesthetic of the new anime’s art style has a distinct 1990s feel. These conflicting factors might seem like they’d cause a jarring tonal conflict, but they somehow give the anime a hauntingly familiar quality, like the longing for a future that will never come; it makes more sense when considering that this super sci-fi storyline all takes place in the very near future of the year 2029.
In an exclusive interview with CBR’s Brett Cardaro, The Ghost in the Shell director Mokochan and Character Designer Shuhei Handa revealed how they went about making the most futuristic cyberpunk anime of the 21st century feel like some lost 1990s anime from a bygone era. Mokochan explained the visual appeal of The Ghost in the Shell‘s remake for the modern age.
“First, in terms of color scheme, we wanted to highly value the atmosphere or ‘vibes’ of the original manga for this adaptation. The original was written in ’89, and it’s a work that strongly carries the distinct historical feel of the ’80s and ’90s. Compared to today’s sensibility, it’s quite bright and has a flashy aspect to it, which we thought was interesting. Since we wanted to value that aspect, as a result, it became more vibrant and colorful than typical modern anime.”
The Ghost in the Shell Went to Great Lengths to Give The Anime a Classic Feel
The decision to make The Ghost in the Shell more similar to the 1989 manga by Masamune Shirow was made before production even began, but apparently, Shirow himself wanted very little to do with it. “As the original creator, through Kodansha, [Shirow] did review what we made by giving it a look,” Mokochan explained. “However, Masamune Shirow’s stance was to give a great deal of freedom to the anime production side. So, in terms of Mr. Shirow’s personal involvement, there wasn’t all that much.”
Instead of going by Shirow’s personal suggestion, it ended up being the love and admiration that Mokochan and Science SARU had for Shirow’s manga that caused them to stick so closely to the source material. Mokochan confirmed that there was an effort to keep the essence of th original series in their remake.
Since we loved it, as a result, our final direction was to keep the original manga as it was as much as possible.
After that initial decision to stick to the manga’s vision, the aesthetic of the anime easily fell into place. “We wanted to highly value the atmosphere or ‘vibes’ of the original manga for this adaptation,” said Mokochan, “Compared to today’s sensibility, [the manga] is quite bright and has a flashy aspect to it, which we thought was interesting.” From there, it just happened naturally for Mokochan’s team: “Since we wanted to value that aspect, as a result, it became more vibrant and colorful than typical modern anime.”
As the director rightly observes, though Shirow’s story is set in the future, it still manages to carry “the distinct historical feel of the ’80s and ’90s.” Sticking to the source material almost automatically gave the series an old-school vibe. But it wasn’t just the bright coloring that contributed to that retro feel.
Science SARU Was the Perfect Studio to Capture The Ghost in the Shell Manga’s Unique Atmosphere
The Ghost in the Shell‘s character designer, Shuhei Handa, further explained how both the manga and new anime capture that late 1980s to early 1990s feel through the designs of the characters.
“I tried to carefully capture the atmosphere of the ’80s—well, from ’89 to ’91 when the original manga was written—without disrupting it. For example, for the hair, I designed Motoko’s hair with that voluminous look. Also, Togusa’s hairstyle is a mullet, which was common among members of old rock bands back then. I researched and incorporated those details. As for the clothing, I used shoulder pads to create power shoulders, and also paid attention to the silhouettes of the clothes so they wouldn’t look too modern, aiming for a silhouette that felt authentic to that era.”
That sense of ‘authenticity’ was important for the creators at Science SARU. They did everything in their power to avoid being influenced by modern sensibilities and the overall Ghost in the Shell franchise they had personally come to know throughout the 30 years since Mamoru Oshii’s first anime movie adaptation came out.
“The Ghost in the Shell series is a monumentally epoch-making work in the history of Japanese animation,” Handa mused, “As people working in the anime industry, we have naturally and indirectly received a great deal of influence from it. However,” he continued, “because the concept for this project was to face the original manga directly in a one-on-one way, we did not consciously try to take influence from or connect our settings to the previous anime series.”
At least insofar as Mokochan and Handa-san see it, this is an achievement that could’ve only been accomplished by studio Science SARU. For Mokochan, Science SARU’s unique blend of “traditional Japanese animation production method and spirit” (a trait which he sees as having been inherited from the studio’s co-founder, Masaaki Yuasa) alongside its willingness to be “experimental and open-minded” is something that Science SARU brought to this adaptation that no other studio could’ve.
Handa, on the other hand, felt there was something simpler the Dandadan and Devilman Crybaby studio brought to this work which no other Ghost in the Shell adaptation had before: “I think [Science SARU is] able to bring out and express the comical elements of the original work much better than other studios could have.”
New episodes of The Ghost in the Shell come out every Tuesday on Amazon Prime Video.
- Release Date
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July 7, 2026
- Network
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Fuji TV, Kansai TV, Tokai Television Broadcasting, Fukui TV, Hokkaido Cultural Broadcasting, Iwate Menkoi Television, Sendai Television, SAGA TV, TNC, OHK, Ishikawa TV, Kochi Sun Sun Broadcasting, TV Shizuoka, Television Shin Hiroshima System, NST, NBS, Sakuranbo TV, TSK, Ehime Broadcasting, KTS, Fukushima TV, AKT, Toyama Television, TV Kumamoto, Okinawa Television Broadcasting, KTN
- Directors
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Lucien Dodge, Touma Kimura
Cast
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Maaya Sakamoto
Motoko Kusanagi (voice)
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Hiroki Yasumoto
Batou (voice)
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Yuichi Nakamura
Togusa (voice)
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Kazuhiro Yamaji
Daisuke Aramaki (voice)
