by Toussaint Egan

There’s been a lot of talk about Ghost in the Shell as of late. Specifically The Ghost in the Shell, the 2026 TV anime adaptation of Masamune Shirow’s 1989 manga series produced by Science Saru, the Japanese animation house behind Devilman Crybaby, Keep Your Hands of Eizouken and The Heike Story. Much of the appraisal for this new series — the series directorial debut of longtime Science Saru animator Tōma “Mokochan” Kimura — can be boiled down to how “faithful” it is to original manga, fastidiously replicating the story, character designs, and idiosyncrasies of Shirow’s magnum opus into a 10-episode series. Hell, they even managed to incorporate his legendary proclivity for long-winded footnotes throughout!

There’s been a lot of hyperbole, comparisons, and nitpicking online between the broader Ghost in the Shell fanbase online, as is to be expected in case of most online anime discourse. As a longtime Ghost in the Shell fan myself, whose own professional online writing on the series goes back as far as a decade at this point, nothing that I’ve come across so far has resembled my own, complicated feelings regarding this new anime. After having watched the third episode of The Ghost in the Shell, which premiered on streaming earlier today, I feel like I’ve finally seen enough to attempt to try to thread the needle on my general reaction. In short: 2026’s The Ghost in the Shell is the best the franchise has had to offer since 2002’s Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, and inarguably one of the best anime of 2026 so far. It is also, I regret to say, further evidence that the franchise as a whole has to radically reinvent itself going forward or cease altogether.

Let me back up a bit and explain. I’ve been a Ghost in the Shell fan since I was teenager. I’ve watched every anime incarnation of the series to date and read the original manga and its sequels, Ghost in the Shell 1.5: Human-Error Processor and Ghost in the Shell 2: Man-Machine Interface, multiple times. I watched and reviewed that abysmal 2017 live-action film starring Scarlett Johansson. I have a Ghost in the Shell poster framed above my desk where I wrote this. Believe me; I am about this shit, so when I say 2026’s The Ghost in the Shell is one of the best anime entries in the franchise in years, you know I mean it.

If I have any contention with the series, it’s that having read the manga so many times, this new series’ strict adaptation of the original text — however beautiful, however technically impressive — leaves me wishing that it had taken a nod from the studio’s own prior anime Scott Pilgrim Takes Off, replicating the visuals and tone of Shirow’s work albeit with enough twist to surprise both newcomers and fans alike. It almost feels as if the series assumes that Mamoru Oshii’s 1995 film has all but eclipsed Shirow’s manga in the consciousness of Ghost in the Shell fans, presuming that few if any have bothered to go back and read it. And hey, given the range of reactions I’ve seen and read online, maybe that’s true! Still, I can’t help but feel a little disappointed that the best Ghost in the Shell of the 2020s so far has to offer is essentially circling the wagon of the 1989 original.

My friend and fellow re:frame contributor Kambole Campbell interviewed Mokochan during the series’ premiere at the Annecy Animation Festival earlier this year. “There’s a bit of a ’90s revival boom happening at the moment,” Mokochan says in regard to the 2026 anime’s depiction of archaic technology like VCRs and CD drives. “It’s quite contemporary not to really distinguish between now and a little while ago.” Reading that, I couldn’t help but feel a pang of irritation and exhaustion as I was reminded of a quote from the artbook for the 2017 film, courtesy of art director Richard Johnson. “Creatively, the decision was made that the past is the future; That as society has progressed, there's a tendency to hold on to the past in a big way [...] “There’s kind of a hip culture today that favors the ’80s music, some of the ’80s clothing styles, some of the ’80s design, so it seemed to make sense to us to go that way.”

Nearly a decade since that film’s release, just three years away now from the manga’s speculative 2029, and the Ghost in the Shell franchise is still haunted by the past, still shackled to the trendy kitsch of the ’80s and ’90s, still either unwilling or perhaps simply unable to look the present squarely in the eye.

In no way am I trying to diminish Science Saru’s work on The Ghost in the Shell. Despite my aforementioned reservations, I eagerly look forward to watching each new episode and waiting to see which prolific illustrator they’ve tapped to create a new endcard that week.

But my sentiments in light of the franchise as a whole remain. Ghost in the Shell needs a harder reboot; a new perspective anchored in the 2020s that enthusiastically wrestles with the ways in which technology has evolved and shaped society in the present, or it will inevitably risk its own obsolescence.

//out of frame

💰 Kambole: In another massive round of layoffs at Disney, Pixar is getting hit with the worst of it, 2 years after "the biggest layoffs in history" at the studio. A grim statement as to how much the work of animators is valued by a company very much built upon said work.

🌞 Rollin: I've been flying all over the place between work and vacation, but have been watching The Doomies while travelling, another European Disney animated series which has plenty of Hellboy vibes. If you enjoy a good family-friendly spooky story, check it out.

🧙 Toussaint: Finally caught up on the first season of Witch Hat Atelier this past week. Ayumu Watanabe and co. have done a phenomenal job at adapting Kamome Shirahama’s florid penmanship and artistry to the medium of anime, especially when it comes to the show’s picturebook-esque illustrations. I'm very much looking forward to the second season!