Mamoru Oshii

Ghost in the Shell

Ghost in the Shell follows Major Motoko Kusanagi, a cyborg security agent, as she pursues a mysterious hacker called the Puppet Master through a near-future city modelled on Hong Kong, a case that increasingly unsettles her sense of what makes her identity her own. Mamoru Oshii directed the adaptation of Masamune Shirow's manga for Production I.G, using a hybrid digital animation process and a score by Kenji Kawai built around classical Japanese vocals. Initially considered a box-office disappointment, it became a defining cult film, influencing The Matrix and drawing praise from James Cameron as one of animation's first truly adult works.