The ongoing reboot of The Ghost in the Shell anime has had to deviate from Masamune Shirow’s original manga in one aspect for a particular reason, as per director Mokochan. While the team has tried its very best to remain faithful to the source material, the creators had to include a few variations due to certain technicalities.
Ghost in the Shell director explains new anime’s difference from manga
In a recent interview with Comic Book Resources‘ Brett Cardaro, Mokochan revealed that they had to cut down on some explicit scenes in the Ghost in the Shell reboot in order to comply with broadcasting mandates in Japan.
“Since this work was created primarily with television broadcast in Japan in mind, naturally, when it comes to highly extreme expressions, there are more limits and restrictions compared to theatrical films,” the filmmaker said. “However, as creators, we had a strong desire to keep the essence of the original as it was, so we made many creative adjustments to present it in a way that can be broadcast on TV while keeping the original feel.”
Notably, Episode 2 of the new Ghost in the Shell anime significantly toned down the nudity showcased in the manga. The scene in question in Shirow’s pages had Major Kusanagi enjoying a stay-cation with two of her female friends in an extremely explicit manner. However, viewers don’t get to see the same intensity in the recently released anime.
Despite the constraints, Science SARU and team tried their best to stick to the original manga. Mokochan revealed that the makers had more than enough creative freedom to experiment but decided to keep the project as close to its source material as possible.
“How much we should base it on the original, and to what extent we should make it identical to the original, [we were] given a relatively high degree of freedom to decide,” he noted. “We really love Masamune Shirow’s original manga. As a result, our final direction was to keep the original manga as it was as much as possible.”
The Ghost in the Shell reboot premiered on July 7 and has released two episodes so far.
