The Ghost Rises Again
Anime expert Fred Patten takes a look at the highly anticipated anime feature Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence, talking over the film with Production I.G producer Mitsuhisa Ishikawa.
September 17, 2004
By Fred Patten

Cyber-top cop Batou (top) investigates beautiful killer sex robot models (bottom) known as gynoids in Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence. All photos from Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence courtesy of Go Fish Pictures.
The 1995 Ghost in the Shell is one of the most prestigious Japanese animated features ever made. It received almost unanimous critical praise for its intellectual cyberpunk sci-fi plot. (Some critics dismissed it as an imitation Blade Runner, which it is only superficially.) It was acknowledged as one of the creative influences on the Wachowski Brothers that led to The Matrix. It won the 1997 World Animation Celebration’s Awards for both Best Theatrical Feature Film and, for director Mamoru Oshii, Best Director of Animation for a Theatrical Feature Film. When it was released on video in America, it became the first anime video to reach the #1 position on Billboard magazine’s sales chart (August 1996).
With all this acclaim, it is hard to realize that its American theatrical release (March 29, 1996) was an art-house limited tour in only one theater per city. Its theatrical gross was just $515,905 (according to Box Office Mojo).
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