Masamune Shirow is an internationally renowned manga artist, born as Masanori Ota on November 23, 1961. He is best known for the manga Ghost in the Shell, which has since been turned into two theatrical anime movies, two anime TV series, an anime TV movie, and several video games.
In the future when technological enhancements and robotics are a way of life, Major Motoko Kusanagi and Section 9 take care of the jobs that are too difficult for the police. Section 9 employs hackers, sharpshooters, detectives and cyborgs all in an effort to thwart cyber criminals and their plans to attack the innocent.
Release Date2002-10-01
DepartmentWriting
JobOriginal Concept
Episode Count52
Vote Count395
After a global financial crisis, the world is engulfed in an AI-driven "sustainable war." It's up to Section 9 to counter new forms of cyber threats.
Release Date2020-04-23
DepartmentWriting
JobComic Book
Episode Count24
Vote Count133
The story takes place in 2061, 50 years after humanity developed the "Net society" that depended on information networks despite their security issues. To improve security, a new network called Meta Real Network — or "Metal" for short — was developed. People's personal memories are reduced to information and placed within "protected virtual stand-alone organic cyber enclaves" called bubble shells online. The result was a virtual "explosion" of creative freedom as people felt safe enough to explore instincts and desires on Metal that they would not otherwise explore in real life. This "friction" between the Metal's alluring lack of restrictions and rules-bound reality led to trouble and incidents that investigators known as "cyber divers" must handle. Masamichi Haru is one such cyber diver.
Release Date2008-04-09
DepartmentWriting
JobOriginal Story
Episode Count26
Vote Count6
In an age when large-scale natural disasters frequently happen all over the world, when cyborgs and autonomous robots are beginning to appear on the market in technologically advanced nations, and major world powers compete for technology and resources, the divide between rich and poor grows and the future for the poor looks bleak. In this transitional stage, everyone wanders around in a self-indulgent daze and the way out isn't clear... This is the story of how two cybernetically enhanced girls meet.
Release Date2016-01-08
DepartmentWriting
JobOriginal Concept
Episode Count12
Vote Count7
In an isolated region of Kyushu lies the town of Suiten. Though seeming small and modest, Suiten is not a picturesque place for a vacation, unless it is from the “Unseen World”. Taro, Makoto and Masayuki, three boys with traumatic pasts, learn to let their souls cross between the two parallel worlds. However, the Unseen World is no mere copy of the real Apparent World. The Unseen World is the home of ghosts, but changes are now allowing the souls of the dead to pass over into the Apparent World, with unpredictable effects. Follow the journey of Taro, Makoto and Masayuki, as they cross between the two worlds, trying to unravel a great mystery.
Release Date2007-10-18
DepartmentWriting
JobOriginal Concept
Episode Count22
Vote Count19
Following World War V, a global-scale conflict fought with non-nuclear weapons that almost halved the earth's population, the city-nation of Olympus stands as a beacon of hope in a world of chaos. The utopian metropolis is governed by Gaia, a vast artificial intelligence, and administered by genetically engineered humanoids known as bioroids. Although Olympus seems like a peaceful city on the surface, racial (human vs. bioroids vs. cyborgs), religious, and political conflicts lurk underneath -threatening to overturn the delicately balanced peace of this so-called utopia.
Release Date2011-07-06
DepartmentArt
JobOriginal Series Design
Episode Count13
Vote Count13
In the near future, Major is the first of her kind: a human saved from a terrible crash, then cyber-enhanced to be a perfect soldier devoted to stopping the world's most dangerous criminals.
Release Date2017-03-29
DepartmentWriting
JobComic Book
Vote Count8196
New Ghost in the Shell TV anime scheduled for 2026.
DepartmentWriting
JobOriginal Concept
Episode Count1
In the year 2029, the barriers of our world have been broken down by the net and by cybernetics, but this brings new vulnerability to humans in the form of brain-hacking. When a highly-wanted hacker known as 'The Puppetmaster' begins involving them in politics, Section 9, a group of cybernetically enhanced cops, are called in to investigate and stop the Puppetmaster.
Release Date1995-11-18
DepartmentWriting
JobComic Book
Vote Count3575
The year is 2030 and six years have passed since a criminal known only as "The Laughing Man" swept through top medical nanotechnology firms committing acts of cyber-terrorism, kidnapping, and espionage leaving no known suspects. New information is revealed, as Section 9 enters the hunt for a suspect capable of unfathomable actions in this compilation of Stand Alone Complex content.
Release Date2005-09-23
DepartmentWriting
JobComic Book
Vote Count133
The year is 2030. Six months passed since the Laughing Man Incident was solved. About 3 million refugees are living in Japan, invited to fill the labor shortage. However, the emergent presence of the invited-refugees intensified their confrontation with the "Individualists", who called for national isolation, which then led to the increased incidences of terrorist attacks. Under these circumstances, a terrorist group called the Individual Eleven carries out a suicide attack. But there was a greater scheme behind their action. When Section 9 learns this, they attempt to nail down the mastermind of the incident. Meanwhile, Kuze, a surviving member of the Individual Eleven, becomes a charismatic leader of the invited-refugees and intensifies the confrontation against the government. And Motoko starts feeling a strange sense of fate connecting her with Kuze...
Release Date2006-01-27
DepartmentWriting
JobComic Book
Vote Count113
In the future, mankind has colonized the bleak expanses of the moon. Cities now stand proudly where there was once only desolation and emptiness. But there are alien forces that do not want mankind to succeed and only one man can stop them. He is a member of the Bounty Dog Investigation Unit, a high-tech cybernetic mercenary team.
Release Date1994-10-01
DepartmentVisual Effects
JobCharacter Designer
Episode Count2
Vote Count2
In a utopian society created at the end of the third world war, a female warrior who has been plucked from the badlands begins to see cracks in this new facade. And what does this community have planned for the rest of humankind?
Release Date2004-04-17
DepartmentWriting
JobComic Book
Vote Count365
Cyborg detective Batou is assigned to investigate a series of murders committed by gynoids—doll-like cyborgs, which all malfunctioned, killed, then self-destructed afterwards. The brains of the gynoids initialize in order to protect their manufacturer's software, but in one gynoid, which Batou himself neutralized, one file remains: a voice speaking the phrase "Help me."
Release Date2004-03-06
DepartmentWriting
JobComic Book
Vote Count905
When a ghost-infecting virus known as Fire-Starter begins spreading through the system resulting in the assassination of the Japanese Prime Minister, Major Motoko Kusanagi and her elite team of special operatives are called in to track down its source.
Release Date2015-06-20
DepartmentWriting
JobOriginal Story
Vote Count201
The story takes place in the year 2034, two years after the events in Ghost in the Shell: S.A.C. 2nd GIG. Female cyborg Major Motoko Kusanagi has left Public Security Section 9, an elite counter-terrorist and anti-crime unit specializing in cyber-warfare, which has expanded to a team of 20 field operatives with Togusa acting as the field lead.
Release Date2007-09-01
DepartmentWriting
JobComic Book
Vote Count270
In the year 2029, Section 9, a group of cybernetically enhanced cops, are called in to investigate and stop a highly-wanted hacker known as 'The Puppetmaster'. Ghost in the Shell 2.0 is a reproduced version of its original 1995 counterpart. Among a numerous enhancements, for the film's 2.0 release, were a number of scenes were overhauled with 3D animation, visual improvements, and soundtrack rerecorded in 6.1 surround sound.
Release Date2008-07-12
DepartmentWriting
JobNovel
Vote Count428
As members of ESWAT, the elite forces serving Olympus, Deunan and Briaereos are deployed anywhere trouble strikes. Olympus finds itself under a stealth attack - cyborg terrorism, deadly nanotech zealots, and rioting citizens are just some of the threats that Deunan must contend with as she fights to save Olympus!
Release Date2007-10-19
DepartmentWriting
JobAuthor
Vote Count222
The story is set in 2027, one year after the end of the fourth non-nuclear war. New Port City is still reeling from the war's aftermath when it suffers a bombing caused by a self-propelled mine. Then, a military member implicated in arms-dealing bribes is gunned down. During the investigation, Public Security Section's Daisuke Aramaki encounters Motoko Kusanagi, the cyborg, wizard-level hacker assigned to the military's 501st Secret Unit. Batou, a man with the "eye that does not sleep," suspects that Kusanagi is the one behind the bombing. The Niihama Prefectural Police detective Togusa is pursuing his own dual cases of the shooting death and a prostitute's murder. Motoko herself is being watched by the 501st Secret Unit's head Kurutsu and cyborg agents.
Release Date2013-06-22
DepartmentCrew
JobCreator
Vote Count216
In the year 2045, after an economic disaster known as the Synchronized Global Default, rapid developments in AI propelled the world to enter a state of "Sustainable War". However, the public is not aware of the threat that AI has towards the human race. A compilation film with newly added footage.
Release Date2021-12-21
DepartmentWriting
JobComic Book
Vote Count64
Freed of her responsibilities with the 501 Organization, Motoko Kusanagi must now learn how to take orders from Aramaki. Someone hacks the Logicomas, and Batou enlists the help of former army intelligence officer Ishikawa and former air artillery expert Borma. Kusanagi also seeks to enlist ace sniper Saito and undercover cop Paz into the new Public Security Section 9.
Release Date2013-11-29
DepartmentWriting
JobComic Book
Vote Count151
The upcoming installment's story takes place amidst signs of postwar reconstruction in the winter of 2028. Tensions are rising in New Port City as demonstrations are held concerning the interests of foreign cartels. This leads to a shooting incident involving riot police. It all started with a cyberbrain infection released by the terrorist "Fire Starter." An independent offensive unit led by Makoto Kusanagi entrusts the suppression of the situation to their ghosts and aims for their own justice. Below the surface of the incident, lies the "tin girl" Emma and the "scarecrow man" Burinda Junior. As Kusanagi deals with the incident, she draws near to what those two ghosts were seeking.
Release Date2014-09-06
DepartmentWriting
JobNovel
Vote Count135
In the futuristic city of Olympus, built on the ashes of the third world war, a police officer and her cyborg partner fight terrorism.
Release Date1988-04-20
DepartmentWriting
JobOriginal Story
Vote Count79
Posing as lovers on vacation, Motoko and Batou work to try to stop a terrorist organization whose symbol is the Scrasath. Meanwhile, Togusa investigates a murder of a man who possessed a prosthetic leg manufactured by the Mermaid's Leg corporation.
Release Date2014-06-28
DepartmentWriting
JobNovel
Vote Count158
In 2100, the newly built Bayside City serves as Japan's premier international port. The Angel Arms Company is established by a former policewoman named Takako, to help wage war on terrorism with armed security suits. When the mayor is assassinated, the women of Angel Arms end up protecting the evil crime-lord Hassan, in hopes that his information will help bring down a global terror ring. Takako's back is to the wall as a band of criminals plot to kill Hassan, and the organization's leader is revealed to be the former lover of Angel Arms' own Alisa.
Release Date1999-03-20
DepartmentVisual Effects
JobCharacter Designer
Vote Count12
Based on the comic book by the creator of Ghost in the Shell, a young female soldier Deunan and her cyborg partner Briareos survive through the post World War 3 apocalyptic New York in search of human's future hope, the legendary city of Olympus.
Release Date2014-05-28
DepartmentWriting
JobOriginal Story
Vote Count390
A top-secret weapon escapes from military custody ready to destroy its pre-programmed target. The nosy freelance reporter who shows up to cover the story lands herself at the center of something even more dangerous than the international scandal she signed up for.
Release Date1987-06-28
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Vote Count50
In 2045, amidst an economic disaster and the rapid evolution of AI in a world where sustainable warfare is on the rise, Public Security Section 9, led by Motoko Kusanagi, arrives in Tokyo to confront the "post-human" Takashi Shimamura and prevent the looming threat of nuclear war. A compilation film with newly added footage.
Release Date2023-11-23
DepartmentWriting
JobComic Book
Vote Count3
Motoko and her squad are finally getting closer to Fire-Starter's broker, but things get tense when they're instructed to take a backseat role on a sting operation.
Release Date2015-08-26
DepartmentWriting
JobComic Book
Vote Count19
In the future, mankind has colonized the bleak expanses of the moon. Cities now stand proudly where there was once only desolation and emptiness. But there are alien forces that do not want mankind to succeed and only one man can stop them. He is a member of the Bounty Dog Investigation Unit, a high-tech cybernetic mercenary team.
Release Date1994-10-01
DepartmentVisual Effects
JobCharacter Designer
Vote Count6
Masamune Shirow presents a story about the Dominion Tank Police dealing with terrorists taking over the NT Building with AI driven tanks.
Release Date2006-03-24
DepartmentWriting
JobOriginal Story
Vote Count2
In an age when large-scale natural disasters frequently happen all over the world, when cyborgs and autonomous robots are beginning to appear on the market in technologically advanced nations, and major world powers compete for technology and resources, the divide between rich and poor grows and the future for the poor looks bleak. In this transitional stage, everyone wanders around in a self-indulgent daze and the way out isn't clear... This is the story of how two cybernetically enhanced girls meet.
Release Date2015-12-05
DepartmentCrew
JobCreator
Vote Count2
The planet Zer'lue is in trouble being ravaged by Chairman Sana'ku and his evil forces. However, one boy holds the key to destroy the evil. Lue'der must find his power and destroy the evil to save his planet.
Release Date1996-06-21
DepartmentArt
JobArt Department Manager
Vote Count1
The Minister of Foreign Affairs behaves strange after a hostage situation in a restaurant. Section 9 is sent to investigate.
Release Date2002-10-01
DepartmentWriting
JobComic Book
Episode Count1
