Ghost in the Shell (2026) Ep.04 - Dark side of society. Lack of Motoko this week...

Episode four of Ghost in the Shell (2026) explores the darkness of society in this futuristic world by investigating a case where robots have begun to go astray and attack their owners, which links to a company supplying these models to various VIPs around the country.

It turns out the company releasing them was using kidnapped children as throwaway ghosts to control the robots, which killed them in the process. Three kids decided they wanted out and started making the robots go astray to lure the police and free them before the worst could happen.

The robots have a nice design and they gave the 'they're robots' feel in the eyes and expressions pretty well compared to Motoko.

Quite like the attitude of the kids, hopefully they find a nice place to live afterward, they suffered enough already and don't need more.

Only two of them managed to survive, but it was impressive work to achieve that, to be honest. The real problem is that this is likely just one example of many, and there are many more yet to be discovered because the victims didn't have the smarts to find a way out.

When I was watching this, I felt it was something that had happened in previous adaptations; searching online, I found information that the Ghost in the Shell: S.A.C. that I watched back in the day was not a faithful adaptation of the original, but a new story independent from the original manga.

That made me delve deeper into the Wikipedia hole, and I realized that THIS is the first faithful adaptation of the original manga. Motoko Kusanagi was supposed to be a slapstick character, as we see here, and was changed by the director of the other anime. It's incredible how the other image was so firmly sealed in my mind because of that anime.

Honestly, I like this version a lot more because she feels more approachable as a character. The original felt completely flat, personality-wise, until late in the second season, which made it hard to actually care about the story aside from the obviously adorable Tachikoma.

Daisuke Aramaki in this adaptation is a lot less intimidating/political compared to the original. Feel more approachable maybe?

Now that's some comedically huge ball of fat there. Like dude, try to work out a bit or eat less, that would work in your favor maybe?

Now I'm curious, because this means we're likely not getting anything related to any of the other story arcs that we know from the originals. One part of me wants to give the manga a try, but another part doesn't want spoilers, so I'm conflicted. I guess I'll wait a few more weeks before deciding what to do.