cobysev

I was living in Japan when the Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (2002) anime first released, and whereas I appreciated the deeper dive into the world of Ghost in the Shell, it was still doing its own thing separate from the original 1989 manga I grew up reading.

Just like the original 1995 movie, which was semi-loyal to the overarching plot of the old manga, but took a much darker tone and new art style. And its sequel film went off in its own direction, ignoring the manga completely.

Then Ghost in the Shell: Arise (2013) came out as a prequel story. A third animated franchise that expands the world with the same characters, but still doesn’t hit on the actual story written by Shirow Masamune back in the '80s.

The 2017 live-action movie was basically just a remake of the 1995 anime film with a slightly altered plot. Still ignoring the source material. And because they cast a white American to play the lead Japanese role (even with an in-universe explanation for the switch), it got “cancelled” and ended up being a huge flop.

The Ghost in the Shell (2026) is the first story that’s actually loyal to the original manga, both in art style and in story. And for that, I’m extremely excited. We’ve seen so many interpretations and recreations of the original work over the years, it’s nice to finally see the original work itself being represented in anime form.

A lot of anime series are fiercely loyal to their original manga. It’s so strange that it’s taken nearly 40 years for Ghost in the Shell to get the same treatment.

I block ads too, but a bunch of YouTube channels I follow slip in their own custom-made ads in their vids, and like 70% of them were NordVPN. I couldn’t escape it for a while.

This is why I’ll never use NordVPN. Their ads are everywhere, which makes me not trust their product.

Besides, the most popular products are the most targeted by malware, hacking, adware/spyware, etc. Lesser known security tools are generally better, as long as the product itself is quality.