10 Best Gateway Anime
4. Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex
When anime hit big in the west in the mid-nineties, the films at the forefront of that wave were Katsuhiro Otomo's Akira and Mamoru Oshii's Ghost in the Shell. These movies are undisputed cinematic masterpieces, but as pop culture fans know, transitioning between one medium and another is not always painless. In the case of Ghost in the Shell, it has managed to almost seamlessly move from Masamune Shirow’s manga, to a big-budget animated movie, to a critically-acclaimed animated TV series. The less said about the Hollywood version, the better.
Unlike a lot of these shows, most episodes of Stand Alone Complex are self-contained. That doesn't mean there is not an overarching narrative; the Laughing Man case features in several first season episodes. It is just that most of the crimes investigated by Major Kusanagi and Public Security Section Nine wrap up by the end of the episode.
Much like the movies, a great deal of the show's impact comes from themes and ideas that underpin each episode. It looks at what it means to be human, our relationship with technology, and where we draw the line between man and machine in such a sophisticated world.