I admit it: I love all the graphic arts, so when Rai4 broadcasted in prime time “Ghost in the Shell”, an animated movie (“anime”) realized in 1995 by Production IG and directed by Mamoru Oshii, stroke by the homonymous Japanese manga series (published for the first time in 1989) by Masamune Shirow, and its sequel, “Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence” (directed in 2004 still by Oshii, based on the Shirow story of two years before but with a budget of 30 million dollars, three times the first movie), I didn’t loose them.

Leaving aside the plot of two movies (you can find it easily on wikipedia and many other blogs), I am interested to note that Ghost in the Shell (which was also dealt with two television series of 26 episodes each, “Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex” and “Ghost in the Shell: SAC 2nd GIG” as well as a TV movie “Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex - Solid State Society”, all directed by Kenji Kamiyama) was able to influence both the filmography of genre fiction, from the Matrix trilogy by the Wachowski brothers (built between 1999 and 2003) to get to the next “live action” movie the DreamWorks of Steven Spielberg was said to be preparing to carry out (after acquiring the work’s rights in 2008) to deploy in 2011 (but which is still not deployed), and numerous land-style cyberpunk present in Second Life.

If you compare the sequences of Ghost in the Shell to the textures and vivid colors of sims as Sick of the Japanese builder Mk Curtiz or Insilico built by the German builder Skills Hak (but Midiam City too, although the sim built by John C. Falgate aka Baal Zobel and Paola Cerioli aka Kora Zenovka, builders of other sims as Golgotha, Kingdom of Sand, Bladerunner City or Wicked City, is perhaps most inspiring to the Blade Runner of Ridley Scott), the “style” inspiration of many buildings or neon signs that reverberate in dark alleys and dirty “Main Streets” is evident, despite the history of the manga is set in a future far more next (2029 to 2034) than Insilico (2478) and a few years before that of Sick (2054).

The characters of the manga have also inspired some designers in the metaverse of Linden Lab, so that  Golden Medallion (http://goldenmedalliondesign.blogspot.com/2009/10/golden-medallion-ghost-shell-outfit.html) distributed precisely at 2009 Halloween an outfit called “Ghost Shell” which reproduces quite closely the cover of the first volume of the series of Shirow. The contamination of genres and cultures made possible by the development of MMORGP is probably just beginning and in future we will see more examples, but Ghost in the Shell is still in my opinion, a parent whose importance is unlikely to be forgotten