Over the last month or so, Madman Entertainment have been asking their fans to vote for their favourite anime releases from the company (Along with other releases which due to their diversity, most likely won’t make it into this top 20) and giving away on-the-spot prizes to those who provided interesting vote justifications. The intention of this is to generate what fans would consider the companies Top 20 series releases.
So far we have Elfen Lied in #20 and Astro Boy in #19…. in both cases strong indicators of the quality expected from anime ranked higher. Today we have been able to find out #18 as voted by the ANZ anime fans which is Ghost in the Shell, a series that I was actually expecting to be ranked a bit higher, but otherwise well deserving of its place in the Top 20.
The following is the blurb Madman Entertainment provided for this title:
As if there was ever any question that this would not be in the Top 20.
The original Mamoru Oshi film of GHOST IN THE SHELL was more than simply an “Anime” cyberpunk film; it was one of the most influential films of the 1990s. Its themes of post humanism and cybernetics inspired many a Hollywood filmmaker and in the present day its concepts of emergent consciousness and human augmentation are seemingly within our grasp.
In many ways GHOST IN THE SHELL is the successor to Kubrick’s 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY – it discusses that sometimes terrifying nexus between mortality and technology. Not just one of the greatest anime of all time, one of the greatest films of all time. A true classic.
While I have never reviewed the series on this site as of yet, Madman Entertainment does have a number of releases from the series in stock, including the Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex Complete Collection (Limited Edition) which was released last year at a cost of $169.95 alongside others.
