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Ghost in the Shell

Four separate versions of the same premise, none of which continue into each other, so watching everything in order is the wrong answer.

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Where to start with Ghost in the Shell

Do not watch this franchise in order. There are four separate takes on the same premise and only one of them continues into anything else, so the job is to pick a continuity and stay inside it. Start with the 1995 film because it is eighty-two minutes long and assumes nothing, then move to the television continuity, which is the one with somewhere to go.

  1. 1
    Ghost in the Shell (1995) Ghost in the Shell

    Eighty-two minutes, self-contained, and it owes nothing to any other title here. If the ideas do not grab you, you have spent an evening rather than fifty hours finding out.

  2. 2
    Stand Alone Complex, season 1 Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex

    The same world with room to breathe. Twenty-six episodes that build Section 9 as a working unit, and this is the only continuity on the page that keeps going.

  3. 3
    S.A.C. 2nd GIG, season 2 Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex

    Set two years later and following directly from the first season, so it does not stand alone. Most viewers rate it the high point of the whole franchise.

  4. 4
    Solid State Society Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex - Solid State Society

    A television film set in 2034 that closes out the Kamiyama continuity. It assumes both seasons and is the natural stopping point if you want one.

Then what? Stop there if you want a complete run. If you want more of the same timeline, SAC_2045 picks it up in 2045 across two Netflix seasons; it is the most divisive thing in the franchise, mainly for its computer generated look. If you want more of the 1995 film instead, Innocence is its only sequel. Arise is a separate reboot that starts Motoko's story again from before Section 9 existed, and its four OVAs, its ten episode recut and The New Movie only connect to one another. The 2017 live action film and the 2026 Science SARU series each start over again. None of the recap films add anything: skip The Laughing Man, Individual Eleven, Sustainable War and The Last Human unless you want a condensed rewatch.

A suggested way in, not an official one. The full list is below — tick anything off in either place.

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