Ghost in the Shell (Limited Edition 4K Ultra HD & Blu-ray) Unboxing

Ghost in the Shell (攻殻機動隊, Kōkaku Kidōtai) is a 1995 theatrical anime film based on Masamune Shirow’s manga of the same name. The film was produced by studio Production I.G with director Mamoru Oshii, writer Kazunori Itō and music composer Kenji Kawai, and was theatrically released in Japanese theaters on November 1995.

Background:

“2029: A female cybernetic government agent, Major Motoko Kusanagi, and the Internal Bureau of Investigations are hot on the trail of “The Puppet Master,” a mysterious and threatening computer virus capable of infiltrating human hosts. Together with her fellow agents from Section 9, Kusanagi embarks on a high-tech race against time to capture the omnipresent entity.”

Plot Synopsis via Manga Entertainment/Funimation UK, September 2021.

Back in 2012, a decade ago at this point, Ghost in the Shell was among the first anime that I watched and received for my collection. It was a really interesting film, not to mention it also inspired a number of films, shows ever since. It was even co-produced by Manga Entertainment and released in the UK soon after its Japanese theatrical date. Ghost in the Shell, among Akira and Ninja Scroll, were the trio that sparked a massive interest in anime during that time for the UK.

The film has always been readily available, and eventually did receive a Blu-ray release in the UK by Manga Entertainment to some pretty mixed reception – long story short the video quality was decent but the audio was messed up and they didn’t include the Japanese ending theme song (instead re-using the English ending theme song). In addition to the audio mess-up, the subtitles weren’t good either. This was the same with the North American release as Anchor Bay were distributing the release on behalf of Manga at that time. Its for these reasons why I never bought Ghost in the Shell on Blu-ray.

The Japanese releases were always fine, and they even had English support, so if you have enough funds you could save yourself the faff and just import that release (since Japanese anime are region free despite Japanese live-action films are often locked to Region A in Japan).

Now a decade later, the 4K Ultra HD format has slowly been getting more traction and eventually anime joined the mix, though a majority won’t get the treatment due to the way they were animated and the costs involved. Despite that Japanese distributors (as well as Anime Limited and Discotek Media) have released a select number of anime for the 4K format. Japan released Akira, Ghost in the Shell, Lupin the Third: The Castle of Cagliostro, and Space Adventure Cobra the Movie, while Anime Limited released Belladonna of Sadness and Millennium Actress (with Future Boy Conan next in the works) followed by Discotek Media with Robot Carnival. While Production I.G. released both Ghost in the Shell and its theatrical sequel Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence on the new format, the former fared better than the other.

Since I mentioned that Anchor Bay had released Ghost in the Shell for North America, the 4K Ultra HD release was instead distributed by Lionsgate with a new author which is a vast improvement to the original English Blu-ray release. The US release was in September 2020 and it took Manga Entertainment UK a whole year to bring it over to the UK, and is one of the last titles to use the Manga logo before the distributor rebranded as Funimation UK.

Limited Edition Contents:

Manga Entertainment at this point were finally delving more into the collector’s edition packaging that Anime Limited and Funimation usually provide with rigid boxes and other physical goodies. While Akira was a replica of the Japanese release for licensing reasons, Ghost in the Shell got a UK exclusive limited edition.

The limited edition release comes presented in a rigid box that houses a steelbook that contains both the 4K Ultra HD disc and Blu-ray disc, since this is also a combo pack release. Also included with the set is an Envelope next to the box that contains 6 art cards and a poster illustrated by Matt Ferguson.

The artwork is free of any information or BBFC content and the info sheet covers the information and specification like recent Funimation UK limited edition releases. The limited edition 4K Ultra HD set, retailing for £39.99, is limited to an unspecified number of units, ideally 1000 but since this is a big anime film the chances are it’s likely to be in the 2000-3000 range instead. A standard edition 4K Ultra HD & Blu-ray combo pack was also released on the same date as the limited edition.

I did not order the film at first but it had remained available for months with a slight discount recently so I picked it up finally.

Physical Contents:

• Rigid Box with clean artwork and Steelbook packaging
• Info sheet for specification and BBFC description
• 6 Art Cards
• Poster

On-Disc Contents:

Distributor: Funimation UK
Released: 27th September 2021

The limited edition release for Ghost in the Shell contains a single 4K Ultra HD disc and Blu-ray disc. The encode and authoring were done by Manga Entertainment for the menus and the rest by Lionsgate. The audio options available for the film include Japanese with English subtitles and the Animaze English dub commissioned by Manga Entertainment. English SDH subtitles are also available.

For the Blu-ray playback, the white subtitles are unlockable during playback and the disc is region restricted to players set to B.

As for the 4K Ultra HD playback, the subtitles are unlockable during playback and is playable on all regional UHD players just like any other UHD release. Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision are also among the options available if you have the right setup.

4K Ultra HD Specs:

Languages	English, Japanese
Audio	English Dolby Atmos (TrueHD 7.1) Japanese Dolby Atmos (TrueHD 7.1) Japanese Linear PCM 2.0
Video	2160p Ultra High Definition format 16:9 aspect ratio Dolby Vision HDR
Region	All Region
Subtitles	English, English SDH
Locked Subtitles	No
Discs	1 BD-100

Blu-ray Specs:

Languages	English, Japanese
Audio	English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 Japanese DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 Japanese Linear PCM 2.0
Video	1080p High Definition Native format 16:9 aspect ratio
Region	B
Subtitles	English, English SDH
Locked Subtitles	No
Discs	1 BD-50

4K Ultra HD On-Disc Extra Features:

• English Audio Commentary with Mary Claypool (Animation Writer and GITS English Language Scriptwriter), Eric Calderon (Animation Producer and Writer), Richard Epcar (English VA for Batou) and Charles Solomon (Animation Historian and Critic)
• Accessing Section 9 – 25 Years into the Future (feat. MediaOCD member Justin Sevakis)
• Landscapes & Dreamscapes – The Art and Architecture of GHOST IN THE SHELL
• Trailers

Blu-ray On-Disc Extra Features:

• English Audio Commentary with Mary Claypool (Animation Writer and GITS English Language Scriptwriter), Eric Calderon (Animation Producer and Writer), Richard Epcar (English VA for Batou) and Charles Solomon (Animation Historian and Critic)
• Accessing Section 9 – 25 Years into the Future (feat. MediaOCD member Justin Sevakis)
• Landscapes & Dreamscapes – The Art and Architecture of GHOST IN THE SHELL
• Production Report
• Trailers
• Digital Works

Unboxing Photos:

Final Notes:

Ghost in the Shell is available to order through multiple retailers across the United Kingdom. The limited edition set is still around if you want to acquire that version. Both the limited edition and standard edition 4K Ultra HD releases are available to order on Amazon UK.

(Disclaimer: Amazon links are also included when available. They are affiliated so if you decide to order them, I’ll earn a small percentage if they ship which will help me with any hauls or small bills.)