With its combination of fantasy and cop story, high tech and high concept philosophy – and those often near-naked outfits of Major Kusanagi’sGhost in the Shell has got a lot to offer fans. While it wasn't a huge hit at its first release, the 1995 anime film has become a cult hit, spawned more movies and TV series, and ended up on many "best animes of all time" lists.

Most recently, Netflix got into the act with Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045, a brand new CGI animated series that takes the story into new territory with its backdrop of sustainable war.

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From manga to movies to TV and that unfortunate Scarlett Johansson live action version, the story has taken a lot of twists and turns, gone off in different directions, and gone back to the beginning for a retcon or two. To newcomers and even casual fans, much of the story may be puzzling, if not downright unfathomable.

10 What Exactly Is A Ghost?

GITS fans might groan, but for newcomers to anime and the series, the struggle is real. Here's the short version: it's the human essence of a person, which, in the GITS universe, can be implanted in a cybnernetic body.

It's another way of talking about the soul, or consciousness in modern psychology. Throughout the series, though, that idea is questioned, and it gets much more complicated than that simple statement. In the sequel, for example, the ghost can be faked and duplicated.

9 How Could Major Kusanagi Appear In Ghost In The Shell 2: Innocence?

The ghost concept gets a good workout in the original 1995 film, especially at the end, when Major Kusanagi abandons her adult physical body for that of a child, her ghost merged with the Puppetmaster's.

Those events occur just before the story of Innocence begins. Major lives on, however, in the network. In this sequel, Major's voice warns Batou about upcoming dangers, even taking the form of a gynoid. At the end, she disappears back into the network, while telling Batou she'll always be at his side.

8 What's The Deal With New Port City?

Ghost in the Shell drops viewers into New Port City, which exists in 2029 in the original movie. The future they foresaw was one dominated by technology, and not always so friendly to real people.

The backstory is finally explained in the second season of the animated series Stand Alone Complex, or Ghost in the Shell: S.A.C. 2nd GIG. After WWIII, Tokyo is destroyed, and it's Newport City that emerged from the wreckage. Fuelled by the Japanese Miracle, i.e. the Micromachine technology that effectively removes radiation, Japan becomes a superpower.

7 Where Did Motoko Kusanagi Come From?

Ghost in the Shell: Arise was a five-part series that was released as movies between 2013 and 2015. It begins in Newport City in 2027, and tells the story of how the Section 9 team was assembled. Through the course of the story, we also learn that the reason Major Kusanagi is 100% cybernetic is that she never actually had a human body.

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Her mother died while she was pregnant, and Motoko's ghost was extracted from her body, and then created in that famous sequence from the opening of the 1995 film.

6 What's Going On With The Laughing Man In Stand Alone Complex?

Laughing Man is the ultimate hacker, and he causes havoc with his ability to hack into cyber-brain implants. The name comes from the J.D. Salinger short story, The Laughing Man, and it's his case that the team takes on.

His logo, however, is also used by an evil corporation to cover up acts of sabotage, and many others. At the end of the complicated story, it is revealed that Laughing Man is actually an A.I. created by someone called Aoi. Aramaki offers Aoi a position on the team, but he declines.

5 Why Is Saito Sometimes There, Sometimes Not?

Saito is Section 9's sniper, and you'd think that a character like that would get a lot of use in Newport City. The only time the character is given a backstory is in one episode of the second season of Stand Alone Complex, when fans learned he'd met Major during WWIV – as the enemy on the other side of the battle.

That's why he's got a low profile in the series – he's an ex-anti-UN mercenary, which would cause problems for Section 9.

4 How Does A Secret Organization Operate In Public?

Ghost In The Shell Stand Alone Complex Section 9

Section 9 is kept secret from the public...but in every movie, manga, or TV series episode, they're also out in public conducting their investigations. The cover story is that they are a search and rescue organization.

Now, it may be hard to understand how a search and rescue organization would get involved in cyber crime – Section 9's mandate – but our guess is that Newport City, and in general, the post multiple world war universe it exists in, is probably chaotic enough for it to pass.

3 How Does Alternative Architecture Come Into The Picture?

GITS: Arise was so successful, it became a TV series. The five original movies were extended to 10 episodes, but it's not quite as simple as that. Anyone who watched the original five – Ghost Pain, Ghost Whispers, Ghost Tears, Ghost Stands Alone, and Pyrophoric Cult – would be confused by AA.

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It's as if they took a deck of cards and threw them up in the air – it all ends up in a different order. The team is seen working together for episode 1 and 2, for example, but they don't come together as a group until later in the series.

2 Just How Does All Of It – The Manga, The Movies, The TV Series – All Fit Together?

The manga was created by Masamune Shirow and released in 1989. The 1995 movie Ghost in the Shell, directed by Mamoru Oshii, was based on the manga, as was Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence, the direct sequel (2004).

The series Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, which aired in 2002-2003, exists in a different universe. Ghost in the Shell 2.0 (2008), is Oshii's original vision, updated with some CGI. Arise and AA are a retcon of the series, leading to the 2015 movie Ghost in the Shell: The New Movie. Netflix’s new Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045, which has gotten mixed reviews, is a continuation of the SAC universe.

1 What About The Live Action Movie?

The Scarlett Johansson live action version didn’t seem to please either fans of the anime/manga or fans of live action sci-fi in general. It was recently criticized by Javier Grillo-Marxuach, who is co-writing the live action version of Cowboy Bebop for Netflix.

Most of the story is based on the 1995 film. It also sprinkles in elements of Innocence, and the SAC TV series, along with offering a completely different backstory, among other directions new to the series.

NEXT: Ghost In The Shell SAC_2045: 10 Things You Never Knew About The Anime’s Making