Production I.G. in Detail

My friend once confided in me that God resided in the details. Not being a Christian per se, and with out a really solid religious bone in my body, I didn't have a clue what he was on about - that is, I didn't until about a decade ago, which is when I first watched Mamoru Oshii's enthralling anime feature Ghost in the Shell. While the original manga pages drawn by Shirow Masamune were quirky, sometimes light-hearted, and occassionally perverted, the animated movie adaptation was darker, a tad more cerebral, and the most innovatiev Cyberpuk romp since Akira (1988). It also led to the oh-so-obvious Wachowski brothers' aesthetic hommage in The Matrix.

Ghost in the Shell knocked my socks off, and hammered home the studio behind it - Production I.G. - as my favorite animation company. It's a lofty perch that I.G. still retains some ten years after. God knows I.G. deserves it, and by Heaven above they go for the jugularof those little details, glean 'em, tweak 'em, and quite often leave you gob-smacked and gasping for more with each successive experiment.