Director Bibliography – Mamoru Oshii

This bibliography covers scholarly publications on Mamoru Oshii as an anime director or screenwriter written in English that I am aware of. It specifically does not include scholarship on his live-action films, the “anime live-action hybrid feature” Avalon, or his Blood: The Last Vampire – Night of the Beasts novel. Whenever possible, and if this is not clear for the title of a particular essay, I have also tried to identify and note the actual work or works that it discusses.

[Last updated: February 6, 2021]

2022

• Gough, Simon, Gough, Noel, & Gough, Annette. Cyborg, goddess, or magical girl/heavenly woman: Rethinking gender and technology in science education via Ghost in the Shell. Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies (forthcoming).

2021

• Onur O., & Nazli, Azra K. Techno fantasies of East and West: Ghost in the Shell.
  In Isil Tombul & Gulsah Sari (eds.). Handbook of Research on Contemporary Approaches to Orientalism (pp. 197-213). Hershey, PA: IGI Global.
• Malhado, Andre. Constructing an audiovisual language through (social) media convergence: Ghost in the Shell, musical codes, and networked meaning.
  In Enrique Encabo (ed.). My kind of sound: Popular music and audiovisual culture (pp. 172-185). Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

2020

• Hitchcock, Peter. Cyborg affect and the power of the posthuman in the Ghost in the Shell franchise.
  In Christopher Breu & Elizabeth A. Hatmaker (eds.). Noir affect (pp. 156-177). New York: Fordham University Press.

2019

• Daliot-Bul, Michal. Ghost in the Shell as a cross-cultural franchise: From radical posthumanism to human exceptionalism. Asian Studies Review, 43(3), 527-543.
• Long, Donna T. Dis/corporatization: The biopolitics of prosthetic lives and posthuman trauma in Ghost in the Shell. Imaginations: Journal of Cross-Cultural Image Studies, 10(2), 119-152.
• Lovins, Christopher. A ghost in the replicant? Questions of humanity and technological interpretation in Blade Runner and Ghost in the Shell. MOSF Journal of Science Fiction, 3(1), 21-34.
• Ruh, Brian. Ghostly boundaries: Transnational tensions and adapting animation in the Ghost in the Shell franchise.
  In James Fleury, Bryan Hikari Hartzheim, & Stephen Mamber (eds.). The franchise era: Managing media in the digital economy (pp. 141-157). Edinburgh, UK: Edinburgh University Press.

2018

• Cox, Ryan J. Kusanagi’s body: Dualism and the performance of identity in Ghost in the Shell and Stand Alone Complex.
  In Graham Murphy & Lars Schmeink (eds.). Cyberpunk and visual culture (pp. 127-138). New York: Routledge.
• Shalet, Danielle. Through the looking glass: Ghost in the Shell, transhumanism, and transcendence through the virtual. Implicit Religion, 21(4), 413-432.

2017

• Filimon, Luiza-Maria. Dolls, offsprings, and automata: Analyzing the posthuman experience in Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence. Ekphrasis: Images, Cinema, Theory, Media, 17(1), 45-66.
• Nguyen, Kathy. Body upload 2.0: Downloadable cosmetic [re]birth. Ekphrasis: Images, Cinema, Theory, Media, 17(1), 25-44.
  [Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence]

2016

• Nelson, Linsday. ‘But I am a kid’: Optimizing adolescence in Oshii Mamoru’s The Sky Crawlers. East Asian Journal of Popular Culture, 2(1), 125-145.

• Paik, Peter Y. A tale humans cannot tell: On Jin Roh: The Wolf Brigade. Animation: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 11(1), 108-122.

2015

• North, Dan. Ghost in the Shell: The noir instinct.
  In Chi-Yun Shin & Mark Gallagher (eds.). East Asian film noir: Transnational encounters and intercultural dialogue (pp. 71-88). London: I.B. Tauris.

• Schmidt-Tomczak, Sebastian. The animation of the cyborg trope: Oshii Mamoru’s Ghost in the Shell.
  In Karin Sellberg, Lena Wanggren, & Kamillea Aghtan (eds.). Corporeality and culture: Bodies in movement (pp. 81-94). Farnham, UK: Ashgate.

2014

• Levitt, Deborah. Animation and the medium of life: Media ethology, an-othology, ethics. INFLeXions: A Journal for Research Creation, 7.
  [Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence]

• Miner, Natasha. Technology, psychology, identity: Ghost in the Shell and .hack//Sign. Electronic Journal of Contemporary Japanese Studies, 14(3).

• Ruh, Brian. Stray dog of anime: The films of Mamoru Oshii, 2^nd Ed. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

2013

• Correa, Marie Deanne Therese. Ghost in the Shell: A cyborg-feminist review of Mamoru Oshii’s animated film. Plaridel: A Philippine Journal of Communication, Media, and Society, 10(2). 115-119.

• Greenhill, Pauline, & Kohm, Steven. Hoodwinked! and Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade: Animated “Little Red Riding Hood” films and the Rashomon Effect. Marvels & Tales, 27(1), 89-108.

• Hourigan, Daniel. Ghost in the Shell 2, technicity, and the subject. Film-Philosophy, 17, 51-67.

• Kohara, Itsutoshi, & Niimi, Ryosuke. The shot length styles of Miyazaki, Oshii, and Hosoda: A quantitative analysis. Animation: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 8(2), 163-184.

• Nagakawa, Miho. Mamoru Oshii’s production of multi-layered space in 2D anime. Animation: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 8(1), 65-83.

• Ruh, Brian. Producing transnational cult media: Neon Genesis Evangelion and Ghost in the Shell in circulation. Intensities: The Journal of Cult Media, 5, 1-23.

2012

• Chow, Kenny K.N. Toward holistic animacy: Digital animated phenomena echoing East Asian thoughts. Animation: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 7(2), 175-187.
  [Ghost in the Shell]
• Monnet, Livia. Anatomy of permutational desire, part III: The artificial woman and the perverse structure of modernity. Mechademia: An Annual Forum for Anime, Manga and the Fan Arts, 7, 282-297.
  [Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence]

• Posadas, Baryon Tensor. The Sky Crawlers and the transmediation of science fictional worlds. Poetica: An International Journal of Linguistic-Literary Studies, 78, 113-130.

• Riekeles, Stefan, & Lamarre, Thomas. Image essay: Mobile worldviews. Mechademia: An Annual Forum for Anime, Manga and the Fan Arts, 7, 173-188.
  [Patlabor, Ghost in the Shell]

 2011

• Clement, Frederic. Mamoru Oshii’s Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence: Thinking before the act. Cinephile: The University of British Columbia’s Film Journal, 7(1), 30-36.

• Gan, Sheuo Hui. The transformation of the teenage image in Oshii Mamoru’s The Sky Crawlers. Animation Studies, 6.

• Horbinski, Andrea. War for entertainment: The Sky Crawlers. Mechademia: An Annual Forum for Anime, Manga and the Fan Arts, 6, 304-306.

• Monnet, Livia. Anatomy of permutational desire, part II: Bellmer’s dolls and Oshii’s gynoids. Mechademia: An Annual Forum for Anime, Manga and the Fan Arts, 6, 153-170.
  [Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence]

• Ruh, Brian. Volition in the face of absurdity. Mechademia: An Annual Forum for Anime, Manga, and the Fan Arts, 6, 306-309.

• Shin, Hyewon. Voice and vision in Oshii Mamoru’s Ghost in the Shell: Beyond Cartesian optics. Animation: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 6(1), 7-23.

• Terai, Hiroko. Disembodiment of our physical bodies and embodiment of urban space in Oshii Mamoru’s animations. International Journal of Comic Art, 13(2), 437-447.

2010

• Brown, Steven T. Tokyo Cyberpunk: Posthumanism in Japanese Visual Culture. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.[Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence]

• Chipman, Jay Scott. So where do I go from here? Ghost in the Shell and the imaging cyborg mythology for the new millennium.
  In John Perlich and David Whitt (eds.). Millennial Mythmaking: Essays on the Power of Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature, Films and Games (pp. 167-192). Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co.

• Dinello, Dan. Cyborg goddess.
  In Joseph Steiff and Tristan D. Tamplin (eds.). Anime and Philosophy: Wide Eyed Wonder (pp. 275-285). Chicago: Open Court Publishing.
  [Ghost in the Shell]

• Heinricy, Shana. Take a ride on the Catbus.
  In Joseph Steiff and Tristan D. Tamplin (eds.). Anime and Philosophy: Wide Eyed Wonder (pp. 3-11). Chicago: Open Court Publishing.

• McBlane, Angus. Just a ghost in the shell?
  In Joseph Steiff and Tristan D. Tamplin (eds.). Anime and Philosophy: Wide Eyed Wonder (pp. 27-38). Chicago: Open Court Publishing.

• Monnet, Livia. Anatomy of permutational desire: Perversion in Hans Bellmer and Oshii Mamoru. Mechademia: An Annual Forum for Anime, Manga, and the Fan Arts, 5, 285-309.
  [Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence]

• Penicka-Smith, Sarah. Cyborg songs for an existential crisis.
  In Joseph Steiff and Tristan D. Tamplin (eds.). Anime and Philosophy: Wide Eyed Wonder (pp. 261-274). Chicago: Open Court Publishing.
  [Ghost in the Shell, Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence]

• Stoddard, Matthew. Contested utopias: Ghost in the Shell, cognitive mapping, and the desire for Communism. ImageTexT: Interdisciplinary Comics Studies, 5(2).

2009

• Anderson, Mark. Oshii Mamoru’s Patlabor 2: Terror, theatricality, and exceptions that prove the rule. Mechademia: An Annual Forum for Anime, Manga, and the Fan Arts, 4, 75-109.

• de Fren, Allison. Technofetishism and the uncanny desires of A.S.F.R. (alt.sex.fetish.robots). Science Fiction Studies, 36(3), 404-440.

• Endo, Yukihide. An examination of the human soul that dwells within the machine as exemplified by The Ghost in the Shell. Bulletin of Liberal Arts, Hamamatsu University School of Medicine, 23,

• Ford, Paul J. Hacking the mind: Existential enhancement in Ghost in the Shell.
  In Sandra Shapshay (ed.). Bioethics at the Movies (pp. 156-169). Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press.

• Gardner, William. The cyber sublime and the virtual mirror: Information and media in the works of Oshii Mamoru and Kon Satoshi. Canadian Journal of Film Studies, 18(1), 44-70.

• Griffith, John Lance. The world and Japan: Animated anxiety in a global age. National Central University Journal of Humanities, 39, 1-54.
  [Ghost in the Shell]

• Napier, Susan. Oshii, Mamoru.
  In Mark Bould, et al. (eds.)/ Fifty Key Figures in Science Fiction (pp. 176-181). Abingdon, UK: Routledge.

2008

• Miller, Gerald Alva Jr. “To shift to a higher structure”: Desire, disembodiment, and evolution in the anime of Otomo, Oshii, and Anno. Intertexts: A Journal of Comparative and Theoretical Reflection, 12(2), 145-166.
  [Ghost in the Shell]

• Ashby, Madeline. Ownership, authority, and the body: Does antifanfic sentiment reflect posthuman anxiety? Transformative Works and Cultures, 1.
  [Ghost in the Shell]

• Brown, Steven. Machinic desires: Hans Bellmer’s dolls and the technological uncanny in Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence. Mechademia: An Annual Forum for Anime, Manga and Fan Arts, 3, 222-253.

• Curti, Giorgio Hadi. The ghost in the city and a landscape of life: A reading of difference in Shirow and Oshii’s Ghost in the Shell. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 26(1), 87-106.

• Orbaugh, Sharalyn. Emotional infectivity: Cyborg affect and the limits of the human. Mechademia: An Annual Forum for Anime, Manga, and the Fan Arts, 3, 150-172.
  [Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence]

2007

• Bolton, Christopher. The quick and the undead: Visual and political dynamics in Blood: The Last Vampire. Mechademia: An Annual Forum for Anime, Manga, and the Fan Arts, 2, 125-147.

• Johnson, Rebecca. Kawaii and kirei: Navigating the identities of women in Laputa: Castle in the Sky by Hayao Miyazaki and Ghost in the Shell by Mamoru Oshii. Rhizomes: Cultural Studies in Emerging Knowledge, 14.

• Notaro, Anna. “Innocence is life”: Searching for the post-human soul in Ghost in the Shell 2. International Journal of Comic Art, 9(1), 610-624.

2006

• Cavallaro, Dani. Cinema of Mamoru Oshii: Fantasy, Technology and Politics. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co.

2005

• Wright, Lucy. Transcendental style in ‘Ghost in the Shell’.
  In P. Horsfield (ed.)/ Papers from the Trans-Tasman Research Symposium ‘Emerging Research in Media, Religion and Culture’ (pp. 100-106). Melbourne: RMIT Press.

2004

• Ruh, Brian. Stray Dog of Anime: The Films of Mamoru Oshii. New York: Palgrave Macmillan

• Suchenski, Richard. Great directors: Mamoru Oshii. Senses of Cinema, 32.

2003

• Babka, Anna. The days of the human may be numbered: Theorizing cyberfeminist metaphors – rereading Kleist’s ‘Gliedermann’ as cyborg, as ‘ghost in the shell’. TRANS: Internet Journal for Cultural Studies, 15.

• Yokota, Masao, Koide, Masashi, & Kifune, Tokumitsu. From the autistic world to entertainment in feature animations of Mamoru Oshii. The Japanese Journal of Animation Studies, 4(1A), 19-26.

• Yomota, Inuhiko. Stranger than Tokyo: Space and race in postnational Japanese cinema.
  In Jenny Kwok Wah Lau (ed.)/ Multiple Modernities: Cinemas and Popular Media in Transcultural East Asia (pp. 76-89). Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
  [Patlabor, Patlabor 2, Ghost in the Shell]

2002

• Bolton, Christopher. From wooden cyborgs to celluloid souls: Mechanical bodies in anime and Japanese puppet theater. Positions: East Asia Cultures Critique, 10(3), 729-771.
  [Ghost in the Shell]

• Gonzaga, Elmo. Anomie and isolation: The Wind-up Bird Chronicle, Ghost in the Shell, Serial Experiments Lain, and Japanese consensus society. Humanities Diliman, 3(1), 39-68.

• Monnet, Livia. Towards the feminine sublime, or the story of ‘a twinkling monad, shape-shifting across dimension’: Intermediality, fantasy and special effects in cyberpunk film and animation. Japan Forum, 14(2), 225-268.
  [Ghost in the Shell]

• Orbaugh, Sharalyn. Sex and the single cyborg: Japanese popular culture experiments in subjectivity. Science Fiction Studies, 29(3), 436-452.
  [Ghost in the Shell]

2001

• Schaub, Joseph Christopher. Kusanagi’s body: Gender and technology in mecha-anime. Asian Journal of Communication, 11(2), 79-100.
  [Ghost in the Shell]

2000

• Won, Kin Yuen. On the edge of spaces: Blade Runner, Ghost in the Shell, and Hong Kong’s cityscape. Science Fiction Studies, 27(1), 1-21.

1999

• Kim, Won. The quest for humanity: The hero’s journey in Walt Disney’s Pinocchio and Mamoru Oshii’s Ghost in the Shell. Animatrix, 10, 50-72.

• Silvio, Carl. Reconfiguring the radical cyborg in Mamoru Oshii’s Ghost in the Shell. Science Fiction Studies, 26(1), 54-72.

1996

• Chute, David. Ghost in the Shell: The soul of the new machine. Film Comment, 32(3), 84-88.