Ghost in the Shell (1995)

  Apparently, it's some sort of crime that I've never previously seen this anime.  I don't know what to tell you.  I grew up in rural Alabama and didn't even get cable until I was almost in high school.  Besides, I doubt a fixation on one more nerdy thing would have helped me.  Just sayin'.

Still, I can understand how this would have been a big deal.  The subject matter is existential, the technology is advanced, and there are naked animated breasts through about half of it.  Rob was quick to inform me that she's not exactly "naked" since it's actually more of an invisibility skin-suit.  However, you can clearly see nipples and it's flesh-colored.  If you tried to walk around like that, you'd probably get arrested.

Anyway, it's the future.  Major Kusanaki (Mimi Woods) is a cyborg, a human brain in a cybernetic body.  She works for Section 9, a government department.  Currently, she is tracking a hacker called Puppetmaster (Tom Wyner) so named because he is able to hack into shells (cyborgs) and manipulate them.  He can create whole new background lives for people with them being none the wiser.

***SPOILERS FOLLOW***

It's only because the Puppetmaster is actually a rogue program, a spontaneous eruption of sentience that wants to be treated as an individual and not as a computer program.  The government lab he was created in thought he was a bug and chased him into a cybernetic body.  Before that, he was free to roam the entire net but lacked the basic human experiences of reproduction and death.

***END SPOILERS***

The major question of what makes something alive runs through the whole movie.  Kusanaki struggles with maintaining her human individuality while knowing that her body came off an assembly line.  She holds on to the memories she's accumulated as a way of separating herself from other computer equipment.  It's not inconceivable that we will have AI soon and then we'll have to redefine what life is and who gets the rights that go with that definition.

The version I saw (Netflix streaming) was dubbed.  I don't know if the Japanese version is better (they usually are) but feel free to check it out for yourselves and let me know.