‘Ghost In The Shell’ Live Action Cast Photos Leaked; How Will Public Security Section 9 Look On The Silver Screen?

A series of images of the cast of Hollywood's live action film adaptation of the "Ghost in the Shell" manga and anime series has been released, allowing fans of the original works to size up how the film version of the characters measure up to their original counterparts.

The Internet has already been treated to samples of just how Scarlett Johansson looks like as the live action version of Masamuno Shirow's iconic Major Motoko Kusanagi, which simply furthered the controversy about the film producer's casting choices.

Now, the embers of controversy have been relit and fanned once again as even more images of the film's characters have made it onto the public's eyes, with many anime and manga aficionados notably displeased at what they have seen.

Alongside Scarlett Johansson as Major Motoko Kusanagi, the live action "Ghost in the Film" will star Pilou Asbæk as Batou, Takeshi Kitano/Beat Takeshi as Daisuke Aramaki, Chin Han as Togusa, Lasarus Ratuere as Ishikawa, Tawanda Manyimo as Borma, and Yutaka Izumihara as Saito. Considering the source material's status as a classic, the casting choices for the film have sent a good number of the "Ghost in the Shell" fanbase into some irate tirades and comparing the characters to their original versions can give one an understanding of why the controversy has flared up like it has.

Some of the actors compare well to their animated and manga counterparts, like Takeshi as Daisuke Aramaki, Ratuere as Ishikawa, and Izumihara as Saito. For one, their designs for the film actually look quite close to the originals.

By contrast to the above, some of the other actors actually look very different to the original versions either due to ethnicity or age. Manyimo's Borma, for example, went from being a burly, bald Caucasian-looking man with prosthetic eyes and no eyebrows into Manyimo with googly eyes. For Chin Han, Togusa is pretty much the youngest member of Section 9 and can actually pass off as Caucasian compared to Han's age and very much East Asian looks.

Some other differences the pictures indicate the film will have compared to its source material is that some characters do not look like they have cybernetic implants. Johansson's Major looks like she just put on a wig, compared to Motoko Kusanagi's original design that made her look mostly "normal" while at the same time obviously having cybernetics. Asbæk as Batou does not have prosthetic eyes, the character's most defining trait. While one could argue that his eyes might simply be changed with CGI, the other actors are already sporting prosthetics although the end results vary.