Not an anime fan at all so I was probably not going to check this out anyway. :P

Okay so evidently I posted that joke in a forum full of Hiroshima survivors. :P

The Manga, the first movie+Innocence, SAC and Arise are all different universes each.

The first movie adapts the first chapter and most of the chapters that deal with the puppet master from the manga, with the spider tank coming from one of the other chapters. Overall the adaption of the events is pretty close, but there's a massive tonal shift from comic+action to contemplative+action, though some of that contemplative spirit comes straight from the final chapters of the manga. The cyborg construction scenes in the beginning are adapted from one of the manga chapters as well.

Innocence adapts one of the other chapters from the manga (which is focused on Batou and Togusa trying to solve a similar ghost duplication/sex dolls plot). I don't know how well it adapts because I haven't watched it, but I'm pretty sure the movie is way more contemplative and less comic than the manga as well. Also, of notice, in the manga, this story takes place way before Motoko's merge with the puppet master.

SAC's take on the franchise is a bit closer to the manga in tone, though it retains a more subdued humor (the manga goes all over the place with its humor, there's even an occasion where Batou tries to murder Aramaki by exploding his car and the old "Ape-face" just shrugs it off and leaves in a scooter, telling Motoko to clean the mess). I love that it also establishes the characters from Section 9 way better, giving each a proper personality and role in the team. The manga focuses solely on Motoko, Batou and Aramaki, with Togusa coming close behind. Ishikawa appears very little, and Borma and Saito are reduced to momentary appearances, and Paz is literally mentioned only once. The character designs are often very caricatural in the manga, specially Aramaki and Togusa.

Another interesting thing is that both Aramaki and Batou originally had brown hair in the manga, and Batou's hairstyle changes completely between chapters very often. Both the manga and SAC oversexuallize Motoko's design (the manga being way more aggressive in this), but in both cases, her team seems to ignore it completely.

I got the manga when it was first released in the UK.
Still have them.

I'd forgot about the bit with Batou blowing up Aramaki's car.

The first 4 pages of the manga we're colour, and absolutely beautiful.

It also had some nice sci-fi touches. Like taking over one of the Fuchikoma A.I. spider tanks and making it try to rise a resistance movement with the other A.I. tanks. The others debate the idea, realising its not worth the effort because the humans look after and service them anyway.

Motoko was definitely sexualised but to be fair, if you're going to have a total body conversion, you'd choose a pretty nice shape. As far as I can remember, her actions where not sexualised, save one scene when she's in a VR simulation on a boat with some other female characters (Aramaki's Aide I think)

I feel like I missed out a whole lot on story by only watching the movies and SAC series. Much like reading FMA to completion before Brotherhood was released (a real faithful series following the manga to a T except in a few minor cases, mostly missing episodes).

But like Akira I'm not sure if I'd like it for reading.

Thanks for the brief overview, I recognize the names a bit but it's been long enough most of it just reassures me of my foggy memory.

The female characters in the lesbian orgy are her roommates. I have the Brazilian release of the manga (released last november, I think?) and Masamune Shirow has had the 2 orgy pages removed because he was tired from people complaining about it. So no new release of the manga anywhere will have it.

Oversexualization also involves how the character is drawn, like the camera angles, poses and even clothes, you know, fan service. In the manga, she not only is hot, but there's a lot of sexy poses and close ups. In SAC, there are those weird fetish clothes she uses in the first season, which she replaces the boots with pants in the second season.

I think GitS is mostly remembered for the 95 movie and SAC. The earlier for being a movie masterpiece, the later for being a "anyone can enjoy and very well made" adaptation of the original. I mean, look at Hollywood GitS: it tries as much as it can to sell itself as a remake of the 95 movie, but it pretty much is an adaption of SAC with a few concepts and scenes that attempt to relate it to the 95 movie.

For as much as I like the manga, I think it's a bit like the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic book and the original The Mask comic book: it exists, it's good or even great in its own right, but it isn't the reason the world came to love the franchise.

As for Akira: I own the movie in DVD (like GitS) and I have read the manga as well. I like both, but I think the story benefits from the limited time frame of the movie, being less complex and more on point. And the story isn't as flexible as the GitS manga that allows for such different adaptations as the 95 movie and SAC, both relating extremely well to the original, while still being incredibly different from one another.

There is a part about 1/2 way through while they're hunting for the puppet master which I can only describe as "Artist self gratification". It is absolutely stunning animation.

I think there's quite a lot! Manga adaptations are WAY better than Holywoods based-on-comics movies, which never really care about the medium, but just want to cash in on a Marvel/DC franchise.

Some manga faves:

Female Convict 701: Scorpion (1972)
Fameus revenge classic that spawned about 10 sequels and rip-off and had its beautiful theme song re-cycled in Kill Bill. Meiko Kaji gives an outstanding performance, playing the role with almost no dialogue, using her silent stare to tell that this woman has swapped her humanity for vengance. Debutant director Ito Shunya have created a women-in-prison flick very much unlike anything else in the genre - Sure, there's lesbian seduction and male guards being group-raped by the lusty inmates - the sexplitation content is delivered. But there's also artistic lightning, heavy symbolism and Kabuki make-up. It is grindhouse, but arthouse too.

Riki-Oh - The Story of Ricky (1991)
splatter-kungfu-scifi cult classic about the absurdly strong Riki-Oh who get locked up in a equivalent insane prison. Few movies manages to deliver such a pure power fantasy, and it is a pleasure to escape into this world of intestine-strangling and exploding heads. The gory violence of the manga is transferred into live action with no change at all. While there are plenty of splatter flicks around, this is one of the few films where each nasty scene originates from the comic medium, in which the artist only had to consider what would look cool in a few sequential drawings. The faithful adaptation of the hand-drawn gore made it one of the first Hong Kong movies to earn a Cat III rating for violence alone, thus mutilating its box office revenue.

Ichi the Killer (2001) (The manga is even more offputing than Takashi Miike's adaptation)
Uzumaki (2000)
Cutie Honey (2004) Slows down towards the end, which feels anticlimatic when used to the classic Holywood structure. But a real visual feast!
Cats Eye (1997) -||-
Long Dream
Red Glasses

Since this movie itself seems to be a lost cause, I gotta ask, any cool trailers?

Ghost in the Shell Official Trailer 1
Ghost in the Shell Trailer #2

Personally, I think it looks way more interesting than most big budget movies!

Transformers 5, to remind me that yes, things can indeed get even worse :P

I don't even remember what else there was. No Justice League, no Kng Arthur, not even the terrible looking Tom Cruise Mummy thing.

This youtube comment is kinda sharp:
"Give Hollywood a revolutionary, philosophically deep, multi-layered anime with a ghost and they give you back the shell."

Another commenter mentioned that the original didn't use that stale cliche about a protagonist with amnesia exploring her past. Given that the original manga is from 1989, it says a LOT that the 2017 Holywood version is way more cliche. Seriously, why are todays heroes always bawling about their stupid past? Be a hero, fight the damn baddies and STFU!

EDIT: Spellling

I just saw the Mummy one.
I have a feeling your review of that is going to make your take on GITS look flattering.

The mummy is a copy of Indiana Jones which again is a copy of 1930 adventure pulp.

Indiana Jones updated some forgotten trash for a new audience. The mummy just immitated a better movie. When I rewatched the original Indiana Jones, I noticed that its tone is rather dark. I really went WTF when I read this analysis:

Why The Character Arcs in "Raiders" Makes the First Film Superior to the Other Films in the Series