Highlights
- Ghost in the Shell has had a variety of intriguing villains, from cybernetic masterminds to mysterious hackers.
- LOCUS SOLUS is the manufacturing company behind malfunctioning gynoids, causing chaos and murder in the movie.
- The Laughing Man is a vigilante hacker targeting corrupt politicians, admired by Section 9, with a mysterious identity.
Ghost in the Shell is one of the most famous anime franchises of the 90s, with the original movie being one of the most influential cyberpunk stories of all time. The story follows Major Motoko Kusanagi as she hunts down cyber-criminals in a futuristic world where humans and machines have become inseparable.
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Between the movies, television series, and reimaginings, Ghost in the Shell has had a number of villains and antagonists over the years. While many of them are minor criminals who are quickly subdued over the course of an episode, some are cybernetic masterminds that threaten the peace of future Japan. Here are some of the best villains in the Ghost in the Shell franchise.
6 LOCUS SOLUS
Despite the success of the original film and the subsequent TV series, the second film Ghost in the Shell 2was not as well-received. Based on a chapter from the original manga series, the story of Ghost in the Shell 2 follows Batou and Togusa as they investigate a series of murders caused by malfunctioning gynoids.
The main cause of the problems is revealed to be the result of actions taken by LOCUS SOLUS, the manufacturing company behind these gynoids. Hoping to create more realistic robots, the company had the yakuza capture young girls and then duplicate their consciousnesses into the robots. A sympathetic worker at the company tampered with the process to save the girls, causing them to murder their owners instead. While LOCUS SOLUS is not represented by any one person, they are certainly the main cause behind the conflict in the movie.
5 Individual Eleven
The Individual Eleven is a terrorist group featured extensively in Ghost in the Shell S.A.C. 2nd GIG, with their activities being the main focus of Public Safety Section 9's investigations. Individual Eleven espoused the ideas of individualism, especially with modern technology making it far too easy for information to be shared over the internet, leading to a theoretical possibility where the Internet becomes human consciousness itself, with individual humans losing their own will.
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In truth, the Individual Eleven was created using a special virus that hacked into the cyberbrain, causing them to act out in a certain way. The Individual Eleven committed acts like kidnapping the prime minister and other terrorist activities before ultimately committing group suicide. Despite this, because Individual Eleven is made up of many different infected people, only a small fraction of the group actually died that day.
4 The Laughing Man
The Laughing Man is a mysterious hacker and corporate terrorist who served as the main antagonist of the first season of Ghost in the Shell: Standalone Complex. Despite his prominent appearances in that season, the true identity of the Laughing Man is never made clear, and he is represented solely by his logo, which is an image of a smiling, cap-wearing boy. A quote from The Catcher in the Rye is featured in the logo, representing the Laughing Man's obsession with that book.
Despite his role as an antagonist in the series, the Laughing Man could be considered more of a vigilante, as most of his targets were corrupt politicians and executives who were engaged in shady deals and stood outside the reach of the law. Even the members of Section 9 are impressed with the Laughing Man, as Aramaki even goes as far as to offer him a position there as a hacker.
3 Kazundo Goda
Kazundo Goda is the head of a data manipulation division within the Cabinet Intelligence Service, initially presenting himself as an ally to the Japanese government and Public Safety Section 9. However, it is soon revealed that he is a major villain and responsible for the majority of the problems occurring in Ghost in the Shell S.A.C. 2nd GIG.
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Kazundo Goda's plan started when he created the virus responsible for the creation of the Individual Eleven. The members would become violent and murder each other until only one survived, who he would prop up from behind the scenes as a hero of the refugees on Dejima Island. He planned to create an artificial conflict he hoped would result in Japan becoming a more self-sufficient nation. However, Goda's plan would ultimately fail due to his hero, Hideo Kuze, ultimately outsmarting him.
2 The Puppet Master
The original antagonist of the first Ghost in the Shell film, the Puppet Master is at first a suspect in the hacking of the Foreign Minister's secretary. Searching for the Puppet Master's true identity seems to be fruitless, as almost no one involved with him knows anything about him.
The Puppet Master is ultimately revealed to be an AI created by Section 6. Having achieved sentience while searching the net, the Puppet Master's main goal is to be treated as a human being, and to pass on its data in a form of reproduction. Despite being considered the antagonist of the first movie, the Puppet Master is more of a sympathetic character.
1 Hideo Kuze
Hideo Kuze was once simply another member of the Individual Eleven terrorist group, fighting for individualism in a world of interconnection. However, he managed to break free of the virus controlling his actions, allowing him to become the hero of the refugees that Kazundo Goda wanted him to be. However, Kuze truly sympathized with the refugees' plight and split with Goda to actually fight on their side.
Kuze had quite the checkered past, including having once known Motoko Kusanagi due to the both of them being in a horrific plane crash that necessitated their transition to fully prosthetic bodies. Though Kuze largely serves the role of an antagonist in Ghost in the Shell S.A.C. 2nd GIG, his motives are quite noble, making his conflict with Section 9 a complex situation.