Scarlett Johansson's Major Motoko Kusanagi might be front and center in the Ghost in the Shell marketing, but she is just one key part of what makes the movie's Public Security Section 9 team so effective.
Paramount released character posters for each of the Section 9 members, which can be seen below. To find out more about them, continue reading for intel from our Ghost in the Shell set visit.
While on the New Zealand set of the film, IGN had a chance to meet the five members of Section 9, an organization in the film that is one of the most effective at fighting cyber terrorism. (The sixth member, Lasarus Rateure who plays Ishikawa, was not available to come to set that day.) It's Section 9, with Major at its head, which investigates the cyber terrorism actions of villain Kuze (Michael Pitt) that spurs the conflict in the film. Fun fact: the armor the Section 9 team wears was inspired by kendo fighting, which also extends to Major's armor as well.
Below, the actors explain who their characters are and what they add to the film.
Asbæk was on the eve of making his Game of Thrones debut as Euron Greyjoy when we sat down to talk about his boisterous Ghost in the Shell character Batou. He is one of the Section 9 characters who is closest with the Major and will be more prominent in the film (and yes, he will have cybernetic eyes -- made by Weta -- like in the anime).
"The manga is very philosophical, very weird, very spiritual," said Asbæk. "So I knew that my job with Batou was to bring in a little bit of heart and soul into this futuristic sci-fi world."
Batou's combat specialty is "near combat." Even though Asbæk notes the Section 9 team is the "creme de la creme" of military prowess, there is a competitiveness with the other Section teams as well. He'll often act as the film's comedic relief, and a lot of that came straight from Asbæk. He had a hard time understanding his character until he looked back at the Ghost in the Shell source material.
"I didn’t have any idea what to do with the character and then I looked at the manga again, and I saw two things. I saw he likes beer, and he likes pizza. And if you know me for five minutes, that’s 80 percent of my personality!" he said. When you see Batou snacking on pizza during the movie, know that it was at Asbæk's insistence.
Togusa is one of the few humans in Section 9 who hasn't gotten any cybernetic upgrades, and one of the few who doesn't have any military background. That makes him an interesting counterpoint to some of the other characters on the force, and offer a unique outlook.
"Togusa is very interesting in the sense that he is the only member of the team that is wholly human and is proud of it," said Han. "I think he's the last bastion of the old world. It’s reflected in his choice of weaponry, which is the mateba revolver and of course his choice in the mullet for a hairstyle."
Brought to the team by their boss Daisuke Aramaki (Beat Takeshi) from the police department, Togusa is an asset for "his human intuition and analytical skills for their investigation of these cyborg crimes to bring a new perspective, so to speak to the investigation of these cyborg crimes."
Like many of the members of Section 9, Borma is part cyborg. Though he's "kind of the silent type," says Manyimo, he also packs some of the most explosive weapons of the Section 9 team.
"Borma is a bomb and weapons specialist," said Manyimo. "He originally was basically the backup, and meant to be carrying the heavy assault weapons. He carries a shotgun. It’s a bigger gun, just like Batou."
According to Manyimo, part of what makes the Section 9 group so interesting is they aren't controlled by the government. "We are able to cut through red tape and bureaucracy it seems," he said "Who doesn’t want that? We can actually just do what we want, in essence. And we answer to essentially to Aramake and Major, so we’re almost a rogue renegade, but not quite. And I think that’s a unique position because in the world, there is a lot of political intrigue."
Saito is the lead tactical sniper for Section 9 who sports a cybernetic eye that helps enhance his aim. Though he's appeared in all of the source material, Izumihara found himself leaning more toward the way the Stand Alone Complex anime series depicted the character versus the most recent series, Arise.
"Saito’s character is slightly different in Arise, and then the first three TV series. Saito was much cooler in the TV series, and then in Arise he’s a bit more like Deerhunter, Christopher Walken kind of guy. A bit crazy for the war and the fighting," he explained. "I prefer to be more the TV series one. I understand the Deerhunter one because a lot of people coming from the war, and then somehow they hate war and killing the people, but somehow they miss [it]. I understand why the ex-soldier, why they became missing things."
To prepare to play Saito, Izumihara dug into his history to get some more context for the sniper's motivations. "I tried to find why Saito decided to be a Section 9 member," he explained. "I checked Saito’s character, and he was ex-SEAL and then he quit and became a mercenary. … Why should he become like that?"
"I tried to find Saito’s mind. I thought what Saito maybe wanted way to be away or to find the soldier’s mind like the way soldiers are thinking in other countries. For example, soldiers, they go to Iraq or they go Afghanistan — Japan never goes," Izumihara continued. "Even if they go, they never fight until they’re fought. … So I thought, Saito really wanted to be them. Then he tried other battles, but then I thought, maybe he has a problem for the authority or many new crimes or many new technologies. Then I thought maybe he can follow his real justice and righteousness. I thought maybe Section 9 will take that part."
Ladriya is the only Section 9 character not drawn specifically from the Ghost in the Shell source material, and she adds another female perspective to the team. Her skill is with a knife, though Samal credits her with being "one of the more intuitive of the gang."
"She's a bit fiesty, she's a bit cheeky as well. But when it comes down to it i'm quite proud of the fact that she's quite ruthless when it's necessary," said Samal. "We're all part of this group together that supports Major, we're kind of this elite crime-fighting team but actually everyone's quite distinctively different which is a really cool mixed group to be a part of and all the actors are very different, and all the characters as well. They have their own little edge, they're this sort of Motley Crew that have been brought together. So there kind of different from your typical action gang because they're all quite different and unusual."
Though Ladriya is a character Samal had to build from scratch, she said she drew some inspiration from one of the male Section 9 characters who didn't make it to the big screen who is "a bit of a lady killer" in in the manga (likely Pazu). She used that to color in her version of the character, saying, "I thought, 'Wouldn't it be great if Ladriya is a bit like the female equivalent of that? Like a tiny bit into blokes.'"
Ghost in the Shell hits theaters on March 31st, 2017.
Terri Schwartz is Entertainment Editor at IGN. Talk to her on Twitter at @Terri_Schwartz.
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