Ghost In The Shell: Ishikawa’s Backstory Explained

What’s Ishikawa’s backstory in the Ghost In The Shell franchise? Ghost In The Shell is a cyberpunk manga created by Masamune Shirow (Appleseed) which debuted in 1989. The popularity of the manga series later led to the 1995 anime adaptation by director Mamoru Oshii, which became a landmark in the genre. This anime’s beautiful animation, rich themes, and fluid action scenes made it an international hit and scored celebrity fans like James Cameron (The Terminator). The Wachowskis also openly acknowledged its influence on The Matrix, which was designed to be something of a live-action anime.

The popularity of the Ghost In The Shell anime would ensure it became a successful multimedia franchise. It’s scored numerous TV shows like Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex and Arise, and video games such as a cult PlayStation 1 action title. A big-budget movie adaptation of the 1995 anime spent many years trapped in development hell, with Margot Robbie being attached to the main role for a time. Robbie departed the project for Suicide Squad and Scarlett Johannson took over, but despite its reverence to the source material – right down to recreating entire sequences – the 2017 movie underperformed.

In most Ghost In The Shell stories, the focus is usually on Kusanagi or Batou but Public Security Section 9 has way more team members. This includes Togusa, sniper Saito and undercover operative Paz. While he doesn’t get out in the field a whole lot, Ishikawa is also a key member of the team. Ishikawa is seemingly the oldest member and Section 9’s resident techie. Whenever there needs to be lengthy exposition involving technology or hacking, Ishikawa is the one to deliver it.

Like Togusa, Ishikawa is one of the least cybernetically augmented of Section 9. He’s one of Ghost In The Shell’s most chilled-out characters too, sporting a crusty beard and casual clothes, which works fine since he’s rarely in actual combat. Having previously served with Kusanagi and Batou in South America, he was one of the first members recruited to the team. He also owns a pachinko parlor and is known to enjoy a drink or two.

Like most of the supporting members of Section 9, the Ghost In The Shell 2017 movie didn’t give much attention to Ishikawa. The character, played by Lasarus Ratuere (The Leftovers) is mostly a background figure, but presumably, his backstory is somewhat similar to the anime. This version of the character is at least seen engaged in one of the movie’s firefights, meaning he gets out of the office once in a while.

About The Author

Padraig Cotter
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It’s pronounced Paw-rick, not Pad-raig. Now that’s out of the way, a brief introduction. Padraig has been writing about film online since 2012, when a friend asked if he’d like to contribute the occasional review or feature to their site.

A part-time hobby soon blossomed into a career when he discovered he really loved writing about movies, TV and video games – he even (arguably) had a little bit of talent for it. He has written words for Den of Geek, Collider, The Irish Times and Screen Rant over the years, and can discuss anything from the MCU – where Hawkeye is clearly the best character – to the most obscure cult b-movie gem, and his hot takes often require heat resistant gloves to handle.

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He’s super modern too, so his favorite movies include Jaws, Die Hard, The Thing, Ghostbusters and Batman. He can be found as i_Padds on Twitter making bad puns.

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