I have tried to find a show, live-action or animated that has the same intellectual depth, mystery, suspense, and artistic beauty as GiTS: SAC, but I haven't found anything that even approaches it. If you have any suggestions, please let me know.
shareYou can always try the other GITS movies and the manga. They're great but I still think SAC is better. After I watched SAC for the first time I realized anything I had seen since just couldn't compare to SAC. Here are some series(or movies) I've watched that might be similar to GITS in terms of sci-fi, cyberpunk, philosophy, government corruption, etc:
Armitage III, Appleseed, Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040, Bubblegum Crisis, Blue Gender, Vexille, Texhnolyze (Teknolaiz), Silent Mobius, and Akira.
You could also try the manga "Eden: It's An Endless World!" It's the most similar manga I've seen to the GITS universe. You could always try reading the original GITS manga as well.
Don't run with sharp objects.
Margeary is dreaming of horses.
Try watching RahXephon if you can find it. It think it might be what you're looking for in terms of depth, quality of animation, and complexity of the storyline.
A few other personal favorites of mine: Cowboy Bebop, Basilisk: Kouga Ninpo Cho, Gunslinger Girl, and Samurai 7.
Try Ergo Proxy
shareThere are a number of series close to this in terms of quality, but dont look for an exact duplicate. In terms of classical Science Fiction (SF), i believe there is nothing close to this.
Cowboy Beebop: Aimed at mature audience. Also a SF series, the characters are better fleshed than Ghost in the Shell, and each episode feels better paced. One of the only series i enjoyed more. The style is very good, it has suspense and mystery, doesnt dab into philosophy as much, but when it does, it is very good.
Trigun: Aimed at a younger audience than Ghost in the Shell. Very good gun battles, keeps you very interested. Very fun/ridiculous characters. Good SF elements, but more fantasy than classical SF (not nearly as much thou as other series).
Black Lagoon: Present day anime, aimed at mature audience. The "artistic beauty" is second to none. The characters, as long as they dont dwell in monologues too much, are great. In terms of style and character construction, they present some of the most varied, surprising but still believable characters ever. Some philosophy discussed, but it keeps repeating the same concepts and doesnt go anywhere. The psychology of some the characters (Revi, Twins, Balalaika) is really frightening, more so because they are believable. Although it has some weaker segments, the strong segments are the best in anime i.m.o.
These are the three anime series I have seen that come close to Ghost in the Shell in terms of artistic quality, characters, and writing.
Haibane Renmei, Texhnolyze, Lain, Jin Roh: The Wolf Brigade. All four excellent in my book.
share
I can only repeat a few titles that has already been mentioned:
Jin Roh, Texhnolyze, Haibane Renmei, Ergo Proxy, maybe Gantz?
Texhnolyze would be my first choice, it is a real masterpiece.
not so much artistic, but in terms of writing/story/etc - code geass.
If you look for a complex yet interesting series, and one that makes sense i would definitely suggest Monster.
The plot is amazingly interesting, since it deals with psychology and generally about humans in a broad perspective. Yet of course the plot is about our protagonist who is a brain surgeon from Japan who works in Germany.
Yet the most interesting part in this anime is its antagonist, we follow him from his childhood until he is about 20 years old. He is extremely charismatic and intelligent. Just watch it please, give it a shot!
I am sure that anyone who loved this series will love Monster as well.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0434706/