Original ‘Ghost In The Shell’ Director Blasts Rise Of “Political Correctness” In Games And Anime: “You Can’t Even Talk About Someone Being Beautiful Or Not Without Being Accused Of Discrimination”
In the opinion of Ghost in the Shell anime film director Mamoru Oshii, while the concept of “political correctness” may have been borne from a place of genuinely good intent, its over-emphasis in recent years has had a profoundly detrimental effect on not just entertainment media, but society at large.
An industry legend whose lengthy list of credits also includes such works as Ghost in the Shell: Innocence, Angels Egg, and the original Urusei Yatsura anime adaptation, Oshii offered his thoughts on the hot-button issue in the most recent entry of his monthly Q&A opinion column That Thing from That Movie, What Was It Again?, as commissioned and hosted by the Japanese entertainment news outlet Pia.
Amidst a larger discussion on the future of “disinformation”, Oshii eventually turned to share his thoughts on the fact, as presented by the outlet, “that there will be an increase in such things now that [Donald] Trump, who is a leading proponent of fake news, has become president.”
Per an excerpts of his column shared to Twitter by user @Char_Tweets (the full piece is currently exclusive to the Pia News app, which itself is region-locked to Japanese app stores) and subsequently machine translated by ChatGPT, the famed anime director noted that the reason Trump’s various false claims were so widely accepted by his base was due to their willingness to believe in their “hero”.
“The reason why Trump, who was so poorly regarded, is being treated like a hero by some is not because of his national policies,” said Oshii. “It’s because he overturned political correctness. That’s why he’s a hero.”
His thoughts now turned to this specific topic, the director proceeded to assert, “Political correctness started with the aim of giving legitimacy to socially vulnerable groups. And that’s not wrong.”
“In a mature society, that’s a natural responsibility,” added the Ghost in the Shell lead. “However, the problem arose when, starting from that point, they ended up elevating the socially vulnerable to a position of power.”
“They get priority admission to schools and preferential treatment in employment,” Oshii continued, before making a surprise reference to the specific operations of narrative consultation companies like Sweet Baby Inc. “What’s more, there are companies that charge outrageous consulting fees to guide them through the process. Game companies, for example, are being asked to pay millions of dollars by these companies.”
Bringing his attentions back to his more specific experiences, the Mobile Police Patlabor director then explained, “Because it directly relates to my work, I have a strong aversion to bringing political correctness into the worlds of games and anime.”
“After all, everyone who plays games wants beautiful or cute characters,” he asserted. “I’m no different. So why do we have to include unattractive ones?!”
“Entertainment is fundamentally built on aspiration,” Oshii argued. “If you deny that sense of aspiration, you strip away the very foundation of what makes entertainment meaningful. These days, you can’t even talk about someone being beautiful or not without being accused of discrimination.”
“Western games have really become terrible,” he then declared, “all because of political correctness.”
Closing out his thoughts on the matter, Oshii turned to give his opinion on Disney’s failed live-action Snow White, telling the outlet, “Firy tales are valuable precisely because they can be reinterpreted over and over again. That’s the nature of the classics. I’ve reused Little Red Riding Hood many times myself. Saying that only the original version is valid and rejecting all others — that’s a problem in its own way. But when those reinterpretations are used as a platform for political messaging, that’s a whole different matter.”
Notably, this is not the first time the director has shared his thoughts on “political correctness” with Pia News, having done so earlier this year for his February 2025 column.
Critiquing the ‘twist’ of the theatrical 2019 CG animated film Dragon Quest Your Story, wherein it is revealed that the film is not an actual adaptation of Dragon Quest V but rather an isekai story centering around a real-world protagonist, Oshii declared “People play games because they want to escape reality — that’s the whole point of games” before making a brief detour to decry how “It’s the same with political correctness today.”
“Why do we have to bring real-world issues into the world of games?” he asked. “If the purpose is escapism, then of course you’ll only see beautiful girls — that’s completely natural. Honestly, I want to ask: why should I have to pay money just to be lectured?”
More About:Anime