Ghost in the Shell Made a Major Mistake

The hits just keep on coming for the Ghost in the Shell American remake, which tried to launch a viral campaign and missed the mark.

At this point, it may just be safer to pretend Ghost in the Shell never happened. However, to do so would be to avoid some serious conversations about the nature of whitewashing, down to even changing Major Motoko Kusanagi’s name to Mira. Yes, that’s happened. It would also mean avoiding some excellent and incisive Internet humor. Let’s break it down, with a tip of the hat to Fusion as well.

Over the weekend, Ghost in the Shell set IAmMajor.me live, put it up on Twitter with the ever-present hashtag, and invited fans to make their own photos. That’s all pretty normal for a movie these days.

Here’s the actual tweet from the movie’s official account:

Before we get to the really funny stuff, does anyone else get the sense that “I Am Major” sounds a bit like a rejected slogan for an empowerment campaign? It also sounds like it’s trying to make fetch happen, and we all know that everyone really needs to stop trying to make fetch happen.

But wait, there’s more!

Twitter saw this, and if you don’t think Twitter did not take this to exactly where it needed to go, then you’re doomed for disappointment. The rest of us, though, can appreciate the work of fans who knew an opportunity when they saw one.

But Ghost in the Shell‘s “I Am Major” also had room to point out some other recent controversies, including Matt Damon’s work in The Great Wall as well as the upcoming Iron Fist…

Somehow, it seems like they didn’t read the manga, or they’d know that Motoko Kusanagi has a name, and it really isn’t “Major.” We’ve noted before that it seems like the film is trying to avoid using her original name anyway in promotional materials. This just backs that up.

Finally, one Twitter user simply summed all of this up by captioning a still from what appears to be the original anime version of Ghost in the Shell with “I am a really bad idea for an ad campaign.”

Next: The Wonder Woman Trailer and the Female Gaze

Ghost in the Shell arrives on March 31.