Evening Exhibition Opening: Anime Architecture

Available To Supporting Level members (Netsuke and above)

Join us for hors d’oeuvres and presentation previewing our new exhibit.

The Architecture of Ghost in the Shell

Presentation by Stefan Riekeles, curator of Anime Architecture

The heroic action and visionary science-fiction of the feature film Ghost in the Shell (1995) takes place against the backdrop of a meticulously crafted world. In this presentation, Stefan Riekeles illuminates the artists behind this movie as architectural dreamers, operating virtually on the threshold of believability, fiction, and utopia.

In Ghost in the Shell, production design not only evokes a space in which the action and emotions are staged, but the buildings and streets become characters, equally integral to the story. In this feature and the precursors, Patlabor: The Movie and Patlabor 2, director Oshii Mamoru developed his technique of spatial narrative using background photographs. This approach to making an animated movie relies on realistic background art and brings it to the fore.

In collaboration with the artists who worked on Oshii’s films, Riekeles researched the studio environment and archives in Tokyo. With the help of photographs, first design sketches, layout drawings and other intermediary material, he retells the story of this classic work of anime from its inception to its influence on the 2017 live-action remake.


The Morikami is the only U.S. venue hosting this special exhibition. The exhibition traces the architectural world-building process of Japan’s most influential animated science fiction films.

Presented in association with Les Jardins des Pilotes fur Kunst und Kultur.

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