GhostInTheShell

Ghost In The Shell is a poetic, moderately violent moral tale about technology. Among the most beautiful animation ever created, in spite of being populated primarily by a group of classically ugly characters reminiscent of the character portraits of Da Vinci, Durer, and Hokusai.

The plot consists esentially of a cat-and-mouse game between the cybernetic police force in future Japan and a super criminal who in the end is not a criminal at all... or is.

The score of Ghost In The Shell is arguably the finest score in any Japanese animated feature. Kenji Kawai blends Romanian chanting, Chinese opera, and Japanese percussion with synthesizers and works wonders.

Ghost In The Shell was in large part the inspiration for The Matrix, one could go so far as to call The Matrix a shameless, deracinated ripoff of GITS.
The acting in GITS is far superior to that in The Matrix. This in spite of several of the main characters often wearing sunglasses or lacking eyes entirely.

There is a complex allegorical reference to Tomoe Hotaru, aka Sailor Saturn in the closing scenes that confused me somewhat, but it will bring a smile to all Sailor Moon fans.