Recently purchased Ghost in the Shell (1995 anime) and Ghost in the Shell 2 : Innocence (2004 anime) on a blu-ray, and watched it with a couple of friends.
So highly recommended! Obviously the first movie is a classic worth seeing just for it's historical value, such a great looking movie, lots of cool visual ideas (since stolen for a million other movies), and one of my all-time favorite soundscapes in any movie. Story is IMO honestly just okay, but luckily the movie also knows to quit early with a runtime of just 82 minutes.
Ghost in the Shell 2 : Innocence was a big surprise, as it was
at least for me essentially on par with the original, which is such a rare thing. It's a standalone sequel with some of the same characters, but a style and tone that's quite distinctively different from the original. It's obviously not going to be as groundbreaking and brilliant in every aspect, but I liked the plot of this movie a lot more. The first movie is kind of a spy thriller, but the factions are described in such a threadbare way it's ultimately not that interesting and feels like a distraction. Innocence on the other hand has a fairly straightforward film noir detective story, which IMO suits this kind of a movie really well.
Of course I'm also just a sucker for film noir, so that might play into it
Innocence bombed at the box office and has a reputation for being difficult to follow, but I really can't understand where that comes from. Sure there's a few pretty jarring moments relating to the themes of these movies (altering memories and identity of cyborg humans through hacking). It's not really that complicated stuff, there were six of us watching these films and we all agreed the second movie was actually easier to follow.
Some of the visuals in Innocence movie are just a-ma-zing, easily worth the time investment on their own. Especially considering it's a heavily CGI animated movie from 2004 it's really quite an achievement. (Obviously technically some things aren't going to be up to modern standards, but the visual design ideas more than make up for it.) Studio Ghibli was involved in the process, and you can tell in the best way.
So, if you like Ghost in the Shell, do yourself a favor and also check out Innocence. It's really, really good.
Oh and if you haven't seen Ghost in the Shell (anime), do yourself a favor and check it out. But don't watch it with English dialogue, the main characters line are given such a hammy treatment in the English dub that it really hurts the dry, melancholic and intellectual atmosphere.
If you liked Blade Runner 2049, I think there's a really good chance you'll like Innocence. (IMO Innocence is easily the superior movie out of the two.)