In an establishing shot of the city, a Pan Am advert can be seen in the top left. The bankrupt airlines inclusion is a reference to Blade Runner (1982) which also had an in-film advert for them.
The Geisha robots wore full head masks created by Weta Workshop and modeled after Japanese actress Rila Fukushima. The opening or 'exploding' of the Geisha's heads was mechanical rather than CGI. The inner workings of the heads were modeled after clockwork technology.
Several scenes in this film are exact in visual comparison to the original Ghost in the Shell (1995). Some parts shown in the city are even exact re-creations of the original artwork.
When released in Japan, this film actually received better reviews than the original Ghost in the Shell (1995). The Ghost in the Shell franchise is fairly niche in Japan but many fans considered this to be on par with the original.
For the Japanese dub of the film, the voice actors from Ghost in the Shell (1995) - Atsuko Tanaka (the Major), Akio Ôtsuka (Batou) and Kôichi Yamadera (Togusa) - reprise their roles.