Bandai Japan 4K Blu-ray

All the Anime FRA 4K Blu-ray | Caps comparison: Ghost in the Shell (1995) | Slowpoke Pics

All the Anime FRA 4K Blu-ray

The All the Anime FRA and the Lionsgate USA run to the same frame and come from the same source, while the Bandai JPN is a separate assembly, and these three discs do not share a master and are graded differently. The French and the Japanese hold the same hue throughout; the Lionsgate is shifted, and by different amounts from scene to scene. The Lionsgate is the only Dolby Vision Profile 7 FEL (when the All the Anime is Dolby Vision Profile 7 MEL and The Bandai  is only HDR10) and the extra coding precision is genuine, but it buys nothing here: the grain dithers the gradients on its own and none of the three discs bands.

What separates them is texture, and it is not close. The All the Anime FRA is very clearly superior to both others: far more fine detail, tighter edges with no sign of sharpening, and real gradation in the shadows where the other two simply go to black. It is a beautiful master, filmic and untouched. Both the US and the Japanese discs have had DNR applied: flat areas and edges are smoothed alike, so a great deal of the texture the French keeps is simply gone. The Lionsgate also falls apart on darker shots, and the Bandai is the softest of the three on top of a very conservative grade.
The French disc is the one to get, by a wide margin.
Caps comparison: Ghost in the Shell (1995) | Slowpoke Pics

Be warned that the All the Anime FRA is not English-friendly at all: it carries no English audio track and no English subtitles while being well served on the Japanese side, with the 6.1 mix from Ghost in the Shell 2.0 and the original 2.0 mix, both retaining the original 1995 end credits music, alongside the modern Dolby Atmos track.

Worth noting: the KSM GER release may carry the same master as the All the Anime FRA, but without a copy on hand I can neither confirm nor rule it out.

Umbrella 4K Blu-ray

US GKIDS 4K Blu-ray

Umbrella 4K Blu-ray see caps

4K restoration includes a high-fidelity remix sourced from new transfers of original magnetic elements, with inconsequential content differences from the original mono mix. Umbrella 4K Blu-ray only includes a 5.1 mixdown of the remix, other discs have it in Dolby Atmos.

Umbrella 4K Blu-ray's 2.0 track is a stereo downmix. Older BDs and LDs have the original mono mix in varying quality, but are all inferior in fidelity to the new 5.1 remix. The digital track on the Bandai/Emotion Japan LaserDisc BELL-942 is the best of the bunch.

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php?p=23714400&postcount=159

2008 Japan Blu-ray (BCXA-0085): has English subtitles, better than 2015 Maiden Blu-ray which lacks the original mix

2026 Bandai 4K Blu-ray, but completely DNR'd.

For grain, most release starting from 2007 Japan Bandai Blu-ray (BCXA-0003) are ok.

Bandai 4K Blu-ray? vs 2008 Japan Bandai Blu-ray (BCXA-0085): same video but includes Bandai English dub and original mix

2025 Japan 4K Blu-ray (crowdfunded project)