This Ghost in the Shell keyboard makes me want to activate the hundred spidery robot fingers inside my regular fingers

Anime collaborations are everywhere, from Gundam watches and Naruto nights astatine Major League ballparks to just about anything Evangelion. But these Ghost successful the Shell keyboards from Iqunix are immoderate of the coolest examples I’ve seen of anime-inspired mundane tech. They look sick and they type and play great. At $249 they’re a hefty upcharge complete the regular $169 version, but that’s still a decent value for specified fantabulous build value and unsocial designs.

The modular Iqunix EV63 that the Ghost successful the Shell Edition is based connected is simply a 65-percent Hall effect keyboard aimed astatine gamers. It’s sewage a compact layout, an 8,000Hz polling rate, and ultra-sensitive accelerated trigger keys (popularized by Wooting) for getting a competitory separator connected opponents pinch lesser gear. It’s besides wired only. These days, wireless mechanical keyboards are everywhere, but if you want an 8K committee that’s besides Hall effect, it’s gonna beryllium wired. The regular EV63 has immoderate sleek stylings, but the 2 Ghost successful the Shell Editions spell hard.

They travel successful 2 designs: shell core and cyber blue, some decked retired successful Ghost successful the Shell aesthetics, iconography, and characteristic art. They person aluminum cases pinch agleam RGB lighting, preprogrammed pinch a ray shape that matches their colour schemes, and frosted keycaps connected the escape, abstraction bar, near shift, enter, and arrow keys that fto that colorful ray radiance through.

While these keyboards coincide pinch the July merchandise of a caller The Ghost successful the Shell anime, their looks are based connected the 1995 movie by Mamoru Oshii, pinch close-ups of characters’ faces connected respective modifier keys. The cyber bluish exemplary besides has a toned-down outline of Motoko “The Major” Kusanagi’s nude floor plan from the 1995 theatrical merchandise poster connected its keycaps and bottommost case. The effect is beautiful subtle connected the keycaps, since it’s a achromatic outline connected acheronian grey and surgery up crossed a bunch of keys, and it’s a batch little revealing than the root material, but I’d still deliberation doubly astir bringing that 1 to a stuffy office.

The keyboards person top-notch build quality. At 2.7 pounds / 1.2kg, they’re hefty — astir the weight of a 13-inch MacBook Air, but successful a dense package. Typing connected the Iqunix EV63 is very satisfying, particularly for a Hall effect board; they’re mostly built much for gaming capacity than consciousness and sound. The Ghost successful the Shell editions usage KeyTok Nova linear magnetic switches, which are ray and crisp, and the keyboard’s tray equine gives everything a crisp consciousness and bottom-out. (The modular EV63 uses Iqunix’s Magnetic X Pro aliases Ultra switches, which I haven’t tested.)

The EV63 moreover manages to sound great. It’s not arsenic deep, warm, aliases marbley sounding arsenic the ace “thocky” non-HE boards retired there, for illustration an Evoworks Evo80, but it’s sewage a satisfying clack. Compared to the very akin Dry Studio Ice Ring 63 RT, the GITS EV63 sounds importantly amended to my ears. The Chilkey Slice75 HE has much of that thocky sound I usually prefer, but that keyboard doesn’t look for illustration these small useful of cybernetic art.

A 65-percent gaming keyboard built for competitory shooters is somewhat niche, and these Ghost successful the Shell versions moreover much so, but they’re awesome. There person been anime keyboard collabs before, but galore of them look a little uninspired. I’ve bought my adjacent stock of anime-inspired keycaps, which I deliberation look amazing, but they’re mostly unlicensed homages. It’s cool to spot decently licensed keyboards that look, sound, and consciousness this good. Designed for the biggest fans and specialized capable for the astir hardcore enthusiasts. The Major should beryllium proud.

Photography by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge