Last Updated on by
April 7, 2017
Production I.G and Kodansha announce the production of a new Ghost in the Shell animation project, that shall be co-directed by Kenji Kamiyama (Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex series) and Shinji Aramaki (Appleseed Alpha).
Stay tuned for future updates!
About Ghost in the Shell
The original comic book Ghost in the Shell created by Shirow Masamune in 1989 was first adapted into a same-title animated feature film in 1995 by director Mamoru Oshii. The movie was screened at the Venice Film Festival and topped N. 1 of Billboard Magazine video sales chart in 1996, marking an unprecedented achievement for a Japanese animated production. With edgy visuals and intricate existential speculations, Ghost in the Shell further proved to have great influence on Hollywood creators, from James Cameron, that described the film as “a stunning work of speculative fiction… the first to reach a level of literary excellence” to the Wachowski brothers’ The Matrix.
In 2002, the Ghost in the Shell franchise was expanded into a TV series, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, directed by Kenji Kamiyama. The show was certainly action-packed with high quality animation, but also featured thought-provoking political and social issues, and soon gained a huge following. Immediately after the first 26-episode series, a second season, entitled Ghost in the Shell: S.A.C. 2nd Gig was aired in Japan and then in several countries in the world, for a total of 52 half-hour episodes that turned into a million seller in the home video market. In 2006, a new chapter was added to the Ghost in the Shell: S.A.C. project, with a theatrical-quality direct-to-video feature film entitled Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex – Solid State Society, again directed by Kenji Kamiyama.
In 2004, Mamoru Oshii directed Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence, an ideal sequel to the 1995 film. A visionary apotheosis of sound an visual magniloquence, Innocence became the first ever (and as of today, the only one) Japanese animated feature film to be nominated for the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, and was awarded Best Asian Film at Sitges in the same year.
In 2013, the new Ghost in the Shell Arise project was launched, scripted by award-winning novelist Tow Ubukata (Mardock Scramble, Le Chevalier d’Eon) and helmed by Kazuchika Kise, the animation supervisor of the two Oshii films. Conceived as a prequel depicting the past of main character Motoko Kusanagi, the Arise project spanned four theatrically released 50-minute chapters, a TV series entitled Alternative Architecture, and a full-lenght theatrical feature film released in 2015 as Ghost in the Shell: The New Movie.
On March 31, 2017, a Hollywood-made live-action adaptation of Shirow’s original manga, directed by Rupert Sanders and starring Scarlett Johansson, was released worldwide by Paramount.
© 1995 Shirow Masamune/KODANSHA · BANDAI VISUAL · MANGA ENTERTAINMENT
© 2002-2006 Shirow Masamune – Production I.G/KODANSHA
© 2004 Shirow Masamune/KODANSHA · IG, ITNDDTD
© Shirow Masamune · Production I.G/KODANSHA · GHOST IN THE SHELL ARISE COMMITTEE
