One of the things I've been looking forward to after seeing it at the Masamune Shirow exhibition in Setagaya has been the newest installment of Ghost in the Shell anime. This time, Science SARU (who also happen to be working on Sanda, and you can check out our coverage here), will be the studio that takes charge. Unfortunately, this article is going to be a lot of text and not a lot of photos, but I wish I could share more.
The most striking part of the key visual for Ghost in the Shell is the art style. It looks like one of Shirow's drawings. Most times, anime adaptations look like anime first, but I'm looking forward to seeing what Science SARU can do. If it's like Sanda, they'll be able to make Ghost in the Shell look like a manga in motion.
Anime Expo is one of the first places where information about the new Ghost in the Shell anime adaptation has been released. Previously, I was going to be locked inside the Peacock Theater awaiting the beginning of the J-Pop Sound Capsule concert due to having VIP and those meet and greet privileges being super early at 4PM, but thankfully due to having another ticket I was able to exit and run off to this panel.
Present at the panel were Science SARU producer Kohei Sakita, Bandai Namco Filmworks producer Kengo Abe, Kodansha producer Daichi Sasa, and Kodansha manga editor Takeshi Katsurada, who has been Shirow's editor for a very long time.
The first chunk of time was used to explain Ghost in the Shell, but for long-time fans, we don't need that. In fact, my first copy of Ghost in the Shell was back in the mid 90s. Sadly, I no longer have that copy due to it being seized by teachers at school. But, for those of you who don't know, Ghost in the Shell was first released starting in 1989 and was a groundbreaking manga for science fiction. It covered things like cybernetics, what it means to be human, the future of warfare, and many other things. Numerous movies and anime were released under its banner including the namesake feature film in 1995, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Ghost in the Shell: Arise, and even a live-action movie (let's just pretend that one doesn't exist).
The director is Mokochan, a member of Science SARU. After joining the studio in 2015, she studied with founder Masaaki Yuasa and Fuga Yamashiro. She has worked on The Heike Story, Tatami Time Machine Blues, Scott Pilgrim Takes Off, and DAN DA DAN. This is her directorial debut.
Japanese science fiction author Enjoe Toh takes up the helm of scriptwriter. Previously, Toh took part in the anthology "The Ghost in the Shell: Five New Short Stories" as his connection to the franchise. He is an accomplished writer and award-winner of the Philip K Dick Award, Nihon SF Taisho, Seiun Award, and many others. Previously, he wrote the script for the anime Godzilla Singular Point.
Character designer and executive animation director Shuhei Handa started at Gainax and is a freelancer at TRIGGER. He has worked on Little Witch Academia, KILL la KILL, One-Punch Man, Space Patrol Luluco, Spriggan, and Scott Pilgrim Takes Off.
For actual presentation items there wasn't much to show, given the show's 2026 release. What they could show was pre-production set building. There's a lot of browns as part of the dirtiness of the "real" world. Cool greys and blues help set the tone for the more science and technology side of things.
They also showed a short motion storyboard reminiscent of the chase scene from the movie (or chapter three of the manga). With tachikomas flying through the air, it's more aligned with the original than the film adaptation. Time will tell how closely they follow the manga as opposed to diverging and going their own path.
One other thing revealed at the panel was the new logo for the anime designed by Hajime Sorayama. Sorayama is probably best known for drawing what I can only describe as "the shiny robot lady." Like, you can put that into Google and it'll pop up. Said shiny robot lady was used as the cover of Heavy Metal magazine, which is fitting, given that Heavy Metal was one of the resources that Shirow used as part of his research and development.
For those of you who might be going to Japan later this year, I really suggest checking out the spectacular Masamune Shirow exhibition at the Setagaya Literary Museum. which runs through August. It's 1500 yen (roughly $10) and they've got a whole lot of original works on display along with other goodies. I'll be posting an article about it with some photos, so look forward to that! I've gone twice so far, and will also be stopping by the Osaka version just to see what has changed.
On top of mentioning the ongoing exhibition, they announced the Ghost in the Shell All Anime Series Exhibition. This one will start next year in mid-January and will run through early April at TOKYO NODE in Toranomon Hills. It'll specifically be covering the various anime films and series. According to the panel, they have "400 boxes of artwork to go through" and there will be interactive installations and exhibits, and at one point "you'll be able to see Motoko jump in front of you." I'm not sure what exactly that means, but I look forward to it.
One special thing of note mentioned: the Ghost in the Shell exhibit will not be limited just to Japan! They plan to come to America, specifically mentioning Los Angeles, but I wouldn't be surprised if it pops up elsewhere. No timeline was mentioned so you might be waiting a bit.
And that's that. It was a fairly short panel, clocking at about 45 minutes, but I still enjoyed it. Attendees also got a nice poster commemorating the original movie release and a small flyer of the Major. As time goes on we should get more information and more importantly, video.