At the recent Ghost in the Shell ARISE Public Launch Event, lots of new information has been revealed about Production I.G’s anticipated upcoming anime franchise, that has been produced by Production I.G since 1995’s Ghost in the Shell film. The new series has been revealed to be a four part OVA series that will start airing in Japanese theatres on June 22nd, and that the series will take place in 2027 making it a prequel to all other interpretations of Masamune Shirow’s Ghost in the Shell manga.
Towards the end of the event, President and CEO of Production I.G, Mitsuhisa Ishikawa along with the film’s director Kazuchika Kise and script writer Tow Ubukata talked much about the upcoming series, including its conception, how the series was brought about, the crew working on the series and past and expectations of the Ghost in the Shell franchise.
President Ishikawa talked a lot about how the new ARISE series was brought to attention, and how he thought the series would be handled compared to the two highly successful interpretations before; Mamoru Oshii’s Ghost in the Shell film series and Kenji Kamiyama’s Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex Series. The majority of his speech referred to how big and serious the new series is. The story of ARISE would focus more on cybernetics on humans in general, since our society now, in 2013, is getting more similar to the world of Ghost in the Shell.
Now for all the juicy information about Ghost in the Shell ARISE. The new series will be a four part OVA series with the first part releasing in Japanese cinemas on June 22nd this year. The OVAs will be running at 50 minutes each. The first OVA is entitled Ghost Pain and will air in Japan for two weeks. There is also something rather odd, that physical copies of Ghost Pain will be available at selective theatres. The physical copy is an advanced Blu-Ray disc that will include a bonus book detailing the series’ scenario, and will be selling for 8,000 yen. Traditional DVD and Blu-Ray copies will be available on the 26th.
The second OVA has also been revealed and is called Sleepless Eye.
The main cast of ARISE has also been revealed, and stars:
Maaya Sakamoto as Mokoto Kusanagi
Kenichirou Matsuda as Batou
Tarusuke Shingaki as Togusa
Tomoyuki Dan as Ishikawa
Takurou Nakakuni as Saito
Youji Ueda as Paz
Kazuya Nakai as Borma
Ikkyuu Juku as Daisuke Aramaki
Maaya Sakamoto was also present at the event, and talked about her reaction to being casted as the Motoko Kusanagi. Sakamoto was also part of previous Ghost in the Shell installments, voicing the young doll version of Motoko at the end of the 1995 movie, and the young Motoko in the Stand Alone Complex series.
Ghost in the Shell ARISE has been revealed to be set in 2027, and script writer Tow Ubukata mentioned that the series will be a prelude to the 1995 film. With this prequel, new character designs have been released and show the younger looking cast, including a much younger and smaller Motoko Kusanagi, and a younger Aramaki with more hair.
The official website of ARISE has also included some members of the production crew:
Mechanical Design: Takayuki Yanase
3DCGI: Orange
3DCG Director: Eiji Inomoto
Art: Bamboo
Art Director: Yusuke Takeda, Takaaki Mashiki
Art Setting: Hiroshi Kato (Totonyan)
Prop Art Setting: Naoki Arakawa
Photography Director: Kouji Tanaka
Sound Director: Yoshikazu Iwanami
Editing: Junichi Uematsu
Included in the presentation was the first promotional video and a sneak peak at the opening for the OVAs.
Be sure to tune again to Otaku Tale as more information about ARISE, arises.
