January 16, 2013

Production I.G announces the production of Ghost in the Shell: Arise, the new chapter of the world million-selling franchise of Ghost in the Shell, originally created in 1989 by comic artist Shirow Masamune.

Ghost in the Shell: Arise, to be launched in 2013, will be directed by Kazuchika Kise (chief animator in both Ghost in the Shell and Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence movies) while the screenplay will be penned by award-winning novelist Tow Ubukata (Mardock Scramble, Le Chevalier d'Eon) and the music composed by Cornelius (Appleseed: Ex Machina). Shirow Masamune will also directly contribute to the project.
An official presentation with special guests will take place at the nicofarre event hall in Tokyo on February 12, 2013 and will be webcast live worldwide with simultaneous translation from 9:00 pm (Japan time) on Niconico, Bandai Channel and YouTube.

Official website (Japanese only):
http://kokaku-a.com/

About Ghost in the Shell
The graphic novel Ghost in the Shell, originally created by Shirow Masamune in 1989, was transposed into an animated feature film in 1995, instantly earning worldwide success and topping N. 1 of Billboard Magazine video sales chart in 1996, marking an unprecedented achievement for a Japanese animated production. The movie Ghost in the Shell, directed by Mamoru Oshii, further proved to have great influence on Hollywood creators, starting from the Wachowski brothers' The Matrix.

In 2004, Mamoru Oshii directed Innocence, the ideal sequel to the 1995 Ghost in the Shell movie, that thanks to its introspective plot and visionary style received the honor to be the first Japanese animated feature film to be nominated for the Palme d'Or at the Festival de Cannes.

Starting from 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 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.

Ghost in the Shell: Arise (2013) will constitute the highly anticipated fourth chapter in the franchise.

About the director: Kazuchika Kise
Born in Osaka in 1965. After graduating from high school, Kise enrolled an animation school, but quit after just four days to join Osaka-based studio Anime R. He then moved to Production I.G in the studio's early days. A natural talent, he became one of Mamoru Oshii's favourite artists, serving as animation supervisor in the two Patlabor movies (1989 and 1993), the groundbreaking Ghost in the Shell (1995) and its Palme d'Or-nominated follow up Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence (2004). Other notably works include, Neon Genesis Evangelion: Death and Rebirth (1997), Blood: The Last Vampire (2000) xxxHOLiC - A Midsummer Night's Dream (2005), Musashi: The Dream of the Last Samurai (2009) and Blood-C: The Last Dark (2012). He made his directorial debut in 2011 with the short film, Drawer Hobs, that was selected at Sitges and SICAF film festivals. Currently head animator at Production I.G's Studio 2, Kise is commonly regarded as one of Japan's finest animation artists.

© Shirow Masamune · Production I.G/KODANSHA · GHOST IN THE SHELL ARISE COMMITTEE

October 5, 2012

Production I.G and director Masaaki Yuasa are running a Kickstarter fundraising program to produce Kick-Heart, a 2D animated short film of approximately 10 minutes that will be directed by Yuasa and produced by Production I.G. Mamoru Oshii has been attached as project consultant.

The deadline to contribute to the project is October 31, 2012 at 12:00 a.m. EDT.

Check the Kickstarter campaign page for more info:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/production-ig/masaaki-yuasas-kick-heart

Synopsys
A love story between two people
who each have a secret to hide.
One a pro-wrestler, the other a nun.
Losing never felt so good.

Kick-Heart is a love story between Romeo, a successful pro-wrestler, and Juliet, a nun who lives a secret double-life as a female pro-wrestler. Romeo's secret is that he enjoys taking a beating in the ring, while Juliet feels invigorated when facing her opponents as a wrestler. When the two meet in the ring, the fireworks fly. Their story is set in the colorful backdrop of the professional wrestling world. Will Juliet reveal her true identity to the one she loves? Will Romeo be able to share his secret to the world?

Staff
Director, Animator: Masaaki Yuasa
Project Consultant: Mamoru Oshii
Character Designer, Animator: Michio Mihara
Color Coordinator, Animator: Eunyoung Choi
Background Artist: Kevin Aymeric
Animation Production: Production I.G

About Masaaki Yuasa
Born in Fukuoka Prefecture on March 16, 1965, Yuasa is one of the most unique creators in the panorama of Japanese animation. He has been involved as an animator in many notable projects such as Crayon Shin-chan, Hakkenden, My Neighbors the Yamadas and Samurai Champloo, leading up to his directorial debut with the feature film Mind Game (2004), that won Best Film, Best Director and Best Script awards, as well as the Audience for the Best Animation Film awards at the 2005 Fantasia Film Festival. He also directed two TV series, namely Kaiba (2008) and The Tatami Galaxy (2010), awarded with the Excellence Prize and Grand Prize respectively at the Japan Media Arts Festival. He contributed character designs for Noximilien l'Horloger, a special episode from the French series Wakfu, produced by Ankama. Yuasa's drawings have a distinctive unrefined look, that becomes very dynamic and expressive when they are are brought to life using hand-drawn animation. This unique style of animation, combined with stories that play with themes of slapstick comedy and human drama, have earned him fans from all over the world.

© 2012 Production I.G

October 5, 2011

Production I.G announces the production of a new animated feature film, 009 RE:CYBORG, based on the Cyborg 009 characters created by Shotaro Ishinomori and directed by Kenji Kamiyama, the world-acclaimed director of the Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex series and Eden of the East. The movie, in stereoscopic 3D full CG animation, will be theatrically distributed in Japan in fall 2012 by Production I.G and T-Joy.

Kenji Kamiyama himself is writing the script for the new film, that is going to be set in the present days. The main staff gathered around the project includes some of Japan's top creators who have already collaborated with Kamiyama in his previous works. Gato Aso (Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit) is in charge of character design duties, the score will be composed by Kenji Kawai (Eden of the East), while the background art will be by Yusuke Takeda (Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit). The animation is produced in collaboration with Sanzigen, one of Japan's up-and-coming CG studios.

official website (Japanese only):
http://www.ph9.jp/

Main Staff
Based on the characters created by: Shotaro Ishinomori
Director / Screenplay: Kenji Kamiyama (Ghost in the Shell: SAC, Eden of the East)
Music: Kenji Kawai (Ghost in the Shell, The Sky Crawlers)
Character Design: Gato Aso (Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit)
Animation Director: Daisuke Suzuki
Background Art: Yusuke Takeda (Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex)
Producer: Tomohiko Ishii (The Sky Crawlers, Eden of the East)
Animation: Production I.G (Ghost in the Shell) and Sanzigen (Towanoquon)

About Cyborg 009
009 RE:CYBORG is based on the Cyborg 009 characters created in 1964 by Japanese comic artist Shotaro Ishinomori. In the original comic, nine regular humans from different parts of the world are kidnapped by the evil Black Ghost organization, and transformed into cyborgs with great powers for the purpose of being used as weapons. The nine cyborgs rebel and start to fight against their creators, while struggling for their own self redemption. Ishinomori continued to write Cyborg 009 until 1985 in eight different story arcs. As the first superpowered hero team ever created in Japanese comics, Cyborg 009 proved to be a greatly influential forerunner for the generations to come, receiving three animated TV series and three movie adaptations, distributed in many countries of the world.

About Shotaro Ishinomori
Shotaro Ishinomori (1938 - 1998) is considered one of the most representative and influential Japanese comic artists. His opera omnia, encompassing an astoundingly broad variety of themes, includes 770 works collected into 500 volumes for a total of 128,000 pages, making him the Guinnes World Record-holder for the "most comics published by one author". He received the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Rosette, the Japan Cartoonists Association Award and the Minister of Education Award for his work. He also received the special Osamu Tezuka Cultural Prize for his long lasting contributions to the manga medium.

About Kenji Kamiyama
Born in Saitama Prefecture on March 20, 1966. In 1985 he joined the background atelier Studio Fuga. A rare example of a background artist shifting to directorial roles, Kamiyama worked as animation director in Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade (1999) and wrote the script for Blood: The Last Vampire (2000), then debuted as director in MiniPato (2002). International attention eventually arrived with the TV series Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (2002, Excellence Prize winner, Japan Media Arts Festival 2002) and its second season, Ghost in the Shell: S.A.C. 2nd Gig (2004), followed by the feature-length Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex - Solid State Society (2006, Jury Recommended Work at the 10th Japan Media Arts Festival, Jury Prize at the 21st Digital Content Grand Prix). In 2007, after almost 6 years spent in the world of Ghost in the Shell, Kamiyama directed the high-fantasy TV series Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit (Jury Recommended Work at the 11th Japan Media Arts Festival) followed in 2009 by Eden of the East (2009, Best TV Animation at the 14th Animation Kobe), Kamiyama's highly anticipated fully original TV series. In 2006 he 'acted' as a superlivemation digital puppet in Mamoru Oshii's Tachigui: The Amazing Lives of the Fast Food Grifters, in the role of Manager Kamiyama. 2011 has seen the theatrical release of the stereoscopic 3D version of his multiple award-winning Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex - Solid State Society, of which Kamiyama personally supervised the 3D conversion.

© 2012 009 RE:CYBORG Production Committee

September 4, 2009

Production I.G will produce the animation for one chapter of the highly anticipated feature-length international animated project Dante's Inferno.

Dante's Inferno is 6-chapter movie based on Electronic Arts' adaptation of the famed XIV century Italian poem by Dante Alighieri. Some of the most accomplished, creative animation directors will capture the journey of Dante as he moves through the 9 Circles of Hell, fighting the devil and his minions, in search of his beloved, Beatrice.

Production I.G's chapter is directed by Yasuomi Umetsu, the visionary anime maestro behind extreme, action-packed cult titles such as A Kite, Mezzo DSA and Kite Liberator, but also the hauntingly beautiful Presence segment in the classic Robot Carnival omnibus. Dante's Inferno marks the first collaboration ever between Umetsu and Production I.G.

The movie, Dante's Inferno produced by Los Angeles-based Film Roman, a division of Starz Media, is part of a multi-media project that originated from a video game with the same title released by Electronic Arts. The Electronic Arts game and the Film Roman movie, which Anchor Bay Entertainment will distribute worldwide on home entertainment formats, are slated for release on the same day-and-date in 2010

official website:
http://www.dantesinferno.com

© 2010 Electronic Arts, Inc., and Starz Media, LLC

October 17, 2008

The creative team of Ghost in the Shell, Innocence and The Sky Crawlers resurrects the legendary swordsman, Miyamoto Musashi on the big screen!

Overview
Maverick filmmaker Mamoru Oshii is the mastermind behind the original concept for this project, in collaboration with Production I.G - the team that brought you cutting edge anime such as Patlabor: The Movie (1989), Patlabor: The Movie 2 (1993), Ghost in the Shell (1995), Innocence (2004) and The Sky Crawlers (2008).

This new full-length feature film entitled, Musashi: The Dream of the Last Samurai (Japanese title: Miyamoto Musashi - Soken ni Haseru Yume) is slated in Japanese theaters for summer 2009.

The impressive production staff includes director Mizuho Nishikubo (also known by his alias Toshihiko Nishikubo) who has worked on numerous Oshii films including Ghost in the Shell (1995), Innocence (2004) and The Sky Crawlers (2008). He also directed the TV series Otogi Zoshi and Legend of Heavenly Sphere Shurato. Kazuto Nakazawa, director of the mind-blowing animation segment in Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill Vol. 1 (2003) and creator of innovative characters as seen in Samurai Champloo (2004), will design the characters for Musashi.

Format: Animated Feature Film
Release Date: Early Summer 2009
Animation: Production I.G
Distributed in Japan by Pony Canyon

MAIN STAFF
Original Concept / Screenplay: Mamoru Oshii (Ghost in the Shell, The Sky Crawlers)
Director: Mizuho Nishikubo (Innocence, The Sky Crawlers, Legend of Heavenly Sphere Shurato, Otogi Zoshi )
Character Design: Kazuto Nakazawa (Kill Bill: Vol. 1, Samurai Champloo, Asience: Hairy Tale)
Animation Director: Kazuchika Kise (Ghost in the Shell, Blood: The Last Vampire)
Art Director: Shuichi Hirata (Innocence, xxxHOLiC - A Midsummer Night's Dream, Asience: Hairy Tale)
CG Animation: Makoto Endo (Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Le Chevalier D'Eon)
Animation Studio: Production I.G (Ghost in the Shell, Kill Bill: Vol. 1, The Sky Crawlers)

© 2009 Production I.G/Musashi Production Committee

October 6, 2008

"Where do all your childhood treasures go when you grow up?"

Production I.G in collaboration with Fuji Television Network announce the production of a new full length computer graphic animation feature film entitled Hottarake no Shima - Haruka to Maho no Kagami (tentative English title: Oblivion Island: Haruka and the Magic Mirror)

Today, American-made 3DCG animation feature films have become a well established and recognized global reality in the entertainment industry. However, budget restrictions and lack of know-how prevented similar productions to become prevalent in Japan so far.

Tokyo-based Production I.G was one of the first animation studios in Japan to recognize the potentiality of the upcoming digital era, and has been dedicating time and resources to the establishment of a fully equipped production environment and a 200 hundred people strong creative and technical team that could support the realization of 3DCG feature-length animated films.

And now, after a 3-year preparation period, the highly anticipated first project presented by Production I.G's 3D team in collaboration with Fuji Television Network is going to be a fresh departure from 3DCG animation as we know it today. Oblivion Island: Haruka and the Magic Mirror (tentative English title) will inherit the unique expressive style that has made Japanese animation hugely popular around the globe, and at the same time it will pursue a completely different texture from Western style 3DCG animation. While making full use of the
state-of-the-art in digital techniques, I.G aims to entertain you with heart-warming visuals and pioneer a new course of Japanese-made 3DCG animation appealing to the international audience.

The movie will be distributed in Japan by Toho Co., Ltd. and the Japanese theatrical release is slated for summer 2009.

Overview
Your favourite teddy bear. That model kit that took so long to complete. The picture book you used to read over and over again. The shining stone you found that day in the park. Where do all your childhood's treasures go when you grow up? In this story, we meet fantastic creatures that gather all these little objects that fall into oblivion as they are forgotten by their owners when they step into adulthood. These creatures sneak into our world from a different dimension, and unseen by humans, they take all the ditched and forgotten "treasures" into their world. Here, they use their booty to build their own city, a fairy tale-like place called... Oblivion Island!

About the Staff
Screenplay: Hirotaka Adachi and Shinsuke Sato
Probably better known by his alias Otsuichi, Hirotaka Ando is a hugely popular novelist whose works have often been transposed into comics and live action movies, for which he personally wrote the screenplays, such as Goth (2002, 3rd Mystery Grand Prize winner), Waiting in the Darkness (2002) and Zoo (2003). Born in Fukuoka in 1978, he made his professional debut when he was only 17. He's reportedly a big fan of Studio Ghibli's movies.

Director: Shinsuke Sato
Born in Hiroshima Prefecture in 1970, Sato is a film director, scriptwriter and video game creator. He graduated from the Musashino Art University, like Satoshi Kon and Ryu Murakami. His directorial debut Ryonai Genshuku (Dorm Austerity) was awarded with the Grand Prix at
the Pia Film Festival 1994. Notably works include, Princess Blade (2001, director and scriptwriter), Yukio Mishima's novel-based Spring Snow (2005, scriptwriter) and manga-based Sand Chronicles (2008, director and scriptwriter), all of them live-action movies. Oblivion Island is his highly anticipated debut in animation.

Naoyoshi Shiotani (director of SICAF 2008 Grand Prize winning Tokyo Marble Chocolate) is joining the production team, too.

© 2009 FUJI TELEVISION NETWORK / Production I.G / DENTSU / PONY CANYON

August 17, 2007

Production I.G has started working on a second season of xxxHOLiC, based on CLAMP's bestseller comic book published in Japan by Kodansha.

I.G already produced the theatrical feature xxxHOLiC - A Midsummer Night's Dream (2005), nominated for the Feature Films category at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival 2006, and a 24-episode TV series, aired in Japan in 2006 and equally nominated at Annecy 2007 in the TV Series category.

The main staff from the first series has been confirmed: Michiko Yokote supervises the series plot with CLAMP's leader Ageha Okawa; Tsutomu Mizushima directs; and Kazuchika Kise is in charge of the character designs.

© CLAMP·KODANSHA/Ayakashi Workshop

June 20, 2007

Somewhere, in a country similar to ours
There are children who do not became adult
They are very similar to us

Mamoru Oshii, the world-famous Japanese filmmaker, whose works include Ghost in the Shell (1995) and Innocence (2004), will direct a new feature animation film, The Sky Crawlers, to be released in Japan in 2008.

The film is based on a popular five-part novel by a best-seller writer, MORI Hiroshi, who enjoys enthusiastic support from younger generations and has sold over 8 million copies of his works in total. The story unfolds in another 'possible' modern age. The main characters are youngsters called "Kildren", who are destined to live eternally in their adolescence. The Kildren are conscious that every day could be the last, because they fight a "war as entertainment" organized and operated by adults. But as they embrace the reality they are faced with, they live their day-to-day lives to the full.

After reading the novel, Director Oshii praised it as "a work that should be made into a movie for young people now." Clothing, food and housing are in abundance in our modern society, and yet we carry an unfulfilled vacuum in our hearts. "It is time to face this new perception to our existence through the Kildren, who live indefinitely in eternal adolescence, and this theme should be dealt with now," claims Oshii earnestly. The author MORI regards his novel, The Sky Crawlers "as the most difficult among all of my works for film adaptation." However, MORI declared himself "surprised and relieved at the same time to know the director was going to be Mamoru Oshii," and gave his immediate consent.

Mamoru Oshii is best known worldwide for the epoch-making Ghost in the Shell, that topped the Billboard video chart in the US, and its sequel Innocence, the first Japanese animation film to compete for the Palme d'Or at the Cannes International Film Festival. His philosophical speculations and revolutionary visual approach that run throughout his oeuvre had a definitive impact on many film directors, including Luc Besson of The Fifth Element (1997) and the Wachowski brothers of The Matrix (1999).

However, Oshii declares that he is sealing off his method of direction so far. While distancing himself from the original novel "to create a more entertaining work," he has promoted an up-and-coming scriptwriter, Chihiro Ito, who depicted youngsters' sensitive feelings beautifully in two acclaimed movies, Crying Out Love, in the Center of the World (Sekai no Chushin de Ai wo Sakebu, 2004) and Spring Snow (Haru no Yuki, 2005).

The animation production is by the top animation studio in Japan, Production I.G, which has been underpinning the quality of Oshii films. The music score will be written by Oshii's most trusted composer, Kenji Kawai.

The Sky Crawlers is going to be a completely new Oshii film.

The Sky Crawlers is a collaborative project by Nippon Television Network Corporation and Production I.G, Inc., distributed in Japan by Warner Entertainment Japan Inc., to be released in theaters nationwide in 2008.

MAIN STAFF
Based on the novel by MORI Hiroshi (published in Japan by Chuokoron-Shinsha)
Screenplay: Chihiro Ito
Music: Kenji Kawai
Executive Producers: Seiji Okuda, Mitsuhisa Ishikawa
Producer: Tomohiko Ishii
Director: Mamoru Oshii
Sequence Director: Toshihiko Nishikubo
Character Designer/Key Animation Director: Tetsuya Nishio
Mechanical Designer: Atsushi Takeuchi
Art Director: Kazuo Nagai
Art Settings: Takashi Watabe
Color Designer: Kumiko Yusa
Visual Effects: Hisashi Ezura
CGI Supervisor: Hiroyuki Hayashi
Line Producer: Toru Kawaguchi
Animation Production: Production I.G
Distribution in Japan: Warner Entertainment Japan

Official website (Japanese only)
http://sky.crawlers.jp/

© MH/NI,BWDVYHDYCH

March 23, 2007

Celebrating the 20th anniversary from its foundation, Production I.G announces at TAF 2007 a new project, Ghost Hound (original title: Shinreigari / Ghost Hound), written by Production I.G and Ghost in the Shell-famed Shirow Masamune. The main staff includes director Ryutaro Nakamura (Serial Experiments Lain, Kino's Travels), scriptwriter Chiaki J. Konaka (Serial Experiments Lain, The Big O) and character designer Mariko Oka (Jigoku Shojo, Jing: King of Bandits). The story will be co-developed by Crossroad. Ghost Hound will premiere in Japan fall 2007 on WOWOW.
The comic version of Ghost Hound, drawn by Kanata Asahi, will start serializing in Japan on Monthly Comic Blade (published by Mag Garden) from March 30, 2007.

© 2007 Production I.G · Shirow Masamune / GHOST HOUND Production Committee

March 23, 2007

Production I.G has created the animation for Kao Corporation's new image video dedicated to the Asience shampoo line. The 1-minute long fully animated film, entitled Asience: Hairy Tale, is directed by Kazuto Nakazawa, who gained international fame by directing the animation part in Quentin Tarantino's world hit Kill Bill: Vol. 1. Nakazawa also designed the characters and directed the animation. Art direction has been entrusted to Shuichi Hirata, the texture wizard behind the stunning artwork of Cannes-nominated Innocence and Annecy-selected xxxHOLiC - A Midsummer Night's Dream. The genuine Japanese style music has been composed by Yoshihiro Ike, who already collaborated with I.G in Blood: The Last Vampire and Reideen.

The graphic style of Asience: Hairy Tale is visually inspired by the Japanese woodblock prints, and personalized by Nakazawa's nervous and expressive brush touch used for the characters outlines. The story concept, focusing on woman's hair as metaphor of feminine life, is portrayed as a tragic love story in a samurai drama fashion.

The image video is receiving a sneak preview at Production I.G booth (B-02) at Tokyo Anime Fair 2007, held in Tokyo March 22 to 25, 2007.

© 1994-2007 KAO CORPORATION. All Rights Reserved.

March 9, 2007

Production I.G and Victor Entertainment have teamed up to produce a fully animated music clip for the song Universe, performed by popular Japanese singer Maaya Sakamoto and included in the artist's forthcoming album, 30minutes night flight, to be released in Japan on March 21, 2007. The video clip will be made available on DVD format in the limited double-disc edition of the album.

The beautiful and bittersweet animation of Universe, that unfolds like a watercolor-painted picture book, is the creative result of a promising duo called Gekidan INU Curry, who designed the characters and directed the film produced at Production I.G's Studio 4 under the supervision of line producer Hidekazu Terakawa (Jin-Roh, IGPX).

About Maaya Sakamoto
Born on March 31, 1980, Maaya Sakamoto started her professional career as a singer at 15, when her talent was discovered by world-famous composer and music producer Yoko Kanno. At that time, she performed the opening song Yakusoku wa Iranai (I Don't Need Promises) for the animated TV series The Vision of Escaflowne (1996) while giving her voice to the main character in the same series, Hitomi Kanzaki. Her career as voice actor and singer continued in both animation and live action productions, her credits including Nathalie Portman / Queen Amidala in the Star Wars saga, Jessica Alba / Max in Dark Angel, and Reika Mishima in RahXephone. She has also been playing the role of Eponine for 5 years in the Japanese version of the musical Les Miserables. So far she released 9 albums (the second one, Dive, was voted Best Japanese Pop Album by Music Magazine) and 13 singles.

Her 10th and latest album, 30minutes night flight is a concept work that the artist herself describes as "a 30-minute night flight dedicated to all the people who experienced at least one sleepless night."

Maaya Sakamoto official website (Japanese only):
http://www.jvcmusic.co.jp/maaya/

© Gekidan INU Curry · Production I.G / Victor Entertainment

January 26, 2007

Production I.G, Inc. has finalized with Kodansha Ltd. an agent agreement to represent the live-action rights for the property Ghost in the Shell, of which Kodansha Ltd. owns the exploitation rights to the original work.

The comic book Ghost in the Shell, originally created by Shirow Masamune in 1989, was transposed into an animated feature film in 1995, instantly earning worldwide success and topping N. 1 of Billboard Magazine video sales chart in 1996, marking an unprecedented achievement for a Japanese animated production. The movie Ghost in the Shell, directed by Mamoru Oshii, further proved to have great influence on Hollywood creators, starting from the Wachowskis' The Matrix.

In 2004, Mamoru Oshii directed Innocence, the ideal sequel to the 1995 Ghost in the Shell movie, that thanks to its introspective plot and visionary style received the honor to be the first Japanese animated feature film to be nominated for the Palme d'Or at the Festival de Cannes.

Starting from 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 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.

Pursuant to the agreement with Kodansha Ltd., Production I.G. Inc. will represent the author of the original work and the publisher in negotiations with major film companies for the production and distribution of the live-action Ghost in the Shell.

© 1995 Shirow Masamune/KODANSHA · BANDAI VISUAL · MANGA ENTERTAINMENT
© Shirow Masamune/KODANSHA · IG, ITNDDTD
© 2002-2006 Shirow Masamune - Production I.G/KODANSHA