We're under a month out from Ghost in the Shell's premiere, and Amazon just dropped a new trailer to mark the occasion. The series lands on Prime Video July 7, and will stream in over 240 countries and territories on day one.
The highly anticipated series — based on Masamune Shirow's iconic 1989 manga — is produced by Science SARU, the studio behind Dandadan, Inu-oh and the critically acclaimed movie The Colors Within. And while there have been other noteworthy adaptations, most famously the 1995 film animated by Production I.G., Science SARU's new version is apparently sticking closer to Shirow's original vision, which was actually a bit weirder and more lighthearted than the movies.
The story follows Motoko Kusanagi, a cyborg running Section 9, a unit built to handle the kind of cybercrime regular police can't touch. As her team works a string of cases, they start tracking a hacker known only as the Puppet Master, and what they find doesn't add up the way anyone expects.
The official synopsis reads:
The year is 2029. In near-future Japan, where the world has become highly information-intensive, with a vast corporate network covering the planet, electrons and light pulsing through it. But the nation-state and ethnic groups still survive. Motoko Kusanagi, a full-body cyborg, leads an elite combat unit, including Batou. While commanding her team, Kusanagi envisions the creation of a specialized task force to preemptively strike against emerging threats. Meanwhile, Daisuke Aramaki of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, who had been planning to establish a similar unit, recruited Kusanagi and her team. Together, they begin operations as Public Security Section 9—an offensive tactical unit known as “Shell Squad.” As they confront complex cybercrimes and international conspiracies, the existence of a mysterious, unidentified hacker known as The “Puppet Master” emerges on the horizon of their investigation. What fate awaits Kusanagi? And what is the Puppet Master’s true objective? A new era of cyberpunk action begins.
While Ghost in the Shell will officially debut in Japan on July 7th, the series will make its premiere at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival this month. The special screening event, titled “Dive into ‘THE GHOST IN THE SHELL’,” is scheduled during the festival, which runs from June 21 to 27 in Annecy, France. The series itself will debut in July on the new “Ka-Anival!!” anime block airing Tuesdays at 11:00 p.m. on Kansai TV and Fuji TV. It will presumably be made available in other regions shortly after.
Science SARU's Ghost in the Shell is directed by Mokochan (Dan Da Dan assistant director) with series composition and scripts by Toh Enjoe (Godzilla Singular Point), character designs and chief animation direction by Shuhei Handa (Scott Pilgrim Takes Off) and music by Taisei Iwasaki (Metallic RougeOpens in a new tab), Ryo Konishi and YUKI KANESAKA (Dr. STONEOpens in a new tab).