Science Saru Details Its Hand-Drawn Approach to New Ghost in the Shell
Science Saru's adaptation signals a deliberate return to the manga's episodic structure and a hand-crafted aesthetic, positioning the studio's take as distinct from the iconic 1995 film.
Reporting from 1 sources: Cartoon Brew.
At the Annecy Festival, Science Saru's director Toma "Mokochan" Kimura and producer Kohei Sakita, alongside Bandai Namco's Kengo Abe, presented the first two episodes of their upcoming Ghost in the Shell adaptation. The series, which premieres on Prime Video on July 7, follows an episodic case-of-the-week format more closely aligned with Masamune Shirow's original manga than the 1995 film. The team emphasized a hand-drawn production pipeline, with CG used only for elements impossible in 2D, such as first-person-shooter-style camera movements.
Science Saru director Toma "Mokochan" Kimura and producer Kohei Sakita, joined by Bandai Namco's Kengo Abe, took the stage at the Annecy Festival on Monday to explain their approach to the new Ghost in the Shell adaptation. The team screened the first two episodes ahead of the July 7 Prime Video release. The series adopts a case-of-the-week format drawn from Masamune Shirow's original manga, rather than following Mamoru Oshii's 1995 film. Mokochan said the goal was to capture the manga's energy through hand-drawn animation. A chart showed the show's hand-drawn elements were three times larger than typical for a project of this scale. CG was reserved for sequences requiring first-person-shooter camera movements that are impossible in 2D.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 1 cited source below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.