A new anime in the Ghost in the Shell series has just been announced, Ghost in the Shell Arise, although there look to be some very dramatic changes to the franchise in store – including a new design for Motoko.
The details of the project so far are limited, indicating only that it is to be a new anime which starts production in 2013 and that Production IG’s Kazuchika Kise is overseeing the project, having had heavy involvement in various previous iterations of the franchise, along with being the creator of Mardock Scramble.
The production even boasts what looks to be a new look (or yet another body at least) for Motoko:
The new look prompted instant speculation as to where it is the new production fits into the existing canon – with there already being separately realised settings for the manga, movies and Stand Alone Complex, anything from a sequel, prequel, reboot or otherwise could apply to any of them – or, as seems to be implied by some announcements, it may be an entirely new realisation of the franchise.
Whilst a change to Motoko is daring, few seem to think they would risk changing her seiyuu – although this seems far from guaranteed.
Further details are scheduled for release with a full announcement later in Februrary.
Sigh, and looks like they will never do a good adaptation of GITS like Hellsing or FMA, ever going more and more afar from original manga since first movie 🙁
My first thought when I saw that pic was “KANEDAAAA!”
SAC had one of the most attractive art styles I’ve ever seen. Not to mention Motoko being one of the most attractive anime characters of all time.
Looks like she is back to being a dude like in the first movie. *sigh*
Wish it was at least Masamune’s manga styling. That looked great as the anime cut scenes in the PS1 games.
She is Back !
She is Mad !
And she will kill the barber who cut her hair !
Just reunite Mimi Woods, Richard Epcar and Mamoru Oshii and watch the money roll in.
Can’t be as bad as the last GITS movie they released……I hope.
Leave it the fuck alone.
Hmm not bad! New Motoko style…
Anyone else really hoping there was a new series instantly dissapointented like me?
What have they done!
You bastards ruined it!!
Arise chicken, ARISE.
Looks like she gets a tiny ratchet ass and less wide shoulders this time.
Motoko? More like MOEtoko!
…
Okay. You don’t have to call security. I can leave the stage myself.
Reminds me of her look in the first movie on first glance, prefer SAC look though.
I never asked for this.
dont like
My God in Heaven, Production IG is now getting around to Blood-Cing another one of my favorites. Seriously, what the fuck is it with 2013 and destroying things that I grew up with and enjoyed.
First Devil May Cry, now Ghost in the Shell.
I briefly mistook that for ARSE.
Given the series’ penchant for buttockery and voyeuristic shenanigans, I hereby assume that it was “totally intended”. Quote.
Everybody should now assume likewise, circulate this ad infinitum, and get the production team to notice it. If all goes well, the shot angles will be legendary.
She looks younger, and the title “arise” hints to a prequel. That new project could be set during WW3, or even before.
Anyway…
SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY!
When I saw the new design first time I’ve got frightened; It looked like a reinterpretation of the design made by CLAMP. That group of dirty fujoshis ruined the Blood universe with Blood-C, and I’ve thought they were going to ruin the GITS universe.
Makoto – My Name is Donte
Who’s Makoto?
I would laugh if this turns out to be some kind of High School drama/comedy. Doesn’t Motoko look like a teacher out for revenge? (thinks GTO) Nobody would expect that. xD
Kaneda is that you?
That’s some ugly 80s/90s art.
I thought it said “Ghost in the Shell ARSE”
seems appropriate after looking at that character design
Reminds me of Eureka o.ô
The new design is a bit too different for my tast, but if the story is as good as the previous series, I can learn to like it.
I wish they went with the 80’s chipmunk nosed era style of the manga.
I’m reserving judgement until after. GITS is my all-time favorite franchise, I just hope they don’t “Hollywood” it is all.
WTF happened to motoko?!
What happened to the Major’s “Guns”?
Doesn’t really matter as long as the storyline keeps up with the title. (and no jiggling water baloons seem promising)
aghh she looks awful! it lacks character! if they wanted to change things why simply not do something new?
this just made my nipples hard
Well, will be kinda hard to beat (or even get close to) Mamoru Oshii or Kenji Kamiyama.. but here’s to hope
The still currently running Psycho-Pass reminds me a bit of Ghost in the Shell, guess they are warming up for this?
What’s with all this re-make, re-boot, sequel, prequel things that are so rampant nowsaday? Is new idea in such short supply now? This Motoko looked less like a professional cyborg soldier than a punk/rock singer…
Part of what made GitS interesting is the ambiquity about the actual existence of living, flesh & bone Motoko, the quest of a cyborg/android to find meaning in existence. revealling all in a prequel will just kill off the fascination… imho
You didn’t watch SAC I take it? Because in that universe her essence and her actual, physical past do get revealed.
oh! Prduction IG. I enjoy most if not all animes released by them, safe bet this will not dissapoint my fav anime series. Looking forward to it XD
I don’t care about too much about the new design. I’m just happy that there is a new season of Ghost in the Shell coming out this year!!! This really made my day!!!
I predict that this one is gonna suck, just like *cough* DmC: Devil May Cry .*cough*
Classic DMC/GitS = Awesome
New DMC/GitS = Garbage
New seiyuu? Could you imagine a tsundere Motoko played by Rie Kugimiya? haha
“Ba-Batou, it’s not like I like you or anything!”
While the rest is kinda meh, the hair just looks aweful! >_<
i like it.
change is good.
Didn’t sse the orginal, should i watch?
Stick to naruto and bleach.
I thought the SaC design was hotter and just cooler in general. I’ll give it a chance though. Hope Yoko Kanno is onboard.
I wonder if they will get Origa to sing OP/ED again.
Don’t care as long as Kanno Yoko does the music.
you’ll be deceived, no kanno for this one but a certain cornelius (that nobody knows)
17:49 See? And exactly therein lies the problem. You can find someone who does the Electronica side as good as Kanno, someone who does JPop as good as Kanno, someone who does Jazz as good Kanno, someone who does Orchestral as good as Kanno (here you might actually be hard-pressed though), but you’ll never find someone who can do all of them as good as Kanno. Or someone who’s capable to work all those styles into one track like it’s the most natural thing in the world.
SAC’s soundtrack was so fascinating because of the immense variety of genres made to fit with the cyber theme.
The OST’s inferiority is already guaranteed.
never heard of him
Maybe I’m missing sarcasm here, but Cornelius is a pretty seminal Japanese electronic/pop composer. If he taps his glitch/dn’b/grunge side, it could be very fitting:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_s_30x_d5bo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QzZ_HmjPvA
If anything the glitch and rock tracks on Kanno’s GITS:SAC OSTs borrowed pretty heavily from his work.
cornelius will be the composer, no kanno for this one :/
Since the moment she became involved in SAC, having anyone else do the music for a GitS anime is automatically doomed to end in fail. And yes, that includes Kenji Kawai.
Kawai’music are kawai.
Sry.
SAC’s music is great but Kawai’s music fits the movies less actiony and more philosophical style better IMO.
That would be great, would it not…
More ear worms in eastern-european languages.
Wat?
I’m hoping the music is done by Yoko Kanno again, or by Kenji Kawai who did the 1995 movie and its sequel.
Liked previous look better but still I do believe that something big is coming.
DAMN IT!
They RUINED the lesbian stripper ninja!
x.x
Really…? Really….?
First Dante, now this…
why would you do that?
i liked her design the way it was…
I’d prefer something that looks more like Shirow’s design.
I’m hoping for a new universe.
And I’m not a fan of the new design. She looks too young, I even think an older Motoko will fit better her character…
And I don’t trust the staff one bit, even without comparing them to the tams behind the previous adaptations…
older ? why ? “get real”, she’s a full cyborg
No, she looks too old. I want to see more from the Loli Motoko of the first movie.
Im not a fan of the style change, but if the show is good, who cares?
Im not a fan of the style change, but if the show is good, who cares?
Me = *Gasps loudly and faints*
It kinda sorta looks like her hair isnt attached to her head, but is hovering 5cm above her.
New cyber tech, what will they come up with next.
This looks so extremely low quality compared to Gits SAC, and considering the last track of Production I.G series being Seirei no Moribito the last one that was one, it’s gonna flop so hard.
Lool, while im excited to see any continuation on GitS…
why change the looks of Makoto? The old one looks so much better and cooler
Yeah. The PSX game nailed the manga style. The movie made her look like a zombie. SAC was a pretty decent animation design. This new one doesn’t even look inspired by anything Shirow has ever done.
Looks like Naomi Armitage but without the spunk, charisma or charm. And the blondness
We’ll call this one zombie Motoko.
No, looks more like off-duty Makoto.
Yah I don’t like the new style either it doesn’t even look like Makoto.
……who’s Makoto?
School Days… nice boat….
It’s a little too generic looking, but I’ll hold my comments until I see the show. Ghost in the Shell has never really failed to disappoint.
(Except “Innocence” where it seemed that instead of writing dialogue, they ripped a few pages out of a philosophy book and called it a day)
It’s not that generic. It looks more like a mix from the original movie and the anime to me.
That’s what I thought first too! Making me believe it takes place between the two.
Not possible; they’re AU…
God, she looks awful.
Wow I wouldn’t be able to tell who that is, looks so generic.
Like another Anon said, it’s hardly strange for Motoko to change her appearance. She’s demonstrated that she tends to see her body more or less as a shell.
This shell better have beam cannons and rocket boosters as it’s really lacking in the looks department.
You know… that’s somewhere I haven’t seen them go yet. It’d be interesting if she had an M-66 style combat body.
remembered too late that shirow wrote Kusanagi could get in regular trouble if her body looked too expensive, as she could be tracked and mugged because of it, in the various shady places she goes. Of course, the mission is more at risk than the individual 🙂
me likes. Colonel Tonoda had quite nice robots too, but, probably, Kusanagi prefers to still look human in most outer aspects (including weight), as a kind of social camouflage, using a regular powered up body. oh wait… a Hecatonchires Motoko would bee sweet 🙂
Who you callin’ an anon, you dirty anon.
Such an appropriate avatar for that comment, btw. Do approve.
I think I’m too used to the SAC/2nd GIG version to like this one
It looks like the classic style from the movies. Looks pretty good to me I can go back to style, np, because when i first saw GITS it was the movies. But yeah, I also like the theory tho, that its a new body. that would be cool
Now she looks like a teenager! Now young enough to be an idol!
Prefer the classic style… This looks a bit generic
Generic? This looks like 90’s Akira style. I love it.
Agreed. This one is a low quality version.
She looks pretty terrible…
Yeah she looks kind of plain…
I prefer the GiST SAC style.
This here just looks terrible.
SAC was my favourite too O.o
i thought it was a bit stupid she had to get naked to go invisible in the movies and I preferred the outfits in SAC.
What kind of logic is that? Why does not seeing Makoto naked imply that there would instead be some naked dude that you’d have to watch?
And just because it’s sexy doesn’t make it good. There’s already too much fanservice for the sake of it in anime / manga.
Yea she wasn’t exactly naked. The suit wasn’t skin colored either though. It’s transparent so we got to see nipples.
She wasn’t naked; the camo suit was very close to skin color. Watch it again carefully.
“I thought it was a bit stupid she had to get naked to go invisible in the movies”. Hey, I wouldn’t complain about that. The Major had a SEXY body. I’d rather see her get naked that some guy IMO…
And there we go, the return of the best-known lesbo bot.
Perhaps the only negative aspect in my opinion.
Naked? most androids is asexual or body complete with genitals.
The major and sexbots is exception , rarely appears some naked.
Anyway, maybe a realistic vision of the future and a great scifi anime (shame how little technology has advanced in this field)
The gits sac style Motoko is actually the worst style when taking into account all the previous versions of Motoko, so you basically like the worst version of Motoko.
You do realise that that’s highly subjective, right? Personally I find the SAC Motoko to be the most interesting characterwise, although her wardrobe in the first season was godawful. Fortunately they fixed that for the 2nd Gig.
Looks younger, rather than generic. My bet is on prequel.
It is just as likely to be a sequel then a prequel. Her body is completely cyborg after Season 1 of SAC (and possibly before then as well). She can have any body she pleases, pretty much, even male bodies if she preferred.
Also, maybe they will put more lesbian action in the new series. They hinted at it in the anime but it was very blatant in the Manga (I think there were other things too). Would love to see some action, i mean without it turning into a hentai.
You do of course remember that scene on the virtual boat occurred because Makoto sold the feelings her body can sense that was a THOUSAND times more sensitive than over the counter cyborgs sensors. The best thing about her MILITARY HARDWARE SPECS was one that she sorta sold under the “counter” to her girlfriends.
+
My suspicions being that any person male or female would pay Big Bucks for that session.
It doesn’t have to be that. This could just be the new designer’s interpretation of the original character design in a new outfit.
I’m HOPING this one will take place in the time period between Innocence and Stand Alone Complex, since it’s reminiscent of the Orignal Movie’s look, but not as heavily detailed.
It can’t, because those are AU…
Don’t forget that she can change android bodies.
And clothes.
Or just her haircut….
Not to mention that she did change android bodies. So really, a body looking like the one used in the first movie or in SAC would be just that, a body looking like these, not the exact same one.
Not to mention that, while the change might be off-putting for us, Motoko isn’t the sort of person to care about changing a body.
could be an entirely new universe. if so, that’d make, what? 4?
I like the movie’s “never a real person to begin with” thing they floated around. That wouldn’t work in SAC after 2nd Gig though. Although Solid State Society would make it seem like she’s not a single person anymore which is even odder.
She did mention preferring a female body in SAC. I’m not sure what the reason she gave was but I remember Batou thinking it was so her watch would fit. i think it was something sentimental to her. But she was for sure a female originally. There was that episode that was somewhat about her past. I remember and she was a young girl. So at least in the SAC universe she’s a woman all the way through.
@anon 23:17,
You’re mistaking gender and sex. Gender is what you associate with, sex would be what you actually are.
@09:46
“really a dude in a chick’s body”
Uhhm, what? I know that for some unfathomable reason this theory seems to be very popular among western viewers, but at least in SAC it’s been made completely unmistakably, beyond even the smallest shadow of the most tiniest of doubts, and with most absolute definedness clear that Motoko is a true, genuine female.
If anything, a change in her writing would entail some hints that don’t make this idea entirely baseless anymore.
Exactly. Sigh. Otaku need to learn to deal with change.
The ‘guy in woman’s body’ idea isn’t really baseless though. I mean there’s no evidence for it, but there’s also no particular evidence I’m aware of against it. The Batou and Kusanagi discussion that hinted it was a possibility is of course where it all comes from, but it was more of a quick moment that left that as a seed in the watcher’s mind.
I think based on what has happened, her really being the consciousness of a man would almost detract from her character a bit, and yet I couldn’t explain why, so it doesn’t really matter unless they made it matter somehow.
Makoto is a woman if we are referring to gender. The thing is, there’s not a single shred of femininity in her far as personality goes.
Goddamn it they just keep making more and more and more. Whats next, motoko ISNT really a dude in a chick’s body because the sex is much better?
Yeah, DO NOT WANT!
Have to agree. Even the younger characters in GitS:SAO had more detail than this…this looks too generic and modernized (which is to say, lots less detailed than things used to be).
Seems they choose to make her a boy this time.
It would be better if they leave the old character design.
Time to listen to some Russian electronica to get amped up!
Что бы вы понимали в русской электронике.
Да! Русская электроника для победы!
The new look just feel weird to me lol, maybe in time I’ll get used to it
It’s not like she hasn’t changed appearance 3 or 4 times over the years. It’s no big deal. It’ll probably be a different universe too.
I am soooo ready for this!
I think this Motoko… It’s a trap!
They ought to call it “Motoko’s Bad Hair Day”.
My theory: They wanted to tone down the sexuality to make it less embarrassing for Type-A fans and non-Otaku. At least, that’s what I’m hoping.
looks like naruto + bleach + kON face for popularity
Somebody should reboot Pokemon. Same character, same story, different style.
Moe-Moe-Motoko…a.k.a. Ghost in the Kei.
You heared it here first folks. It will happen.
Looks just like the original Makoto from the movie. Do like indeed.
never watched that series, never cared.