If there’s a studio today that can take an untouchable franchise and give it a spectacular makeover, it’s Science SARU. The legendary cyberpunk saga is back, and Bandai Namco Filmworks has just released the third official trailer for Ghost in the Shell, confirming that this animation beast will land in the summer season on July 7. And hold on, because this new trailer not only shows the brutal visual quality they’re delivering, but it also reveals the refreshed designs of our favorite cyborgs.

The distribution of this gem is coming with everything. Before it hits Japanese TV in the new late-night block “Ka-Anival!!”, lucky attendees at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival in June will get to see the first two episodes in a world premiere. For the rest of us, Amazon Prime Video will have the series exclusively for almost the whole world. In Japan, they’ll even get the episodes a bit before their TV broadcast, so spoilers will be everywhere on social media.

New blood for the Section 9 veterans

What has caught the most attention is the team they assembled for this reboot. Direction is handled by Mokochan, who makes her big debut as lead director after blowing us away as an animator in DAN DA DAN. The character redesign, including legends like Motoko Kusanagi, Batou, Togusa, Aramaki, and even the cute Fuchikoma, fell to Shuhei Handa, famous for his work in Little Witch Academia. Meanwhile, the script is being supervised by novelist Toh Enjoe, ensuring the philosophical dilemmas of the work remain intact.

Seeing Major Kusanagi back in action has a bittersweet touch for the community, recalling that her unmistakable and legendary original voice, Atsuko Tanaka, sadly passed away in August 2024. It will be a huge generational handover for an anime that redefined the science fiction genre.

Ghost in the Shell Synopsis

In a cyberpunk future where technology has advanced to the point of allowing humanity to replace parts of their bodies with cybernetic prostheses and even transfer their consciousness to artificial brains, the line between man and machine is almost imperceptible. The story follows Major Motoko Kusanagi and Public Security Section 9, an elite force specializing in combating cyberterrorism and high-tech crimes in a hyperconnected Japan, all while they face deep existential dilemmas about what it truly means to possess a soul or a “ghost”.

Do you think Science SARU will be able to do justice to this historic franchise, or will nostalgia weigh too heavily?