The cyberpunk future imagined by Shirow Masamune‘s The Ghost in the Shell is once again serving as the setting for a manga. Following the conclusion of the new The Ghost in the Shell (Kokaku Kidotai) TV anime, September 9 saw the launch of new title Glitch Witch on Kodansha’s Young Manga Web, which takes place in the United States around the time that Motoko Kusanagi and Daisuke Aramaki setting up Public Security 9.
As The Ghost in the Shell website explains:
On April 10, 2029, while Motoko Kusanagi and Aramaki are preparing to establish Public Security Section 9 (commonly known as “Ghost in the Shell”), a series of incidents erupt across the United States. As the FBI, AI researchers, and the military investigate, they witness a fateful clash: the battle between Project 2501, the “Puppet Master”—with whom Motoko Kusanagi merges at the end of THE GHOST IN THE SHELL—and a Solomon-class AI holding the fate of humanity in its hands!
Masamune is credited with the drafts for Glitch Witch, while Naoki Azuma (“R-16” R, The Immortal Kamikaze Trooper) is the artist. The first chapter, split in two parts, is now up on Young Manga Web.
The Ghost in the Shell manga debuted in the May 1989 issue of Young Magazine Kaizokuban, a special supplement of Kodansha’s seinen magazine Young Magazine, and was later followed by The Ghost in the Shell 1.5: Human-Error Processor and The Ghost in the Shell: Man-Machine Interface.
The Ghost in the Shell has inspired multiple anime, including Mamoru Oshii‘s Ghost in the Shell and Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence movies and Kenji Kamiyama‘s Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex TV anime, its second season, and movie. After these came the Ghost in the Shell: Arise films, which have a younger version of Motoko; and the 3DCG Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045, which is set after Stand Alone Complex. Production I.G produced these titles, with SOLA DIGITAL ARTS assisting for SAC_2045.
This year’s The Ghost in the Shell anime, directed by Mokochan (DAN DA DAN Season 1 assistant director) at Science SARU, sought to be more faithful to the manga.
Sources: Press release (PR Times), The Ghost in the Shell website
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