‘Ghost In The Shell’ Anime Film Director Mamoru Oshii Expresses Interest In Helming Third Sortie For Motoko Kusanagi: “There’s Only One Thing I Have Left To Do”
It’s been roughly twenty-one years since his last dance with Masamune Shirow’s iconic cyberpunk manga, but Ghost in the Shell and Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence director Mamoru Oshii says he’s still interested in reuniting with Major Motoko Kusanagi for a third cinematic adventure.
Oshii, a directorial legend in the Japanese anime industry whose credits include the 1985 classic Angel’s Egg, the original 1981 Urusei Yatsura series adaptation (as well as its related feature films), and the 1991 live-action take on his manga of the same name, StrayDog: Kerberos Panzer Cops, revealed his interest in re-enlisting with Public Security Section 9 while speaking to fans following a special March 2nd screening of the first Ghost in the Shell‘s new 4K remaster.
Per a recap of the event provided by Japanese news outlet Manten Web, as machine translated via ChatGPT, the award- winning director was at one point asked, “Do you want to create a sequel to Ghost in the Shell and Innocence?”, to which he confirmed ‘Yes’, but only “under certain conditions”.
“I have something I want to do for the third film,” he vaguely teased. “There’s only one thing I left unfinished. If I can do it, I want to.”
From there, the director acknowledged the loss of the Major’s franchise-wide voice actor, Atsuko Tanaka, who passed away last year due to an as-of-yet-publicly-unidentified illness.
“I didn’t talk to Atsuko-san much personally,” he recalled. “But when she stood in front of the microphone, she became Motoko. To me, she was Motoko. When we had casual hallway conversations, she was Atsuko Tanaka, the woman—but once she was acting, she transformed.”
Later speaking as to what a third Ghost in the Shell film could look like, Oshii asserted, “How would we handle it? Perhaps as a presence of the soul.”
“In animation, voice and visuals exist separately,” he said. “[Innocence] may have been about that very theme. Even if the character remains the same, the voice can change. This is difficult in live-action. Motoko and Batou exist only in the world of animation. It’s easier to invest emotion into animated characters.”
Unfortunately for fans, despite his excitement, Oshii has yet to be officially tapped for another Ghost in the Shell outing.
However, until such time as that hopefully happens, fans can look forward to catching up with the Major in Science Saru’s upcoming Ghost in the Shell anime series, which is currently set to drop sometime in 2026.
More About:Anime News