The official Twitter/X account and website of the Ghost in the Shell franchise announced that it will hold a special 30th anniversary franchise-wide exhibition, which will launch in Tokyo in 2026.
The franchise’s staff announced that it “will be the largest exhibition in Ghost in the Shell history” and will showcase all the anime series from the franchise’s 30-year history.
The exhibition will showcase the following anime entries of the franchise:
- • Ghost in the Shell
- • Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence
- • Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
- • Ghost in the Shell Arise
- • Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045
- • The Ghost in the Shell (2026)
The exhibition coincides with the premiere of the new TV anime series from Science SARU in 2026, and commemorates the first Ghost in the Shell anime film in 1995.
==============================
— 攻殻機動隊【公式】GHOST IN THE SHELL official (@thegitsofficial) February 5, 2025
“Ghost in the Shell”
Comprehensive Anime Series Exhibition
Coming to Tokyo in 2026
==============================
▼ Ghost in the Shell Official Global Websitehttps://t.co/16w5ZYdMhb#GhostintheShell #攻殻機動隊 pic.twitter.com/drFtdA2I05
In the days leading up to the exhibition’s announcement, the franchise’s official Instagram and Twitter/X accounts began posting a series of short videos featuring the Laughing Man and a mysterious 96-hour countdown. Each video contained scenes from Ghost in the Shell, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Ghost in the Shell Arise, Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045, and the Ghost in the Shell manga series.
Additionally, clean opening anime sequences have also been released for Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Ghost in the Shell: S.A.C. 2nd Gig, and Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex – Solid State Society.
Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex and Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex 2nd GIG aired between November 2002 to January 2005. A 3DCG sequel series titled Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045 was streamed exclusively on Netflix between 2020 to 2022. A reimagined anime titled Ghost in the Shell: Arise, which features a younger Motoko Kusanagi, was released in five OVAs between 2013 to 2015. Two seasons were released, as well as Ghost in the Shell: The New Movie anime film that same year.
A sequel to the 1995 anime film titled Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence was released in 2004.
Original creator Masamune Shirow first published the cyberpunk manga in Kodansha’s anthology magazine Young Magazine Kaizokuban from April 1989 to November 1990. A single volume of the manga was released. It was followed by the sequels Human Error Processor in 1991, Man-Machine Interface in 1997, and the current serialized The Human Algorithm, which has been published since September 2019.
The franchise has also spawned novels, video games, and other manga, including ones based on Stand Alone Complex and Arise. An American live-action adaptation was released in 2017.
Kodansha USA describes the main synopsis of the original manga as
Deep into the twenty-first century, the line between man and machine has been inexorably blurred as humans rely on the enhancement of mechanical implants and robots are upgraded with human tissue. In this rapidly converging landscape, cyborg superagent Major Motoko Kusanagi is charged to track down the craftiest and most dangerous terrorists and cybercriminals, including “ghost hackers” who are capable of exploiting the human/machine interfance and reprogramming humans to become puppets to carry out the hackers’ criminal ends. When Major Kusanagi tracks the cybertrail of one such master hacker, the Puppeteer, her quest leads her into a world beyond information and technology where the very nature of consciousness and the human soul are turned upside down.
Source: Ghost in the Shell Official Twitter, Official Anime Website, Anime News Network
