The Ghost in the Shell Drops Another Trailer as It Announces AX 2026 Premiere

The Ghost in the Shell Drops Another Trailer as It Announces AX 2026 Premiere featured image

©2026 Shirow Masamune/KODANSHA/THE GHOST IN THE SHELL COMMITTEE

The Ghost in the Shell is now up to its fourth promotional video, which features the newly announced ending song “Blue” by MILLENNIUM PARADE. Accompanying the trailer drop was the announcement of an Anime Expo 2026 panel on July 4 ()2:45 PM to 4:05 PM at JWDiamond), which will include a screening premiere.

The Ghost in the Shell will begin airing on July 7. Prime Video will stream the anime (outside of Russia and China) with an exclusive early window for Japan. The synopsis reads:

The year is 2029. In near-future Japan, where the world has become highly information-intensive, with a vast corporate network covering the planet, electrons and light pulsing through it. But the nation-state and ethnic groups still survive. Motoko Kusanagi, a full-body cyborg, leads an elite combat unit, including Batou. While commanding her team, Kusanagi envisions the creation of a specialized task force to preemptively strike against emerging threats. Meanwhile, Daisuke Aramaki of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, who had been planning to establish a similar unit, recruited Kusanagi and her team. Together, they begin operations as Public Security Section 9—an offensive tactical unit known as “Shell Squad.” As they confront complex cybercrimes and international conspiracies, the existence of a mysterious, unidentified hacker known as The “Puppet Master” emerges on the horizon of their investigation. What fate awaits Kusanagi? And what is the Puppet Master’s true objective? A new era of cyberpunk action begins.

Mokochan (DAN DA DAN Season 1 assistant director) is directing the new adaptation of Shirow Masamune‘s cyberpunk manga at Science SARU, with EnJoe Toh (Godzilla Singular Point, author of books like Self-Reference ENGINE and Code Buddha) as series composition and scriptwriter and Shuhei Handa (Scott Pilgrim Takes Off co-character designer) as character designer and chief animation director.

The original manga debuted in the May 1989 issue of Young Magazine Kaizokuban, a special supplement of Kodansha’s seinen magazine Young Magazine. Of its previous anime adaptations, the most well-known are arguably 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. These were followed by 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 ComplexProduction I.G produced these titles, with SOLA DIGITAL ARTS assisting for SAC_2045


Production credits

• Director: Mokochan
• Series composer and scriptwriter: EnJoe Tohand  
• Character designer and chief animation director: Shuhei Handa
• Background art director: Emi Katanosaka (My Happy Marriage)

• Background art supervisor: Osamu Masuyama (My Happy Marriage)
• Color designer: Satoshi Hashimoto (Yaiba: Samurai Legend)
• Compositing director: Hikari Ito (Sanda)
• Sound director: Yuji Tange (Puniru is a Kawaii Slime)
• Sound effects: Shota Yaso
• Animation production: Science SARU


Source: The Ghost in the Shell website

Melvyn Tan avatar
Melvyn is one of Anime Trending's main writers, covering a variety of anime and anime-adjacent topics. Occasionally, he'll take a break from news to put out a review or feature. He enjoys discovering standout anime episodes, OP/ED animation sequences, and animated music videos. Currently self-learning Japanese.
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