Netflix began streaming on Thursday the final trailer for The Ribbon Hero, Twin Engine‘s new anime film based on Osamu Tezuka‘s Princess Knight (Ribbon no Kishi) manga, and it previews the English dub. Twin Engine also streamed the Japanese version of the trailer, which reveals five new cast members, who play Sapphire’s coworkers at the mining site.

The newly announced cast includes:

Mito Tsukino, Lunlun, and Debidebi Debiru are VTubers affiliated with NIJISANJI, and these are their first roles in a feature-length anime.

The film stars:

According to Netflix, this is Saya’s first leading role in a feature‑length animated production.

The film will premiere exclusively on Netflix worldwide on August 8.

This year’s Annecy International Animation Film Festival featured the film as part of “Annecy Presents,” one of the festival’s non-competitive sections. The event ran in Annecy, France from June 21-27.

Netflix describes the story:

Sapphire is the princess of a kingdom that no longer exists. Having lost everything in her homeland of Silverland to the calamity known as “Nergal,” she wanders in despair until she finally arrives in Goldland.

Though burdened by her past, she begins to find a glimmer of hope as she encounters the kindness of the people there. But as if to sneer at her peaceful new life, the calamity Nergal appears once more. The very despair that once reduced her homeland to ashes now threatens to steal the light from this land as well.

“I won’t lose anything ever again. And I won’t let anyone else lose anything either.” Brushing away her tears of sorrow, the girl takes up her sword. This is the story of a lone hero who ties her ribbon and resolves to defy her fate.

Yuuki Igarashi (Star Wars: Visions “Lop & Ocho, Jujutsu Kaisen first ending sequence) is directing the anime film at his new anime studio OUTLINE as his feature-length directorial debut. Kei Mochizuki (LOOPERS visual novel, Twin Star Cyclone Runaway novel, Criminal Girls X game) is designing the characters, with character design cooperation from Mai Yoneyama (Kiznaiver, “COLORs” music video). Issei Arakaki (Vladlove, Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Detonation, Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha EXCEEDS Gun Blaze Vengeance) is the animation character designer. Cédric Hérole (Wait for Me, Magikarp) is credited for artistic direction. Satoru Kōsaki (The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya) and Ryūichi Takada (Shangri-La Frontier), both from MONACA, are composing the music.

The Japanese/Korean group Girls Archives. perform the theme song “Reborn.”

The additional staff members include:

Kodansha USA Publishing most recently released Tezuka’s Princess Knight manga as a one volume omnibus in August 2022.

Tezuka launched the manga in Kodansha‘s Nakayoshi magazine in January 1958. Vertical released the manga in two volumes in print in 2011 and digitally in 2015.

Source: Email correspondence

For a show that began with a major genre side-swerve in its first episode, perhaps it’s not too surprising that it does it again in its fourth. Unfortunately, this time, the results are far less interesting. Turns out that almost entirely side-lining the main characters in their own show is a big mistake, especially when that means all we’re left with is a terminally dull “normal” human being whose single personality trait is that he wants a girlfriend, and his sole facial expression is “mildly perturbed.” Socially awkward student Segami has all the charisma of a wet piece of cardboard, and I already felt the manga chapters that focused on him were by far the weakest. Animating them with such poor, half-finished CG sadly only makes everything worse.

What previously mitigated the effect of this show’s accursed ugly presentation was the presence of the funny little cartoon people from another world. Shifting the viewpoint to one of these stiff, unemotive, mannequin-like dolls with dead eyes and creepy mouths is a grave mistake, and I wouldn’t be surprised if many viewers dropped the show after this complete narrative and visual misfire. Although the mech designs remain cool, they’re animated at such a low frame rate and with such minimal motion that the whole thing looks embarrassing.

Even the plot and setting itself is questionable. A more slickly produced show might have been able to distract the viewers’ questions about this subjugated human society. Why does every single human being wander the streets, zombie-like, with their eyes captured by glowing cellphone screens while an alien invasion occurs around them? Perhaps this is meant to be a searing indictment of human distractability in the digital age, but it just doesn’t ring true. The only events that shake people out of their unwittingly suicidal self-absorption are the sudden and shocking application of violence against innocents.

The aliens normally pay even less attention to the humans than the humans do to them, but if humans get in the aliens’ way, now they’re unafraid to haul out the vaporization cannons. I mean, if even TV reports that now the Earth has been unified under an alien “Galactic Emperor” isn’t enough to perturb the average person surgically attached to their phone screen, then maybe vaporization is all they deserve.

Segami isn’t much different. Although he despairs about the state of the world, he’s not actually motivated to do anything about it. He only blunders into a meeting of the hilariously-monikered “Rebellion” (couldn’t they have thought of a slightly more creative organizational name? It’s so pathetically on-the-nose) because their flyer promises babes “with F-cups.” I know that sex sells and all, and in a better produced show this would probably be funny, but the utterly garbage presentation and impossibly flat character animation sucks all fun from the premise.

If the rest of the season digs in to focus only on Segami and his boring new friends, even if they’re packing rocket launchers and uzis, the show could end up as a crushing disappointment. I’m a big fan of the manga, mainly because of its excellent art and fast pace. So far, this adaptation has ruined the visuals, and looks likely to fail in every other regard too. I want more funny cartoon people smashing aliens to pieces. I couldn’t give a crap about these boring and ugly “normal” people.

Rating:

Thunder 3 is currently streaming on
Netflix.

Will the real Ghost in the Shell please stand up?

Disclaimer:
The views and opinions expressed by the participants in this chatlog are not the views of Anime News Network.

Amazon streams The Ghost in the Shell (2026).
Tubi streams Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex.
Netflix streams Ghost in the Shell SAC 2045 and One Piece live-action.
Crunchyroll streams Red River and 100 Girlfriends.

Chris


Lucas, the new The Ghost in the Shell is everything we could have hoped for. Science SARU‘s style is spectacularly slick, its science-fiction strengths excel, and the show hews SO close to the Shirow-tacular source material it shocked some viewers!

Is that good? Is that bad? It’s a topic we like talking about, and that’s what’s really important.

Lucas


Chris, I have been an absolute sicko for comparative media analysis since I took an English class freshman year that had us reading multiple translations of the epic Beowulf (and for my money the Maria Dahvana Headley translation is the best by a mile!). While I was by no means a Ghost in the Shell expert when this latest adaptation premiered at the top of the month, I’ve been binging through every variation of the iconic franchise since then and am thrilled to talk about every version of Motoko Kusanagi!

Though, to the Major’s credit, she stands out in any circumstance and hardly needs an introduction from us!

Indeed, our cohorts Coop and Sylvia even did their own cataloguing of Motoko’s myriad previous iterations a couple of months ago in the run-up to the new anime’s premiere. Of course, now that the show’s actually out, we can see how much it’s decided to get in-your-face with some of GITS‘…assets.

Fair enough, but it really makes clear how much the same body of source material can be distinguished by the wide gulf of adaptational choices. Or can it? Sometimes the soul of a series always shines through in every version. Almost every version.

I think it’s fair to say that every version of Ghost in the Shell carries with it the spirit ghost of Masamune Shirow‘s original manga, that being a work that is deeply informed by the science fiction writing of the past few decades, while also incorporating the emerging digital technologies and forever war politics of the late 80s and early 90s. Dress it all up in a package that’s equal parts Vice Unit police procedural and centerfold sexy, and you’ve got yourself a franchise that’s felt timeless for more than 30 years!

But, as that lengthy description betrays, a lot is going on in GITS, and the different parts of that cocktail that an adaptation can choose to embellish can make one version of this story feel completely different from another! While people on social media are shouting, “That’s not my Major” at this latest adaptation need to settle down, there is a kernel of truth to that opinion!

	This image contains sexually suggestive themes. Click to view

After all, if someone walked up to me on the street and told me that these four women are all the same person, I don’t think I’d believe them!

Hell, she can switch between very different looks just within one show itself!

Appropriate enough for a character who’s canonically hopped bodies at least a few times, I’d say, but speaking of canonicity and to your point: yeah, I get being attached to whichever version of the cool Kusanagi you imprinted on and being surprised when a new version doesn’t match up with that. It particularly applies to Ghost in the Shell, which, as you highlight, has had some wild variance to its adaptations over the decades. It’s to the point where I almost find it hard to compare the new Science SARU joint to Stand Alone Complex—they are so distinct in what they’re trying to do that there are almost no bullet points to line up between both columns!

This isn’t even apples to oranges; it’s French onion soup to fajitas.

Chris, I’m sure I caught at least a couple of episodes of Stand Alone Complex back in the day on Toonami, but lemme tell ya’, a story where the bad guy is trying to take down a medical company that’s been exploiting and horrendously overcharging sick people that it could have easily cured sure does hit differently after certain events that happened at the end of 2024!

And, while we could probably have an entire other column dedicated to life imitating this particular piece of art, the differences between SAC and Science SARU‘s GITS project are maybe most legible in the costuming of the characters.

Look, if Ishikawa’s Nice-Guy-Eddie-ass windbreaker doesn’t embody the original GITS era, I don’t want to think about what that says about my own eye for fashion.

Shout-out also to Borma’s vacation fit. I think this is what I like most about The Ghost in the Shell‘s appeal toward adapting the “classic” manga which started in 1989. It’s shamelessly recreating so much of the louder cybernetic sensibilities of the era, and even expanding on them! We pointedly didn’t see Borma’s full shirt in the original manga, so this is but an on-brand expansive fashion flourish!

Dude, I didn’t give a shit about Borma until he showed up in this fit! He has little to no personality in most versions of the series, but who wouldn’t want to party with this giant dude from the new GITS???

To turn that gut reaction into a more examined piece of criticism, though, just look at how serious and “cyber” Section 9 is costumed in SaC and how vibrant and expressive their clothes are in the new GITS! Both works touch on some pretty dark corners of the human condition and uncomfortable existential questions, but man do I love that the crew is at least having fun being super cops in the new GITS!

Similarly, this might be the only version of GITS that actually makes Togusa feel like a genuine greenhorn worthy of his lovingly derisive “Rookie” moniker. In most other animated versions of this series, he comes across as gruff and hard-boiled as the other 30- 40-something men in Section 9. Here, though, he feels a lot younger and less competent, with voice actor Nick Apostolides playing up this part of the character really well.

Just look at the differences between movie Togusa and Saru Togusa! He looks like a grandpa trying to keep the mullet look alive in the former and nearly a petulant college kid trying to bring mullets back in the latter!

I have to admit, it would’ve been very funny to hear Crispin Freeman‘s voice coming out of a version of Togusa who gets owned as much as this one does.

But that’s just one more point that speaks to the very different sensibilities spirited by each of these Ghosts. And I do think that might be part of what plays havoc with some people’s expectations. If you were super-attached to the cooler, extra-Crispin-y Togusa from previous GITS incarnations, then the goofier Apostolides version might catch you off-guard! On the other hand, maybe you’re a manga fan who’s been waiting all this time to see the original characterization of Togusa animated!

But that’s the thing with these kinds of different takes: neither is necessarily “right” or “wrong.” Well, except SAC 2045 Togusa. Making him divorced was a major miss, if you ask me.

Yeah, I won’t lie, 2045 opening with the Major receiving some of the most flagrant sexual objectification she’s seen over the years (and that’s saying something!) with horrendously transphobic comments did not make a great first impression. It’s wild that we got what’s rapidly becoming my favorite take on the series so soon after this debacle!

Though, to hone back in on the topic that motivated this column, I think there’s a fair bit of sexism motivating people’s rejection of this new Ghost in the Shell anime. As many of the images I’ve shared so far have showcased, the Major has always been sexualized, with her body frequently framed through the male gaze.

You don’t say!

Her body has always been sexualized in the anime adaptations of the manga, but this new GITS is the first time in this medium we’ve seen her really be sexual. Science SARU‘s take on Motoko knows that she’s hot and enjoys being a beautiful woman who’s also a literal war machine.

She and her girlfriends/roommates/fuckbuddies are so cute that I can’t help but gush every time they’re on screen together!

Tack on another slash there, since they’re also coworkers of some sort!

But yeah, to the yuri yacht heard ’round the world: it’s honestly kinda funny to think that this scene caught anybody off-guard. When news of a “manga-accurate Ghost in the Shell adaptation” broke, virtually the first question anybody in my circle was asking was “Will it include the lesbian threesome scene?” To which the second episode answered with an emphatic “Yes!”

They even included Masamune’s trademark shiny-slick skin on all the gals! Incredible attention to detail!

Dude, I had like three different people message me after episode two came out, all expressing something along the lines of, “OMG, I just found out that Masamune Shirow drew hentai before he made Ghost in the Shell!” To which I responded with, “Masamune Shirow drew porn and titled the collections “Galgrease” before he made Ghost in the Shell! I’m pretty sure he’s a hentai artist first, and cyberpunk visionary second.”

More than you know, my friend: Wild Wet West and so many of these releases were actually put out by Shirow well after the original Ghost in the Shell!

Sensational. Further proof that having the soul of a pervert is pivotal to being an effective artist.

All of this is to say that it feels SO GOOD to have Motoko have sexual agency in one of these adaptations after years of her being sexually objectified. Hell, the most male gaze-y shot we’ve seen in this adaptation thus far is when she’s bent over a desk to tell a bureaucrat that she did in fact have the authority to assassinate a crooked foreign national, but even here it works because the whole point of this scene is to establish how much better, more competent, (and hotter) Motoko is than the pencil pushers surrounding her.

To be sure, Motoko’s girlfriends were still around in previous adaptations like SAC, and we even saw her loungin’ in bed with them a time or two. But while Stand Alone Complex was hardly a sterile show, it simply didn’t have as much interest in the sexytimes shenanigans of Shirow’s manga.

If this is your only experience with GITS, then the new one might come out of left field. Like a Law & Order episode suddenly cutting to McCoy having a spicy three-way.

Even if the Amazon streaming plan still couldn’t let the anime be as explicit as the manga, necessitating some cut-arounds. It is still accurate to the source. And the spirit of the character, as you described.

This is understandable considering, to the best of my knowledge, some versions of the US Ghost in the Shell manga release also softened this particular scene!

This image contains sexually suggestive themes.
Click to view

Famously! Which is another thing that makes it funny that this was the first thing anybody knew about the manga to ask, but hey, Streisand Effect and all that.

It also makes clear how any adaptation, no matter how close it seems to be striving, is inevitably going to have some shifts in the name of the medium jump. And I think that’s a lot more interesting than comparing based on accuracy. Some people like or dislike the new GITS on the basis of it being closer to the manga or too far away from the film or TV versions. But actually it’s transformed in accordance with Science SARU‘s manner of animation. That’s way more compelling to assess the intent compared to how one-to-one it got to the original panels.

Absolutely. “Manga Accuracy” has long been a borderline reactionary talking point in anime criticism, that doesn’t actually mean all that much in terms of qualitative analysis. Rather than focus on that framing in evaluating a Ghost in the Shell adaptation (or any anime adaptation for that matter), it’s far more important to meet a work where it’s at and analyze how effectively it accomplishes what it set out to do.

For instance, I love the goofiness and 80s aesthetic of the new GITS anime as it captures the fullness of living in a technologically advanced future where problems that humans have been dealing with for millennia are expressed in a new form. However, I can appreciate what Mamoru Oshii was going for in the 1995 film with its more muted color palette and serious tone, as it’s more clearly about the anxieties and unique problems societies faced as technology uprooted centuries-old norms.

Both are good! But neither is a definitive Ghost in the Shell or “Cyberpunk” experience.

Yeah, it’s like I said early on: each dish is using its ingredients in very different ways, but they’re both plenty tasty.

To provide a constructive counter-example, rote retellings of source material can show for themselves why they don’t work. Just check out this season’s also-airing Red River adaptation, all cheap manga panel recreations gleefully skipping through the setup of the story. No sauce on it at all. I can hear Rebecca grinding her teeth in frustration from here.

Oh Red River…someday I’ll be strong enough to get through your opening storylines and find out what all the fuss is about…

And to reinforce this point through an opposite example, my favorite anime adaptations actually elevate their source material and strengthen their best qualities through what’s essentially a second round of editing. Take the Steel Ball Run anime for example. In the manga, Sandman uses his sand manipulation powers (which are later retconned out of the story) to open a cloth containing an emerald, while in the anime he just…opens the cloth normally. The staff at david production making this anime were correct to make this change, as it’s technically an error in the source material that should be corrected in work inspired by it.

Long-running works using adaptation as an opportunity to update older elements of their story accordingly is kind of an underrated element of the practice. Something similar happened in the second season of Netflix‘s live-action One Piece earlier this year, where instead of fighting Laboon into submission, Luffy soothes the whale with a rendition of the iconic “Bink’s Sake”.

It’s a great bit because while “Bink’s Sake” didn’t appear until much later in the One Piece manga, here they had the chance to tie its through-line to Laboon after setting it up from the very beginning, and the result is a much warmer, interconnected take on the moment that arguably surpasses the original!

The One Piece live-action series is a treasure trove of additive adaptation examples! Even for as celebrated as One Piece is for its foreshadowing and world-building, some ideas, such as the Straw Hats #1 fan Bartolomeo falling in love with the crew during their exploits in Loguetown, are obviously a late addition since we don’t see him while the crew is running around Loguetown in the anime or manga.

Which is why I audibly GASPED when this bizarre, green rooster man showed up in the live-action series! Not only does this change benefit the original story, it actively subverts the expectations of the audience in a way that’s super effective!

Ah, subverting expectations. Sometimes a thorn in story choices, it does mean that adaptations that know what they’re doing can have some fun. It happened to me when the second season of the anime adaptation of The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really, Love You sure seemed to skip over the iconic bit from the manga’s 37th chapter where Rentaro rattles off everything he loves about the titular girlfriends. Scandalous!

…or so it seemed, because it turned out what they were actually doing was delaying the segment until the end of the final episode of the season, because where else could they put this but the finale?

Rearranging things to make the most of the adaptational medium. What a concept!

And with Science SARU‘s depiction of the Fuchikoma talking themselves out of an AI uprising, some absolutely inspired action sequences, choice character moments like Batou experiencing child like glee at an upcoming raid, and the tremendous detail that’s going into these cybernetic bodies; it’s clear this version of Ghost in the Shell is more than making the most out of this medium!

That’s the constructive conclusion I want to come to with The Ghost in the Shell and the question of what its alleged accuracy does for its quality. It’s not that this anime is good (or better than previous versions) because it hews closely to Shirow Masamune’s manga. It’s good because it homes in on what was fundamentally good about that manga and transforms it into something that shines through the studio’s strengths.

Previous GITSes excelled at introspection and intrigue, and this new one has some of that, but defines itself through edge, energy, and character. And lesbian threesomes.

All I’m saying is that someday I hope to be a good enough storyteller to combine all four of those elements this effectively, and until then I’ll eagerly tune into Science SARU‘s Ghost in the Shell week after week so I can learn from the pros!

Truly, it’s a Major success.