Ghost in the Shell: New Movie director, Production I.G. to adapt spy novel

The September issue of Kadokawa's Monthly Newtype magazine will announce on Monday that Kōji Yanagi's Joker Game spy mystery novel will receive a TV anime adaptation. The project will also launch a website and an official Twitter account.

The original novel is set in 1937, before World War II begins in earnest. Lieutenant Colonel Yūki of the Imperial Japanese Army forms the "D Agency," an army intelligence outfit under his command and tutelage. Army General Staff attaches Lieutenant Sakuma to observe the unit's performance. D Agency casts a wide net to find agents beyond Japanese military personnel, and Yūki establishes D Agency's tenets, which go against IJA doctrine: "Don't kill, don't get killed, don't get captured." With this, Yūki trains a team of operatives who conduct missions against domestic and foreign powers.

Kazuya Nomura ( Ghost in the Shell: New Movie , Robotics;Notes ) will helm the project at Production I.G. Shirow Miwa (Dogs: Bullets & Carnage) is in charge of the original character designs.

Yanagi published the original Joker Game novel (pictured above) in 2008. The novel won the Nihon Suiri Sakka Kyōkai-shō (Mystery Writers of Japan) award in 2009. Yū Irie directed a live-action adaptation of the novel, which premiered in Japan on January 31. Yanagi followed up the original novel with two sequel novels — titled Double Joker and Paradise Lost — in 2009 and 2012, respectively.

[Via Otakomu]