In the month of April of the previous year, a store featuring the production studio behind popular works such as “Kuroko’s Basketball”, “Psycho-Pass”, “Haikyu!!”, and, “Ghost in the Shell” was opened. It was an I.G Store in the Shibuya 0101 and as the name implies, the studio is Production I.G.

Now a year has passed and a one year anniversary celebration has been announced for the store with big names taking part of the celebration.

On July 29th at 17:30 p.m. director of the anime film “Ghost in Shell”, Mamoru Oshii will be making an appearance for an autograph session of the dual-pack Blu-rays of his Ghost in the Shell movie and the ScarJo Hollywood movie.

Followed this on June 9 is an appearance by Takayuki Gotou, the animation director and character designer of the “Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex” work. He has prepared special Major art and will be doing a signing for customers who spend 3000yen on GiTS:SAC art.

Finally, making his appearance for a signing on July 17th is the character designer for “xxxHolic” and “Ghost in the Shell: Arise”, Kazuchika Kise. He will be signing for any who has purchased 3,000yen in goods from either series.

“Ghost in Shell” is a franchise that first began as a manga series that was launched from April 1989 to November 1990 in Kodansha’s manga anthology Young Magazine. The series was then released in a tankōbon volume on October 5, 1991. It was in 1995 that the first film was created followed by a second film 2015.

The “Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex” to which Takayuki Gotou, was a TV series and film that first began in 2002 and told of new story from the original series. As for the “Ghost in the Shell: Arise”, it was an OVA and TV series which was released in 2013 and told of a story which took place in the world of “Ghost in the Shell” but occurred before the original story.

The original story of the franchise tells of future where in 2029, advances in Cybernetics allow people to replace nearly all their body parts and organs with robotics. The hero for this story is one Major Motoko Kusanagi who has full-body prosthetics due to a childhood accident. Alongside her team who consist of her second in command Batou and information specialist Ishikawa, they investigate the work of a hackr who goes by the name of “The Puppetmaster.” But like with many things, not all is at it seems.

Source: Crunchyroll News