The staff of the Ghost in the Shell Arise anime announced the details of its project on Tuesday. The project will consist of four 50-minute parts.

The first part, "Ghost Pain," will run in Japanese theaters for two weeks starting on Saturday, June 22. There will be advance Blu-ray Disc copies with a bundled scenario book available at participating theaters for 8,000 yen (about US$85). There will also be paid streaming of the project, at least in Japan. The general retail release of the first part's Blu-ray Disc and DVD will be on July 26.

Series composition and scriptwriter Tow Ubukata confirmed during the broadcast that the show will be a prequel series featuring Motoko when she was younger.

The staff also announced the show's cast:

Maaya Sakamoto as Mokoto Kusanagi

Kenichirou Matsuda as Batou

Tarusuke Shingaki as Togusa

Tomoyuki Dan as Ishikawa

Takurou Nakakuni as Saito

Youji Ueda as Paz

Kazuya Nakai as Borma

Ikkyuu Juku as Daisuke Aramaki

At the beginning of her voice-acting career, Sakamoto provided the voice of the pivotal little girl who speaks the very last line in the first Ghost in the Shell film.

The presentation also streamed a trailer for the series.



The text in the trailer is as follows:

A.D. 2027

Her name is Motoko Kusanagi

Attached to the Army's 501st Secret Unit

Heavily Cyborg Ego

Memories

Hope for the future What proves who I am? It all begins here

A manga adaptation, Ghost in the Shell: Arise Sleepless Eye (Nemuranai Me no Otoko) , will debut in the April issue of Kodansha's Monthly Young magazine on March 13. Newcomer Takumi Ōyama will draw the series, and Jun'ichi Fujisaku will write the story. Fujisaku previously worked on the screenplay for both seasons of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. Fujisaku also worked on the screenplay for Blood+, Otogi Zoshi, Appleseed XIII, and Real Drive.

During the hour-long presentation, Production I.G co-founder Mitsuhisa Ishikawa, Satoshi Endō from Kadokawa ASCII Research Laboratories Inc., and Takeshi Natsuno, professor at Keio University's Graduate School of Media and Governance, spoke about the science and technology of the Ghost in the Shell franchise, and discussed how today's technology is not too far off from the technology featured in the series.

Update: Added additional information from presentation and embedded official video.

Update 2: The official website also updated with more staff announcements.

Mechanical Design: Takayuki Yanase

3DCGI: Orange

3DCG Director: Eiji Inomoto

Art: Bamboo

Art Director: Yusuke Takeda, Takaaki Mashiki

Art Setting: Hiroshi Kato (Totonyan)

Prop Art Setting: Naoki Arakawa

Photography Director: Kouji Tanaka

Sound Director: Yoshikazu Iwanami

Editing: Junichi Uematsu