The Ghost In The Shell SAC_2045 Season 2 release date is confirmed for May 2022, the Spring 2022 anime season.
It’s been a long wait since second season was initially confirmed to be in production ahead of the release of the first season on Netflix US. back on April 23, 2020.
The Ghost In The Shell SAC_2045 Season 2 teaser trailer and new key visual were released on February 24, 2022.
During Anime Japan 2022 on March 27, 2022, the main Ghost In The Shell SAC_2045 Season 2 trailer was released.
The Ghost In The Shell SAC_2045 anime is being produced by animation studio Sola Digital Arts and Production I.G., with the latter company known for popular anime such as the Psycho-Pass anime series and the volleyball anime Haikyuu!! (see our article on Haikyuu!! Season 5).
Sola Digital Arts provided the 3D animation for Appleseed Alpha, Starship Troopers: Traitor of Mars, and the 3D Ultraman anime (Netflix’s Ultraman Season 2 anime has been confirmed).
Production I.G. has produced multiple GITS anime projects, including the original 1995 movie and its 2004 sequel, Ghost In The Shell 2: Innocence. They have also worked on the 2002 Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex TV series, OVA episodes, and the resulting movie.
In 2013, the studio created the Ghost In The Shell Arise prequel, which was adapted into a TV series. They also released the 2015 Ghost In The Shell: The New Movie.
Production I.G. initially announced the new GITS anime back in April 2017. It’s been known for several years that the plan was to produce Ghost In The Shell SAC_2045 Season 2.
Back in late 2018, Production I.G. USA president Maki Terashima-Furuta was interviewed by Nuke the Fridge Gaming. At the time, he stated that the new Ghost In The Shell anime would be comprised of two seasons with 12 episodes each.
and some fresh key art! pic.twitter.com/VUArVMN9rt
— Netflix Anime (@NetflixAnime) March 27, 2022
The Ghost In The Shell SAC_2045 anime features a lot of returning Japanese cast members in addition to some new characters.
- Atsuko Tanaka as Major Motoko Kusanagi
- Akio Ohtsuka as Batou
- Kōichi Yamadera as Togusa
- Yutaka Nakano as Ishikawa
- Toru Ohkawa as Saito
- Takashi Onozuka as Paz
- Tarô Yamaguchi as Borma
- Sakiko Tamagawa as the Tachikoma
- Osamu Saka as Daisuke Aramaki
- Megumi Han as Purin Ezaki
- Kenjiro Tsuda as Standard
- Kaiji Soze as John Smith
- Shigeo Kiyama as Kurisu Ōtomo Teito
The Ghost In The Shell SAC_2045 Season 2 OP “Secret Ceremony” will be performed by millenium parade. The opening sequence will be produced by the group’s founder and member Daiki Tsuneta at his creative label PERIMETRON. The group will also perform the ED “No Time Cast Anchor”.
The Ghost In The Shell SAC_2045 Season 1 opening (OP) theme song music is “Fly with me” as performed by Daiki Tsuneta, while the ending (ED) is “Sustain++” as performed by Mili.
- Updated March 27, 2022: Added trailer and key visual.
- Updated February 24, 2022: Ghost In The Shell SAC_2045 Season 2 release time frame announced by trailer and new key visual. Added OP/ED info.
This article provides everything that is known about Ghost In The Shell SAC_2045 Season 2 and all related news. As such, this article will be updated over time with news, rumors, and analysis. Meanwhile, let’s delve down into what is known for certain.
Ghost In The Shell SAC_2045 Season 2 anime will be co-directed by two famous directors
During the 2018 interview, it was also announced that Ghost In the Shell: Stand Alone Complex director Kenji Kamiyama would return to direct Ghost In The Shell SAC_2045 Season 1.
Joining him will be Appleseed director Shinji Aramaki, who will also be helming the Ghost In The Shell SAC_2045 Season 2 anime project.
Russian artist Ilya Kushinov is the character designer. The story is being written by director Kamiyama and multiple other scriptwriters, including Daisuke Daito, Ryou Higaki, Gurren Lagann writer Kurasumi Sunayama, Ultraman writer Harumi Doki, and Samurai Champloo writer Dai Sato.
Ultraman anime music composers Nobuko Toda and Kazuma Jinnouchi are teaming up again for Ghost In The Shell SAC 2045’s music. In the past, the composers also worked together creating the soundtracks for video games Halo 4 and 5.
In an April 2020 interview with Otaquest, director Kamiyama stated that he believes that “reality in 2020 is now catching up with the cyber-society depicted in the original manga”, which was released in 1989 by Masamune Shirow.
“When I was first making the 2002 series Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (S.A.C.), it was an era where you could only send 140 character texts via your cell phone.
About 20 years have passed since then, and the evolution of technology has changed the way we communicate and has changed the forms of crime and terrorism.
Society itself has undergone considerable transformation, and problems like refugee crises have become highlighted in Japan, and things like the aging society have become more serious …
[W]hat kind of society will the youth of today live in in the 2030s and 2040s, when the Ghost in the Shell S.A.C. series is set?
I think fleshing this out is the binding theme between everything. So when we decided to make Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045, we thought about how reality is now much closer to the world we are depicting.
Thinking about to what extent IT technology has actually expanded to, and where society is headed. I gave a lot of thought as to how I was supposed to draw that.”
The focus for Ghost In The Shell SAC_2045 will be on how “AI is more intertwined with everyday life”. The story will be based around the concept of a “singularity” emerging.
They look to how modern society is “controlled” by emerging technologies based on Artificial Intelligence. Online shopping is guided by AI that knows everyone’s personal preferences and people are now used to having security cameras everywhere.
They even give up their privacy by sharing their exact locations via smartphone apps.
“It does feel like the boundaries between people are falling apart. What I thought was normal seems to constantly be changing. The change in how we interact with AI has already begun,” said Ghost In The Shell SAC_2045 Season 2 director Aramaki.
“Will humans be able to respond quickly and effectively when AI is fully integrated into our daily lives? What kind of distortions will appear in individuals and in society…?”
Both directors admit that some of the themes will be focused on “anxiety, anger, and anxiety about society”, but these themes will not be as sharp since his “unreasonable anger [that they] had in the past has begun to fade away.”
The Season 1 director believes that as he has grown older, he began to “approach these issues with a more realistic viewpoint, as opposed to just being brash and headstrong.”
Ghost In The Shell SAC 2045 Season 2 release date in May 2022
As of the last update, Production I.G., Netflix, or any company related to the production of the anime has not officially confirmed the exact Ghost In The Shell SAC_2045 Season 2 release date. However, it’s been confirmed that the Ghost In The Shell SAC_2045 sequel is coming out in May 2022, the Spring 2022 anime season.
Once the news is officially confirmed, this article will be updated with the relevant information.
The elephant in the room is the ongoing SARS-COV-2 coronavirus pandemic. In April 2020, Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe declared a national state of emergency. Many anime studios’ schedules have suffered from cascading effects due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and the mitigation efforts by all nations.
It’s unknown if the production schedule for the Ghost In The Shell SAC_2045 Season 2 anime was impacted. But it’s possible that the second season was delayed to 2022 due to production issues. Stay tuned!