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Funimation Licenses Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence Film

Anime News Network's Anime Expo 2016 news coverage sponsored by Yen Press.

Production I.G revealed during its panel at Anime Expo on Sunday that Funimation has licensed Mamoru Oshii's Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence film.

Production I.G describes the film:

The story is set in 2032, when the line between humans and machines has been blurred almost beyond distinction. Humans have forgotten that they are human, and the few who still own an organic body coexist with cyborgs (human spirits inhabiting entirely mechanized bodies) and dolls (robots with no human elements at all). Detective Batou, an agent for covert anti-terrorist unit Public Safety Section 9, is assigned the case of gynoids -hyper-realistic female robots created specifically for sexual companionship- that have apparently malfunctioned and started slaughtering their owners. In the course of the investigation, Batou and his partner Togusa take on violent Yakuza thugs, devious hackers, government bureaucrats, and corporate criminals to uncover the shocking truth behind the crime.

The film is a sequel to Oshii's earlier Ghost in the Shell 1995 anime film, which adapts Masamune Shirow's manga of the same name. Production I.G worked on both films.

The film premiered in Japan in 2004. Go Fish Pictures released the film on DVD with English subtitles in 2004. Manga Entertainment released the film with an English dub on DVD in the United Kingdom in 2006. Bandai Entertainment then released the film on DVD and Blu-ray Disc (pictured above right) in 2009 with a slightly modified English dub cast from Manga Entertainment's dub.

Funimation debuted the Ghost in the Shell: The New Movie film last November. The film is the latest installment in the franchise. Funimation also licensed the Ghost in the Shell Arise OVA series in 2013, and streamed the OVA's updated television broadcast version Ghost in the Shell: Arise Alternative Architecture last year. Both the OVA and the television broadcast tie in to the Ghost in the Shell: The New Movie film.