SHIROW SAMA

What was on my mind when I started working on S.A.C. 2nd Gig Since the Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex first season took forever to complete and took a lot of energy out of me, I was beginning to feel that people might be getting bored with the characters and the anime setting. This was before commencing the production of the 2nd Gig . Then after I started working on the second season while still finishing up the first one, I felt I hadn't fully got everything in. I also felt that the characters were sort of guiding my way. In other words, the characters were no longer moving according to a set plan, but were moving according to their own will, so to speak. I felt that their movements and conversations just came about naturally. Sometimes I had strange experiences while writing a script or drawing a storyboard when I wouldn't really remember writing or drawing it. At that point, I feel that I could work with these characters even further. This is one of the reason...

In this tenth and last interview, we couldn't but invite Kenji Kamiyama, the director of the movie, who certainly does not need introduction. Part 10: Kenji Kamiyama (Director) "We consider this project as a sort of badge of honor." Profile Director and scriptwriter. Born in Saitama Prefecture on March 20, 1966. In 1985 he joined the background atelier Studio Fuga. A rare example of a background artist shifting to directorial roles, Kamiyama worked as sequence director in Jin-Roh (1999) and wrote the script for Blood: The Last Vampire (2000), then debuted as director in MiniPato (2002). International attention eventually arrived with the TV series Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (2002) and Ghost in the Shell: S.A.C. 2nd Gig (2004), followed by the feature-length Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex - Solid State Society (2006). In 2007, after almost 6 years in the world of SAC , Kamiyama directed the high-fantasy TV series Guardian of the Spirit . In 20...

In this ninth interview, we talked to Kenji Teraoka, who worked mechanical designs throughout the S.A.C. series along with Shinobu Tsuneki, featured in the previous Behind the Scenes interview. We asked about his impressions as he wrapped up his assignment on S.S.S . Part 9: Kenji Teraoka (Mechanical Designer) "I don't think we could do the same in other projects." Profile Born on March 28, 1962, in Shimane Prefecture. Mechanical designer, he worked for AIC in Gun x Sword (2005), in Noir (2001) and Spider Riders (2006) for Beat Rain, and for Sunrise in Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion (2006). Regarding Production I.G's title, Teraoka is probably best known for being the irreplaceable designer in the Ghost in the Shell: S.A.C. series, but fans may enjoy his work also in Blood+ . What was your first impression when you were approached to work on S.S.S. ? I had previously been working on the TV series, so to be honest, I thought, "Wow, I could be in r...

This eighth installment of the series features Shinobu Tsuneki, who has been responsible for mechanical designs for the entire Ghost in the Shell: S.A.C. series. We asked him for his thoughts after finishing S.S.S. Part 8: Shinobu Tsuneki (Mechanical Designer) "I have used all my time to push my designs to the limit." Profile Shinobu Tsuneki is currently in force of Studio Takuranke. His credits include Crest of the Stars (1999), Sci-fi Harry (2000) and Zoids Genesis (2005) among many others. Along with Kenji Teraoka, he is the distinctive mechanical designer throughout the Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex series, including the game edition. In your designing work, were you conscious of the fact there was a time lag of two years between the 2nd Gig and S.S.S. ? To say the truth, actually not so much. Rather, this time I was exceptionally given quite a generous amount of time, so I thought I'd use all my time to push my designs to the limit, sort of. I get ...

The music for Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex is like jewelry sprinkled all over, glittering in an assortment of colors. From a minimalist rhythm to a scratchy guitar passage, a cool vocal in Russian and a singing piano melody, the background music for the Ghost in the Shell: S.A.C . series is a medley of numerous compositions. We interviewed Yoko Kanno, who has been for five years responsible for the music score of Ghost in the Shell: S.A.C . from the first season in 2002 to the latest Solid State Society in 2006. How did she fulfill her mission? Part 7: Yoko Kanno (Music Composer) "I had this image of a formal and rigid "manly" world for the original comic. So I tried to think of ways to destroy that world." Profile Born on March 18, in Miyagi Prefecture, Yoko Kanno is a music composer, arranger and pianist. She has written and performed music for many commercial films, TV dramas, feature films, animation and video games, and is currently one of the...

Three sequence directors eventually worked on S.S.S. In this sixth installment, we have invited Masayuki Yoshihara, who directed Part C and worked on the storyboards with Kenji Kamiyama. We asked Yoshihara-san what his thoughts were after finishing S.S.S. Part 6: Masayuki Yoshihara (Storyboarder and Sequence Director) "When I read the script, I felt S.S.S. was a piece of work filled with excitement from the start to the end." Profile Masayuki Yoshihara is a professional in force of the studio P.A. Works. For the Stand Alone Complex series, he was responsible for episode 3, "Android and I" and episode 12, "Escape From" as episode director and storyboarder. The start of his collaboration with Kamiyama dates back to the days when Kamiyama was still working in the background art section of studio AIC. When asked about the director, Yoshihara smiling responded, "Kamiyama-san hasn't changed since the old days. He knows the goal clearly. I feel ...

In order to facilitate the production process of S.S.S. , the movie was divided into four parts (A, B, C and D), and Kenji Kamiyama was assisted by three sequence directors, who took care of each section separately. After Masaki Tachibana, in this fifth installment of our special feature on S.S.S. , we would like to introduce the second sequence director, Toshiyuki Kono, who has been with the S.A.C. staff from the early days. We asked him of his impressions after finishing S.S.S. , in which he tried to focus on the flow of the story of the entire series. Part 5: Toshiyuki Kono (Sequence Director) "I think we were able to produce a film that could hold up to being watched over and over again. When you finish watching it to the end, you definitely want to go back to the beginning." Profile Animation supervisor and sequence director. He worked at Anime-R before joining Xebec, and later Production I.G, where he participated to a number of projects, including IGPX . He is one...

The Ghost in the Shell: S.A.C. ( S.A.C. ) series surpassed the quality standard of Japanese TV productions in many ways. One of the key persons of the production team, Masaki Tachibana, is featured in this fourth interview. His collaboration to the S.A.C. project started with episode 6, "Meme." Then he contributed his talent in storyboards and episode directing throughout the two seasons of this series. We asked how he felt about completing a new chapter, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex - Solid State Society ( S.S.S. ). Part 4: Masaki Tachibana (Sequence Director) "We paid attention to even the slightest emotional change of a character as well as the facial expressions and manners." Profile After working as an assistant director at Toei Animation, he became a freelancer. Starting from episode 6, "Meme," that he directed and for which he created the as a storyboard, Tachibana was one of the essential episode directors throughout the two season...