The official website of Ghost in the Shell anime recently published an interview Kazuchika Kise, the character designer and chief director of Ghost in the Shell: Arise and Ghost in the Shell: The New Movie. Kise, an anime veteran who has a long list of anime projects on his list of experience, including Made in Abyss, Blood-C, Neon Genesis Evangelion, xxxHOLIC, Fate/Grand Order Camelot movies, and a couple of Pokemon films, was asked if he has any insight on current trends. Kise comments on the insane amount of isekai stories trending in recent years.
“I think there are too many stories already asking, ‘Do we all really hate the modern world so much?’ I find it strange that all that gets made is isekai stories,” Kise responded. “There was even a series about being reborn as a vending machine recently. That one really stunned me. I feel like there are fewer grounded anime works than there used to be.”
Kise also criticized the role-playing game elements that are common in modern isekai anime titles as well as the non-isekai hit series Solo Leveling. “Recent anime works will show things like a level-up gauge that appears when characters tap the air, even though there’s no in-setting reason for them to have a personal interface like that. I may just be getting old, but it really makes me wonder: ‘What is going on here?’ It just doesn’t work for me.”
When asked about CG anime, Kise said that he doesn't "hate" CG anime, but it doesn't suit his style either. “Personally, I like stop-motion videos using things like action figures," he said. Kise also criticized how the action in recent anime titles are "too fast" and difficult to follow: “Attacks lack weight. It doesn’t feel realistic. Since no one dies from being hit in the first place, it also doesn’t look painful. I feel like the intent behind the art is just more extravagant action than depicting a fight with opponents testing one another.”
Much of the lengthy interview focused on the popular cyberpunk Ghost in the Shell series. Kise worked as an animation director, key animator, and layout artist of the classic Ghost of the Shell film. He joked about the challenges of working with the movie's character designer Hiroyuki Okiura due to the latter's skills:
At the time, I had just finished production of Patlabor 2: The Movie and was looking for a next project, so I didn’t have a way to dodge it. It looked like I would have to animate alongside Hiroyuki Okiura if I joined up on [Mamoru] Oshii’s project, too, which I was sick of doing. laughs It’s hard to match his characters and key frames, which doesn’t leave room to enjoy the job. So unsurprisingly, I had my hands full trying to polish my art to Okiura’s level over the time we produced Ghost in the Shell .
Kise also revealed that fighting games also had an influence on the movie's production: . “He [Oshii] would also use fighting game commands on the Ghost in the Shell storyboards. Like, he’d say ‘a move like a PPPK’ to convey the action he wanted. And I’d reply, ‘That doesn’t clarify anything at all.’ laughs”
The interview concluded with Kise saying that he'd personally “like to see an entirely AI-made Ghost in the Shell someday, without human involvement” if Ghost in the Shell creator Shirow Masamune would approve the idea. “What would it end up as if you used AI for the script, the character designs, the editing, and everything else? I’d be very curious about that, and I feel like Ghost in the Shell is well suited to that kind of experiment as a series.”
Where to Watch Ghost in the Shell: Arise
All 10 episodes of Ghost in the Shell Arise – Alternative Architecture, and the Ghost in the Shell: The New Movie are available to stream on Crunchyroll. In Japan, the anime was broadcast on Tokyo MX, Sun TV, KBS, TV Aichi, HTB, OX, TVQ, SBS, and BS11 networks.
