The Most Underrated Ghost in the Shell Film is Coming To Theaters in 4K

Title

Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence

Director

Mamoru Oshii

Studio

Production I.G

Release Date

3/6/2004

It seems like every cool film from the last few decades and beyond is getting a 4K remaster, a limited theatrical release, or both, like the recent 4K run of Studio Bones' Sword of the Stranger. Unlike Stranger, however, fans in North America don't need to beg for the 4K Restoration of Mamoru Oshii's Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence to come to the big screen; GKIDS has them covered.

Released in 2004, Innocence is Mamoru Oshii's follow-up to his 1995 cyberpunk masterpiece, Ghost in the Shell, itself a rather bold adaptation of Shirow Masamune's manga of the same name. When people think of this franchise, the first film naturally comes to mind — the cinematic touchstone that helped inspire later works like The Matrix, but its sequel is just as deserving of recognition.

American film producer and distributor GKIDS (The Boy and the Heron, Neon Genesis Evangelion) is bringing Innocence to theaters in North America this summer. The 4K restoration will debut on May 7 at the Music Box Theatre in Chicago as part of the Chicago Critics Film Festival. The film stars Akio Otsuka as Batou, Atsuko Tanaka as Motoko Kusanagi, Koichi Yamadera as Togusa, and the late Tamio Oki as Chief Daisuke Aramaki.

Following the premiere in Chicago, there is no word on specific dates for the larger theatrical release. Likewise, there is no word yet about whether this will include the English dub, much less which version has been acquired. In 2005, Manga UK and Madman produced a dub for the UK and Australia respectively. It wasn't until 2009 that a dub by Bandai Entertainment was produced, the same that would be included in Funimation's Blu-ray release in 2017.

Despite there being two dubs, the main cast remained much the same, featuring the voices from Ghost in the Shell's then-famous TV series, Stand Alone Complex. The dub stars Richard Epcar as Batou, Mary Elizabeth McGlynn as Motoko Kusanagi,