A lot of memories here. I interned at Manga Entertainment's Chicago office in 1995, right out of college, when they were riding high on the success of GiTS's video sales. One of my tasks was watching screeners of new shows and rating them for potential among American audiences. There wasn't a lot out there at the time, and looking back, it's interesting seeing how their model of curating the next big hit was already outdated. The future lay in an "infinte scroll" of releasing everything the Japanese market was getting in realtime, ala Crunchyroll and other streaming services.
This is absolutely fascinating. As much as I knew about the animation of GitS, I had no idea that the Western distributors were so involved in the production, or that that beloved realist style of Okiura and Inoue was specifically requested to appeal to foreign tastes. (Well played guys, you got this foreigner). Or that Oshii wasn't personally very invested in the manga, I figured it was to his taste! Definitely changes how I look at some of the adaptation decisions. What an incredible gamble though. That's got to go down in the market research hall of fame or something - reading your audience so well that you transform an entire medium.
It occurs to me that some similar call may be happening again now - Chainsaw Man's realist style was not popular in Japan, but Mappa were playing hard for prestige abroad, right? Though perhaps it didn't pay off as well this time...
You may very well be right about Chainsaw Man -- it was a big gamble itself, even if it wasn't an era-defining hit like Ghost in the Shell. The anime industry's awareness of foreign markets is a wide topic and it's been intriguing to study. We hadn't noticed until very recently that Watanabe was involved in Akira, Memories AND Ghost. (And more happened from here: we were reading about Manga Entertainment's involvement in a Cobra movie in the mid-1990s, to name one.)
As for Oshii's interest in the project, he definitely saw potential in the technology angle of it, even if the source material wasn't his choice. He also liked that Shirow basically gave him carte blanche to change whatever he wanted. So Oshii seemed pretty happy with everything in the end. He got paid, and he got to make one of his movies, so it was a win-win.
I will state that Chainsaw man though was based off of one of the biggest shounen manga coming out right now (so its pretty much an anime adaptation of an already popular series just in another medium), though Fujimoto definitely not a conventional shounen manga artist and probably is one of the best cartoonists working in Japan today, his art and storytelling is top notch while at the same time he's able to appeal to a broad audience. The risk taking was on the part of Shounen Jump for publishing and nurturing his talent...
There was a ton of brand recognition behind Chainsaw Man, for sure. The main gamble of the anime was in the financing method: MAPPA fully self-funded it, so if it underperformed in any way, the losses were all theirs. There was a big marketing campaign, too. Not many anime studios take such a serious risk, but it seems to have paid off okay in the end, probably (as you said) because of the fame of Fujimoto and his series.
I've always been blown away by the work Manga Entertainment did to sell a film that otherwise would have been a difficult sell IMO. Like Oshii in general is an extremely divisive director and not exactly someone who has mass market appeal, but Manga managed to pull this off, I always give them a gold star for this.
It was an incredible risk. No Oshii film has ever replicated this success again -- not even Ghost in the Shell 2, despite its huge budget! There may have been an element of luck here (right place, right time), but Manga Entertainment absolutely deserves credit for selling a film that even the critics thought was too difficult for average viewers. It's one for the history books.
The soundtrack was also absolutely superb - and featured the U2 spin off project 'Passengers' on the closing credits. It's criminally hard to get the OST these days, but it's on a par with Vangelis's work on Blade Runner.
Happy you enjoyed it! This part of the film's story is rarely mentioned except in passing. It seems Manga Entertainment was involved in Stand Alone Complex as well, and Oshii said there was even foreign interest in Innocence at first. In his words (translation via Wave Motion Cannon):
"At the beginning of the project, there even were talks about making it with capital from overseas, but negotiations collapsed after a year. ... There was no problem with the project, but they expressed disapproval over the script. And I had absolutely no intention to change it."
May 7·edited May 7Liked by Animation Obsessive Staff
Thanks for writing this Ghost in the Shell was really influential I remembered watching it on Laser Disc really demonstrated the imaginations of what Animation could be. Did not know how much Western involvement to promote the film outside of Japan.
Glad you enjoyed the article! Thank you. Manga Entertainment's role in the film isn't discussed in detail very often and we thought it would be a cool angle to explore.
Thanks, Jon! And glad you liked The Boy and the Heron. That was one of the wildest experiences we've had in a theater. We were talking about it amongst ourselves for days!
Thank you for the wonderful piece. Ghost was a mindopening film for me. I don’t remember if we saw it before Evangelion but there was a special moment when it all came together specially due to the limited distribution of the older times.
I'm older and had never heard of this movie, and, TBH, if it wasn't for my now-18-yr-old daughter and her passing interest with Junji Ito (she has other faves), I would not have read your article. Thanks much for this. I love when people take risks, follow their hearts, and commit to Art.
This is such a great read. Amazing work. The most comprehensive deep dive into the behind the scenes story of how Ghost in the Shell got made. Thank you.
A lot of memories here. I interned at Manga Entertainment's Chicago office in 1995, right out of college, when they were riding high on the success of GiTS's video sales. One of my tasks was watching screeners of new shows and rating them for potential among American audiences. There wasn't a lot out there at the time, and looking back, it's interesting seeing how their model of curating the next big hit was already outdated. The future lay in an "infinte scroll" of releasing everything the Japanese market was getting in realtime, ala Crunchyroll and other streaming services.
Thanks for the comment, Matt! Super cool to read these recollections.
You inspired me to expand on them. Thanks! https://blog.pureinventionbook.com/p/looking-back-at-ghost-in-the-shell
Awesome post -- happy we could provide a spark for this! It's an era of history that isn't written about enough. (Appreciate the shout-out as well!)
You deserve it -- thanks for all the great work you do. Even as someone who writes about anime myself, I always learn something!
That means a lot -- thank you!
This is absolutely fascinating. As much as I knew about the animation of GitS, I had no idea that the Western distributors were so involved in the production, or that that beloved realist style of Okiura and Inoue was specifically requested to appeal to foreign tastes. (Well played guys, you got this foreigner). Or that Oshii wasn't personally very invested in the manga, I figured it was to his taste! Definitely changes how I look at some of the adaptation decisions. What an incredible gamble though. That's got to go down in the market research hall of fame or something - reading your audience so well that you transform an entire medium.
It occurs to me that some similar call may be happening again now - Chainsaw Man's realist style was not popular in Japan, but Mappa were playing hard for prestige abroad, right? Though perhaps it didn't pay off as well this time...
You may very well be right about Chainsaw Man -- it was a big gamble itself, even if it wasn't an era-defining hit like Ghost in the Shell. The anime industry's awareness of foreign markets is a wide topic and it's been intriguing to study. We hadn't noticed until very recently that Watanabe was involved in Akira, Memories AND Ghost. (And more happened from here: we were reading about Manga Entertainment's involvement in a Cobra movie in the mid-1990s, to name one.)
As for Oshii's interest in the project, he definitely saw potential in the technology angle of it, even if the source material wasn't his choice. He also liked that Shirow basically gave him carte blanche to change whatever he wanted. So Oshii seemed pretty happy with everything in the end. He got paid, and he got to make one of his movies, so it was a win-win.
I will state that Chainsaw man though was based off of one of the biggest shounen manga coming out right now (so its pretty much an anime adaptation of an already popular series just in another medium), though Fujimoto definitely not a conventional shounen manga artist and probably is one of the best cartoonists working in Japan today, his art and storytelling is top notch while at the same time he's able to appeal to a broad audience. The risk taking was on the part of Shounen Jump for publishing and nurturing his talent...
There was a ton of brand recognition behind Chainsaw Man, for sure. The main gamble of the anime was in the financing method: MAPPA fully self-funded it, so if it underperformed in any way, the losses were all theirs. There was a big marketing campaign, too. Not many anime studios take such a serious risk, but it seems to have paid off okay in the end, probably (as you said) because of the fame of Fujimoto and his series.
I wonder what got Japan to stop producing more realist anime? Were there too many failures so they just said oh, foreigners don't like this anymore?
I've always been blown away by the work Manga Entertainment did to sell a film that otherwise would have been a difficult sell IMO. Like Oshii in general is an extremely divisive director and not exactly someone who has mass market appeal, but Manga managed to pull this off, I always give them a gold star for this.
It was an incredible risk. No Oshii film has ever replicated this success again -- not even Ghost in the Shell 2, despite its huge budget! There may have been an element of luck here (right place, right time), but Manga Entertainment absolutely deserves credit for selling a film that even the critics thought was too difficult for average viewers. It's one for the history books.
The soundtrack was also absolutely superb - and featured the U2 spin off project 'Passengers' on the closing credits. It's criminally hard to get the OST these days, but it's on a par with Vangelis's work on Blade Runner.
Wow! Really appreciated this insight into the GiTS production. Had no idea it was developed with a Western audience in mind.
Happy you enjoyed it! This part of the film's story is rarely mentioned except in passing. It seems Manga Entertainment was involved in Stand Alone Complex as well, and Oshii said there was even foreign interest in Innocence at first. In his words (translation via Wave Motion Cannon):
"At the beginning of the project, there even were talks about making it with capital from overseas, but negotiations collapsed after a year. ... There was no problem with the project, but they expressed disapproval over the script. And I had absolutely no intention to change it."
Thanks for writing this Ghost in the Shell was really influential I remembered watching it on Laser Disc really demonstrated the imaginations of what Animation could be. Did not know how much Western involvement to promote the film outside of Japan.
Glad you enjoyed the article! Thank you. Manga Entertainment's role in the film isn't discussed in detail very often and we thought it would be a cool angle to explore.
Great as ever, loved seeing theBoy and the Heron at a local cinema here in England. Thanks for another great piece.
Thanks, Jon! And glad you liked The Boy and the Heron. That was one of the wildest experiences we've had in a theater. We were talking about it amongst ourselves for days!
Thank you for the wonderful piece. Ghost was a mindopening film for me. I don’t remember if we saw it before Evangelion but there was a special moment when it all came together specially due to the limited distribution of the older times.
Thank you very much! Glad you enjoyed the article. This film really was a game-changer -- for the business and for viewers.
I'm older and had never heard of this movie, and, TBH, if it wasn't for my now-18-yr-old daughter and her passing interest with Junji Ito (she has other faves), I would not have read your article. Thanks much for this. I love when people take risks, follow their hearts, and commit to Art.
Very glad you enjoyed the piece -- thank you! It was a really wild history to study.
This is such a great read. Amazing work. The most comprehensive deep dive into the behind the scenes story of how Ghost in the Shell got made. Thank you.
Thanks for this wonderful comment -- it means a lot, especially from a Manga veteran! Really appreciate it.
Amazing post, as usual!
Thank you very much!