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Column by Scott Green
In an online simul-streamed announcement, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex and Eden of the East director Kenji Kamiyama revealed that his next project is an update of Shintaro Inshonomori's team of fugitives sci-fi, Cyborg 009. The 3D film, titled 009 Re:Cyborg is scheduled to hit Japanese theaters in 2012.
Shotaro Ishinomori's seminal Cyborg 009 featured a team of people, kidnapped from across the globe for human experimentation, who escape and turn their new super powers against their former captors. Kamiyama's mentor, Ghost in the Shell movie director Mamoru Oshii, previously produced a 3D Cyborg 009 anime for Panasonic, while Kamiyama used the characters in a Pepsi promo short.
From Production I.G's announcement
Production I.G announces the production of a new animated feature film, 009 RE:CYBORG, based on the Cyborg 009 characters created by Shotaro Ishinomori and directed by Kenji Kamiyama, the world-acclaimed director of the Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex series and Eden of the East. The full-CG, stereoscopic 3D movie will be theatrically distributed in Japan in fall 2012 by Production I.G and T-Joy. Kenji Kamiyama himself is writing the script for the new film, which is going to be set in the present days. The main staff gathered around the project includes some of Japan’s top creators who have already collaborated with Kamiyama in his previous works. Gato Aso (Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit) is in charge of character design duties, the score will be composed by Kenji Kawai (Eden of the East), while the background art will be by Yusuke Takeda (Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit). The animation is produced in collaboration with Sanzigen, one of Japan's up-and-coming CG studios.
MAIN STAFF
Original Concept: Shotaro Ishinomori
Director / Screenplay: Kenji Kamiyama (Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone
Complex, Eden of the East)
Music: Kenji Kawai (Ghost in the Shell, The Sky Crawlers)
Character Design: Gato Aso (Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit)
Animation Director: Daisuke Suzuki
Background Art: Yusuke Takeda (Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex)
Producer: Tomohiko Ishii (The Sky Crawlers, Eden of the East)
Animation: Production I.G (Ghost in the Shell) Sanzigen (Towanoquon)
ABOUT CYBORG 009
009 RE:CYBORG is based on the Cyborg 009 characters created in 1964 by Japanese comic artist Shotaro Ishinomori. In the original comic, nine regular humans from different parts of the world are kidnapped by the evil Black Ghost organization, and transformed into cyborgs with astounding powers for the purpose of being used as weapons. The nine cyborgs rebel and start to fight against their creators, while struggling for their own self redemption. Ishinomori continued to write Cyborg 009 until 1985 in eight different story arcs. As the first superpowered hero team ever created in Japanese comics, Cyborg 009 proved to be a greatly influential forerunner for the generations to come, and received three animated TV series and three movie adaptations, distributed in many countries of the world.
ABOUT SHOTARO ISHINOMORI
Ishinomori (1938 - 1998) is considered one of the most representative and influential Japanese comic artists. His opera omnia, encompassing an astoundingly broad variety of themes, includes 770 works collected into 500 volumes for a total of 128,000 pages, making him the Guinnes World Record-holder for the "most comics published by one author." He received the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Rosette, the Japan Cartoonists Association Award and the Minister of Education Award for his work. He also received the special Osamu Tezuka Cultural Prize for his long lasting contributions to the manga medium.
ABOUT KENJI KAMIYAMA
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 animation director in Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade (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, Excellence Prize winner, Japan Media Arts Festival 2002) and its second season, 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, Jury Recommended Work at the 10th Japan Media Arts Festival, Jury Prize at the 21st Digital Content Grand Prix). In 2007, after almost 6 years spent in the world of Ghost in the Shell, Kamiyama directed the high-fantasy TV series Guardian of the Spirit (Jury Recommended Work at the 11th Japan Media Arts Festival) followed in 2009 by Eden of the East (2009, Best TV Animation at the 14th Animation Kobe), Kamiyama's highly anticipated fully original TV series. In 2006 he 'acted' as a superlivemation digital puppet in Mamoru Oshii's Tachigui: The Amazing Lives of the Fast Food Grifters, in the role of Manager Kamiyama. 2011 has seen the theatrical release of the stereoscopic 3D version of his multiple award-winning Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex - Solid State Society, of which Kamiyama personally supervised the 3D conversion.
