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Kodansha USA Plans New Manga of Ghost in the Shell: SAC

Kodansha USA Publishing head Yoshio Irie revealed in the full transcript of an interview by Publishers Weekly on Tuesday that his company is planning to release "a new manga version of the TV anime series, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex." This anime is itself based on Masamune Shirow's original Ghost in the Shell manga. (The manga also inspired Mamoru Oshii and Production I.G's two anime films.) However, no manga adaptation of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex was released in Japan in a stand-alone volume.

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex did spawn three novels and several art books. Hobby Japan's Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex Visual Book (2004) and Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex 2nd GIG Visual Book (2006) included short anthologies of original four-panel gag manga by Eiichirō Mashin (Himuro no Tenchi Fate/school life), Ranma Kusumi (Moon Tarte), Kōji Sugitani (Settoin! Deitappu!!), and others. Irie did not indicate if Kodansha USA's "new manga version" refers to new English editions of these materials, or entirely different materials.