One of anime's most enduring cyberpunk franchises is charging back with fresh creative blood and a distinctly manga-faithful approach.
Anime Limited's All the Anime label revealed the English dub cast for Science SARU's The Ghost in the Shell on Monday. Suzie Yeung will voice Major Motoko Kusanagi, with SungWon Cho as Daisuke Aramaki, Bill Butts as Batou, and Nick Apostolides as Togusa. John Bentley takes on Ishikawa, Tony Weaver Jr. plays Saito, and Lizzie Freeman voices Fuchikoma. Additional voices include Erica Mendez, Todd Haberkorn, and Frank Todaro, among others.
Yeung is no stranger to anime fans. She previously voiced Makima in Chainsaw Man, Yuffie Kisaragi in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, and Vladilena Milizé in 86. Cho, meanwhile, is widely recognized as ProZD online and has built a following through voice work in games and animation.
The dub announcement arrived alongside plans for a UK theatrical screening of the first two episodes on June 26. That follows the anime's world premiere at the 2026 Annecy International Animation Film Festival on June 22, where it screened as a 90-minute special event. An Anime Expo 2026 showing is also planned for July 5.
Produced by Science SARU and based on Masamune Shirow's 1989 manga, the series marks a deliberate return to the source material. It will be the first adaptation to faithfully tackle Shirow's original work. Previous film and TV iterations took major liberties with the story, often leaning darker and more introspective than the manga itself. Shirow's original carried more humor, more technical detail, and a lighter rhythm between its action sequences.
Mokochan, a key animator and storyboard artist for Dandadan and The Heike Story, is making his directorial debut with the project. EnJoe Toh handles series composition and scripts, while Shuhei Handa designed the characters and serves as chief animation director. In an interview with Anime News Network, producer Kōhei Sakita spoke about how the team earned original creator Shirow's confidence. "We shared the script and storyboard with Shirow-sensei," Sakita said. "He checks up on us but also trusts us with the creative process and acting."
Science SARU has remained in top form in recent years, with Scott Pilgrim Takes Off and Dandadan boosting its profile considerably. Landing the Ghost in the Shell franchise represents a different kind of challenge, though. Every version of this story exists in the long shadow of Mamoru Oshii's 1995 film, a touchstone that shaped cyberpunk cinema globally.
The series premieres July 7 on Kansai TV and Fuji TV in Japan, with Amazon Prime Video streaming it worldwide across more than 240 countries. English, French, and German dubs will be available at launch alongside the original Japanese audio. Millennium Parade, featuring Saya Gray and Daniel Caesar, performs the ending theme.
For a franchise that has cycled through so many tonal reinventions, a version built from the manga up feels overdue. Whether it clicks with longtime fans who grew up on Oshii's meditative pacing remains the open question heading into July.
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