Ghost in the Shell Creator Announces New Project Vladlove

Mamoru Oshii is a legend in the game that is anime. Bringing to life the world of Masamune and the Ghost in the Shell, fans have waited nearly three decades for a new series helmed by the anime creator. Luckily, those following Oshii won’t have to wait any longer as the creator of GitS has announced the next project that he’ll be working on. Next year, fans can expect a twelve episode animated series that’s certainly a bit long in the tooth.

Anime News Network dropped the news that Oshii’s next project would be Vladlove, an anime that follows a group of high school girls, one of which happens to be an ancient vampire:

The vampire protagonist of the series, Mai, will hang out with a group of four other girls and will focus on slapstick comedy rather than ghoulish horror or futuristic cyberpunk technology. A manga series will accompany the comedic supernatural tale so fans can expect to take in this story on multiple fronts.

Oshii himself gave his thoughts on the creation of the series and what fans can expect for the 2020 anime series:

The series “won’t have any handsome men (ikemen). It will seriously tackle a story centering on a girl-meets-girl concept, with Mai feeling similar to Urusei Yatsura’s Lum.”

While this certainly may seem like a departure for Masamune, its clear that he has an affinity for strong female characters, and with his original release of Ghost in the Shell creating one of the most iconic examples, we can’t think of anyone who would be a better choice for heading up Vladlove.

What do you think about the details of Ochii’s brand new vampire comedy series? Will you be checking out Vladlove when it drops next year for its twelve episode run? Feel free to let us know in the comments or hit me up directly on Twitter @EVComedy to talk all things comics, anime, and creatures of the night.

For those unfamiliar with Ghost in the Shell, the series was created by Masamune Shirow (as Mobile Armored Riot Police in Japan) in 1989. Collected into three volumes by Kodansha, the series has spawned an entire media juggernaut with anime, OVAs, videogames, and even a Hollywood live-action film adaptation as recently as last year.

Set in 2029 Japan, the series follows the Public Security Section 9, a counter-cyberterror organization led by Major Motoko Kusanagi (a woman forced to live with a cybernetic body due to an accident when she was young) as they investigate the crimes committed between machines and humans. The series first made its major break in 1995 with a film, and then another anime series in Stand Alone Complex that told an alternate story from the film. This is arguably the most popular version of the series, but it’s one of many.