The 3rd Niigata International Animation Film Festival opened in Niigata City on March 15th, with the opening film being the masterpiece "Innocence" by director Mamoru Oshii. Ishikawa Mitsuhisa, CEO of IG Port, who produced the film, and Inoue Shinichiro, festival director, appeared on stage. "Innocence", the sequel to "Ghost in the Shell", was released in theaters in 2004, and last year marked its 20th anniversary with a 4K remaster. In a stage greeting held in Tokyo on March 2nd to commemorate the release, when asked "Do you want to make a sequel to "Ghost in the Shell" and "Innocence", Director Oshii said, "There is something I want to do for the third film. There is only one thing I have left to do. If I can do it, I would like to do it." This has also become a hot topic. In response to Director Oshii's remarks, Ishikawa spoke about his outlook for "Ghost in the Shell 3".
Ishikawa, who had the opportunity to talk with director Mamoru Oshii about "Ghost in the Shell 3," began by saying, "I want to talk about something that happened 48 hours ago," and revealed, "I asked him if that was just lip service. It wasn't."
It is said that huge production costs were poured into "Innocence." Ishikawa said, "It's said to have cost an estimated 2 billion yen, but I think the figure is close to that. This film costs a lot of money. It may not be possible to recoup the money in the short term, but they said it would be recouped in 10 years. It's been 20 years, and I still haven't recouped it."
As Ishikawa said, "It's footage from 20 years ago, but it hasn't faded," it is a masterpiece, but it was not a huge commercial success. Ishikawa said, "If we don't recoup the production costs, there won't be a third movie. I want to spread the word about this. I want to see it too. If you watch Innocence, you'll get a hint (for the third movie). If we make a sequel to this movie, we can recoup all of that."
"Innocence" is a sequel set in 2032, three years after "Ghost in the Shell," and it also garnered attention as it was the first Japanese anime to be selected for the competition section at the Cannes Film Festival.
The festival aims to be one of the largest festivals in Asia with a competition category for feature-length animated films, with the aim of spreading anime culture from Niigata to the world. The first festival was held in Niigata City from March 17th to 22nd, 2023, and the second from March 15th to 20th, 2024. The third festival will be held from March 15th to 20th.
