The crowd at the 2026 Annecy International Animation Festival had a strong reaction to a single phrase: "zero GenAI."
Toma Kimura (who goes by “Mokochan”), of anime production company Science Saru, revealed at the festival that the upcoming Ghost in the Shell remake wouldn’t have any generative AI — and the crowd responded with roars of excitement.
Kimura’s remark came with context; he was talking about the design of street signs in the show when he delivered the exciting news. "We wanted every street sign to be specifically designed, but it became too much of a burden,” he said. “Instead, we used this worm-like lettering that looks like kanji but is actually gibberish. We decided on this before generative AI became prevalent, so please know that zero GenAI was used on the project.”
The statement carries weight in the current moment. Generative AI has found its way into Japanese TV animation production, and in April, Wit Studio — known for Spy x Family — revealed that AI-generated backgrounds appeared in one of its recent productions.
Science Saru’s producer, Kohei Sakita, explained the team's philosophy at Annecy. "The feeling of something drawn by a person is the whole appeal of animation to me,” Sakita said.
Several days ago, Kimura explained, at the festival, that Ghost In The Shell’s remake would be hand-drawn. “We want to express that this is a hand-drawn show made by humans to highlight the humanity in the story,” he said. “The anime is sci-fi, but it’s also spiritual, which means it was vital for humans to be involved every step of the way. This pipeline follows that which was built by legendary directors like Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata.”
The Annecy panel also screened the first two episodes ahead of the series debut, and the world premiere marked the first time in the festival's history that a TV series has been featured in that capacity.
Ghost in the Shell arrives on Prime Video on July 7.
