Popular anime franchise Ghost in the Shell will be launched as NFT collection on Oct. 31

Animoca Brands Japan is set to launch a non-fungible token collection inspired by the popular Japanese cyberpunk franchise, Ghost in the Shell. The tokens will be launched on the Ethereum network starting Oct. 31.

According to an Oct. 25 press release, the Ghost in the Shell collection will consist of 500 unique NFTs featuring characters from the 1995 anime movie adaptation based on the 1989 manga series by Masamune Shirow.

The Ghost in the Shell NFT collection will be launched on Animoca Brands Japan’s NFT trading platform SORAH. Sales will start on Oct. 31 at 12:00 JST. The platform employ a lottery sales based model and a first-come-first-served sales model, using the Allow List, also known as priority purchase rights.

The NFTs will be built using the Ethereum(ETH) protocol’s ERC-721 NFT standard and sold for ETH 0.018 per token or equal to $45.16 per token based on the current price. The Ghost in the Shell pack will be the first installment of its NFT series “AnimeTraits” in which Animoca plans to collaborate with more fan-favorite anime and manga franchises to create NFT collections that it will launch in the future.

“AnimeTraits allows you to dress up your PFPs with parts from Japanese anime characters. Will be available on SORAH on 31st Oct. Don’t miss out!” wrote Animoca on an X post announcing the upcoming launch.

The X post features a video of an iconic scene from the 1995 movie adaptation where the main character, Major Motoko Kusanagi, falls down a building. The scene then cuts to show a three-eyed pink mascot from the Mocaverse, an earlier Animoca Brands membership NFT collection consisting of 8888 unique characters.

The firm will also offer customization options for the owners of its Mocaverse offerings, as well as those who hold CoolCats and San FranTokyo collections. Back in Nov. 2023, Animoca announced partnerships with CoolCats Group and San FranTokyo.

Based on information from the company release, users can also purchase the changed costume images as merchandise on the AnimeTraits site.

First serialized in 1989, Ghost in the Shell is a Japanese cyberpunk manga series written and illustrated by Masamune Shirow. The manga was later adapted into several anime adaptations, including the most famous 1995 film adaptation directed by Mamoru Oshii.

The film is set in 2029 in a fictional place called New Port City. The main character is a cyborg public-security agent named Motoko Kusanagi who wants to hunt down an enigmatic hacker known as the Puppet Master. The movie incorporates a lot of philosophical themes that center around self-identity in a technologically advanced world.

On May 25, it was announced that a new anime television series adaptation for Ghost in the Shell is in the works. Japanese animation studio Science Saru is set to produce it and the anime series is predicted to premiere in 2026.