Hot on the heels of Bandai Entertainment's acquisition of Mobil Suit Gundam 00 and Gurren Lagann, the company has now announced that its very first Blu-ray high definition title will be Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence. This movie is the sequel to the original Ghost in the Shell movie (which then inspired the spinoff television series, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex and the subsequent Solid State Society).

Innocence was only the 6th animated film ever to be featured at the Cannes Film Festival, in 2004, and was released on DVD in the United States in December of that same year. That release had no English dub, but featured English subtitles that some viewers felt were too visually intrusive to the movie's special effects. However, this latest production of the film will feature the same English voice actors who dubbed the television series.

Bandai's slideshow, which also traces the history of the various Ghost in the Shell movies and series, is effusive and obviously very excited, but does not yet reveal the actual sale date of the DVD. But we know it will be in the next few months, and this DVD may be the jewel in the triple crown of upcoming Bandai Entertainment releases.