that Sawamura planned to collect bribes from Megatech in exchange for covering up a defect in the nuclear reactor, which was going to explode, and presenting it as a terrorist attack; however, Zebra seized the reactor to take it over and wanted to extort money from Sawamura. Kusanagi declares the entire experience as at least good training for the Rookie and acknowledges the Rookie's cleverness, but criticizes the overdependence on the Fuchikoma. Development The game was in development for one and a half years, and involved the work of several divisions, being Kenji Sawaguchi and Tetsuji Yamamoto the total director and producer respectively. The programming was done by Exact, known for the Jumping Flash! series. Ghost in the Shell was designed and targeted to a mature audience; developers did not make Motoko playable to prevent the game appearing to be a character-based game for children. The original manga's creator Masamune Shirow was the main designer of the characters and mecha for the game. At Production I.G, Hiroyuki Kitakubo directed the animation scenes, wrote the screenplay and did the storyboards; Toshihiro Kawamoto was animation supervisor and a character designer. The scenes are noticeably different when compared to the film namesake directed by Mamoru Oshii, because the game is colored using a full digital technique. The scenes are a combination of cel animation and backgrounds that were rendered in three dimensions to ensure smooth transitions for the camera movement. Adobe Photoshop was used to add the finishing details to the scenes. The Japanese voicing of the game was done by a different cast than the film's: Motoko Kusanagi was played by Hiromi Tsuru, Batou by Shinji Ogawa, Chief Aramaki by Soichi Ito, Ishikawa by Kiyoshi Kobayashi, Togusa by Hirotaka Suzuoki, Saito by Nobuyuki Hiyama, and the Fuchikoma were voiced by Katsue Miwa. The English localization was dubbed by the same cast used for the original movie, although the game does not specify the respective roles in the credits. Motoko was voiced by Mimi Woods, Batou by Richard Epcar, Aramaki by William Frederick, and Togusa by Christopher Joyce; the roles of Bob Papenbrook, Wendee Lee, Jimmy Krakor and Julie Maddalena are not reliably known. Release and promotion The game was originally released in Japan by Sony Computer Entertainment on July 17, 1997. The following day, a launch party was held at the Yebisu Garden Hall: the Megatech Body Night. The event featured the