In Ghost in the Shell's gloomy vision of the near future, the open sky is barely visible. The art department focused almost exclusively on depicting the built environment, creating a claustrophobic ambience at times.
This final production background is based on a layout by Atsushi Takeuchi.
In an interview conducted by Stefan Riekeles with Shuichi Kusamori in January 2023 the artist said: “Doing this was a dream for me. I was simply enjoying life to the fullest. I don't recall specifically thinking about how to approach this cut or whatever deliberate choices. What I do remember is just continuously adding more vertical strokes.
Once I start painting I tend to get absorbed in the details, like slight variations in how the rust peels. Reference photographs were a departure point, but once I've started drawing, I'm no longer consciously thinking about reference materials”.
