The Original ‘Ghost in the Shell’ Voice Actors Will Dub the Live-Action Movie

As a general rule of thumb, people should avoid watching movies in anything other than the original language. No matter how good a voice actor may be, a film loses a bit of its nuance and timing when the movements of the original actors no longer perfectly match up with their spoken words. It may be a little uncomfortable at first, but turning on subtitles allows you hear the full inflection of each actor without losing any of the dialogue or plot developments as they occur. There’s a reason film nerds get so cranky about dubbed versions of films.

Of course, there are exceptions, and the upcoming live-action adaptation of Ghost in the Shell might prove to be one of the biggest. According to reports, the cast of the original Ghost in the Shell series will be returning to dub the English-speaking actors for the Japanese version of the film. This news originally debuted at Japanese site Natalie and was translated by Kotaku (via /Film). Major will be voiced by Atsuko Tanaka, Batou will be voiced by actor Akio Otsuka, and Togusa will be voiced by Kôichi Yamadera; each of these actors had previously played their character in the 1995 animated film as well as a handful of film sequels, direct-to-video sequels, and standalone television series.

If anything, this might make Ghost in the Shell one of the first films where English-speaking fans voluntarily choose to watch the movie dubbed into another language but with English subtitles. If you believe that Major and Batou are supposed to sound a certain way, then you’ll definitely want to pick up a copy of Ghost in the Shell when it hits Blu-ray (or maybe fly around the world to watch the movie in Japanese theaters, but I’m going to go out on a limb and say that’s probably not in your budget). It will be interesting to see how fans of both countries react to the return of some of the original stars.

Here’s the full plot synopsis for Ghost in the Shell:

Based on the internationally-acclaimed sci-fi property, Ghost in the Shell follows Major, a special ops, one-of-a-kind human-cyborg hybrid, who leads the elite task force Section 9. Devoted to stopping the most dangerous criminals and extremists, Section 9 is faced with an enemy whose singular goal is to wipe out Hanka Robotic’s advancements in cyber technology.

Ghost in the Shell will star Scarlett Johansson, Juliette Binoche, Takeshi Kitano, Pilou Asbæk, and Rila Fukushima. The film will materialize in theaters on March 31, 2017.