Ghost in the Shell

Rating:
Summary: Masamune Shirow's best work.
Review: Interesting characters, intriguing story, better than the movie, great artwork. In other words, classic Masamune Shirow.

Rating:
Summary: "Ghost in the Shell" is extremely detailed and brilliant.
Review: Major Kusanagi and her crew (Batou, Togusa, Boma, Ishikawa, Paz and Saito) are what some Americans may refer to as "Black Ops." They get the job done with little, if any, worry about the legal niceties or moral implications. Throughout the manga, we get the impression that the ends justify the means. "Ghost in the Shell" puts in question the very definition of humanity that sets us apart from the rapid evolution of the newest sentient creature. The Machine. Bringing forth the same questions as many other works such as "Armitage III" and even "Terminator," Masamune Shirow does it with unparalleled skill. His science is no fiction, but, as in "Appleseed," "Dominion" and his other works, follows facts and a history that seems almost real.

Rating:
Summary: Better than the anime and a classic to boot!
Review: Manga and anime, while originating from the same country, are two very distinct mediums. While anime has to condense or even omit a lot of information to make something watchable for a large audience, manga has the opportunity to explore ideas better and develop characters further. Such is the case with "Ghost in the Shell", which is considered a classic in both anime and manga formats. But while the anime does have its moments, it's the manga that truly shines.

For anyone who has seen the anime first, the manga of "Ghost in the Shell" will present quite a surprise. The story in the manga is a lot more developed and complex, and characters are more fleshed-out. While action prevailed in the anime, the manga decides to flesh the world out more and explore the ideas of what it means to be human more indepth. The manga also has somewhat of a comical tone, something the anime didn't have. The heroine of the story, Major Motoko Kusanagi, like every character in the story, is also very different from her anime counterpart. Instead of a dead-serious, almost cold woman, Kusanagi is the kind of woman found in other Masamune Shirow manga like "Dominion: Tank Police" and "Appleseed": serious when need be, short-tempered when pushed, and happy-go-lucky on occasion. In fact, the differences between the anime and manga can be summed up as the difference between "bare-minimum" and "total depth".

Visually, "Ghost in the Shell" is not the best-looking manga on today's market, but it does have its own unique style. If you're reading this manga expecting the realistic character models and world of the anime, you'll be disappointed. Masamune Shirow's drawing style has barely evolved from his days of "Appleseed", and "Ghost in the Shell" maintains that style. Characters can either be detailed figures or chibi-like outlines, depending upon whether the comic takes a humorous or serious turn. Depending on your tastes, it might or might not be a turn-off. But anyone who enjoys or tolerates so-called "classic" style of drawing such as "Astro Boy" and "Akira" won't have much trouble getting into "Ghost in the Shell".

Regarding the translation, Dark Horse Comics does one of the better jobs in the market today. There are no typos to be found, and the dialogue isn't static or flat. They even translated several notes made in the margins of the actual comic by Masamune Shirow.

Overall, "Ghost in the Shell" is an outstanding read for any serious manga fan. The story is more complex than the one found in the anime and by far a much better one. The artistic style might turn off people who aren't big fans of manga, but it shouldn't really be that much of a problem. Don't pass this story up; it deserves a place in any manga reader's collection!

Rating:
Summary: Epic Manga: Ghost in the Shell
Review: Masamune Shirow did a great job!! By the story of Ghost in the Shell, Shirow explain what the universe he think. In Ghost in the Shell, the whole universe is a vast network, it connect to human mind, computer, past, future, even the greatness there. On the other hand, he definite computer, human, god clearly, Computer is Computer, it's no ghost! Normal human is not a computer, because they have right brain, of course if they make themself as programmed by habit of society, they would become something like computer (but with error :-P), God is..... you can think god is the whole network... Moreover, Shirow is a cool S.F (even it's not a fiction) writer, he is good at policics, technology and miltary matter, these factor make the future he talk about is a more realistic and more scienc universe. At last, I think reader can think it's more a textbook than manga.

Rating:
Summary: Ghost in The Shell: Legendary Manga Work
Review: Masamune Shirow is known for many differnet kinds of Manga, but none as incredibly well done as Ghost in The Shell. The movie company "Manga" brought the GiTS Manga onto Video, but the graphic novel outdoes the movie by a long shot. Being writen, the character's dynamics and art make the book beautiful as well as very in depth. Also the storyline alone is enough to go into Manga history. ANYBODY who has had ANY exposure to Anime and/or Manga should read Masamune Shirow's finest work to date, Ghost in The Shell.

Rating:
Summary: Highly Recommended Sci-Fi Action!
Review: Masamune Shirow is the greatest. One of the ways I can back my opinion up is with Ghost In The Shell. This book is much like the anime, but has more detail. If you like the anime get the book, and if you like the book get the anime! Great work Shirow, keep it up!^_^

Rating:
Summary: Clever But ...
Review: Masamune Shirow's (MS) GHOST IN THE SHELL takes place in a
near-future Japan, where cyborgs and robots are common and humans
are increasingly wired into the world cybernet. The story rotates
around Major Motoko Kusanagi of the Japanese Ministry of Internal
Security, Section 9, whose general charter is to keep tabs on
what other Japanese government agencies are up to. (Section 9's
charter actually seems somewhat flexible, and they are called
on to perform various dirty tricks when required.)

Kusanagi's boss, "Old Monkey Face" Aramaki, is a shrewd bureaucratic
game-player who backs up his people while engaging in various
sparring matches with them, and her team is a mixed crew, featuring
her right-hand man, the old pro Batou, and the rookie, Togusa.
The story takes the group through a series of semi-independent
adventures, leaking up to a climax rotating around an artificial
intelligence named the "Puppeteer".

Trying to describe a Masamune Shirow (MS) work in much more detail
is difficult, as the stories are complicated, full of loose ends,
and hard to follow. This is at the same time their strength and
weakness. Instead of laying out a future society in a nice clean
orderly way, he creates a disorderly future world and throws the
reader into it, only giving hints every now and then to help
show the way.

For someone who likes to be challenged, this can be a great deal
of fun, and in a way the disorderly nature of the stories gives
them a certain flavor of authenticity. After all, not much is
nice or neat in the real world, either. Similarly, the fact that
MS throws out an endless stream of ideas makes him lively reading,
even if not all the ideas are complete or sometimes even make any
sense after multiple readings. Even he has admitted: "Nobody
ever understands my essays."

However, someone who's not that heavily wired into science fiction,
impatient with a story line that takes the reader all over the
landscape, and regards a litter of loose ends as annoying will
probably throw GHOST IN THE SHELL across the room. This is the sort
of writing that a reader will either find fascinating or totally
hate.

I like it myself, though even I have to admit that some of his plot
excursions, like the slapstick elements about the "Fuchikomas",
tarantula-like mechanical armor / robots, seem a bit loopy. I used
to wonder if I wasn't dealing with some Japanese cultural
peculiarities, but I finally conclueded that MS probably seems a
bit eccentric to other Japanese, too.

As far as the artwork goes, it's very good and stylish, though
not all that similar to conventional manga artwork. As with the
writing, the artwork is idiosyncratic. I should warn that there
is some fairly graphic violence and some sexual elements, though
MS doesn't make a regular habit of them. In any case, this isn't
a good book for kids, since most would have problems reading it.

Incidentally, Mamoru Oshii's anime movie version of GHOST IN THE
SHELL does capture much of the flavor of the manga version,
though the movie is substantially simplified. If you have seen
the movie and liked it, you may well like the manga version,
and it's developed far more than the movie. If you found the
movie too hard to follow, then the manga version is probably not
a good bet for you.

I give GHOST IN THE SHELL four stars for its cleverness and

imagination. As far as its disorderliness goes, it seems to be
so inherent in the way MS thinks that it's the necessary flip
side of what makes him interesting. However, it also makes me
hold out on that fifth star, just as a warning that some folks
will find GHOST IN THE SHELL completely unreadable. Even they
will admit, however, that it is certainly something different.

Rating:
Summary: better than the movie, imho
Review: the action here is better than in the movie and the story is much more elaborate and does not concentrate on the philosophical aspects so narrowly. They should've asked William Gibson to write the movie script -- this is his area of expertise and probably would make a much better movie from the material of the novel. Don't get me wrong: i loved the movie when i saw it first (and many times since), it's just after reading this novel i realize how much of the movie is spent in long-winded conversations and how much of the good stuff is left out. Another area where the novel excels and the movie practically fails is character development. So if you liked the movie, you'll learn much more about the characters here.

Also, since i was only exposed to US version of the novel, i can only guess how much was censored out but it feels that a good chunk didn't make it through. Hence the eroticism level is low against the expectation.

Rating:
Summary: Excelent manga makes excelent anime.
Review: The manga of GITS is as good as the anime, and it was the groundwork for it. There was more stuff in the manga you didn't see in the anime like how the Soviet Union was competing against Japan in the production of humanesque robots with human brains. Though I could have done without the goofy faces when the characters got mad or overly happy. If you love the GITS anime, you'll love the manga.

Rating:
Summary: An intelligent story with beautiful artwork
Review: The story in Ghost in the Shell is very complex with many ways of interpeting what has happened. I liked the way the story takes you to another place where morals are different but the human spirit remains even if it is in an android. The questions that come up are not always answered and I enjoyed coming up with my own answers. The art enhances the effect. Shirow draws with so much detail the average person could go insane trying to find all the little details. Most of the book is black and white but the colored parts are rich with energy and reminded me of another manga story, Akira. While the story does slow down at times the ideas more than make up for it.