Koukaku Kidoutai: The Ghost in the Shell
The Ghost in the Shell

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I bought GitS over this last summer. I had already been such a huge fan of the movies and the series, I was eager to see where it all began. I had never read through a Shirow manga, with the exception of bits of Appleseed. When I got home, it was damn near 3 in the morning, and I still ended up getting to sleep at like 5.

Why?

Because this book is frickin amazing. I'm shocked at how few people have actually picked it up, given the near fanaticism the show inspired. One of the main reasons this might have happened is because there are some ... extremely graphic things that happen in the manga. Given that Shirow also dabbles in drawing hentai, I can expect this now, but I was a little unnerved when I first read it. Don't worry about it, because it only really lasts like 3 pages and if you read the massive amounts of extra information in the back it makes sense.

The art in this is beautiful and brutal at times. Shirow is an absolute master at creating realistic and detailed backgrounds. His city scapes and his mechanical designs seem as though they could actually work in real life. You can certainly tell that this was done in the early 90s though,if only because of some of the inking styles and color portions of this book practically scream it.

The characters, I'll admit, aren't exactly as fleshed out as they become in the show. However, they did lay the groundwork. Togusa is still a father and husband, Batou is still the smart ass, and Motoko is still cold and efficient. One of the things that fans of the series will notice is a lack of Tachikomas. Their predecessors, the Fuchikomas are essentially the same thing, except with noticeably different mech designs.

The story is mostly random crimes and special ops that the Section 9 crew goes through, making this seem like a cop story first and foremost. Eventually it gets to the Puppeteer, and fans of the movies already know how that turns out. Some twists and turns in the story make it more enjoyable (at least to me) than the movie that was based off this, and some of the more sci-fi stuff does get explained in greater detail. Again, this is where that directory in the back comes in handy. Without reading it, this story will probably not make sense unless you're a scientist, military specialist, or an extremely well read religious practitioner.

My enjoyment of this manga is obvious, and overall I think that any fan of the series, movies, or scifi and cyberpunk in general should check it out.

“… but now it’s time to cast off all restrictions and shells, and shift to a higher-level system…”

Ghost in the Shell is a work constantly asking what comes next. Whether it’s the next potential move of a cyber-terrorist, the next iteration of technology and weaponry, or the next step in the evolution of mankind. We know where we are right now, and we think we might know where we could go, but… what comes next?

It is the year 2029 in Newport City, Japan. Section 9, a branch of Public Security, has recently been founded as a unit specialized in counter-terrorism and anti-cybercrime. When necessary, they ... also act as oversight against government corruption. Towards those ends, their ranks are filled with an awesome group of highly-proficient individuals.

Major Motoko Kusanagi is the assault leader. A savvy smart-ass with skills in hacking few in the world can compare to. Batou is the powerful fist even without weapons; Ishikawa the tech expert; Saito the sniper; Togusa the rookie former-policeman; Boma the demolition specialist; Pazu the jack-of-all-trades; and Chief Aramaki the brains behind them all. Watching them work together is the best part, but sadly some don’t really have much presence. We spend little time with Ishikawa, Boma and Pazu -- and beyond Motoko, there are no real character development arcs.

Thankfully, their fights are further augmented by the crazy fuchikomas. I say ‘crazy’ in the most affectionate way possible. Depending on how their silliness strikes you, it will probably be love at first byte. A fuchikoma is a think tank, an AI-controlled armed robot that can either act independently or be entered by a controller and used as a vehicle. They look something like cute, pudgy, mechanical spiders. Much of the manga’s humor comes from the quips of these curious, sometimes recalcitrant, automatons.

Though more often than not it’s the Major’s own defiance towards authority that gets the biggest laughs.

The world of Ghost in the Shell is awash in technology. It’s everywhere you look. Usually where you don’t look too since it’s so prolific. People have begun casting away their flesh and organs in place of cybernetic enhancements or even full cybernization. Cyborgs are a norm. Motoko herself looks no different from an average, fully-human girl you might encounter beating criminals senseless while packing Seburo-style heat. Only when you get a little closer, lift up her hair, you see the ports on the back of her neck for hardwiring into a computer terminal or for direct connection to another cyborg.

Not long into the manga, there is a particularly profound section where Motoko observes the creation of a cyborg. An entirely biomechanical cyber-body is split open at the back of the neck, awaiting the only original organic material left of the woman to be cybernized -- her brain and spinal cord. Is this what our individual consciousnesses can be reduced to? Our bodies, like a two-meter high block of flesh and blood instead of marble, carved down to this small yet significant bit?

It is no wonder that the Major often wonders about the nature of her ‘ghost’. In a body 90% manufactured, it is hard to be sure what is really ‘her’ and what is not. Is there a ratio of human-to-machine where Motoko’s identity disappears and ‘she’ becomes something else entirely? And would ‘she’ know the change even occurred? At one point, she jokes that maybe only two brain cells remain the ‘real’ her.

Shirow plays this concept of identity like a violin.

It’s easy to get lulled into a false sense of security when it comes to our sense of self. Our bodies support our brains; our brains give rise to a consciousness. We are our bodies. However, in this new world there are hackers that would change this would-be permanence. Now cyberbrains can be infiltrated and implanted with false memories and personalities or be hijacked altogether and controlled remotely like a puppet. The main story arc involves such a character: The Puppeteer, a wizard hacker that can crack the strongest ice barriers and use people as pawns. So the question becomes not how we can retain our identity, but whether it’s even possible.

Although steeped in deeper philosophies, Ghost in the Shell is primarily an action-packed gunshot. Whether using a thermo-optically camouflaged fuchikoma to sneak around, hunting down a wanted target or busting onto the scene full force, Section 9 and the Major take you for a ride. Even when the build-up of the story is gradual, there is a great sense of anticipation of the payoffs to come. Shirow’s drawing is fluid when it comes to this tension-and-release, creating dramatic moments one after the other. A firefight may take only a few pages here or there, but it’s elegant and bloody and satisfying. And when the barrage carries on for page after page, better hold on!

Whether the technical prowess of Shirow’s art is greater than his creative choices is an academic question. Both are married perfectly. He makes Motoko look cool visually and adds to that coolness with the fact that she is a cyborg. So too is Newport City a fascinating place for both the way he makes it look and the futuristic technology he decides to fill it with. His ideas and execution are amazing. At times even prescient, given that this was first published in 1989. As with William Gibson’s Neuromancer, I guess there’s just something in the cyberpunk water.

To ask what comes next is to invite change. “Change is the only constant.” It feels pedantic to say that. It’s one of those simple truths that stretch from the cosmological to the infinitesimal. And there we are right in the middle of it. I’ve changed while I’ve written this sentence. You’ve changed while you’ve read this one. Our cells replenishing themselves, dividing, dying. Admittedly, those are tiny changes. Motoko herself confronts a great change head-on, the “what comes next” of our development as a species. It’s only one of many possible paths we could take, I imagine. It’s possible we’re well on our way, walking in her footsteps and mustering up the courage to do the same. Hell, we might have already made the decision.

Motoko talks about her ‘ghost’. It’s the last bit of her identity housed within the cybernetic shell of her body. It whispers to her, guides her, offers as much assurance as it can even though she fears it might not even exist. Housed within a life of constant change, what permanence can we find?

Maybe just those changes that birth a new future… and being lucky enough to witness them when they come to pass.

As a big fan of Ghost In The Shell Movies and TV shows I thought at some point I would see what the original source material of one of the greatest Sci-fi anime's ever.

Before reading Ghost In The Shell I was at the time not really a manga reader so I went into it with a open mind and after reading this manga I was more sold on reading Manga and also made me love Ghost In The Shell more than I already did.

The story had already familiar aspects from the films and shows as well as other stories that I found very enjoyable and ... all have a great Sci-fi elements and being a big fan of Sci-fi I found these very enjoyable from Hacking and diving into the internet.

The style the manga has is some of the best that I have ever seen in a manga which impressive as this came out in 1987. One of the greater parts of the style are a lot the fight scenes and also all the depiction's of the future with all the technology looks really good and you will find it hard to find something that looks just as good.

Characters at first what I expected from the anime's but they are a little bit different in some aspects. The best example is the Major herself. If you have seen the anime you know that she is a bad ass and very self confident but also trying to find out what her purpose is and if everything is real. But one ting that the manga has that the film or the TV show don't really show is that the Major has a immature side to her and also if you thought she didn't take any crap from ayone in the anime then read the manga as she takes it to a hole other level.

I guess if there was one last thing to talk about it is and if you know anything about this manga is the infamous Lesbian Cyber Sex scene between the Major and 2 of her cyborg friends and really to be honest its not much to shout about to be honest and it only last's about 2 pages and its just a dream sequence in their minds being hooked up together with some kind of drug (Not really mentioned) and so I don't think its gonna shock anyone over 18 put it that way.

So to sum up the Ghost In The Shell manga is a classic manga that all anime and manga fans must read. Even if your just a fan Sci-fi its defiantly worth reading as it is a classic and a part of one the great Sci-fi franchise and in anime and manga.

There are plenty of people who are aware with the 1995 animated movie, but hardly the same with the original manga published in 1989. It’s a shame since it does build its own world better and have more fleshed out characters. Even if most of it is for laughs.

Story:
You see, the original Ghost in the Shell Manga is the most lighthearted and more comedic than what this series has produced so far. Well except of those Tachikoma shorts. However, this still treats the issues like cyber-terrorists with most respect. They just present it, as it was a common thing, not a new thing like ... they did in the movie.

Instead of having one message of about the creation of a new entity made up of digital information, this manga also provides the message of child experiments, poverty and police brutality. As well to paying homage to the movie Blade Runner.

Art & Character:
If you expect the Major to act identical to the movie, then you might be surprised on how goofy she can be. Her type of expressions may look like it belongs to 80’s teen character, but she eventually shows her more mature side that we will come to know and love.

The rest of the cast seems to be more focused here than in the movie, where they were pushed aside. Even if we only focus on four out of all Section 9. Still, it’s something.

Enjoyment:
Most of the 11 chapters are episodic, with exception of the last ones which covers the incident of the puppet master. If you can’t decide between watching the movie or read the manga first, then you can watch the movie and then admire the manga afterwards.

The reason is that moments in the movie including the puppet master is underplayed in the original to an extent. Again, this manga shows a more mundane side than something as a warning from the future. I personally enjoyed some these moments. There is just something funny about Major and a cyborg engineer having a causal conversation about how they would experience death.

Overall:
Even if most chapters are episodic, the manga is only one volume. Short and sweet. So, if you ever consider reading, all that I can say is, that it’s worth your time and your mind.

It also predicted the dilemma between America and Syria. Just some fun trivia.

Damn, I feel like I've read something else than people. This title is overrated af, it's basically the first GITS, this legendary BEST cyberpunk manga ever. No, it's not. It's just a 300 page compilation of 11 chapters with story like "oh, there's a new bad guy and we have to beat him cuz he bad!!". The very first pages of this manga really got me, it started from a nice action scene, but... at first sight I couldn't even tell what's going on in the panels. Art in GITS is just... bad. It's not a "masterpiece art whatever" like everyone says. It's awfuly drawn ... comic with definitely TOO many things. On almost every page author writes long summaries to everything that is in the story only because he didn't just include it in the main plot and described everything slowly. He rushed the story from start to finish and in the end you don't even know what you've just read because there is just too much informations that are distracting you from the manga and story alone is that boring so you may forgot what you're reading and get yourself lost. As I said earlier, there's literally no story, just a compilation of random actions that lead you to a lesbian cyborgs' sex scenes with Motoko in the main role. Another thing - characters, there's also too many of them and in the end only 2-3 are getting enough attention to maybe at least remember their names. I honestly didn't enjoy it, I'll prolly watch the movie too and compare those 2, but damn, I was reading a 300-pages manga for almost a year only because it's so freakin boring and repetitive. I don't recommend it to anyone honestly, there are much better things in the bag. Try Akira, Gunnm or Blame if you wanna see what the real cyberpunk is. I hope this review will help some people considering to read GITS. Overall, it's just a poor manga with ugly artstyle, forced useless sex scenes, badly written characters in 90% of their appearances and literally no single straight story, plus author maybe didn't have any idea for the storyboard so half of the manga is a novel describing every electrical device that he invented, in the most boring way in the world, and there's just TOO MUCH of it.

Ghost in the Shell is a wonderful action-packed manga with tons of high tech electronics, guns, and vehicles [most of which can still be considered extremely advanced today].

Story: This had a lot of things that I haven't really seen anywhere else, and mostly haven't even thought about before. Nearing the end, it got a little bit hard to follow along, but I still understood it.

Art: Shirow's art-style stays consistent as the story progresses, and the backgrounds are detailed more than what you'd see in some anime. Every little bit of each page is full of things. The guns are amazing, keeping close to what they ... look like in real life, [Seburo guns are exempt from this because they are not real. The Seburo ones looked really cool too, cant deny that..]

Characters: The fact that each character has one or more unique trait about themselves makes this manga much more enjoyable. Their personalities are much different in comparison to the animated adaptations of the manga.

Enjoyment: I can't get enough of it.

Overall, I'd say that this is one of the best manga that I've ever read, and part of that is because I'm a computer geek who loves guns and electronics. If you like that kind of stuff too, then grab a copy immediately!

Simply put, the best comic to ever be produced in the 80's. There isn't a single, generic plotline to be found here but it's a series of procedural cases linked by a main antagonist working in the background with people (in particular the protagonist) that feel alive and real, more than any animated adaptation was ever able to reproduce (a rare exception in my personal preference of anime adaptations over the original mangas). The predictions and notes by the author about chemical warfare etc. are very interesting and the quips showing social conscience and critique mesh well with the general tongue-in-cheek way in which the ... author writes the material, with no pretention whatsoever to be found. The art is gorgeous too, with futuristic landscapes that feel real and palpable and characters as well as machinery well designed. As a person who refused to years to read this comic because for prejudice I thought that nothing could match the movies and TV series, I can't recommend this masterpiece enough. If you're into sci-fi or comics in general, read this period. You won't be disappointed.

I must say that my first interaction with the universe of GitS was the 1995 film. So when I first started reading this I was put off by how much of a different character the major was. The whole book is much more light-hearted than the film.

For the most part it is more of an episodic work. We start in-media-res and the feeling of that only really goes away at the end as we go through snippets of life in section 9 and in this sci-fi future. You don't really get to understand all the context, and there's some small (author or translator's?) notes explaining ... things throughout the whole work which help a lot, but ultimately you don't really need to know everything about the universe. Eventually I reached a middle point where the brand/model number gibberish is scarce enough that stopped feeling bad for filtering it out.
As I said this is more of an episodic work, with only the latter chapters making up a longer narrative. Due to this you could say the writing matures throughout the book, as you go from small chapters with things like that lesbian scene on the boat (with the most contrasting dialogue ever) to longer chapters about finding out who the bad guys are amidst all the politics.

The art-style isn't one of my favourites but it was fitting and worked out for both machinery and people.
As far as panelling goes, I had a lot of trouble figuring out what happened in close-quarters action scenes. Who came from where and what are they doing? Sometimes it felt like we were missing a panel in the middle, or would benefit from seeing the thoughts of a character.
The colour choices, giving some pages a colourful oily look, and mostly dabbing on dark tones with strong contrast of cold and warm colours were really good though. Really gives the vibe of big artificial polluted city.

(just for the record, this is a slight alteration of my anime review)

GiTS, the story of an anti-terrorist group of men and cyborgs, as they prevent cyber crimes. And this is not even the tip of the iceberg. GiTS stands as most likely the best in overall and most influential cyberpunk work in manga and it is still a concept that was never surpassed in detail and attention by any other. Seriously, the Matrix trilogy looks like elementary school before it. Here is a list of all the awesome things you can find in this manga.

1) Great artwork and cinematics. Masamune Shirow simply loved to ... draw machines and cyber chicks and that shows in spades. Every frame is highly detailed, with masterful choreography in battles and explanatory charts explain brand new technologies and applications that never feel too hard to grasp. It gives you the feeling that it is all possible and probable, making you believe them as viable and not as mumbo jumbo magic technology like in other sci-fi works.

2) Great story and concepts. The blur between reality and virtual reality may feel commonplace today but this manga is from the oldest examples and still holds today as amongst the most mature and well-thought-of takes on the subject. In fact, many other directors, filmmakers, and mangakas admit they were heavily influenced by this work and any similarities may as well be considered as tribute to this one. Also, unlike most other variants on augmented or virtual reality which focus on a small concept or part of the world, here the idea covers all aspects of life, from society, to religion, to philosophy, to one’s personal search for identity and happiness. And in case you find the concept simplistic after all these years and how today all that are mainstream stuff, you can also “try” to read the second GiTS manga or the watch the second GiTS movie, where things are even harder to understand. Good luck to you; I lost track at some point and my organic hard drive crashed so I left it for another time.

3) Great characters. Motoko, Batou and Togusa are three very easy to understand yet complicating personalities, all a product of their era, affected by the ever-present technology yet still making their own personal choices. The manga is both about co-ops and fighting criminals, as well as existentialism dialogues and the distinction of reality from illusion. There are no clear bad guys and good guys either; everybody is either greedy or apathetic to the most part, so morality is not standing in the way. Mercenaries and company presidents and politicians, all of them just try to make the best of what they can in a world run by information and the power of stealth ends up being more effective than the power of guns.

A thing to take notice is that the movie and anime versions have a far different feeling, as the characters there are more serious. In the manga version they are rather comical and from time to time offer a few laughs, without ever ruining their credibility. That is not a problem as much as the loose plot between the various missions. The story is highly episodic and thus may feel a bit unexciting for those who prefer tight storytelling. I didn’t mind it much though and I still recommend it as one of the oldest and best cyberpunks ever created.

The Ghost in the Shell - A Story about the Current Reality

"Technology has become what we are experiencing."

Throughout the history of Japanese animation, we had some examples of works that managed to leave the niche of anime fans, reaching a prominent place in pop cultures, such as Studio Ghibli, Akira or Dragon Ball, marked by vivid animation techniques and realistic narratives.
The Ghost in the Shell, more specifically its 1995 adaptation, is part of these productions graced by the western audience, even inspiring the Wachowski brothers to make "The Matrix". The manga that originated the feature film, even if it wasn't so well known, is ... the subject of reading by fans of its adaptation.

Written and illustrated by Masamune Shirow, the story follows Major Motoko Kusanagi, an android leader of a cyber counter-terrorism group. Set in a typical cyberpunk scenario, dominated by large corporations and inhabited by people who connect to cyberspace through cables inserted into the back of their heads, the work is certainly one of the most striking of this subgenre of science fiction, which was made popular through the books of William Gibson. (mainly Neuromancer) and other authors. Throughout the 352 pages of the manga, we follow this team fighting cases of cyber terrorism, many of which appear to be linked to a figure known as the Puppet Master.

The reason why Shirow's manga never achieved the popularity of its film adaptation is quite evident from the very first pages. The reader is immediately taken by an immense amount of information, with speech bubbles that fill the frames in such a way that this becomes a slower reading. The problem with this is that the plot quickly becomes very confusing to the point that we need to filter what impacts the plot development. The Ghost in the Shell is certainly not an easy read and requires a lot of concentration from the reader. This doesn't mean, however, that we are facing a bad story or anything like that. The mangaka's script explores this fascinating cyberpunk universe in-depth, clearly drawing on concepts from authors such as William Gibson and Philip K. Dick and imprinting his own philosophical and sociological vision on each page. At first, the great villains are the corporations that have infiltrated society in such a way that the government has become such a puppet, something that is made clear by the front pages. Major Kusanagi works as the portrait of freedom, the punk figure of cyberpunk, the element that isn't ruled in this dystopian future and that often acts spontaneously, standing out from everything around it.

The art, also by Shirow, perfectly symbolizes this through the protagonist's facial expressions. Despite being an android, she can be clearly defined by the emotions she clearly shows on her face. From a simple laugh to a punch in the face of a politician, we identify with his most rebellious stance, which, in itself, brings “colour” to the story. Unfortunately, Masamune ends up losing our immersion numerous times by bringing us pages full of visual information, which, together with the concepts introduced in the lines, make the reading even more confusing, to the point that the readers are obligated to reread certain pages to understand what is happening.

Interestingly, some of these confusing pages are beautiful, but usually only when they portray continuous action. At this point, we automatically stop reading just to appreciate the line, which dispenses with the pasteurization we are used to in current comics (whether eastern or western). That said, each character can be easily recognized by their appearance, which is very different from the others. We are talking about a very characteristic art of the 1990s when it comes to manga and there is no way not to see the similarities with other works, such as the classic Evangelion.

The colours, which are generally present at the beginning of each chapter, reinforce the visual identity of this world, often relying on shades of blue and grey, in addition to the use of red to denote violence, appearing in certain frames. Sometimes, the excess of colours also harms our reading, guaranteeing one more element for our eyes to get used to – reading black and white pages is considerably more fluid.
Fortunately, it's not something that gets in the way of reading too much, especially when we've gotten used to the concepts introduced halfway through the manga.
As much as it is not an easy read and it falls short of the 1995 anime adaptation, Masamune Shirow's work certainly deserves to be read by lovers of good old cyberpunk. With its evident value marked by the philosophical and sociological vision of its author, with clear mentions of other works of the genre, The Ghost in the Shell manages to capture the attention of its reader quickly and, even with the constant immersion breaks, provided by the confusing narrative, we managed to feel close to its protagonist, who stands out in this dystopian future, which is not that far from our reality.

Ghost in the Shell, the phenomenon that took over the world in the early 2000s with anime films. I finally read the source material, Mangaka Shirow Masamune's magnum opus, the Ghost in the Shell Manga in 2023. Better late than never.

I read the Hard Cover edition and it had some annotations on the side of the panels that gave information about the GITS world. Soft Cover editions don't have the annotations as far as i learned. The Manga was a very hard read with the annotations, so many information were given about the lore of GITS like the mangaka explained so many technology of ... the things in his GITS World including sci fi robotics and guns to religion. I had really hard time reading at some parts, it was not like a pleasure read to past the time, but rather it was like studiying advenced robotics techonology or something at some parts... Very tiring.

I am also surprised how mangaka talked about spirituality like he believes in god and spirits etc. Yeah, it says ''Ghost'' in The Shell on the title, but i thought he meant something like consciousness with ''Ghost'' not actual Ghosts and spirits... I very much disagree with the mangaka on ghost being the true selves of beings, if we talk about sentient beings the consciousness is the only self. Therefor all life don't have a self. There are no Ghosts or Spirits of any sort. Being life form is not about haveing vast information. A plant has zero information and no self but it is a life form. And also mangaka supported the idea of capital punishment and highly resented the advenced countries that forbided it... wow... I also disagree with him here. No one has any right to kill anyone. Executing serial killers is no solution to the problem because those people are mentally ill, it is not in their hands to stop killing. You can't make an example of them for them. They need medical psychatric treatment.

Even mangaka himself admits that all the manga was just my imagination runing wild and i may have really talked about nonsense here and there in the Manga. So take it all with a grain of salt. It was a fun read overall with the random section 9 operations and with the addition of the hacker puppeteer in the end.

STORY: 7

Let's enjoy a solid story where technology is about to turn the flow of information into a new form of consciousness, written before mass cellphones and social media! Not everything is clear, the pace is sometimes strange but cybernetics, geek sci-fi, political embroilment, police action, this manga does it all quite right.

ART: 9

Fantastic work that helped defined the style of mangas from the 90s, reading it 30 years later everything still looks great. Even the use of computerized textures (in 1990!) still serves the graphics although it should be dated by now!

POLITICAL POTENTIAL: 6

The big picture politics that the section 9 (where ... the protagonist works) is dealing with point at democracy manipulation, corruption, foreign policies that disregard the interest of peoples and terrorism. It's great to feel individual points of view at the same time and see that our hero can sometimes be bad or that bad guys have goals that you could sympathize with. There's also reflection about human rights and even what defines a human.
My favorite quote: "Emphasizing a lifestyle based on consumption is the ultimate violence against poor countries".

FEMINISM: 6

The cyborg Major Kusanagi, who is female, is the central character of this manga. She is the cream of her profession with her abilities, her information network and her expensive top-secret body parts. She can infiltrate bigwig politicians, butt heads with terrorists and fight giant robots. On her free time Kusanagi has a boyfriend or gets some cybersex with girlfriends of her. Her partner Batou, who takes after Arnold Schwarzenegger, offers a solid support but is showed as less competent.
Major Kusanagi seriously kicks ass.
And.. that's it for women.
Guys come in all sizes and shapes but almost every other woman in the manga has the same sexy body. Whether they are sex-doll, secretary, technician or nurse does not matter (and yes there's not many girls in a position of power). One could argue it shows sexism is still prevalent in this futuristic society and women are still pressured to have conforming bodies. But considering the annoying amount of male gaze through the manga I'd argue that it says more about sexism in the mangas of the 90s..

CONCLUSION: 7

A major title that stands the test of time and a great read before watching the masterpiece that is the anime adaptation.

Book feels very self important. The Deluxe edition has a lot of annotations which highlight the author's adoration of himself. The climax of the book is emotionless. It's a pedantic speech for pages that yields a decision without any emotion or reason. I like the anime better. I like the live action better than that. I'm probably too stupid - but I like emotion. This is more about speculation of the future and a flex of the author's own understanding of...weird...sci fi future stuff and guns?

That being said - it's neat. Maybe just not my cup of tea. But this is a pretty neat perspective ... if you can transport yourself back to a time pre-internet. Prophetic in a way and I get that - but the enjoyment of this book, to me, can't hinge on a neat idea from decades past.

Like...Akira isn't good because they called the Tokyo Olympics. Check out Akira. and if you liked Ghost in the Shell I'd love to chat. I want to like it. I just need some help I think. I've been stalled on the second book for a while. a long while..