Koukaku Kidoutai 2: Manmachine Interface
The Ghost in the Shell 2: Man-Machine Interface

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All of the other GiS and Gis:SAC anime and manga strongly resemble each other, this one is very different.

Set several years subsequent to the earlier manga, the world has changed a lot. The Major, merged with the Puppeteer is now a disembodied consciousness somewhere on the web. She does, however, merge at times with other bits of consciousness that she then spins off the results as "children," of which there are several, all now separate entities. One of these, which has chosen to call itself "Motoko Arimaki," (the Major calls it something else) is the boss lady of a global corporation, who ... has stashed an assortment of cyborg shells (of varying special capabilities) around the globe, available for her to download into. This corporation has come under attack from some unknown antagonist(s), and the manga is mostly about Motoko Arimaki discovering and dealing with the adversary(s) and the attacks. Section Nine's involvement is restricted to fielding a new character (a psychic) to monitor, report on, and interfere with this situation.

The plot is very complex, I had to reread several parts, sometimes more than once, to get what was going on. Very thought provoking about issues of what is consciousness and what is identity, and how these might interact with technology.

Highly recommended. And, oh yes, there is a panty shot on almost every page.

Before I get into this let me preface by saying I'm still analyzing the first Ghost in the Shell and don't feel I 100% get it. However, even when I couldn't quite follow it I was able to feel it and see the vision. This time, I really had no idea what the fuck I was reading. The characters, the world and the plot, beyond the general scenario, were very much lost on me. So why did I give this a 7? To be honest I'm likely to lower it to 6. What I really like though is the art. It's not as refined as ... the original, but it's so cool to look that. Especially the scenes in the AI world. This is a hard work to review as I have only read it once and this installment adds to the popular notion that this franchise needs several revisits to take in everything. As it stands this is what my idea of a stoner manga looks like. Overly complicated plot with a bunch of sci-fi mumbo jumbo dialogue but highly stylistic with unique art to trip out to and doesn't take too long to read.

It's beyond me how this manga can be so bad. The art is literally awful. I get it that 3D CGI can be easier or refreshing in manga world but holy moly does it look bad.. Overall it feels like autor didn't give much to the manga because even without the cgi it is like he copy paste generic characters on some vague bacground. The story is almost non existent. You will not find anything enjoyble or good here. It's the worst manga I read so far.

By the way I will leave this here too. Masamune Shirow should be kissing Mamoru Oshii feets because ... he took Shirow's medicore manga and made it to almost a master piece. I not gonna lie reading the books after film was real dissapoitment.