Ghost in the Shell (Book 1 through 8) [Comic]

Product Details

• Comic
• Publisher: Dark Horse Comics (1995)
• ASIN: B001GU8V9A
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (40 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,627,575 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Where does the Machine End?, October 20, 2002

By 

Marc Ruby™ "The Noh Hare™" (Warren, MI USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Ghost in the Shell Volume 1 (v. 1) (Paperback)

First created in 1991, 'Ghost in the Shell' is Masamune Shirow's vision of a future world, complex and dysfunctional peopled by humans, robots and cyborgs. Best known in this country as the Anime film of the same name, it has had an unexpected influence on manga, anime, and the world to come. Like Phillip Dick's 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,' is asks questions about the essence of life and the validity of a society where it is an artifact that can be installed instead of something innate. The Film was my first sight of what anime was capable of, and this book was my first introduction to manga, the unique Japanese form of the graphic novel.

The action of the story centers on a security team led by Major Matoko Kusinagi. Kusinagi, like almost all of her team, are highly modified humans, or highly humanized machines, depending on your viewpoint. They are shells, biomechanical miracles, in which a human brain and spinal column have been places. However, unless you see one of them being made, or notice their cable contact points, they seem utterly human.

The team investigates possible cases of government wrongdoing. Their paths often bring them into contact with the less reputable side of human and cyborg traffic. Shirow uses these contacts, robots in revolution, berserk cyborgs, illegal memory copying, etc., to gradually shift the story from hard science fiction to a semi-metaphysical deep dive into the significance of the information net and alternate life form possibilities. The question, of course, is not just 'what is human?' but 'what is intelligent life?' Where exactly is the boundary between the shell, whether it be bioengineered or flesh.

The last third of the book, which comprises most of the film, is Major Kusinagi's quest to bring down a 'hacker' called the puppeteer. This goes awry in unexpected fashion and Kusinagi finds herself confronted by the impossible rather than the criminal. What effect this has on her, and the possibilities is creates are Shirow's answers to his own questions. Like the rest of the book before them, they raise as many issues as they resolve.

Masamune Shirow's imagination has built a finely detailed world. To complete the picture the artist/writer provides countless notes and commentaries about his technology and society. Unable to do this, the film simplified the plot to make it digestible. While it succeeded, the reader will find that manga is much richer and engaging. Given the longer format, Shirow is able to spend his time setting the scene, focusing on the interactions of the characters, and at exactly the right time, pulling the trigger. Working in both color and black and white, his artwork is a mixture of high tech detailing and unembarrassed sensuality.

The manga and the subsequent film created a whole new era for the Japanese storybook. For many people in the US such as me, 'Ghost in the Shell' is the anime production that made them fans. The themes validated it as a literary form, and the images forced readers to acknowledge that manga was art rather than artifice. Masamune set a standard for manga, which has rarely been surpassed. If you are genuinely interested in understand this art form, 'Ghost in the Shell' is the place to start.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent japanese cyberpunk manga, May 12, 1996

By A Customer

This review is from: Ghost in the Shell Volume 1 (v. 1) (Paperback)

GITSh is a book about the dark side of cybernautics technology. Taking place in the near future, 2030, it tells the story of conflicting viewpoints of what conscioussness means. Technology has become so advanced that a human soul, ghost, can be transpanted into a cyborg body, shell. There are many robots in the world that look human, and behave human with the aid of AI, but only cyborgs with ghosts are truly considered alive. Major Motoko Kusanagi is one of those cyborgs. She is the leader of a covert actions team, in a section of the Shinahama Police. Related incidents lead her into an encounter with a life form known as the puppeteer, a software program that claims to call itself a ghost. What is a soul, and what exactly is life then? The ensuing events are facsinating, up to the book's climatic ending, leaving the reader wondering what the soul really is. GITSh is beatifully drawn by one of the best Japanese Manga Artists, and has several full color pages to complement the rest of the black and white ones. The english translation has been censored by Shirow, and Dark Horse, therefore I can only give it a 9, instead of a 10 for the original.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An intelligent story with beautiful artwork, November 9, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Ghost in the Shell Volume 1 (v. 1) (Paperback)

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.