Ghost in the shell 2: Man-machine interface [Unknown Binding]

Masamune Shirow (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 2002

March 6, 2035. Motoko Aramaki is a hyper-advanced cyborg, a counter-terrorist net security expert heading the investigative department of the giant multi-national, Poseidon Industrial. Partly transcending the physical world and existing in a virtual world of networks, Motoko is a fusion of multiple entities and identities, deploying remotely controlled prosthetic humanoid surrogates around the globe to solve a series of bizarre crimes. Meanwhile, Tamaki Tamai, a psychic investigator from the Channeling Agency, has been commissioned to investigate strange changes in the temporal universe, brought about by two forces, one represented by the teachings of a professor named Rahampol, and the other by the complex, evolving Motoko entity. What unfolds will be all in a day's work...a day that will change everything, forever.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. In this brilliant and difficult sequel, Masamune revisits the future, cyborg-dominated world detailed in the original manga. While Batou, the gruff cyber-security operative from volume one, makes an appearance, this new work is more of a meditation on the first book's central theme—the melding of cybernetic technology, human personality and the spiritual "ghost" or life force at its essence—than a continuation of the original story. Book one ended after Major Kusanagi, Batou's sexy cyborg commander, downloaded her "self" into a bodiless, "self-aware" artificial intelligence. Now Masamune focuses on another beautiful cyborg, Motoko Aramaki, chief security officer for a giant multinational conglomerate. Aramaki digitally transfers her personality and capabilities between cyborg bodies stashed around the world, as she attacks industrial spies, assassins and cyber-hackers while keeping up a steady stream of digital communications with various robotic assistants and her secretary back at the office. Once again Masamune attempts to assay the virtual terrain where technological entities meet the essence of human spirituality, connecting the mythology of sci-fi machinery to both the metaphysics of religion and the timeless allure and complexity of Asian creation-myths. The color and b&w graphics are stunning, brilliantly evoking the nonvisual world of data transmission. While his story can be confusing, Masamune has created one of the most thoughtful and gorgeous manga ever produced. (Jan.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From Booklist

The long-awaited sequel to the 1990s smash hit manga Ghost in the Shell certainly won't disappoint the fans. On the surface, the story is a cyber-espionage caper in which Motoko Aramaki, heroine of the first book and now a hyperadvanced cyborg, uses all of her resources, real and virtual, to investigate a series of strange attacks against her employers, Poseidon Industrial. As the mystery deepens, however, characters and reader discover that there is more here than meets the eye, and that leads characters and reader to question what intelligence and existence really are. As the questions mount, Man-Machine Interface becomes an awesome display of story and art working in tandem to lay the reader flat. The art has a kinetic energy that flows through the pages with a power that just sweeps one up. The story, meanwhile, exerts great crossover appeal to fans of the cyber-punk, tech-noir fiction of the likes of Neal Stephenson and William Gibson. Tina Coleman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Unknown Binding
• Publisher: Dark Horse Comics (2002)
• Language: English
• ASIN: B0006S8REW
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,630,002 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

54 of 64 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Nice art, story is far too dense & difficult to follow., March 12, 2005

By 

Jonah D. Lobe (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ghost In The Shell Volume 2: Man-Machine Interface (v. 2) (Paperback)

I was a huge fan of GiTS, and was delighted and overwhelmed by the story and artwork, being an art major myself. The story was complex and a bit difficult to follow precisely, but upon repeated readings I learned to appreciate the nuances of the piece. What's more, the artwork was phenomenal, and his character illustrations, urban landscapes and computer/mechanical rendering was imaginative, creative and flawlessly executed.

Along comes GiTS 2, and I have read it twice now. To be quite perfectly honest, I am thoroughly dissapointed. The story picks up years afterward the first book, with little discussion or explanation of how we got to the point we did. In only four years, the world has changed dramatically. The world is a hyper-technological impersonal place. I suppose this is a simple qualm on my part, but Motoko - the main character - keeps changing the way she looks, and in fact seems more wedded to her long-haired brunette model. Considering that she seems to have lost any humanity she had left, completely alienated me from her. Throughout the entire book, she is essentially a machine, without emotions, who speaks in dense techno-talk non-stop. Her sarcastic, caustic sense of humor is gone, and there is nothing left of the original team leader to remind me of the old Motoko, which doesn't help considering she almost never looks like the old Motoko either. This, coupled with the fact that virtually every character is the same way - emotionally stunted and too versed in a computer-specific way of speaking - resulted in my complete lack of interest in any of the characters.

The story itself relies too much on what is said and supposedly done in the cyber-world. A twist in the story could be revealed by a convoluted techno-speak observation by Motoko or some other character, so there is no real impact to be had. There is no break or reprise from this dense, constant storytelling, so there is little sense of motion or climax in the book.

What's more, there are no appealing characters in the book. Wise-cracking yet moral Batou makes a brief appearance in the last few pages with Aramaki, there's no mention of rookie Togusa or any of the other colorful characters. Everyone in this book is a corporate suit or a computer demi-god.

On to the art. Obviously, Shirow has improved on his already impeccable drafting techniques, yet he's fallen into a rut here. Almost gone are the colorful, imaginative physical environments of the first book, and we are introduced to a cyber-world of lights, electricity, virtual computer terminals and floating nude-yet-sexless big-breasted women. Don't get me wrong, Shirow draws very sexy women, but every single woman in this book has the exact same slim, lush ridiculously over-sexed body, decked out in prepostrously skimpy outfits (army girls with tiny miniskirts and unbuttoned jackets, for instance??) while the men are more varied in appearance and dress. This does strike me as a bit sexist and highly unrealistic. As a man, of course I enjoyed looking at the attractive women in GiTS when they dressed like that, but Shirow has taken it was over the edge in this second installation.

Another thing. While Shirow's computer-generated environments work at times, other times they are strikingly transparent and clash horribly with the characters in them. Also, the cyber world is a beautiful, flashy active place that is - quite frankly - completely uninteresting. There are so many things going on and lights flashing and people saying things that I just started skimming through them, trying to focus more on the story. I would want to flip past whole centerspreads of this world, since, when you got down to it, who the hell knows what that flashy bright thing is compared to the other one?

Characters are two-dimensional and fleeting, intriguing parts are swept away almost immediately (the Millenium section, for those who have read it, was a cool, extremely creepy part that was trivialized and tossed away almost immediately), the art has become perfect yet boring, and the plotline is difficult to identify.

When you get down to it, my main problem with the book was this: Who is this Motoko, what ever happened to her after her fusion at the end of the first book, what happened to the AI? Lastly, she never displays any reason for caring about anything that happens, she just investigates emotionlessly, and since she doesn't seem to care about anything, why should we care about her? She never laughs, cries, panics or becomes emotionally attached to, well... anything at all. How boring.

I gave this book 3 stars because Shirow put a lot of effort into this, the art was obviously worked on a lot, and I really enjoy his sense of visual style. But when you get down to it, I was dissapointed. I would choose GiTS 1 any day of the week, easily.

-Jonah

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful Artwork, Convoluted Story, October 10, 2005

By 

Charles Chen "Keyboard Jockey" (East Windsor, NJ) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Ghost In The Shell Volume 2: Man-Machine Interface (v. 2) (Paperback)

Before you read on, bear in mind that I'm writing this review in comparison to the first "Ghost in the Shell". While Shirow does mention that this book is not a continuation of the first, there are some major differences in style.

Let's start with the artwork. As I've noticed with Shirow's work, all the ways from Appleseed, his style has matured with each work and is at a very advanced level, in my opinion, among top comic book artists in the world. He has a certain style of coloring that, to me, is really unique in how subtle, lifelike, and tactile he makes fabrics and skin. While only roughly 35-40% of the book is colored, it is done so fantastically.

In addition, Shirow has a supreme mastery of the female body form. It's simply stunning to see how beautifully he can render the female body, especially with the dynamic energy he brings to his characters. While he renders many of the panels with the female characters in the buff, he does not render "R" nudity, but rather "PG-13" nudity, except in one panel). (As a sidenote, parents of younger readers should perhaps consider this an "R" rated book. While none of the nudity is gratuitous, it can be a little too much for some).

As fans of Shirow have noticed, he has been experimenting with integrating 3D, rendered environments and objects with his 2D artwork. He shows his mastery of this technique in many of the panels, where it seems seemless; you feel as if the character is really a part of the scene. Then in others, it seems poorly done (for example, he renders pigs in a sequence of panels and the pigs just look weird). I'd also offer some criticism of his rendering of "virtual space", as it quickly becomes cluttered and very difficult to navigate, visually, especially in the low-res, black and white lineart panels.

As with all Shirow works, there is certainly enough cool technobabble and gadgets to get your geek juices flowing. From exoskeletons that envelope and "swallow" the pilot, to oddly constructed androids, to the techno-metaphysical discussions of reality, life, existence, and justice.

My main criticism with the work is the incontinuity *within* the plot itself (I fully understand and accept that this is not a continuation of the first). Without going deeply into the plot, there are some scenarios where he will start what seems like an arc, but then the arc disappears, without entering into the plot again. It seems like whole parts of the book were created just for the sake of showing artwork, and not progressing plot (to me, plot should always come first in a written work, which this is, despite the medium). It feels like the recent Star Wars movies in that they are really a showcase for Lucas's technique with fully rendered set and have lost any semblence of a cohesive plot and great acting (especially Harrison Ford) that made the first three the classics that they are. Yes, while I do appreciate the eye candy, this is still a graphic novel, and, as such, I expect a cohesive plot and not random interjections of this and that and whatever.

Some fans will also find the lack of action (compared to the first book) a bit disappointing. The first book was far grittier and more action packed than this book. It also had a richer cast of characters. "Man-Machine Interface" really only features one character (albeit in various bodies and forms) and thus loses some of the dynamic interactions between characters. Shirow never gets a chance to fully developer the chief of Poseidon police and his crew.

Overall, this book is excellent if you simply love Shirow's beautiful artwork, mastery of the female body form, and creative techno-gadgets. The plot, especially the ending, will leave you sorely disappointed. Whereas the first ended on a revelation of a metaphysical type, this book ends in a fizzle.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An Excelent If Heady Romp Through The World Of Shirow, June 24, 2005

By 

abe "always honest" (metropolis) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ghost In The Shell Volume 2: Man-Machine Interface (v. 2) (Paperback)

First a few clairifications to previous reviews...

1.

This story is unedited(other than the reversed format) by anyone accept Mr. Shirow himself.

The tentitive early release of this story in Japan only had minor differences but also lacked pages as well as the epilogue.

So feel free to get it you arn't missing anything like the original edition of Ghost In The Shell.

2. Do not expect this story to be a direct continuation of the original..

To me it is more of a spinoff but an equaly fantastic work

Synopsis:

Motoko Aramaki is the 11th "child" of Motoko Kusanagi from gits1

She works for the corperate conglomerate Posidon.

the essence of the story is simple, even with the awesome union of Motoko and the Puppeteer and their unique abillity to perpetuate themselves via their "children" survival is still in jeopardy...With the power to exist in many places and having command of vast amounts of information a cosmic stalemate insues.

What is life(information aquisition) realy worth when you know practicaly everything?

Shirows abillity to tell a story with sharp dialogue and even sharper art rivals the great dystopian storytellers of our time.

I gave MMI 4 stars only because I would have liked a glossery like in GITS1 but a superbe work none the less...