Ghost in the Shell, the phenomenon that captivated the world in the early 2000s through its anime films, finally led me to explore its source material. In 2023, I read Mangaka Shirow Masamune's magnum opus, the Ghost in the Shell Manga. Better late than never.
I opted for the Hard Cover edition, which featured annotations alongside the panels, providing insights into the GITS universe. Soft Cover editions lack these annotations, as I later discovered. The Manga was a challenging read with those annotations, offering an overwhelming amount of information about the lore of GITS. The mangaka delved deeply into explaining various technologies, from sci-fi robotics and weaponry to religious themes. At times, it felt less like casual reading and more like studying advanced robotics technology... Quite exhausting.
I was also surprised by how the mangaka discussed spirituality, seemingly believing in God and spirits. Yes, the title includes "Ghost," but I assumed it referred to consciousness rather than actual ghosts and spirits. I strongly disagree with the mangaka's view that the "ghost" represents the true self of beings; if we're discussing sentient beings, consciousness is the sole self. Therefore, not all life forms possess a self. There are no ghosts or spirits of any kind. Being a life form isn't about having vast information—a plant has zero information and no self, yet it is still a life form. Moreover, the mangaka supported capital punishment and criticized advanced countries that abolished it... wow... I also disagree here. No one has the right to kill anyone. Executing serial killers isn't a solution because they are mentally ill and cannot control their actions. They require psychiatric treatment rather than being made examples of.
Even the mangaka admitted that the entire manga was a product of his wild imagination, acknowledging that he might have rambled nonsensically at times. So, take it all with a grain of salt. Overall, it was an enjoyable read, especially with the random Section 9 operations and the inclusion of the hacker puppeteer at the end.
Simply put, this is the greatest comic produced in the 80's. There isn't a single generic plotline; instead, it features a series of procedural cases tied together by a main antagonist operating behind the scenes. The characters, especially the protagonist, feel alive and genuine—more so than any animated adaptation has managed to capture (a rare case where I prefer the anime over the original manga). The author's predictions and notes on topics like chemical warfare are fascinating, and the socially conscious critiques blend seamlessly with the tongue-in-cheek writing style, devoid of any pretension. The artwork is stunning, presenting futuristic landscapes that feel tangible and well-designed characters and machinery. As someone who avoided reading this comic for years due to prejudice, believing nothing could surpass the movies and TV series, I can't recommend this masterpiece highly enough. If you're into sci-fi or comics in general, just read it—you won't be disappointed.
<p>Damn, I feel like I've read something entirely different from what everyone else has. This title is way overrated, let me tell you. People claim it's the first Ghost in the Shell (GITS), this legendary "BEST" cyberpunk manga ever. But no, it's not. It's just a 300-page compilation of 11 chapters with a story that feels like "oh, there's a new bad guy and we have to beat him because he's bad!!". The very first pages did catch my attention with a decent action scene, but at first glance, I couldn't even figure out what was happening in the panels. The art in GITS? It's just... bad. It's not the "masterpiece art whatever" that everyone talks about. It's an awfully drawn comic with definitely too many elements crammed into every frame. On almost every page, the author writes long summaries explaining everything in the story, only because he didn't properly integrate it into the main plot and describe things gradually. He rushed the story from start to finish, and by the end, you don't even know what you've just read because there's just too much information distracting you from the manga itself. Plus, the story alone is so boring that you might forget what you're reading and get lost along the way. As I mentioned earlier, there's literally no coherent story—just a collection of random actions leading up to lesbian cyborg sex scenes with Motoko as the star. Another issue: the characters. There are way too many of them, and by the end, only 2-3 get enough attention for you to even remember their names. Honestly, I didn't enjoy it. I'll probably watch the movie too and compare the two, but damn, I was reading this 300-page manga for almost a year because it's so freaking boring and repetitive. I don't recommend it to anyone, seriously. If you want to see what real cyberpunk is, try Akira, Gunnm, or Blame. I hope this review helps some people who are thinking about reading GITS. Overall, it's just a poor manga with an ugly art style, forced and useless sex scenes, badly written characters in 90% of their appearances, and literally no straight story. Plus, it seems like the author maybe didn't have any idea for the storyboard, so half the manga is a novel describing every electrical device he invented, in the most boring way possible, and there's just TOO MUCH of it.</p>
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I opted for the Hard Cover edition, which featured annotations alongside the panels, providing insights into the GITS universe. Soft Cover editions lack these annotations, as I later discovered. The Manga was a challenging read with those annotations, offering an overwhelming amount of information about the lore of GITS. The mangaka delved deeply into explaining various technologies, from sci-fi robotics and weaponry to religious themes. At times, it felt less like casual reading and more like studying advanced robotics technology... Quite exhausting.
I was also surprised by how the mangaka discussed spirituality, seemingly believing in God and spirits. Yes, the title includes "Ghost," but I assumed it referred to consciousness rather than actual ghosts and spirits. I strongly disagree with the mangaka's view that the "ghost" represents the true self of beings; if we're discussing sentient beings, consciousness is the sole self. Therefore, not all life forms possess a self. There are no ghosts or spirits of any kind. Being a life form isn't about having vast information—a plant has zero information and no self, yet it is still a life form. Moreover, the mangaka supported capital punishment and criticized advanced countries that abolished it... wow... I also disagree here. No one has the right to kill anyone. Executing serial killers isn't a solution because they are mentally ill and cannot control their actions. They require psychiatric treatment rather than being made examples of.
Even the mangaka admitted that the entire manga was a product of his wild imagination, acknowledging that he might have rambled nonsensically at times. So, take it all with a grain of salt. Overall, it was an enjoyable read, especially with the random Section 9 operations and the inclusion of the hacker puppeteer at the end.
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