Michelle's corner

OK, so where do I start with this. Perhaps Masamune's most well known and influential work, translated into English and published from left to right this time.

Well, it took a bit of getting used to, for slightly different reasons this time.

Early on in the book came this stunner...

Seriously... I didn't know that cyborgs had periods. Those that choose, in the future, to abandon their physical body and hope to leave all its quirks behind, will be very upset to learn this.

A few other attitudes also didn't help...

As it happened, the body that Major Kusanagi chose was a standard model that was augmented, rather than being a completely custom cyborg... but this still rankles.

And when in the heck did a cyborg get drunk?

Masamune has a strong sense of humour, however...

...which is mixed in with a very strong sense of society, ethics and where we are going... potentially globally... and he's not scared to challenge these things...

The drawing of the characters, particularly Kusanagi, change quite considerably depending on the situation. The western style would, I strongly expect, to keep the same identifying characteristics and rely very much on the expression of the faithfully drawn character, to convey emotion. With Masamune's work, he changes the drawn appearance of the character considerably, according to the situation and the emotion...

I mean, would you even guess that this is supposed to be Togusa in hospital?!?!

Conclusion - This is a reverenced work, and in many aspects, rightfully so. It has managed to bring forward a credible vision of the cyberised human brain and the various ethical considerations therein; namely things like cyborg bodies needing maintenance, lacking the abilities of taste, touch, etc. and the potential problems of obsolete hardware meaning death through the inability to obtain parts... also through poverty and being unable to afford spares.

The artwork style and some of the comments do feel out of touch with a world which is progressing beyond sexist attitudes quite quickly... and it feels at odds that so much power and progress is given to a female lead character, while in other places she is referenced as, "government property." Which, actually, is part of the problem that all of the cyber operatives of Section 9 are facing... their service for the price of their spare parts. Although it does seem that service in Section 9 leads to a vastly increased requirement for spares and tuning... but that's another argument.

The anime does a far better job, in my personal opinion, than the manga here. There is one case where the manga does score, and that is where the anime ends up going into a monologue to bridge some of the ethical gaps; while the manga has the ability to stretch such discussions across panels.

I'm happy that I have this in my collection, but if you want to engage with the world of Ghost In The Shell, then tracking down the Blu-Rays now, would be the better option, in my personal opinion... they've shaved off many of the manga's rougher edges.