The Ghost in the Shell: Fully Compiled (Complete Hardco… (2024)

The Ghost in the Shell
(ISBN 9781632364210)

--The Ghost in the Shell

SFX Index
Author's Afterword

The Ghost in the Shell 1.5: Human-Error Processor
(ISBN 9781632364227)

--Fat Cat Part.1 (1991)
--Fat Cat Part.2 (1991)
--Drive Slave Part.1 (1992)
--Drive Slave Part.2 (1992)
--Mines Of Mind Part.1 (1995)
--Mines Of Mind Part.2 (1995)
--Lost Past (1996)

Story Commentary on 'Ghost in the Shell 1.5: Human-Error Processor'
SFX Index
Afterword

The Ghost in the Shell 2: Man-Made Interface
(ISBN 9781632364234)

Note
Apologies and Corrections

--The Ghost in the Shell 2: Man-Made Interface

SFX Index

This collection is so hard to rate accurately given the wide disparity of quality and production contained in the set. First, a consistent issue is the way the books deal with the sound effects, which is easily the WORST solution I've seen to the "translating sound effects by manga artists" conundrum: the fx are on the page in their original Japanese forms and there's an index (in microscopic print in the first two volumes) at the end of the volume that gives an English equivalent. I can't hate this enough and I docked the set a full star solely for this.

As far as the actual content goes, V.1 is a gorgeously drawn police procedural series adorned with cyberpunk trappings more than a full blown cyberpunk story, which was a bit disappointing but was in no way bad. Volume 1.5 (sigh) has the same sky high art quality but seems to be a bit more comfortable in both its cop show/Ed McBain novels and cyberpunk roots. The third volume (V.2) finally has a solid, dense, and meaty cyberpunk story, but, to be blunt, the art mostly wavers between trite and sad, with very little rising above that incredibly disappointing level. I hated Volume 2 despite the fact that the story was probably the best and most cohesive of each of the three because the art was just bad (not to mention being depressingly stuffed with pointless fan service visuals).

It's Ghost in the Shell. Of course it was going to be rated 5 stars.
A true masterpiece with amazing color pages in this edition. It will never disappoint as long as Scarlett Johansson doesn't star in it.

Yikes. This spawned an amazing franchise with some superb high points, but this source material.......wow. Not good.

Shirow has an inquisitive, creative mind. You can tell this from the world he’s built and the incredibly savvy footnotes that have been added to countless pages. He obviously reads endlessly about technology, medicine, and other fields. Much of this manga series is borderline nonsensical though. The first volume, which clearly inspired the first movie, barely holds itself together. That’s not saying much but it shines in comparison to the last two. The second I barely got through. The third was agonizing. I appreciate the detail in a lot of the artwork, especially the colored pages and covers, but does it really matter that I might give this one AND A HALF stars at this point?

The manga made way for the movies and anime, so I have to give it credit for that. Otherwise I’ll just say that I’m so, so thankful that other creative people got involved down the line in order to see this IP to its potential. What’s here is merely a haphazard carpet bombing of ideas sprawling across the pages in incoherent fashion.

GITS 1: 4/5

Reads like an action based police procedural, which explains the Arise IP more. Not necessarily a problem but it was surprising for me having been introduced through the anime movies which are more philosophical.

Overly sexual, to the detriment of the Major’s characterization, who was written to be incongruently tropey. Real estate allocated to frames that added style rather than frames that added impact/clarity.

But the secondary characters were more defined and given more plot involvement, which really strengthens the manga. Absolutely gorgeous illustrations and coloring. Clearer storytelling and world building than the anime despite the hallmark complexity.

GITS 1.5: 3/5

Less clarity, harder to tell what the resolution to each chapter was and requires more reader engagement.

They go all in on the puppet master plot. Continued excellent characterization of secondary characters. Major/Chroma being elevated to superhero levels fits with her less sexualized portrayal. Pushes the IP into new cool sci-fi shit while maintaining plot density.

GITS 2: 5/5

I didn’t like the animation that relied so heavily on 90’s CGI, something that almost hurts the quality at times compared to a hand drawn approach but I can forgive it because it’s not prohibitive to enjoying the aesthetic.

Masamune seems to have learned from the success of the anime movie and written this story to be more of a philosophical sci-fi while finding yet newer places to push the concepts.

To be perfectly honest, I understood very little of what was going on in this entire series - it feels only half-there, and more of an excuse to draw naked women in sexual positions than anything else.

Chaotic writing + compilation of abstract technological concepts. I can imagine this was seen as a work of philosophy/art/vision in the 1990's, but (logically) my mind is spoiled with 2010+ works.

其實早就看完了
拖到現在才寫筆記
發現博客來2017十大暢銷漫畫第五名是攻殼真意外
果然還是要感恩讚嘆好萊塢拍出一部驚世爛片...

This is not going to be a super legthy detailed review, just off the cuff.

GITS is definitely classic, and the anime along with Akira were my introduction to cyberpunk back in the 90s.
I read the 1st volume previously, so this is a reread for me.
The 1st volume did a great job developing the characters and their dynamics. I'm not gonna lie, I always felt bad for Togusa. At least he shined a bit more in SAC, though.
The art is masterful and cute simultaneously. I freaking love the fuchikoma, they're adorable.
I would definitely recommend this as a classic cyberpunk story that was extremely influential to the landscape of cyberpunk. It had an influence on me in my writing as well.

1.5 was pretty good supplemental content. The stories weren't a single narrative and suffered just a little not having Motoko.
It was interesting seeing the continued cases of Section 9 after Motoko split following her merge with the puppeteer.
It's nowhere near as good as the original, but it's definitely worth reading.

2
This was very difficult to follow. So, it takes place 4 years after the original. The Matoko here is not the same Motoko as the original. Masamune made a note to pay attention to a Motoko clone in one of the stories from 1.5.
This story itself isn't incredibly confusing when you take a step back, but when reading it, it's a lot. I read the last 200 pages all at once when I was done. I was so relieved. Section 9 was like a sandwhich they were in the prologue and epilogue of the story. Really just Batou and Aramaki.
Anyways I don't want to go on so I will just say that it feels too disconnected from GITS.

Interesting read. Nice to see the original work that the film and anime are based on. Ghost in the shell 1 was probably the highlight based on my expectations going in, featuring the creation of section 9 and featuring the major as a central character. Ghost in the shell 1.5 was neat, as it followed section 9 without the major, and we got to see the other characters develop, but section 9 still the core story setup/structure. So 1.5 was a nice surprise. Ghost in the shell 2 has almost nothing to do with section 9 and focuses on the major doing her own thing… but also she’s not really the major…but she’s still herself…except maybe she’s not… sometimes the story gets super philosophical and hard to follow mixed with almost no real plot to tie the story to… so it felt you could skip chunks and nothing progressed. Oh…don’t forget that the author/artist likes to show off as much skin as possible…so much skin and special upward angles that it felt a bit excessive.
If I was rating these separately 1 and 1.5 would probably end up a low 4 star rating, but 2 would likely have scored a 2 star rating. Averaging them out to 3 stars, because nothing really was bad enough to ruin the experience for me, but also nothing stood out as good enough to recommend to anyone. I think the film and anime that are based on this might be better for the average fan (not meaning the trash live action film… that one shouldn’t exist).

I know about “Ghost in the Shell,” like many in the USA, due to the movie of the same name. When I watched it, I found some of it super cool and other parts confusing. Only after I gained in years and watched it again, adding in the anime series as background, did it begin to make more sense.

I discovered this compendiem of all the Ghost in the Shell Manga around Christmas time. It is everything done for the series, 1.0, 1.5 & 2.0. What is really cool is the author / artist has put comments on numerous pages, providing further insight into what is happening in the panels. For me, this aspect alone is worth giving the manga a read through, as it further explains the philosophy behind the characters. The author references a number of books and research papers that he used while writing the series. It isn’t a bunch of panels strung together, but a ton of depth behind each point made by the characters.

For me, I like 1.0 the best. The movie uses large portions of the story. 1.5 is interesting, as it showcases the other characters without the Major around. I will say 2.0 is the weirdest and most difficult to grasp, even with the author notes. It follows the Major as a corporate security consultant that then has a philosophical debate with an intelligent entity. Or something like that.

Shirow has some very cool ideas, and his cyberpunk police serial is exhaustively researched, and there are a ton of delicious color pages. But this series is too unfocused, too repetitive, and above all too pervy to live up to that promise.

How does it feel to merge with an AI? What kind of person dates an emotionally unavailable cyborg? How does misinformation work in a society where hackers are everywhere? How would active camo affect police work? These ideas and more are gestured at but never explored in any detail.

Instead, the author is consumed by one pressing question in the last third of the work: How can we get a panty shot or cleavage on literally every page? The more the story focuses on Kusanagi, the more excruciating pseudo-hacker dialogue replaces plots that are at least theoretically interesting. When even the robots are lecherous, you know you've gone too far.

This manga not only fucks, it does it on viagra probably, an absolute beauty, super ahead of its time, this version is actually goated, volume 2 is the weakest, however it has a stupid amount of color pages that look fucking beautiful, get it before they phase it out for the upcoming omnibus version, you dont need a book that thick when you can have this shit right here, fucker, Also put on Shin megami tensei 1-2 ost while reading, makes it a 6/5 easily

This is very well put together and looks very nice on a shelf (is missing the adult scene pages so isn’t “complete” as it states). I did stop reading about 75% in, I was never really interested in the books/story and at this point I want to move on. Maybe this is a product of its time, maybe it just isn’t something for me but I will say if you’re interesting in GitS this is probably one of the best ways to pick it up and read it.

It's about time for me to read it! Like 20 years waiting for a second to read it...

I like it, all three volumes, I'll will reread it next year, need time to digest it.

Try it but only if you have enough imagination to recreate everything in your mind

Well, that sure was something. My brain kinda hurts, but I think I understand most of it now. Entertaining enough read. Very confusing at times, and I’m docking an entire star for the one panel near the end with the tentacles because that did not need to be there

This series is forever good ass shit but editing out Major Kusanagi having a threesome with two other women is a crime. Give me that editors job immediately.

Confusing and Horny...not bad though

Book 1 is great sci fi
Book 1.5 feels like a poor sequel
Book 2 is nonsense and cartoon porn

DNF 460 pages in.

This was a mess.

love the Ghost in the Shell series. Great series, amazing, great manga, great anime. Ghost in the Shell 2045 season 3 is on its way.

If you’re a hard core Ghost In The Shell fan this is for you, if your just a casual fan of manga I suggest just getting book 1 which covers the 1995 anime.

Beautiful art as only Shirow can produce. Very thought provoking story about the line between man and machine and what happens when it's blurred. Some of it was over my head, I'll admit.

This box set is beautiful as a presentation and also has a small poster but I can't say I'm a fan of the manga itself.

1.0-Ghost in the Shell
Score: 71
Art: 18/20
Story: 14/20
Characters: 13/20
World-building: 17/20
Writing: 9/20
1.5-Human Error processor
Score: 67
Art: 18/20
Story: 10/20
Characters: 12/20
World-building: 17/20
Writing: 10/20
2.0-Man Machine Interface
Score: 34
Art: 4/20
Story: 8/20
Characters: 7/20
World-building: 10/20
Writing: 5/20