Ghost in the Shell - The Cyberpunk Bible by Masamune Shirow 

Ed's Patreon: www.patreon.com/edpiskor Jim's Patreon: www.patreon.com/jimrugg

I just discovered your channel this morning. What a treasure.

I really love how the color sections get lighter and lighter until it goes to black and white and he also does the same thing with the chibi parts. The artwork gets more simple as the chapter goes on. Guy is a genius.

I feel like a lot of hard science fiction relies more on worldbuilding than on character driven stories. It's always authors exploring scientific concepts and how they would impact life. That's what I find really cool about this type of story, but I do understand how some people would feel as readers. Lots of times, when I recommend a sci-fi novel or comic to someone, they say they didn't like it because the characters were boring. Ghost in the Shell has the advantage of looking amazing, though.

I encountered Masamune Shirow when Appleseed was first released in comic form by Eclipse. That and Blade Runner were the guidelines for out Cyberpunk 2020 campaign, followed by this new book Snowcrash. Ghost of the Shell and the Matrix were the cherries on top of the sundae.

watched 2 episodes of you guys, and just remembered about that GITS, love it and i found it today too.

The Ghost in the Shell : Stand Alone Complex anime is a near perfect adaptation. It maintains the episodic task force aspect but really is more coherent than the manga while keeping that brain expanding ideation. I really can't reccomend it enough.

I would highly recommend Intron Depot 1, for any artists who enjoy his work, it’s almost if not entirely non-digital. The Intron Depot’s after the first become more and more digital, and I agree his work loses something when he went digital. But they are still worth the cost in my opinion. Anyway, the book 1 is just a compilation of works from ’81-’91, like covers, splash pages, posters, two page spreads from his larger works. About 95% is in full color and they are beautiful. Plus even though I think it’s only a Japanese published book it does seem to have English translation of everything in it. (Bonus: It has the sex scene from Ghost in the Shell that didn’t seem to make it into the English translation.)

Ah, this brought back a lot of memories for me. After I'd ordered the movie from some mail order magazine, which was pretty much the only way i could legitimately get anime back in the mid 90s, I knew I had to have it, I managed to finally find a store that could order it for me. It took something like a month or two for it to come in, but well worth it. I'd never read anything like it before in my life. I still have it to this day.. Thanks for the in depth review guys. I think most of the confusion around this is due to the authors obvious technical knowledge. You've almost gotta have a degree in computer science and mechanical engineering to understand a lot of the concepts and literal expository technical breakdowns in there. He's clearly a very intelligent guy, and their ideas are often hard to follow for a lot of folks.

These margin notes remind me a bit of Stan Sakai’s Usagi Yojimbo, where he’d drop knowledge on Japanese customs and language. I’d love to see you guys interview him. I bet he’d be game too, considering Usagi’s Netflix adaptation is in the works.

Masamune Shirow was the one who chose Scarlett Johansson to play the major

Thanks guys, this was awesome to see! I didn't know there was so much detail in the original comic, people only ever seem to talk about the one film.

Are you guys going to finish the Akira manga reviews? I think you got up to volume 4. Would love to hear your thoughts on the rest of the story!

I just bought the first issue of Ghost In The Shell yesterday, so this is a surprise for me! Hopefully you can look at Berserk, Blade of the Immortal, and Vagabond in future episodes.

Your channel has helped me get back into the art of comic books and I can’t wait to start my own! You guys are awesome!

That GitS small comic was included with Wizard #44 which is the one talking about Kubert School of Art. I only know that because I repurchased one after they discussed it. So, that would have been a big Wizard issue for Ed to get, the Kubert School and intro to Ghost in the Shell.

Circa 1994, Homage Studios (later Wildstorm) was all abuzz about this stuff. Those guys were all into Shirow and lifting guns and tech ideas from his stuff regularly. You see a LOT of it in Dan Norton's early work.

I read the kodansha fully compiled version and I have this version of all three hardcover by kodansha comics and I absolutely love them I love all three,1,1.5,& 2! Btw love your video and I subbed!

I still have the uncensored version of GITS manga😊

Sadly the Ghost in the Shell movie didn’t translate the feeling of this story but the comic is glorious.

Nice to see you starting with Masamune on the rails

I have to say, you guys are killing it with the youtube thumbnails lately!

''You never see camouflage really work.''

Jim & Ed...you guys are killing it with this channel! Carry on!!!👍👊👌💥💥💥

In this light, Shirow reminds me a lot of Hideo Kojima when getting into the world building/tech minutiae.

Both the Dark Horse and Kodansha versions are missing a page, supposedly at the author's request but you'll need to get a Japanese version to see it.

Yeah the anime is stand alone complex and 2nd gig and the film solid state society. That specific series is very much the spirit of the manga and personally one of my favorites.

I know I've read too much manga when my first thought is "why the cover the wrong way?" 😪

For those who would like a Shirow-esque type of story, if however considerably more coherent, and art, check out Hiroki Endo's Eden: It's An Endless World. You will not regret it.

I heard AD police (spin off of Bubble Gum Crisis) some how inspired Ghost in Shell, cool channel just subbed ✌️

A note about sidenotes: even Masamune Shiro tells the reader to not read them on their first reading, because it negatively impacts enjoyment from the comic. I know this because of foreword of the comic with big CAUTION on it, which is in my edition of the book.

One of my favorite mangaka. Another is Kosuke Fujishima who did Oh! My Goddess. I think he was more in a monthly release schedule but I have to confirm that. If you haven't checked out the anime, I really recommend it. It's pretty cool and deep.

Would love to see some Kentaro Miura!

Nice ! Wish you could have shown at least one of his INTRON DEPOT books. The multiple images done in different color pallets. Really beautiful stuff ! It looks like video is the direction he's gone into. Leaving the books behind.

Thanks for pointing out that gutter issue

Ed's and Jim's comics look amazing!!

There are some pretty good studies of techno-orientalism that sheds a lot of light on understanding ghost in the shell

I collected many of the Eclipse Gits and Appleseed single issue reprints as a kid. Paid $5-8 ea, and they were worth it everytime. Packed dense with details, story elements, and artistic craftwork. Plus it was cool to see a topless girl bathing as a cutaway scene here and there.

Wait till you read Ghost in the Shell 2: man machine interface. 100 times as epic as the original

Edited version @ 18:00 :p The guy is pretty pervy nowadays and I appreciate that as well. :)

forgot about the pages in wizard. it was so worth the trade tho. the whole of gits is freakin dense! i agree about all the anime losing the cartoony elements. it makes the manga so great and the loss of it in the anime makes it seem like its missing something.

Masterpiece

the artist jeremy klien is still pushing hook ups, and new origina works and collabs

The major is the character that makes you question humanity

I hope you get into Darger at some point. I think many comic fans can identify with creating your own submersive world. A lot of the more interesting comics have been fueled by the creator's continuing obsession with their creation.

LOL, the name pronunciations! Good show, guys!

GOTS is all-time good! Glad RU-vid recc'd me this

pretty sure that original depiction of the ai mind was just a photo of creased gold foil

This is great, I’ve watched Appleseed anime and really enjoyed it but I will be hunting the manga down.

Reckon his colourd pages were acrylic inks, they look like them, a lot of manga ka use them I know urasawa does

Opening and reading a book the opposite way would be the hard part of reading manga for me.

loving this channel. have you guys ever analyzed Grant Morrison - Filth? would love to see your thought on the sperm creatures lol

An I been waiting for this for years

I LOVE GITS!

I went out of my way to get his work in Japanese. Big fan of the mans work

A classic. One of my influences.

Hookups was a skateboard company. The boards had the same anime chick graphics

Red Room sounds like It would fit in The Video Drome universe.

Section 9 is the unit that gets their hands dirty

I wonder how many people who are new to manga that pick up GiTS after they've breezed through Akira only to be hit by dense text about tech and politics. That's what happened to me anyway.

The softcover books have translations for sound effects and hardcover doesn't I'd anyone cares. Same reason why I bought soft covers of Akira

The 'Red Room' comic agenda sounds similar to the manga 'Dead Tube'.

Damn, I need to get that

love Shirow

Hopefully, you guys do Alita Battle Angel soon. Another robot heroin protagonist story.

oh wow, so weird and tbh better to see those version without all the nudity

check out & read - DEATHMARK Book 1 by Michael Perinuzzi - Great Cyberpunk Novel

So Aramaki was Homer Simpson in the manga.

If you think this guy draws good guns and cars you should see Kenichi Sonodas comics.

A book I always wanted but it just was too expensive to buy at the time. One of my many white whales.

i hate the story so messy, the only thing i like is the art (coloring has so many problems), a rare occasion where i can say the movie was better than the manga