Shirow Masamune 士郎正宗

Formerly a high school art teacher, Shirow (a pseudonym) started out drawing Black Magic for a doujinshi anthology. Made his debut in 1982. He turned pro in 1985, after the first volume of Appleseed was well-received. Shirow doesn't want to be photographed and is very protective of his privacy. He worked on the Black Magic M-66 anime (This has a quite different story from the Black Magic doujinshi!) and hired an assistant (Hagane Kotetsu), but Shirow found both arrangements unworkable (he couldn't keep his assistant busy) and he settled down as a solo mangaka.
In 1990, Seishinsha launched Comic Gaia to showcase Shirow's work. It featured many Shirow-like artists, but it folded in mid-1993. His current manga projects are shared between at least three different publishers.

Shirow's library includes magazines (he subscribes to a couple of dozen titles), books on biotechnology, military technology, mythology, cars, and artbooks; about half of these are imported. Apart from his work, his hobbies include window shopping and watching TV with friends. Shirow has expressed dissatisfaction with most popular Japanese SF anime and manga, although he cites Miyazaki, Ootomo and filmmaker Terry Gilliam as important influences.

Shirow had to move to another part of the Hyougo prefecture after the 1995 earthquake in Kobe destroyed his home and studio. He took the opportunity to become even more invisible.

He's notorious for his slow production and has missed many deadlines, especially on Ghost In The Shell 2.

See also:
<http://www.your.demon.nl/manga/directors/Masamune.Shirow/info.html>
<http://www.asgard.gen.nz/anime/shirow/>

Black Magic
ブラックマジック
serialized on Atlas Magazine, 1983/2-(?)
republished by Seishinsha, 1985
1 volume @ Y880
[ 01:8512]

Like Shirow says himself in Intron Depot: "Black Magic was a first and last volume published during my fanzine years.".
Reprinted by Seishinsha in December 1985, together with six additional pages.

TRA:(E)Dark Horse(F)Tonkam

Black Magic M66 E-conte
ブラックマジックＭ６６絵コンテ
published by Seishinsha, 1986
1 volume @ Y1240
[ 01:____]

No Synopsis.
APG:(OAV)870628

Dominion
ドミニオン
published by Hakusensha, 1986
1 volume @ Y850
[ 01:8610]

Sometime in the future, both crime and pollution proliferate in the cities. Leona is a member of the Tank Police, and loves her tank Napoleon over all else. Pitted against the Tank Police is the master criminal Buaku, and his cat-girl assistants.

TRA:(E)Dark Horse(F)Tonkam(G)Feest Verlag
Click to buy English translated volume 0 at Amazon.
Click to buy English translated volume 0 at Amazon.
Click to buy English translated volume 0 at Amazon.
APG:(OAVs)(04)880527,880624,890811,890811
APG:(OAVs)(06)931021,931217,940322,940524,940825,941022

Dominion Conflict-shuu #1: No More Noise!
ドミニオン コンフリクト編第１話
published by Seishinsha, 1995
1 volume @ Y900
[ 01:9502]

New installments of Dominion were published just before Shirow's magazine Comic Gaia folded in 1993. Buaku is on the loose again, and the Puma sisters join the Tank Police.

TRA:(E)Dark Horse(I)Star Comics

Appleseed
アップルシ―ド
published by Seishinsha, 1985-89
4 volumes @ Y880
[ 01:____| 02:____| 03:____| 04:8904]

As the earth recovers from nuclear war, the utopian city of Olympus emerges as a powerful force. Controlled by a central computer called Gaia, and sparsely populated by synthetic humanoids called "bioroids", even utopia turns out to have its problems. Appleseed is the story of Deunan Knute and Briareos Hecatonchires, former outsiders who are now key members of Olympus' E-SWAT team. The story told in Appleseed is highly detailed and very complicated. You will have to read it several times in order to understand it completely.

TRA:(E)Dark Horse(F)Glenat(G)Feest Verlag(I)Star Comics
Click to buy English translated volume 0 at Amazon.
Click to buy English translated volume 0 at Amazon.
Click to buy English translated volume 0 at Amazon.
Click to buy English translated volume 0 at Amazon.
Click to buy English translated volume 0 at Amazon.
APG:(OAV)880421

Appleseed Databook
アップルシ―ド・デ―タブック
published by Seishinsha, 1990
1 volume @ Y880
[ 01:9005]

Includes a timeline, organisations of Olympus, character details, mecha designs, sketches, a substantial short story, and other bits and pieces.
TRA:(E)Dark Horse(F)Glenat

Comic Gaia-ban Appleseed Soushuuhen: Shirow Masamune Hypernotes
コミックガイア版アップルシ―ド総集編 士郎正宗ハイパ―ノーツ
published by Seishinsha, 1995
1 volume @ Y850
[ 01:9512]

No Synopsis.

Koukaku Kidoutai [The Ghost in the Shell]
攻殻機動隊
serialized on Young Magazine Kaizokuban,
1 volume @ Y1000
[ 01:9110]
anime comics 1 volume @ Y1325
[ 01:9511]

Set in the near future, where information networks and direct neural interfaces are revolutionizing society. But the divisions of nations and races remain, and keeping the peace is the "Shell" mobile strike force. Major Kusanagi Motoko is an officer of the Shell's 9th division; she has a full cyborg body, which houses her living brain. Together with team leader Aramaki and fellow part-cyborg Bato, the 9th division takes on the terrorists of the information age. {MOU}

For the tankoubon, Shirow drew 36 additional color pages, many of which are "fade-ins" and "fade-outs" to the black and white pages. The plot is more or less episodic, with less of the twisting intrigue that characterises Appleseed, though there is a lot of difficult mecha/cyberpunk jargon.
The first editions of the tankoubon contained 2 pages and a half which have later been redrawn by Shirow himself for the American edition. It is the famous cyber-sex scene which Shirow decided to remove because it caused too much of a fuss. The scene has BTW partly been reproduced in Intron Depot. A popular anime has been released in late 1995, which could be described in the same manner as I would describe the animation of Akira: big project, very good animation but the story is lacking compared to the manga, although it's still a very good anime. Illustrations to publicise the anime were published in the February 1995 issue of Young Magazine Kaizokuban.

Chapter information:
1. Prologue
2. Super Spartan
3. Junk Jungle
4. Megatech Machine I
5. Megatech Machine II
6. Robot Rondo
7. Phantom Fund
8. Dumb Barter
9. Bye Bye Clay
10. Brain Drain
11. Ghost Coast
12. Epilogue

TRA:(E)Dark Horse(F)(G)Feest Verlag(I)Star Comics
APG:(FILM)951118

Koukaku Kidoutai 1.5: Human-Error Processer [The Ghost in the Shell 1.5]
published by Koudansha,
1 volume @ Y2381
[ 01:____]

There's no mistake in the title, that's how it is on the cover. A hardcover anthology of several different manga stories, including an extra 'episode' never before released. Featured Shorts: FatCat (1991), Drive Slave (1992), Mines of Mind (1995), and Lost Past (1996). Includes both color and black & white images. Also comes with an
e-manga CD-ROM (Japanese OS only). {PVH}

The unusual version 1.5 simply means that it includes materials of GITS which came out between 1.0 and 2.0 (1991-1996), and consisted of 4 stories (7 chapters) of 184 pages.

Those 4 stories by themselves are nothing dramatic, also for a book which is more than a decade old and honestly quite behind the time, it was not released as the usual WB or even bunko, but as the extremely rare hardbound edition at 2400 yens each, I personally do not like this variant, it jacks up the price of a book which is supposed to come out in discount WB quite unnecessary, and it actually made it hard to read compare to a regular version, one has to constantly worry about tearing, damaging the pages while flipping them. In fact, I even have to be careful simply from opening the book too wide, the hard bound would not give, and if you open the book 180 degrees it would mean tearing the binding off. Also the inside page of the front and back hard covers are of the black, glossy variety, which means every time you open and hold the book in reading position you will leave your fingerprints all over them, and they are very noticeable against the shining surface and very hard to come off. All these simply give the impression that Shirow design this book not for the masses to read, but trying to max out his profit from an old book as a collector's item.

The one good point is it also includes a CDROM w/ the E-Manga version of the book, I think Shirow had done this in other works like Gun Dancing and Pile Up, Inside the disc they also have samples of other titles such as Initial D, etc. One can find more info about E-manga at

<http://e-manga.jp/>

From the start, I would say the software are quite well written, the spec indicated that it is compatible with 5 window and 6 Mac OS environments, I mounted the disc on both my Macs (9.2 and 10.1), and runs with a double click w/o any hitches at all. Also the included screen savers were installed and run w/o problem, just like the Afternoon's version I tried out this past summer.

I haven't disassemble one of the software with resedit, yet, but I assume the program works like Flash or Macromedia, basically, it took an existing manga, then add sounds and motion to it, unlike anime, both of them are quite limited.

The sounds are mostly of the back ground variety, tire squealing, gun shots, cellular phone ringing, etc. few but very effective placed. The motions are three kinds, first there are the frame placement, you do not see the entire page right away, frame by frame (or panel by panel) the picture appear on the screen as the story progress, and some of them appear faster (action sequence) and some slower (dialogues, etc.) the second kind are of the simple motion such as waving hands, nodding heads, etc. kind of like the gif animation you seen on the net. the third kind are actually cut and paste things like cars or people in the drawing, making them object oriented so you can move them across the page, (like a moving car), and shrinking and expanding the images to give you the perception of 3-D on a 2-D display, special effect which are not in the manga are also added such as fade, wipe, scroll between panels, or shaking the whole picture to indicate violent motion, and color like red flash across the whole frame to indicate a dramatic moment,

There are both good and bad points of reading manga this way, of course, w/ this the author control the pace of the story much more effectively, you have to read the story in exactly the time author lay out unless you pause the program. You are also forced to concentrate on specific panel each time you read, unlike opening a page and you see everything on it, you "watch" the story evolved in front of your eyes not unlike a movie, I consider the sounds and motions just bell and whistles, they are nice, but not essential for you can get much better quality of them if you watch anime, they are not what I read manga for.

Of course, the bad thing about this is exactly what the opposite I just mentioned above, you do not control the pace, to pause the program and go back and forth the panels is kind of like doing the same thing while you watch a DVD, in book form it is much easier to do. You pretty much miss many things and did not have time to digest the story, especially for a hard one to understand like GITS, the incremental frame displacement while force you to read the panel in the correct order, does make you miss out the "big picture", in a manga the size of each panels are important, and reading them one at a time simply taking away any dramatic effect it could have.

One would wonder the future of E-manga and Shirow's works, so far Shirow only used them to increase the value of his old titles. You would think GITS2 is the perfect one to do in this format, especially consider Shirow working with CG, already have the entire thing in digital form, also he "assemble" each panel with independent objects such as back ground, people, machines, etc. They are ready for motion usage, but I do not think GITS2 would come out in e-manga form anytime soon, putting out the CDROM meaning risking having his crown jewel being pirated much more easily in high quality, my guess is probably not until both the Japan and US's GITS2 sells have flatten out.

So, in general, this is an ok title by Shirow's standard, (both story and art wise, I will probably compare it to Appleseed #3) the CDROM is nice, but not enough to justify the high price, hard bound not withstanding, when you realize this is actually more expensive than GITS2, and should have come out at least 5, 6 years ago. I would recommend it for Shirow fans only. {CPK}

Koukaku Kidoutai 2 [The Ghost in the Shell 2]
serialized on Young Magazine,
1 volume @ Y?
[ 01:0106]

A second volume of Ghost in the Shell was quickly planned; all new installments had been published in Young Magazine but they still had to be compiled, meaning that Shirow has to color work and brushing up. Knowing Shirow's pace, this took years to accomplish. But in 2001, 10 years after the first one, the wait was finally over.

From the defunct English version of the Koudansha website (reading like a real promo):
"10 years after Ghost in the Shell... A sequel to the cyber-action masterpiece that took the world by storm!
March 6, 2035: Four years and five months have passed since Motoko Kusanagi 'connected' to intellectual living phenomena and quit the 9th Police Squad. Someone calling herself Motoko Aramaki is on board a ship near the Ocean City Poseidon. She is the head of the investigation department of the Mega Company, Poseidon Industrial Group, and works as a counter-terrorist net security specialist.
When Meditech Co., a human-clone-organ manufacturer's pigs - bred for human organs - are slaughtered by terrorists, Motoko goes after them. What happens next is beyond her imagination...
This masterpiece, drawn in detail, presents a profound world view. 200 beautiful full-color pages!! It was worth waiting 10 years!!" {020}

Senjutsu Chokokaku Orion
仙術超攻殻オリオン
published by Seishinsha, 1991
1 volume @ Y950
[ 01:9112]

In the Yamata People's Empire, powerful technology is based solely on consciousness. Dr. Snake-eye has devised a 'dharmaquation', which will release Kutsuryuu, a 9-headed dragon, to devour the planet's bad karma. However, the 'dharmaquation' is incomplete, and by chance, the stellar navigator Seska becomes its 10th, evil component. The 'dharmaquation' has already begun to manifest and Seska's father, Fuzen, desperately summons the destructive god Susa-no-Oo to counter it...

While Orion is essentially a comedy manga, it contains some interesting ideas, incorporating elements from Taoist, Buddhist, Hindu and Shinto mythology. It can be enjoyed at face value, although many concepts will remain opaque to Western readers.

See also:
<http://members.tripod.com/~masamune_shirow/orion/>

TRA:(E)Dark Horse(F)Glenat(G)Feest Verlag(I)Star Comics

Intron Depot
イントロンデポ
artbook
published by Seishinsha, 1992
1 volume @ Y2400
[ 01:9207]

Includes all Shirow's color illustrations from 1981 to 1991. There is an extensive bilingual Japanese/English commentary. The chapters: 1. Poster
2. Contents-section
3. Appleseed
4. Black Magic
5. Black Magic M-66
6. Game & Etc.
7. The Ghost in the Shell
8. Dominion
9. Cover & Etc.
10. Orion
11. Monochrome

Intron Depot 2: Blades
ＩＮＴＲＯＮ ＤＥＰＯＴ ２ ＢＬＡＤＥＳ
artbook
published by Seishinsha,
1 volume @ Y2800
[ 01:9810]

The sequel to Intron Depot includes a large selection of Shirow's color illustrations from 1992 to 1998. Just as the first one, this artbook contains bilingual commentary. As Shirow himself says in the introductory, most of his mecha/SF related artwork is not included in Blades, but will be collected in another book. As a result, this book shows off more voluptuous girls than his predecessor. The book clearly shows the positive evolution Shirow's artwork has undergone since Intron Depot 1. He has also discovered the computer and as a consequence, most of the artwork is digital (colorings, effects, backgrounds). Fortunately, this usually makes his gorgeous artwork even better. Recommended. Contains 111 color pages, with Japanese and English text.

Intron Depot 3: Ballistics
イントロデポ ３ 画集バリスティクス
artbook
published by Seishinsha,
1 volume @ Y2800
[ 01:0304]

This edition features detailed weaponry, military and fantasy themes, and outer space action. Contains 116 color pages and features Japanese and English text.

Exon Depot
エックソンデポ
published by Seishinsha, 1992
1 volume @ Y?
[ 01:____]

A very short (no more than 20 pages) color manga, which remained unfinished with the demise of Comic Gaia.

TRA:(G)Alpha Comics Verlag

Neuro Hard
ニューロハード
serialized on Dragon Comics, 1993-1995
1 volume @ Y?
[ 01:____]

Subtitled Hachi no Wakusei 蜂の惑星 [Planet of the Bee]. (Shirow has a keen interest in bees and wasps.) Not a manga, but a complete illustrated specification for an imaginary universe, listing personalities, politics, races, technology, locations, and much more. An interesting experiment, described by Shirow as "e-conte". Shirow fans in the West will enjoy the few pictures that are there, although they make no sense at all without following the highly dense, jargony, kanji-dependent text. Not enough installments have been published to make up a tankoubon. {ISI}

Cyberdelics
published by Koudansha, 1997
1 volume @ Y9000
[ 01:____]

No Synopsis.