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A review by neilrcoulter
The Ghost in the Shell (Deluxe Edition) by Shirow Masamune
2.0
I'm late to all of this—too late, probably—but I recently watched Ghost in the Shell (the 1995 animated film, not the more recent one with Scarlett Johansson). I tried it first with the English dub, which was just awful. Then later I watched the whole thing in Japanese with subtitles, which was better. I know some people just love the film, but I felt kind of cold toward it. The animation style is interesting, particularly the lingering shots of cityscape, but I don't find it beautiful. Also, I didn't really understand a lot of what happened in the movie, which made me feel dumb.
Looking at reviews online, I noticed several that recommended reading Masamune Shirow's original graphic novel, which helps understand the movie. So I eagerly checked it out from the library and read it.
And I didn't understand a lot of what happened in the book.
In fact, I probably didn't-understand the book more than I didn't-understand the movie, so I'm not sure I've come out ahead in all of this. The movie, I now see, does a nice job of streamlining the seemingly disparate stories and plots of the book into a single, coherent (more or less) narrative focused on the Puppeteer. Those were the most interesting parts of the book, for me—and I'm sure mostly because I'd already seen the film, so those were the parts that most connected. The graphic novel includes many other plots, most of which don't seem to relate directly to the Puppeteer arc. That's fine, of course, except that I had no idea what was going on most of the time. I often felt like pages must be missing.
The other obstacle for me is that I disagree with Shirow's philosophical outlook on life and the universe. He so firmly believes that his conclusions, given the data, are airtight and obvious. But I disagree. His exploration of what is basically the "infinite web of referents" of semiotics is solid, but the conclusion need not be "therefore, there is no God." There are many other conclusions that are equally valid and reasonable. Shirow's geeky arrogance in his notes throughout the book was unappealing to me (and often didn't help me understand the story at all anyway).
I guess my final conclusion is that Ghost in the Shell, whatever the format, is not for me. I like all the elements of cyberpunk, but I've yet to see them come together in a way that I love.
Looking at reviews online, I noticed several that recommended reading Masamune Shirow's original graphic novel, which helps understand the movie. So I eagerly checked it out from the library and read it.
And I didn't understand a lot of what happened in the book.
In fact, I probably didn't-understand the book more than I didn't-understand the movie, so I'm not sure I've come out ahead in all of this. The movie, I now see, does a nice job of streamlining the seemingly disparate stories and plots of the book into a single, coherent (more or less) narrative focused on the Puppeteer. Those were the most interesting parts of the book, for me—and I'm sure mostly because I'd already seen the film, so those were the parts that most connected. The graphic novel includes many other plots, most of which don't seem to relate directly to the Puppeteer arc. That's fine, of course, except that I had no idea what was going on most of the time. I often felt like pages must be missing.
The other obstacle for me is that I disagree with Shirow's philosophical outlook on life and the universe. He so firmly believes that his conclusions, given the data, are airtight and obvious. But I disagree. His exploration of what is basically the "infinite web of referents" of semiotics is solid, but the conclusion need not be "therefore, there is no God." There are many other conclusions that are equally valid and reasonable. Shirow's geeky arrogance in his notes throughout the book was unappealing to me (and often didn't help me understand the story at all anyway).
I guess my final conclusion is that Ghost in the Shell, whatever the format, is not for me. I like all the elements of cyberpunk, but I've yet to see them come together in a way that I love.