Forum - View topic

Jason Thompson's House of 1000 Manga - Appleseed

Yes, yes, and more yes. Appleseed will always stand head and shoulders above the GitS manga to me, because the characters are actual freakin' people instead of....I don't even know. Political and philosophical rumination can only take one so far, even when conveyed via many, many drawings of muscley, naked women; sometimes you just need some good old fashioned couple-y adorableness.

Now if only ANY of the animated adaptations could figure that out >.>

I have to say, though, I've always been amused by the fact that Uncle Shirow can only draw two women at best; the manga!Major is basically Deunan with slightly different hair and more PMS and psychosis, and I know I saw a few Hitomi clones in there too. Also, Batou and Briareos are pretty much the same person.

I know it may be "non-canon" as far as GITS goes, but don't they hint in SAC that the Major may not be a woman, and instead just chose a woman's body for the sake of speed, etc?

I know it may be "non-canon" as far as GITS goes, but don't they hint in SAC that the Major may not be a woman, and instead just chose a woman's body for the sake of speed, etc?

Ghost in the Shell is more popular, but I went back to reread Appleseed because I like Appleseed better.

It makes a good contrast with Dominion, another Shirow manga, a over-the-top parody of the whole bad-cops-in-a-dystopian-future thing. I think Shirow is being completely sincere when he praises the Olympus S.W.A.T. team members, and that he really is in favor of a more big-government (some would say totalitarian) society with far-reaching police powers, but it's nice to know he can also make fun of himself.

The problem with Shirow's manga for me is that it's not driven by the characters, it's driven by ideas: ideas about science, politics, whatever.

But the core of Appleseed is the relationship between Deunan and Briareos, whose love for one another makes them more likeable than the Ghost in the Shell characters whose only bond is police comraderie.

I'd like it if Shirow went back to drawing manga, although I don't think he'd ever have it in him to tell a very emotional story,

TokyoGetter wrote:

I know it may be "non-canon" as far as GITS goes, but don't they hint in SAC that the Major may not be a woman, and instead just chose a woman's body for the sake of speed, etc?

Well, Batou kind of jokes about it in the first season, and then there's that weird line in episode 24 that doesn't really go anywhere, but by 2nd GIG it's pretty much a solid fact that she's all chick. Most of the meandering is about whether she sticks with female bodies for practical or sentimental reasons, and even then, they don't really dwell on it too much.

<snip> sometimes you just need some good old fashioned couple-y adorableness.

Now if only ANY of the animated adaptations could figure that out >.>

If you want more of Shirow going off the tangent, look into Orion where he gives some notes how he fuses buddhism and quantum physics to make the manga's theory of magic go.

I wasn't aware Appleseed was still in print so I can buy this right away!

Is he still hiding his face and identity btw?

...and still living with his parents too as of the last interview i saw involving him. but i supposed that's not quite as big a deal in japan as it would be in the west.