Forum - View topicHow Much Ghost in the Shell Manga is There?
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RedSwirl
 Posts: 344 |
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I've seen everything animated regarding Ghost in the Shell but I've read none of the manga. I have no idea how much there is or how to get it now.
For the longest time I was under the impression that it was a whole manga series. Now I find that it's actually just two or three novels? Also, what exactly is the tone of the manga compared to the anime stuff? I know Oshii intentionally made his movies more serious than the manga, but is the tone of the manga something more like Masamune's Tank Police or Patlabor? Also how much Appleseed is there? Was there an older movie that came out in the 80's before the current two CGI ones? |
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Pityless/Envy
 Posts: 101 |
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I believe there are three different volumes that make up the entire manga series. They were published by Dark Horse, and I believe they're out of print, but you could probably still find a few used copies somewhere or another. I'm pretty sure they're all stand-alone series. 1: Ghost in the Shell (basically the first animated movie with a lot more detail and explanation) 1.5: Human-error processor (A series of stories in the GitS/Appleseed universe published in between 1 and 2) 2: Man-machine interface (I haven't read it yet so I'm not sure) Even though it's only three volumes, they're pretty big volumes, and well worth reading. I'd say the tone is a little less serious, especially when you look at the art, but it still manages to maintain what I enjoyed about the anime (haven't read the other twoyou mentioned). As for Appleseed, I believe it was published in 4 volumes, still haven't picked it up though. And yes, there was an OVA based on the manga before the more recent ones. |
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Moomintroll
 Posts: 1600 Location: Nottingham (UK) |
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You're right that the Dark Horse license has expired but the GitS manga is being re-released in North America by Kodansha starting in October of this year. Also, the British editions (published by Titan Books but identical to the Dark Horse releases) are still in print. |
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Pityless/Envy
Posts: 101 |
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Thanks for pointing that out, I haven't been keeping up with English-language releases lately. And wait, Kodansha is publishing? Does that mean they're still alive? P.S. On a side note, I also noticed Akira's getting reprinted (woot!). |
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Murasakisuishou
 Posts: 1469 Location: NE Ohio |
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Appleseed is indeed in four volumes - the ones I own are the older ones that read left to right and have translated sound effects, but I'm almost positive that an unflopped rerelease came out not too long ago. The first two volumes follow a story, the second two are stand alone, and there's no ending, so prepare to be left hanging. It's still entirely worth reading, though. I've heard that the 80's OAV falls into 'so bad it's good' territory. |
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LostPhrack
Posts: 40 Location: Mass. |
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Correct! Dark Horse re-released all of Shirow's non-GitS work a year or two ago in unflipped editions, complete with some color artwork and more. For Appleseed that means all four volumes plus two books of supplementary material, Appleseed ID and Appleseed Hypernotes. ID has a full one off Appleseed tale set after volume 4 and before the yet to materialize volume 5, along with a ton of info and artwork about the world and the characters. It also has a lengthy timeline of the Appleseed world, complete with hints on what would have happened in volume 5. Hypernotes has the opening of what would have been Appleseed vol. 5, plus a lot of other non-Appleseed related strips and artwork from Shirow. |
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Moomintroll
Posts: 1600 Location: Nottingham (UK) |
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Nobody seems to be quite sure what's going on with Kodansha USA. Shortly after announcing they were going to be re-entering the English language market, the recession hit and they put everything on hold. Then their new editions of Akira and GitS recently started appearing on Amazon, Book Depository, TRSI and so on with release dates beginning in October but there doesn't seem to have been any publicity from Kodansha about them - they don't even have a website as far as I can tell (there's the Kodansha International site, but that's a different division of the corporation). I've heard rumours that Kodansha USA will be partnering with Random House who will do the actual publishing but since Random House already owns Del Rey, I'm not sure why they would want to launch a new manga imprint. I guess we'll just have to wait and see what their plans are - what I really want to know is whether they intend to bring out anything new to English, or whether they just intend to reprint proven sellers as the licenses expire. |
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Ktimene's Lover
 Posts: 2242 Location: Glendale, AZ (Proudly living in the desert) |
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There have been times where one manga licensor lost the rights and another picked it up. TokyoPop originally had Parasyte but Del Rey would later get the license.
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