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Wikipedia This article uses Creative Commons licensed content from Wikipedia's Ghost in the Shell (manga) article.

The list of authors can be seen in the page history there.

Ghost in the Shell (攻殻機動隊 Kōkaku Kidōtai "Mobile Armoured Riot Police") is the original manga created by Masamune Shirow. He followed it up by Ghost in the Shell 2: Man/Machine Interface and more recently by Ghost in the Shell 1.5: Human-Error Processor.

The manga is notable for the proliferation of footnotes and commentary by Shirow himself on both the technology and the socio-political background of the setting (in the complete, English language graphic novel edition, these take up more than 30 pages).

Chapters[]

# Cover Title Date
1 GITS manga jap prologue Prologue
2 GITS manga jap chapter 2 Super Spartan 10.4.2029
3 GITS manga jap chapter 3 Junk Jungle 27.7.2029
4 Megatech Machine 1 - Revolt of the Robots
5 Megatech Machine 2 - The Making of a Cyborg
6 GITS manga jap chapter 6 Robot Rondo 1.10.2029
7 GITS manga jap chapter 7 Phantom Fund 24.12.2029
8 GITS manga jap chapter 8 Dumb Barter 2.3.2030
9 GITS manga jap chapter 9 Bye Bye Clay 15.7.2030
10 GITS manga jap chapter 10 Brain Drain 9.9.2030
11 Ghost Coast 18.9.2030

Plot[]

The overarching story of the manga is of Major Motoko Kusanagi's hunt for a cyber-criminal, The Puppeteer (known as The Puppet Master in the film), whose real identity is unknown. The Puppeteer commits a large number of crimes through a single modus operandi: "ghost hacking", that is, breaking into and taking control of human minds. As the agents of Public Security Section 9 start to unravel the mystery of the Puppeteer, it becomes clear that it is no ordinary criminal, but a unique autonomous artificial intelligence project (Top Secret Project 2501) created by another government agency, the Treaty Bureau of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), also known as Section 6. The Puppeteer escapes Section 6's control in pursuit of his evolution through merging with Kusanagi. Kusanagi, although initially skeptical, finally agrees to allow the Puppeteer to merge with her own consciousness, sharing her body, in what is no doubt intended to raise even more questions about the nature of human identity in a world where human consciousness is no longer unique.

Film adaption[]

An eponymous film adaption was released in Japan in 1995. The film stars Atsuko Tanaka and Akio Ōtsuka as the voices of Major Motoko Kusanagi and Batou respectively, and was directed by Mamoru Oshii.

Collected Editions[]

  • The Ghost In The Shell (Kokaku Kidotai) : Publisher: Kodansha (KCDX) ISBN 4-06-313248-X C9979 Release: 5 October 1991, original Japanese
  • Ghost In The Shell (English Edition) : Publisher: Dark Horse Comics / Studio Proteus ISBN 1-56971-081-3, Release: December 1995, English adaptation

Cover Art[]

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