For kids, and those who otherwise cannot grow up (preferring the late night reruns of SCOOBY DOO to anything resembling adult entertainment) of course Shirow's narratives are too complex to digest. That's the whole point! The future is and will be complex, full of change and chaos - as it should be! All of the master's works reflect this, but none better than GITS 1 & 2 (manga not movie). By contrast, GITS:SAC is of course more "exciting," with all that shooting and Kusanagi's threatening demeanor, the unquestioned technology you find in any adolescent point of view (these same kids deafening themselves with Ipods, like the teens of the sixties and seventies who went to way too many rock concerts and now find it difficult simply to HEAR). Challenging authority is supposed to be the point of teen rebellion, but in this age of "Mickey D's", gangsta clothing in upscale department stores and CGI characters replacing flesh and blood actors, there is nothing left to challenge. The original GITS and the idiosyncratic sequel require an ADULT sensibility, a real brain commitment, not the bemused brushoff of post-MTV attention defecit children. GITS, like 2001, showed the inhumanity of the future with the robots/droids/cyborgs more human than the biological beings standing beside them. Police work will be as risky as ever in the coming apocalyptic age, and perhaps the best we could hope for is an android with a big gun. Not questioning authority - and one's very existance, in a true Phil Dickian sense - should not be left to infants. It may be easier to simply float along enjoying the pretty computer generated roller coaster ride, every once in a while croaking "whoa" like Neo, but the rest of us non-savior types will be curled up in a comfortable french window reading Shirow as the machines uselessly battle each other for supremacy.

Ghost in the Shell is more of an accumulation of stories printed over several years by the mysterious Shirow Masamune instead of a deftly plotted piece, so it reads more like an anthology than a series. Major Kusanagi is the lead operative for "Section 9", a covert anti-cyberterrorist unit in 2029 Japan. In this somewhat realistic future, the bodies of humans can be modified with cyborg implants, or even more extreme, the "ghost", or soul can be moved to a fully robotic body of various shapes and sizes. Even the most normal humans can communicate with each other through the net through receptors placed inside them. The big problem this world is having is the blurring of what is machine and what is human. Another one is that because we are connected over the net, viruses and hackers can actually take over the human will and force them to commit crimes. That's where Section 9 comes in. They have to deal with political assasinations, suicidal/homicidal cyborgs, criminals who can change bodies, and machines that want the same rights as us! And they have to deal with all this behind the scenes without bringing any attention to themselves or the public will cry murder.

While the art of Ghost in the Shell can be offputting at times because of its cartoonish style, (for example, most of the male characters look like simians), once you get used to the art, you can find real beauty in it. Masamune draws attractive women particularly well, and in this second edition, some more erotic elements enter into the fray. The artist is at his best when Ghost is in more traditional action mode instead of when Shirow descends into psychobabble about the nature of consciousness. As evidenced by the voluminous notes on his sources, I'm sure HE knows what he's talking about, but does the average reader? But the notes do help on some of the plot points. The design of the book is exquisite and it makes me wonder why Dark Horse did not put out this edition originally instead of making us buy two copies.

I would highly recommend the excellent Stand Alone Complex anime, which focus more on the action elements. The two films, on the other hand, deal with the psychobabble and are inferior to the manga and the TV show.