Slashdot Mirror
Ghost In The Shell TV Series
Briareos writes: "Just found out over at animeondvd.com's forums (no link provided to protect the innocent...) that Production I.G. finally revealed quite some info about the GITS TV series they're currently working on. (I also thought it was a nice birthday present for me, by the way... :)"
Ghost in the Shell was originally a Manga. You can buy the manga if you look around amazon or other books sellers. In the manga is pretty much the WHOLE story in detail. There is also Ghost in the Shell 2, which I'm not sure what happened to it. I can buy the action figures at Media Play for it, but I'm not sure if it was an anime or a manga. This series is pretty much the manga animated and not compressed into one hour, like the movie was. Remember most anime starts out as a manga. The manga usually has a lot more detail and a lot less plot holes, however it is also less shiny and requires you to read. It's also sometimes harder to get manga in English than it is to get anime in english. However, tokyopop (http://www.tokyopop.com) is helping solve this problem. Yay! ^_^
The GeekNights podcast is going strong. Listen!
The manga of Ghost in the Shell is significantly more in-depth than the film. While most American fans love the anime (it is well done), I was always disappointed in it because it barely skimmed the surface of the printed story. The anime only followed the core plot that ran through the manga, neglecting some of the really interesting side stories that developed the characters. This was of course necessary to compact 300-some pages of work into a two hour film, but the end result wasn't quite as satisfying (not to this otaku, at any rate!). IMO, Ghost really needed to be done as a series from the beginning, and I'm thrilled to hear that it's being done. If you get into something like Cowboy Bebop, you can really appreciate the depth of storytelling that can go into an animated limited series.
Regarding Ghost in the Shell 2, the creator (Masamune Shirow) has already finished and released the new series in Japan, and is in the process of converting it for an English-speaking audience. The first issue is hopefully due in October of this year, but don't hold your breath - Shirow is notorious for taking his time with these things. To keep an eye on how the manga translation is going, check out www.studioproteus.com and the fan feedback section in particular. Toren Smith updates more or less monthly, and almost always with news regarding GitS2.