This deluxe edition will mark the first time the book has been published in its original Japanese right-to-left format in English.
Deep into the twenty-first century, the line between man and machine has been blurred as humans rely on the enhancement of mechanical implants and robots are upgraded with human tissue. In this rapidly converging landscape, cyborg superagent Major Motoko Kusanagi is charged to track down the craftiest and most dangerous terrorists and cybercriminals, including ghost hackers who are capable of exploiting the human/machine interface and reprogramming humans to become puppets to carry out the hackers' criminal ends.
Story Locale: Tokyo
Series Overview: Following World Wars III and IV a Japanese-led Asian block dominates the world. A key element in the maintenance of the block's position is the elite Japanese security police, the SHELL task force. To give them an edge in their ruthless battles against terrorist groups, most of the force have had extensive cybernetic transplants that have left them only questionably human. This is an exciting and skillful work that realistically probes uses of artificial intelligence and direct interfacing with machines, and which questions where mankind's technological and medical progress will lead.
In 1983, Masamune published his first manga, Black Magic from Atlas, a science fiction dojin manga society (dojin is the Japanese term to describe an amateur fan publication). In 1985, his first major work, Appleseed, was published by Seishinsha, without being serialized in or submitted to a manga magazine, which is quite rare in the Japanese manga publishing industry. Shortly thereafter, Shirow set up his own company, and besides working on his own manga and illustration work, took on projects from the anime and game industry. Shirow's work has been recognized and highly respected outside Japan. He has been active in numerous anime and game projects but it is rare for him to take the helm of such projects, or even to have his name used prominently.
Shirow Masamune was born in Japan in Chuo Ward, Kobe City, Hyogo Prefecture, on November 23rd, 1961. He still lives in the same district.
ISBN: 9781632364210
Author: Shirow Masamune
Format: Hardcover
Language: English
Number of Pages: 352
Published: 15 February 2017
Publisher: Kodansha
Country of Publication: US
Dimensions (mm): 260 x 186 x 28
Weight (kg): 0.916
