Ghost in the Shell 2: Man/Machine Interface
|
|
Ghost in the Shell 2: Man-Machine Interface (Koukaku Kidoutai 2: ManMachine Interface; 攻殻機動隊 : 2 ManMachine Interface) is an eleven volume manga written and drawn by the famous mangaka, Masamune Shirow (士郎 正宗 Shirō Masamune). It was first released in the US in 2002 by Dark Horse Comics.
The nominal sequel to the orginal Ghost in the Shell manga series, GITS2 explores a wide range of philosophical issues regarding the nature of human identity and the boundaries of human consciousness. However, readers should be warned that the action of the series is largely tangential to the plot of the original work and its various cinematic and televisual offspring (Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Ghost in the Shell: S.A.C. 2nd GIG, and the recent feature film Ghost in the Shell: Innocence directed by famed Japanese auteur Mamoru Oshii).
GITS2 owes much to the conventions of cyberpunk and readers familiar with that genre will immediately recognize the problematics (here understood in the Althusserian sense of the word; "the system of questions commanding the answers given") presented by Shirow (see Louis Althusser). As such, the overall philosophical terrain is not new; rather, the work should be considered an extended rumination, amidst stunningly rendured action sequences, on the same questions offered up for consideration in the original manga series. To draw again on the concept of problematic, this is hardly a surprising development.