I bought GitS over this last summer. I had already been such a huge fan of the movies and the series, I was eager to see where it all began. I had never read through a Shirow manga, with the exception of bits of Appleseed. When I got home, it was damn near 3 in the morning, and I still ended up getting to sleep at like 5.

Why?

Because this book is frickin amazing. I'm shocked at how few people have actually picked it up, given the near fanaticism the show inspired. One of the main reasons this might have happened is because there are some extremely graphic things that happen in the manga. Given that Shirow also dabbles in drawing hentai, I can expect this now, but I was a little unnerved when I first read it. Don't worry about it, because it only really lasts like 3 pages and if you read the massive amounts of extra information in the back it makes sense.

The art in this is beautiful and brutal at times. Shirow is an absolute master at creating realistic and detailed backgrounds. His city scapes and his mechanical designs seem as though they could actually work in real life. You can certainly tell that this was done in the early 90s though,if only because of some of the inking styles and color portions of this book practically scream it.

The characters, I'll admit, aren't exactly as fleshed out as they become in the show. However, they did lay the groundwork. Togusa is still a father and husband, Batou is still the smart ass, and Motoko is still cold and efficient. One of the things that fans of the series will notice is a lack of Tachikomas. Their predecessors, the Fuchikomas are essentially the same thing, except with noticeably different mech designs.

The story is mostly random crimes and special ops that the Section 9 crew goes through, making this seem like a cop story first and foremost. Eventually it gets to the Puppeteer, and fans of the movies already know how that turns out. Some twists and turns in the story make it more enjoyable (at least to me) than the movie that was based off this, and some of the more sci-fi stuff does get explained in greater detail. Again, this is where that directory in the back comes in handy. Without reading it, this story will probably not make sense unless you're a scientist, military specialist, or an extremely well read religious practitioner.

My enjoyment of this manga is obvious, and overall I think that any fan of the series, movies, or scifi and cyberpunk in general should check it out.