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The big Masamune Shirow appreciation thread


bsu legato

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Anyone have a link to that new trailer? Those screengrabs look fantastic.

I found it HERE. It's under the MOVIE section....get it while the Torrent speeds are decent. :lol:

Thanks! I'm pulling it down now. I didn't even think to look there for it - I should have known (heck - they've got everything else, right?).

BTW, I think you introduced me to that site, too, a while back. I've visited a lot of torrent sites before, but I've gotten the most use of it than all the rest combined. :D

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Did Dark Horse publish the hard covers??? (Nice collection!) If they did I can ask one of their manga editors. he doesn't do the Shirow stuff but he could find out.

Checked this weekend.

Eclipse + Dark Horse for the first 2 hardcover books.

Run of 300 S&N Hardcovers.

Studio Proteus + Dark Horse for the 3rd.

Run of 200 S&N Hardcovers.

Off to download the trailer!!! Those screenshots looked great! :)

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I don't mind the hentai. If it's going to be done, who better than Shirow, right? In fact I remember seeing hentai stuff (outside of those pages in GITS and GITS:MMI) that he did even before the posterbooks, in some small japanese book that was mostly text. (Sorry to bring that topic up again, had to mention it though. By the way, the other link is broken so here's a proper one for the curious: http://rengoku9.free.fr/pbcollection.html ) We all know of his love for the female form, it's a natural progression in my opinion. If fact, I'm not opposed to him showing everything to be completely honest.

The Doc said it all very wisely...

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OK. So i finally bought GITS2 MMI issues 10 and 11. Sat down for a thorough read... and was pretty disappointed when I reached the last page. So WHAT is the point of MMI, you ask? Here's the plot:

Motoko has changed. She percieves reality differently. She has some adventures which lead her to some of her former selves. They decide to merge again. Motoko has changed. She percieves things differently... The end.

Anyone think different?

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Nope, I think you summed it up pretty good. I just finished #11 over coffee here in my office, and all I'm left with is an overwhelming sense of apathy toward the entire MiM story. Instead of adding some insight into what was going on over the past 10 issues, we're treated to a bunch of talking heads discussing life, evolution and the universe. Ho-hum.

Shirow, why hast thou forsaken us?

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Shirow has become all flash and no substance. As if it wasn't bad enough all he seems to want to do these days is hard and softcore porn.

I wouldn't even go so far as to say Man Machine Interface had a lot of flash. At least, other than the pretty CG backgrounds. If Shirow had resorted to filling MMI with nothing but robot combat and explosions then I'd agree. But to really get anything out of this story it seems that you need a philosophy degree. I was ok with his stories when his characters would wax philosophical about insect exoskeletons or religous zealots in the third world, because at least that had some bearing on the story (sometimes). But in MMI it is the story, and I didn't become a fan of Shirows earlier works just to read a bunch of metaphysical/existential nonsense. Shirows better works have always balanced the mumbo-jumbo with an actual story, you know....plot, pacing, characterization. Thats what frustrates me the most about MMI. He's taken the "deeper" elements of the story and amped them up to a level that's absolutely unreadable. When you have to reread each page at least twice to get a sense of what the hell is going on, it become a chore just to finish the damn comic.

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It seems to be the current fad in anime and maybe in mangas but the stories have been oversaturated with philosophy. I'm not sure if it's not coming across right in the translation but the philosphy is really bad. it's always about evolution, where we came from, where are we going and it doesn't meld well with the story. Most of the time it's a character sitting there wondering about existence and then the next minute they're duking it out with a giant robot. EVA is a good example. That's why I'm more akin to the old 80's style japanese importations. SDF Macross was a great combination of story and substance. DYRL kinda got sidetracked by the whole protoculture for a minute, but the balance was still good.

And it seems Shirow is not immune to the fad. It could be that he was guilty of it seeing as Orion was so deep in the whole mystic way of life thing early in the 90's.

I don't want to see a shallow all out robot battle coming from Shirow and my other favorites but I wish the time would come back to where the philosophy served the plot not the other way around.

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It seems to be the current fad in anime and maybe in mangas but the stories have been oversaturated with philosophy. I'm not sure if it's not coming across right in the translation but the philosphy is really bad. it's always about evolution, where we came from, where are we going and it doesn't meld well with the story. Most of the time it's a character sitting there wondering about existence and then the next minute they're duking it out with a giant robot. EVA is a good example. That's why I'm more akin to the old 80's style japanese importations. SDF Macross was a great combination of story and substance. DYRL kinda got sidetracked by the whole protoculture for a minute, but the balance was still good.

And it seems Shirow is not immune to the fad. It could be that he was guilty of it seeing as Orion was so deep in the whole mystic way of life thing early in the 90's.

I don't want to see a shallow all out robot battle coming from Shirow and my other favorites but I wish the time would come back to where the philosophy served the plot not the other way around.

Amen, brother EXO!

:)

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I too, read both #10 and 11 this weekend.

I agree with the anticlimatic feel of #11.

Alas, I was hoping for more but I kind of understood what was going on.........sorta.

Still, I am going to have to re-read the whole series now that I have them all. Shirow may have gone way off on a tangent, but the artwork is still cool.

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I still love Appleseed...but I pretty much lost intrest in Shirow after the first Intron Depot book and he started produceing a lot more fanservice type pin-ups :p ... Not that I mind a little fanservice (lord knows I have enough of Oobari's work around here...mainly like him for the dynamic exagerated fluid flexable art style more then his big impossable breasted women though)

Nagano is still tops in my book, love his designs and very elegant art style...However Kazumi Fujita is still my all time favorite mecha designer (he so needs a "collected works" book or two...his concept work for Gao Gai Gar is just awsome!)...Shirow is still an exceptionaly talented artist, but I think he has lost his touch over the last decade or so...I only pick up the FSS manga now, dropped MMI after the first two issues...the whole "what is reality" stuff, while interesting, was much better done decades ago through the works of writer Phillip K. Dick IMHO.

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I still love Appleseed...

*raises glass to toast*

Yes. To Appleseed.

That's what frustrated me the most about Shirows abortive attempt at Appleseed Book 5, as published in Hypernotes. The first thing that you notice when you read it is that....it's actually good. The story whipped along at a brisk pace, the story made sense, shirows oldschool humor had returned, Deunan kept her clothes on.....what more could you ask for? If Shirow wasn't pleased with his efforts at Book 5, I'm afriad to know what he really wanted to do.

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There was also some stuff in modeling magazine Hobby Japan about that supposed live action Appleseed flick/commercial/whatever...Can't recall the exact issue but IIRC it was around 1988-89 (maybe slightly later) just a short little set of behind the scenes type pics (some showing a bit of Bri's costume detail I think)...

actualy it may not have been a commercial or even ment to be seen by the public (as a film would)...I worked for a video production firm at the time, mainly doing stuff (everything from raw grip work to full on 2D cell animation) for TV commercials and education/instructional videos...but we had a number of "proof of concept" projects usually done on a contract basis...typicaly this sort of thing is/was done to try and get investors onboard (show them something to peak thier intrests, etc...)...One of these such "proof of concept" things was for a proposed laserdisk basied video game inspired by Star Wars...basicly we had to quickly and cheaply produce a 10 minute "epic space battle" the client was to then show investors to get them excited enough to invest thier money in produceing the real game...we also did another of these for a proposed horror film (actually did three of these IIRC)...anyway that sort of thing isn't uncommon, and it might be the case with this "live-action Appleseed" thingy...some guy wanted to make a live action flick basied on Appleseed, and invested in produceing a short flick to intice big money investors (or maybe even Shirow himself to sign off on the project)...as the guy owns the flick he might have just shielved it as he couldn't get enough investors (or it turned out real crappy, whatever) and so it's next to impossable to be found online...didn't actor Richard Hatch do something simular with his own self funded Battlestar Galactic "trailer" a few years ago?...it's same basic deal, made to generate intrest in a potential project...

Course it could have been a TV commercial too...just trying to provide some info here :p

EDIT: another thought...it could also have been ment as a "show reel" for some small Japanese SFX studio...the common thing companies do is to edit together a bunch of clips from shows/shots they have worked on...and other companies looking for attention also make short little flicks showing off what they can do...it is kinda a moot point when you are a big company like ILM...but when you are smaller like say Fantasy Effects (and other small SFX companies) that sort of thing really helps set you appart when shopping for clients (who may have to wade through dozens nearly identical "show reels" when shopping for a SFX firm to handle thier film effects)...blah...more film insider info :p

Edited by MSW
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