Forum - View topicGhost in the Shell 2: Man Machine Interface
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LordRobin
Posts: 354 Location: Akron, OH |
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I hate saying this, but my primary reaction after reading the first two translated issues is "I waited this long for this?"
Shiro's artwork is gorgeous, but he seems to have entered a phase where he mistakes talking my ears off for good writing. He's been guilty of this to a certain extent from the beginning (I've always had to read each issue of Appleseed twice to comprehend it), but here he takes the "stream of technobabble" concept to new heights. Example: Motoko's meeting with "the Doctor" in issue #1 takes six pages. Six pages of the two of them (or four depending on how you count) blabbing away in front of really pretty pictures. That's followed by another three pages of Motoko cyber-blabbing with her secretary. The second issue has at least another nine pages which, again, are just beautifully rendered people shooting the breeze. And these aren't your standard Japanese manga text balloons. Heck, no. No one can cram text onto a page like Shiro. It puts even the wordiest American comics to shame. Now, of course, such scenes are necessary to establish the plot, but not enough plot is happening here (or to be more precise not happening fast enough) to merit all this wind. Shiro buries us in details. Nothing is too trivial to be explained fully, especially if there's something cybernetically "cool" about the explanation. Do we really need to know the details of every bit of maintenance performed by those little robots of hers? Does every trivial line of conversation with her secretary have to be included in the manga? The problem with all these details is that I have no idea what's a detail and what's something I need to remember. Trying to keep all of this blabber in my head at the same time reduces it all to an incomprehensible pudding inside my brain. By the end of the second issue I had to admit I had no clue what was going on. There seemed to be at least two, maybe three plots advancing at the same time, and trying to separate them was making my head hurt. If Shiro wanted to release an art collection, he should have done "Intron Depot 3". I would have bought it. If he wanted to write a text-based story, he should have written a novel. I probably would have bought that, too (if translated). As it is, GitS 2 tries to be both and doesn't really work as either. Oh, I'm gonna buy it, but I'm not sure I'll read it. I'll wait for the trade paperback and skim the pretty artwork. Trying to find the story in the immense sea of details is like looking for diamonds in a sandbox, and I just don't have the time or the desire. ------RM |
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John Jakala
 Posts: 60 |
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Heh, glad to know I'm not the only one who feels this way about Shirow's writing. I haven't read GITS2 yet (waiting for the trade), but I just read ORION and the mystical technobabble made it very hard to get through. I think it took me over a week to force myself through it. And it's gotten to the point where I just skim the APPLESEED chapters in SMB! - I just don't care about the nitpicky details that Shirow loves to elaborate on.
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