Need some help with ghost in the shell manga.

[desikner]

Hi John,
First of all you seem like a very helpfull person,I am glad to know that there are people like you in this forum. ;)

I actually am contacting you because I would like to see if you could help me.
I am trying to read the ghost in the shell manga comic, one very similar to this one: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/9a/Ghost_In_The_Shell_Manga_Cover_1.jpg/300px-Ghost_In_The_Shell_Manga_Cover_1.jpg
In the comic store I was told it was the firt one out of two.
I am finding it quite complicated to follow because at the begining it is very similar to the ghost in the shell film but then all of a sudden motoko and the gang are investigating some sort of rehabilitation facility, and a kid runns away and then they start driving around in tachikomas hunting down a gorilla like man.
This is quite confusing for me and I was wondering if you would be so kind as to help me make some sense out of all of that...

Thanks allot John ;)

[SonRyu]

That pic is the original version of the GitS manga as released in the US. It has been re-released in an unedited version (where some nudity that was removed originally was put back). This (http://us.st11.yimg.com/us.st.yimg.com/I/animenation_1909_16585801) is the re-release by the way, and this (http://us.st11.yimg.com/us.st.yimg.com/I/animenation_1906_71661302) is the manga sequel.

Summarizing the GitS manga is not an easy thing to do. That's because it is very political and technical. That's why there are footnotes everywhere. First thing you need to do is just forget about anything else GitS. Don't worry about the movie(s), the series, or the games if you've played them. These are all separate entities and are not related to each other. I don't know if anyone is up to the task of explaining, much less summarizing the manga. I'm certainly not. I would just recommend finishing it once, and then re-reading it to make more sense of it.

[desikner]

Thanks, I was trying to relate it to the first film because of the similarity at the begining and then I tried relating it to the SAC series and I found it all way to confusing.
I have the spanish version of the manga where the cover is like the original but it is actualy the re-release,(with the nudity).
Would you read first the comic ,the footnotes or both at the same time?
I apreciate your help ;)

[Milky Mixer]

One of the cool things about GitS is that the manga, the movies, and the tv series all exist as separate entities, as SonRyu stated, but they really seem to pull inspiration from one another. Well, the manga doesn't really pull its inspiration from the movies or the films - it is, after all, the original creation of the original GitS creator. But the first film definitely grabs a lot from the first manga. And the tv series grabs stuff from the first and second manga AND from the two films. And the second film, IMO, grabs some cool elements from the first film and "modifies" them to the Innocence story... from the very similar opening credits to things like the parade sequence being an "update" of Motoko's rainy journey through the city in the first film to the tearing off of Motoko's arm in the first film getting its own "replay" in Innocence. Its cool how there are "different GitS worlds" but they sort of overlap in their own ways...

[John]

I'm sorry to say that it's been so many years since I read the GitS manga that I'm sure I can't provide a detailed summary of it now.

[desikner]

Thanks everybody for your help I was trying to relate it to the fiml because of it´s similarity and then I lost the plot thaks allot.
Now I am finding it much easyer to follow thanks ;)

[Olin of Xephon]

Plus, one of the original manga's chapters (with the ghost dubbing device) was the basis for Ghost in the shell Inncence's plot.

They also recently re-released the oringal manga in a smaller format (like Man Machine Interface) complete with the uncensored two pages from chapter two (The Lesbian orgy).