in the shell

I have picked up a copy of Stand Alone Complex Volume 1 and it is amazing, the book has everything you wanted to know about the episodes, characters and the equipment that the characters use up to episode 19. You get to see concept art of previous drafts of SAC Motoko Kusanagi, the clothes that she could have worn. With the episodes, you find out facts like where certain quotes came from, like in the episode that featured Fem the assassin, when a Tachikoma told Motoko if it should pull the plugs from Batou's car, that quote is similar to a quote from GITS 1.5 and what the deleted scenes in some of the episodes would have contained if they were not deleted.

...and I bought the 2nd gig official log and I think it's better. Very well organized and has some comics like pages in it. It is cool and offers very nice drawings. The dvd that comes with it is also amusing. Looking forward to buy the 2nd one.

There isn't an Offical Log for the 2nd Gig, yet, at least in English. You mean you have it in Japanese? I'll be looking forward for translation, in any case...

I just got the Offical Log 1, too and it's quite interesting. I also liked the DVD's interviews that showed, how the series was actually made. I've always found behind the scenes action interesting.

Too bad, though, that they left the most interesting part for the Offical Log 2 - namely the analysis on the Stand Alone Complex and the Laughing Man incident. Ofcourse that way they can make twice the money, so I can't say it's unexpected...

The Official Log Volume 2 will come out 24th January 2006.

Motoko2030 wrote:The Official Log Volume 2 will come out 24th January 2006.

thanks for that realse date Motoko2030. Unfortunatly I have to wait for Christmas for the 2nd gig DVDs and the Official Logs, so I'm a bit behind everyone. But now I know I need to reserve money for this.

The Official Log Volume 1 had a limited release of about 10,000 copies when it was released in October, but you should still find copies of it in stores and on Amazon or on ebay. The book and DVD are the same length as the Japanese version, there were rumors of pages and video footage being cut in the American release, but that turned out to be false.

Motoko2030 wrote:The Official Log Volume 1 had a limited release of about 10,000 copies

.....omg, should I like hurry up and buy it then?

Official Log volume 1 sells for 44.99 on Amazon.com, it contains

Available Subtitles: English
Available Audio Tracks: Japanese (Dolby Digital 2.0)
DVD with 90 minutes of new features and a 148-page hard-bound book
DVD Features:
Analysis of all episodes from Season 1 from many viewpoints
Interview Archives featuring never-before-seen footage and interviews with directors, producers, cast-members and studio executives
9th Studio Digital Works featuring report on digital animation productions by Production I.G and interviews
Book Contains:
Introduction - What is Ghost in the Shell? Created by Masamune Shirow, the world of GITS is thoroughly explained, including manga, movies, games and TV episodes
Character profiles from Section 9 including bios, personality and combat data
Story: Unraveling the meaning of each episode investigating technological terms
Design and Interviews: Analysis of each episode from the GITS creative team, including technical terms and background information
Stapa Saito's essay on GITS: SAC, in which he explores the advantages of the Cyberbrain life

I think there is plenty of copies that still exist.

Motoko2030 wrote:The Official Log Volume 1 had a limited release of about 10,000 copies when it was released in October, but you should still find copies of it in stores and on Amazon or on ebay.

Anime Corner Store says there's 15 000 copies made - they sell it with just $33.98, by the way, though it seems, that they just add extra dollars to the shipping bill - that's why I ended buying mine from a British store - the customs would have added the cost quite a bit.
It doesn't seem, that they're about to end too soon - I think, that 15 000 is a pretty good estimate of the number of English-speaking hard-core fans of the series.

Thanks for that link Lightice, its cheaper here than at amazon. Plus you can pre-order the second log.

Which brings me to a question. If you pre-order something do they charge you then or when it comes out and they ship it to you? Thanks

In the Official Log Volume 1, it shows a picture of the actual Natural Oil canister that Batou put in his Tachikoma, on the canister is a image of an apple, which gives a nod out to Appleseed.

Plus, in the episode called Angel's Share, when Aramaki strapped a grenade to a pot and put it behind the front door, this came from one of the volumes of the Appleseed manga.

I picked up my copy as well (kinda have to considering). The artwork was great and the series recap was informative. However, I will admit being a little dissapointed with the overall content. The recap ends at EP19 and it doesn't really go into the heavy backstory. It only gives us observations over what we see and doesn't go into the backstory of what we don't. Like we don't know any more about character history other than what we figured out ourselves or the history of the future setting. Personally, I only fond a few tidbits of info I hadn't learbed already. The DVD, I also found dissapointing as it just seems like an expanded version of the interviews on the Manga DVDs. I don't need to see episode highlights since I own all of the. Just my two cents. I'll still buy the next log in January...cause I'm an idiot.

The information in the Offical Log Volume 2 might be better than the first volume, since the second volume focuses on Episodes 20-26, which are all Lauging Man episodes.

I'm pretty sure (remember reading it) that the second log will go into detail and explain the whole Laughing Man bit.

Lightice, where did you get yours from? i'd love this, and almost all the places sugested can't ship to the UK.