If you've followed the saga of the release of ManMachine Interface outside of Japan, you know that only Odysseus followed a longer and more tortuous route. For those who didn't know of MMI before all eleven issues were out, here's a very short version.
For some years Shirow had what was to become GitS2: MMI serialized in Young Magazine in Japan. Then, finally, in December 2000/January 2001, a box set was released, the fabled "Solid Box." It came with all sorts of interesting things, but chief among them was the first collected MMI, of which the first 64 pages (out of 350-400) were in stunning color. The computer art in it was amazing (if a bit over the top at times), and Shirow had obviously mastered the use of computers to create art. This was an overwhelmingly digital manga. All the stories I've heard about it indicate it was wonderful and cool and other such adjectives; it also contained a version of MMI that, as it turned out, none of the rest of us would see.
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Six months passed, and for some reason there was no release--not even in Japanese--of a mass market softcover version of MMI. Then, in June 2001, the 300+ page "Standard Version" appeared in Japanese. Significant changes had been made, including lots of computer "tweaks" by Shirow and the complete deletion/alteration of a very hentai scene (deleted by Shirow because he felt he'd gone "too far" in the original version). Massive numbers of pages were in color at this point.
Six months pass, and no word on the release date for the English version of MMI.
Six more months pass (so it's June 2002), and still no MMI. In addition, there are rumours of two versions, a "standard" and "adult" version. From Studio Proteus, the company doing the translation for Dark Horse, who was to release the English version: "Regarding the status of the 'standard' and 'adult' versions of the books, Shirow has not decided on that yet--or, to be more accurate, he's waffling now. He modified the
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pages from the limited hardcover release for the mass-market paperback in Japan, and at first he seemed amenable to letting us do a version with the original images, but now he's not sure. He seems to feel he may have gone a bit too far in the hardcover. At this point all we can do is wait and see what he decides."
Finally, we get word that MMI is due out starting October 2002, the first of eleven issues to be released like dribbles from a faucet over the course of nearly a year, with no complete graphic novel in sight (even though it already existed in that format in Japan.
October comes and goes, and then the release date becomes November.
And then, finally, in January 2003, Dark Horse's issue #1 of MMI shows up on store shelves, years after the Japanese release. No "adult" version, no word that there ever was a plan for such a thing. And, to their
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credit (although not much, as the book already existed before all this) Dark Horse managed to release the rest of MMI more-or-less on schedule, with the last issue showing up in December 2003.
Those of us waiting all that time were very frustrated, as you can imagine. Add to all this that Stand Alone Complex came out in Japan in October 2002 and was rumoured to be coming to the US by December 2002, then didn't, then was delayed until a 2004 release outside of Japan, and one can see the reasons the Discussion Boards here were lit up like the customer service line at any major department store just after Christmas.
On the plus side, ManMachine Interface (or Man-Machine Interface, as it is called in the Dark Horse versions) is still an excellent artistic accomplishment, and although the characters appear a bit too "shiny" at times because of the graphics, there are breathtaking scenes as well.
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The storyline occurs after Motoko and the Puppetmaster join, and we are now presented with Motoko Aramaki, an entity who could be an advanced version of the old Motoko or a very different character (we find out later in the series, but I'm not spoiling it here :) ). She has adventures of her own to take care of, and Section 9 really doesn't get a look in; and as the series progresses, we get a very action-oriented romp through cyberspace and, again, the story twists and turns until we are confronted with ... well, philosophical issues that may seem fairly familiar, such as "Who am I?" but from a very different point of view indeed. (For more discussion of MMI, see the
Discussion Boards.)
While at times MMI doesn't seem as adventurous as the first manga, it is still quite interesting. I don't quite agree with Shirow's direction in this storyline, as it seems, in some ways, to be a bit simplistic (compared to the directions he could have taken it), but MMI is still quite a piece of work.
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