Ask John: What Else Has Shirow Done?

Question:
I am a great fan of Masamune Shirow’s work, especially “Ghost in the Shell”. I was wondering, other than “Appleseed” and “Dominion Tank Police” what other series has he authored or co-authored.

Answer:
Because I’m not exactly a huge Shirow-otaku, I won’t be able to provide the detailed list that many fans could probably rattle off, but here’s what I do know. Currently Shirow-san is drawing the Ghost in the Shell 2: Man-Machine Interface manga at a very leisurely pace. Studio Proteus has already announced that they will translate the story into English as soon as there’s enough of it complete to make the effort worth it. Shirow, remember, also created the Orion and Black Magic manga, as well as a somewhat difficult to find color manga serial titled Exxon Depot. More recently, Shirow provided the character designs for the two volume Landlocke OAV series, and both character and mecha designs for last years theatrical feature Gundress. A Gundress Playstation game is due for release in January in Japan, but there’s been no word yet on whether Shirow has any involvement in that project.