“The Ghost in the Shell 1.5: Human-Error Processor”, by Masamune Shirow

117 pages, Dark Horse Manga, ISBN-13: 978-1593078157

Okay, bear with me here: even though Ghost in the Shell 1.5: Human-Error Processor would, due to its ordering number, appear to be the second volume in The Ghost in the Shell series, in fact it was published last. You see, these stories are in fact the “lost” The Ghost in the Shell stories, created by Masamune Shirow after completing work on the original The Ghost in the Shell manga and prior to The Ghost in the Shell 2: Man-Machine Interface, but never collected before now. See now? I knew that you would. And so, here we go…

Deep into the 21^st Century, the line between man and machine has been inexorably blurred as humans rely on the enhancement of mechanical implants and robots are upgraded with human tissue. In this rapidly converging technoscape, the covert-ops agents of Section 9 are charged to track and crack the most dangerous terrorists, cybercriminals, and ghost hackers the digital future has to offer. Whether dealing with remote-controlled corpses, lethally malfunctioning micro-machines, or cop-killer cyborgs, Section 9 is determined to serve and protect... and reboot some cyber-crook ass! Ghost in the Shell 1.5 lacks the overall narrative arc seen in the other collections, but the stories themselves are still as dense and complex. Showing the collision between a near-contemporary society on the verge of a very messy cyberpunk infused technological singularity.

Much like in the original manga, Section 9 is effectively a hard-nosed special police force focused on dealing with the new and burgeoning issues of cyber-crime. This means that each story is often based around detective work in unraveling a strange and complex mystery. From dealing with walking dead people and the ever present issues of sentience in Fuchikomas, each of the stories make for an interesting and thought provoking read; this is a great collection of standalone cyberpunk stories set within the world of Ghost in the Shell, and while you don’t have to read them to appreciate the broader narrative arcs in the first and second manga collections, they work very well on their own merits as short stories within that same setting; in any case, the fact we have this collection re-released and in wide circulation is something I am greatly relieved to see.