Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex Novel Vol. 1: The Lost Memory Review
Which writers or directors immediately spring to mind when you think of Ghost in the Shell (GitS)? Original author Masamune Shirow is a given, as without his manga, the rest of this enormous franchise would never have existed. Director Mamoru Oshii deserves credit for his movie version, which brought GitS’ signature blend of cyberwarfare action and philosophical exploration to the masses. Writer/director Kenji Kamiyama brought Stand Alone Complex (SAC) to the small screen, and to this day it’s my favourite iteration of the series. What about Junichi Fujisaku though? Who’s he? Why’s he important?
According to this book’s afterword, Fujisaku was one of the first “graduates” of Production I.G’s Oshii Academy, set up by Mamoru Oshii to train that studio’s next generation of writers, directors, and animators. He began his career as planning assistant for 2000’s Blood: The Last Vampire, wrote ten episodes of SAC (2002–2004), before directing and composing 2005’s Blood+, composing 2011’s Appleseed XIII and Blood-C, plus he contributed scripts to two episodes of Ghost in the Shell: Arise: Alternative Architecture in 2015.
His involvement with the GitS franchise isn’t limited to its various anime adaptations — between 2013 and 2016 he wrote the excellent seven-volume tie-in Arise manga ~Sleepless Eye~, which I reviewed recently. Lately, from 2019-present, he’s been writing The Ghost in the Shell: The Human Algorithm manga, a sequel to Shirow’s GitS 1.5: Human Error Processor, which is also well worth reading. These aren’t his first GitS-related works in print, however. Starting back in 2004, JP publisher Tokuma Shoten released a trilogy of Fujisaku-written GitS: SAC tie-in novels that in 2006 came to the US in English, courtesy of Dark Horse. I’ve always meant to get around to reading these, and this retrospective has finally given me the excuse to track down copies. They’re not exactly still in print, but they’re easy to find secondhand online, possibly even for less than cover price.
The first volume, The Lost Memory, reads exactly like an unmade SAC season 1 episode. It’s set in October 2030, The Laughing Man case is still underway (it’s prominently referenced in one detailed section, but it isn’t necessary to know anything else about it — the explanation is sufficient), and Section 9 is still publicly active. Major Motoko Kusanagi and her team are tasked to investigate a spate of disparate terrorist acts that have occurred over the previous two years, all perpetrated by teenage boys, none with any obvious motives.
Kusanagi’s first encounter with the phenomenon is via a 16-year-old Hisamitsu Shikawa who threatens to blow up an electronics store with a homemade C4 bomb, while brandishing a handgun. It makes for a fun opening chapter with the Major starting off standing atop a skyscraper (of course), utilising type-2902 thermopto-cam (of course) and ghost-hacking the would-be terrorist (again, of course). We learn that he’s the latest in a long line of similar attacks against civilians, but there’s no obvious links between Shikawa and the others, plus his recent memories have all been scrambled, so his motivations are impossible to determine.
The narrative splits into two main threads, in the first Kusanagi undertakes her own investigation, backed up mainly by Batou and Togusa who follow-up other leads. The second thread follows Shikawa’s room-mate at the Niihama Ground Self-Defense Forces Cadet Technical School, Yo Kazei. Kazei is a sympathetic character who’s had a hard life because of his Cyberbrain Maladaption Syndrome. The GitS timeline diverges from our own just before the turn of the twenty-first century, following a devastating nuclear world war three. A subsequent non-nuclear world war four drove technological advances (as war often tends to do), leading to the successful digitisation of human memory in 2015, and the mass adoption of cyberbrain implants and micromachine use in the 2020s. By 2027, Japan is titled “a Cyberbrain Nation”, and society is modelled around those with easy, instant access to the web via cyberbrain implants. Kids like Kazei experience roadblocks to education, employment, and peer relationships because they’re naturally exluded from normal interactions and information-sharing.
Through no fault of his own, Kazei was unable to be fitted with a cyberbrain — at least not until two weeks before the story begins, when technology has advanced to the point that Cyberbrain Maladaption Syndrome can be overcome. Kazei has newly been fitted with his own cyberbrain, and is coming to terms with his new unfiltered access to the web, and all the dangers that brings. Using him as a point of view character is a smart choice, as it helps author Fujisaku to explain the finer points of GitS complex world. Although much of this information could be absorbed by osmosis from the TV show (at least by very attentive viewers), it’s interesting to get the world’s history clearly and relevantly related in the story.
Kazei is led astray by fellow cadet and troublemaker Takegawa (who’s already been held back a year for bad behaviour, so is one year Kazei’s senior) and they visit a back-alley “Dreamery”, an illegal establishment that provides stolen memories to be experienced as dreams by those with cyberbrains. It’s a cool cyberpunk idea, and the novel explores in detail the ramifications of such a technology, probably in a good bit more detail than it could have as an episode. Suffice to say, Kazei’s attempt to experience a racy, erotic dream goes awry and he ends up infected with the same compulsion that drove his room-mate to terrorism…
Eventually Kazei’s story and Section 9’s investigation dovetail together nicely when Kusanagi has to attempt to prevent multiple terrorists from killing a visiting Middle East politician. It almost turns into a Final Destination-like affair, with a practically comedic number of near-death events — exploding oil tankers, detonating aeroplanes, surprise hijackings, and cabin depressurisations. In true GitS style, nothing is quite as it seems, and someone unexpected has been pulling all the strings. It ends well, and definitively, with only a little bit of bodily mutilation easily fixed by a bit of cybernetic prosthesis replacement!
At only 213 pages, The Lost Memory is a quick and breezy read that only took me a couple of hours. In tone and content, it fits extremely well with its progenitor series, and comes highly recommended to anyone who wants a bit more classic SAC in their lives. It’s a good, well-thought-out, twisty-turny sci-fi police procedural that explores some simple but fascinating cyberpunk concepts. Don’t go looking for super-deep existential exploration — it’s not that kind of GitS story, it’s more like a mid-series “Stand Alone” episode (or maybe two-parter). If the next two volumes can keep up this quality, then I’ll be excited to read them.
Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex: The Lost Memory
Author: Junichi Fujisaku
Cover illustration: Kazuto Nakazawa
Translator: Carmellia Nieh
Based on: Ghost in the Shell by Masamune Shirow
JP publisher: Tokuma Shoten
JP publication: 2004
US publisher: Dark Horse
US publication date: 6th June 2006
Language: English
Pages: 213
ISBN 13: 978–1595820723
