The Ghost in the Shell: The Human Algorithm Manga Volumes 1–4 Review
As part of my ongoing Ghost in the Shell (GitS) retrospective, I recently reviewed the surprisingly good manga adaptation of the Arise series. Between 2013 and 2016, this was written by series veteran Junichi Fujisaku, who also contributed screenplays for both the Stand Alone Complex and Arise: Alternative Architecture TV shows. In 2019 he began writing The Human Algorithm, a new GitS-related manga, this time not in either SAC or Arise continuity, but instead as a direct sequel to original creator Masamune Shirow’s 1991 GitS manga. Technically it’s a sequel to 1.5: Human Error Processor and a prequel to 2: Man-Machine Interface. Therefore, The Human Algorithm is also known as GitS 1.75. Don’t worry, you really don’t need to have read either 1.5 or 2 for this to make sense.
At the end of the first GitS manga volume (partly adapted for the 1995 Mamoru Oshii-directed movie), franchise lead character Major Motoko Kusanagi merged her consciousness with the artificially-evolved digital entity The Puppeteer, to ascend to a new form of being. This new version of Kusanagi shed her human limitations and uploaded her mind to the web, seemingly discarding her physical form. What became 1.5 was Shirow’s original idea for a sequel, but he abandoned it after four chapters and started again. It features a Kusanagi-less Public Security Section 9, and focuses on Batou and Togusa as they continue their jobs investigating cyber crime. A post-physical Kusanagi does cameo in one chapter. I do intend to formally review 1.5 at some point, but it’s honestly not that interesting and I can see why Shirow gave up on it.
GitS 2: Man-Machine Interface (MMI) was Shirow’s second attempt at a sequel (though he has since stated that he feels this is really a separate story altogether. He pulled the same shit with Dominion Tank Police and its follow-up Conflict 1: No More Noise.) MMI follows what appears to be a digital avatar of the new Kusanagi a few years after her merger with The Puppeteer. She now works as an online security consultant for Poseidon Enterprises, based on a floating city near Japan. It’s honestly incomprehensible and although the concepts it explores have the potential to be interesting… as a whole, it’s a confusing bore. Again, I’ll review it at some point, as soon as I can motivate myself to suffer through it one more time.
To begin with, The Human Algorithm seems much more closely aligned with Human Error Processor. It centres mostly on Batou and Togusa, once again investigating cybercrimes. Kusanagi is name-dropped plenty of times, and the mystery of her current non-corporeal existence is one of the ongoing plots. It’s only much later, at the very end of the third volume, that we truly understand Kusanagi’s abstract role in the story, and how it might eventually tie in to MMI. It’s quite clever, although I’d already pieced it together myself by then.
Togusa is partnered up with Tsunagi — a new character, a recently-recruited female officer acquired from the “Channeling Bureau” (another MMI reference), whose body, like Togusa’s, is primarily biological. Togusa at least has a cyberbrain interface that allows him to access the web via his brain, but Tsunagi doesn’t have even that. Instead, Chief Aramaki has recruited her for her innate psychometric abilities. She seems to be able to read the memories of recently-deceased people without requiring digital cyberbrain access. This element of psychic-type powers does add a level of fantasy previously absent from the series, but it’s fully in keeping with where Shirow took MMI.
Unfortunately, Tsunagi is often quite irritating. She’s very green, tends to screw up missions, she frequently over-emotes, and seems to have a crush on Togusa. There’s a heavily overused running joke where she and Togusa are sent on undercover missions posing as a newlywed couple, and she seems to relish pretending to be his wife. Togusa, of course, is a happily married man and is horrified by Tsunagi’s overly familiar behaviour. As a married man myself, I found the constant off-colour jokes about infidelity off-putting. Considering other fan-reactions to Tsunagi’s character, it appears I’m not the only one with such misgivings. If anything, she reminds me of the polarising pink-haired Purin Ezaki from SAC_2045.
Much like Purin, Tsunagi does eventually become a bit less irritating, primarily because she gains some other personality traits, a tragic backstory, and she endures an incredible gauntlet of suffering. Poor Tsunagi really gets put through the wringer in the first main story arc, which comprises the entirety of the first three volumes. Fujisaku’s experience writing for Stand Alone Complex certainly shines through — this is a complicated, multifaceted story that can be a little hard to follow at times. There’s a large cast with multiple factions — a corrupt business that manufactures faulty prosthetic bodies, an Okinawan Yakuza-run company fighting a turf war against an aggressive Chinese Triad, a creepy religious organisation that eschews all modern technology yet provides a prosthetic body disposal service. Add in secondary characters with complex familial and business relationships, secret labs growing gifted infants in fluid-filled glass vats, a seemingly unkillable and untrackable assassin, and a charismatic mayoral candidate with an almost messianic obsession with cyberisation, there’s a lot going on in this story.
Shirow’s original manga was far more episodic and never pursued such detailed plotlines across multiple volumes like The Human Algorithm does. It’s therefore a very different beast. The main characters we know are all there — even Azuma, introduced in 1.5 in the manga and SAC 2nd Gig in the anime. Borma and Pazu don’t get a heck of a lot to do. Saito gets to snipe some things occasionally. For some reason, Ishikawa doesn’t appear “in the flesh” as it were — instead he remotely controls the prosthetic body of an Okinawan schoolgirl, complete with sailor uniform and katana, like a character from Kill Bill or Battle Royale. Chief Aramaki does his stoic trustworthy boss thing, and even the original Fuchikomas get a cameo here and there — but they’re hardly used, except for backup on missions.
Batou’s pretty much the same as usual — a titanic man-mountain with artificial, sleepless eyes. He sports a ponytail with an undercut, giving him something of a punkish air. This version isn’t as melancholy as the one in Innocence. He knows the Major is out there, has already come across her once or twice, he obviously misses her, but is getting on with life. The character who looks the most different though, is Togusa. I don’t know what other work artist Yuki Yoshimoto has produced — he has no other credits I can find online. His artwork is extremely clean and precise, with a lot of obvious use of digital assets and techniques. If anything, his aesthetic is extremely close to Gantz’s Hiroya Oku. Sometimes this causes the artwork to feel a little soulless, and everyone looks a bit “off”. Perhaps it’s the more realistic style, but was there any reason that Togusa now looks like he’s a member of the hottest new K-pop boy band, all sculpted features and luscious flowing hair? Maybe his wife should be wary of Tsunagi, this version of Togusa is a ladykiller.
Following the very definitive end of the first arc in the final chapter of volume three (chapter 26), volume four begins a new story, this time set somewhere in sub-Saharan Africa, in the Sahel region. This is new territory for the GitS franchise, and it works really well. There’s tension brewing between two rival ethnic groups, and revolution is about to erupt. While Batou is training potential insurgents, Togusa and Tsunagi again pose as a couple to investigate corruption and cybercrime in the Sahel’s shiny new hi-tech megalopolis. It’s a rarity for manga to so prominently feature accurately-drawn Black African people, without resorting to shortcuts or making them merely look like tanned caucasians. Yoshimoto’s character art is incredibly well-observed and realistic. I also think Fujisaku has done well to create some complex and sympathetic new characters who make understandable (if sometimes tragic) decisions in difficult circumstances.
While the first arc dragged at times, the second arc is far more propulsive and compelling. This may be partly to do with the shorter chapter lengths. Each volume is quite chunky, by manga standards, with page counts ranging from 252 to 288 pages. The first volume contains seven lengthy chapters, the second contains nine while the third contains ten. Between the first and second arc, The Human Algorithm shifted publications in Japan, from Monthly Young Magazine (print) to Comic Days (print) and Yanmaga Web (digital). Presumably due to differing editorial guidelines, the chapters became much shorter so that volume four crams seventeen chapters (ending with chapter 43) into a similar page count to the previous volumes. The second arc reads far more snappily, and I felt disappointed when I ran out of pages.
So far, the next volume hasn’t yet been listed for physical publication in English by Kodansha. There’s a gap of roughly a year between English language print volumes. For those who are impatient enough, new chapters (up to chapter 84) are available on the abysmal K Manga app, though most cost 69 cents to unlock, with the most recent few chapters at 99 cents. For a closed digital service like K Manga to demand so much for a single short chapter is nothing but daylight robbery, and I doubt many readers will take them up on the “offer”. I ranted extensively about the anti-consumer shittiness and greed of K Manga in my Arise manga review so I won’t repeat myself here. I’m resigned to waiting a year or so until Kodansha can be arsed publishing the next volume in print. That way I can still keep the manga I’ve paid for without worrying about an app disappearing and taking my “purchases” away. I need a bloody VPN to access K Manga anyway. Bastards.
I’d struggle to recommend The Human Algorithm to non-die-hard GitS fans. The first arc really is quite a struggle to get through at times, though the payoff is pretty good when all of the disparate plot threads finally come together. The art, while technically very proficient, is a little soulless and lacks the charm of Shirow’s often goofy original. Funnily enough, for a manga about the encroachment of the digital world on life and identity, it really misses the scratchy, organic look of Shirow’s earlier work, before his brain was eaten by photoshop. While Yoshimoto’s human bodies are accurately proportioned, Major Kusanagi just doesn’t looks right floating in cyberspace in so anatomically correct a fashion — if anything she looks more like Scarlett Johansson here than any other version of the Major! I can’t believe I’m saying that I miss Shirow’s cheesecake.
While Fujisaku attempts to bring a little levity into an otherwise very serious story, when matched with the realistic and clinical artwork, the humour can’t help but fall mostly flat. Yoshimoto sometimes exaggerates characters’ faces and proportions, but it doesn’t suit his style and looks out of place. This manga sits in an odd place compared to the rest of the franchise, and it’s strange that for now this is the only currently running Ghost in the Shell thing out there. Anime studio Science Saru announced this week they’re producing a new GitS anime that looks like it could be a more faithful adaptation of the original manga, so that could retrospectively make The Human Algorithm more important. However, most modern GitS fans were likely attracted to the franchise by either Stand Alone Complex or Oshii’s two movies.
The Human Algorithm’s characterisations, designs and tone don’t fit with either of these big franchise entry points, and don’t quite gel with the manga either, despite the shared continuity. I’m glad it exists, and I’m glad to have read it. I’ll certainly keep picking up the new volumes as they are (very slowly) published by Kodansha USA in print. They must be joking if they think many folks will cough up cash to read the newest chapters on that K Manga abomination, though. Maybe someone needs to ghost-hack a few Kodansha board members and install a common sense/pro consumer program in their addled cyberbrains.
Anyway, I’ll be back again soon to review some more GitS books. I’ve got Yu Kinutani’s SAC manga on my itinerary, as well as Junichi Fujisaku’s trilogy of SAC novels. There’s some even more obscure stuff after that too, believe it or not I’m nowhere near finished with this deep (brain) dive…
The Ghost in the Shell: The Human Algorithm
Writer: Junichi Fujisaku
Artist: Yuki Yoshimoto
Based on: Ghost in the Shell by Masamune Shirow
JP publisher: Kodansha (Monthly Young Magazine, Comic Days, Yanmaga Web)
JP publication date: 20th September 2019 — present
US publisher: Kodansha US
US publication date: 23rd June 2020–23rd January 2024
US digital edition: K Manga
