Hojo and Isihara, two characters in the Sanctuary comic book.

Ghost in the Shell is the work of celebrated young writer/artist Masamune Shirow (Appleseed, Dominion Tank Police, Black Magic M-66) and is available in a glossy bound volume, containing 10 issues, from Dark Horse. A unique mix of free-wheeling humor, fast-paced violent action, and bursts of overwhelming scientific detail, Ghost follows the adventures of special agent Major Motoko Kusanagi and her colleagues from Section 9 of the Public Security Bureau in Newport City in 2029. They track down computer criminals and breaches in national security. Robots and cyborgs are as plentiful in this near-future world as humans and occasionally display much the same sense of humor and capacity for feeling. Shirow mixes moments of grim seriousness and realistic drawing with comical cartoony asides. The women characters, including the almost completely cyborg Kusanagi, are generally gorgeous, sexy, and often scantily-clad.

Mamoru Oshii's feature-length animated adaptation (released by Manga Entertainment) derives its plot from those portions of the ten-part series relating to the elusive hacker known in the comic as "Puppeteer" and in the film as "Puppet Master." In both comic and film, the hacker turns out to be a computer-created entity, the result of a government project gone awry, that considers itself a sentient life form and seeks its own body. Unlike Shirow's work, Oshii's is dead serious from start to finish and endeavors to make this startling future world as realistic-looking, and sounding, as possible. The film's Kusanagi is virtually expressionless throughout and her voice is a steady monotone. More businesslike and no-nonsense than she was in the comic, Kusanagi's frequent nudity is strictly functional, necessary for the performance of her duties, with absolutely no erotic overtones. The body she unveils is a "shell," a sophisticated product of the MegaTech Corporation.

Sanctuary, the comic book.

Oshii takes the time to craft an elaborate cityscape of dazzling skyscrapers with elegant high-tech features which contrast with the shabbier sections of town, marked by outdoor market stalls, garbage-strewn canals, and abandoned buildings. Some of Shirow's individual panels do indeed provide the visual cues for the film's background designs. However, Oshii expands on them, devoting long segments to detailing the mood and ambiance of a city of such extremes, a preoccupation of Oshii's also evident in his earlier films, Patlabor: Mobile Police 1 (1989) and Patlabor: Mobile Police 2 (1993, both Manga Entertainment).

Whereas Shirow displays an obvious fetish for weaponry and new technology, seemingly delighted with the implications for humankind of such a future, Oshii's approach is more cautionary in tone and asks what defines our humanity in a world where a computer-created entity can have the self-awareness to demand a right to life. Shirow is more concerned with the scientific aspects of the Puppeteer's bid for life, while Oshii is concerned with the ethical and philosophical questions raised. As such, Ghost more closely resembles Oshii's work on the two Patlabor films, both of which dealt with construction technology going haywire during the 21st century redevelopment of Tokyo.