Who is Masamune Shirow? Honestly, I am not sure myself. The name 'Masamune Shirow' is just a pseudonym to a person of immense talent and creativity, not to mention his great artistic ability. An extremely private person, Shirow has yet to make a public appearance or let himself be photographed for publications. So I guess fans will have to make do with the 'Octopus' self-potraits... Let's respect Shirow's privacy by not probing any deeper but focus on his astonishing works instead!
Arguably one of the best Science Fiction manga-ka, Shirow's pro manga debut was Black Magic, which he wrote, drew and published for the fanzine Atlas during his University years. Upon graduation Shirow went on to teach art in a high school, where he created Appleseed, the first volume published in 1985. Appleseed went on to become a huge success, earning Shirow a Galaxy Award for best Science fiction Comic in 1986. It continued to be Shirow's 'life work' with 4 volumes published as of 1989, and promises of more to come. Since, Shirow's popularity has grown, with his works translated and published worlwide.
From Appleseed Databook... The defining moment when you
realise Sensei Shirow is NO ordinary manga-ka... this is something special!
Image Copyrights: Shirow, Seishinsha, Dark Horse / Studio Proteus
Most of his works were also adapted for animation and games. Among the notable ones are the Dominion Tank Police anime series and Ghost In The Shell, which has been made into a hugely successful movie and an excellent Playstation game. However, Shirow has been openly expressing his dissatisfaction with the anime industry as being discriminating towards manga-kas, and prefers to work alone, as an illustrator rather than on projects that involves teamwork. Most of the time his involvement in anime and games are minimal, and more often just doing character and conceptual designs.
Shirow's works reflects on his extensive reading and the huge influence of spiders and other crustacians is apparent in his designs. Medicine, general science, supernatural stuff, philosophy, military strategies, mythology, biology, nanotechnology, sword-fights, even comedy, Shirow knows it all, well except for maybe mushy-gushy romance (Hm. Maybe not! I am sure Shirow is quite capable of this theme if he wants to be)... Another interesting fact is that Shirow is a one-man show, working without assistants and doing everything practically all by himself, except for a brief stint with an assistant, Hagane Kotetsu, who is still a good friend. Considering that he works alone, writing all his stories and illustrating every piece (right down to inking, screen toning and ready-to-publish form) it is understandable that Shirow's works tend to takes a long time to be ready for publishing.
I once read in an article about Shirow a comment: 'It is better to wait some time for a new, unique and interesting Shirow manga, rather than hurrying and ending up with a lot of standard, predictable mangas'. And I think this is very true! Let's hope Shirow has many more creative ideas and superb art in store for fans! Also, although I admit his 'one-shot' works are pretty hard to track down, do try out one of his mangas (If you don't already have!). Its worth it!
A very good way to know Shirow 'better' is through all the good English interviews. Look for them!
Source ~ Shirow Masamune Hyperpage, Lucas.
