Ghost in the Shell STAND ALONE COMPLEX (novel) Vol.#01 - The Lost Memory

By: Chris Beveridge
Review Date: Saturday, September 16, 2006
Release Date: Wednesday, April 12, 2006



Creative Talent
Writer/Artist:Junichi Fujisaku
Translated by:Camellia Nieh
Adapted by:

What They Say
In the not-too-distant future of 2032, the frontier dividing humans and machines has been crossed. Crimes comitted by flesh-and-metal cyborgs are investigated by Section 9, an elite counter-terrorist squad run by Chief Aramaki and his cyborg assistant, Major Motoko Kusanagi.

Section 9 has faced countless adversaries in the real world and in cyberspace, but none like 'The Awakened.' It is believed that this lethal group of terrorists can take over the minds and bodies of almost anyone. Used as tools to commit crimes against the state, the victims are unaware of who or what is controlling them.

When Major Kunasagi captures one of the victims, she hacks into his cyberbrain to learn the ringleader's identity - and what she discovers leads her on a journey deep into the heart of cyberspace, a journey that shakes her to the core.

The Review
Between a very successful run of movies and TV episodes as well as the manga upon which all of it is based, it's little surprise that there are some novels for the franchise as well. Written by Junichi Fujisaki who had come on to the Stand Alone Complex TV series writing staff after working on the game side of the business, this first volume contains a full length story that's treated as a side episode to the main series itself. This works out nicely since even as dramatic as the TV series gets, it is very consistent with its cast so this story could literally drop in anywhere.


The storyline for this revolves around a series of cases involving teenagers of the same age who all seem to have drastic changes in their personality and suddenly become terrorists who attempt to pull off completely unrelated attacks. Labeled the "Good Morning Terrorists" because the change is like they just wake up that way, it's caused some widespread fear about kids and only added to their alienation. Section 9 is brought into investigating it at the same time that a popular middle eastern ambassador is due in to the country for negotiations. While Section 9 is guarding him, the Major investigates the "Good Morning Terrorists" since there's the possibility that the seemingly random attacks are just trial runs for something bigger.

What few experiences I've had with anime/manga novels hasn't been all that positive since they feel like they're far too light and quick to read. While I love reading manga, when I sit down with a novel I prefer my six to eight hundred epics with lots of detail, background and more. These novels are like half an appetizer to the main course. Even so, this Ghost in the Shell novel is one that actually fared a lot better than others. The writing is pretty crisp, it has a decent amount of technical jargon mixed in to deal with the cyber-heavy culture and if you've seen the show it's very easy to visualize this as an episode.