Orion Paperback – March 12, 2008

This often overlooked gem from "Ghost in the Shell" and "Appleseed" manga artist and writer Masamune Shirow is in my humble opinion his superlative work. As one reviewer has already mentioned, one of the fatal flaws of Mr. Shirow's works is a tendency to meander all over the place, with no specific begining, middle, or end. Often he will start with a great concept, like he did in M-66 Black Magic, only to just stop the story at a critical point.What sets this apart from the other works, is not only does Shirow develop an amazing world, with it's extremely high concept Buddist and Hindu religious references, tying it in to real-world computer programming and applied sciences to create the "Psyco-Science" of the story, but does an incredible job, beginning to end of keeping it coherent and consistent all throughout. On top of that there is a satisfying ending to the story, but still leaves some room for future stories to be told.But what is a story and world without great characters? Orion has this in spades; From ditzy Seska, daughter of Fuzen, the Buddist-style priest who is trying to stop the Yamada Empire from making a potentially fatal mistake in using a Naga to eat all the negative karma to the real character of the story Susano Orabatos, a wild, chaotic God of Destruction, who goes about "helping" Fuzen, his summoner, in a sometimes less-than-helpful manner, even causing horrific death and destruction on the slightest provocation. For some readers, this level of darkness, which we have seen before in Shirow's other works, may be a bit off-putting, particularly when Susano goes about destroying a city and it's inhabitants simply because of resistance from one of the Yamada Empire officals, Dr. Hebime, to the God of Destruction's plans to prevent the Naga from being activated.But this darkness is at least alleviated by the wacky sense of humor pervading the whole story, and at no point does it detract from the dark drama, and vice-versa, and Shirow does a masterful job of even blending the two. No mean feat.So if you love Shirow's other works, and you want to read a complex, interesting story with very colorful, over-the-top, and well-developedcharacters, I cannot recommend this manga highly enough.

Pretty much a standalone story by Shiro Masamune (ghost in the shell) basically its in a futuristic world where planetary travel is the norm and technology is fused with eastern spirituality or wizardry based on science and psychic power. Weapons are forged to enhance them and there are military leaders/scientists who want to create what is called a nine headed naga dragon which is supposed to hoover up all the negative karma of the universe. But a wise shrinemen sees the folly of this, so tries to hide the formula to create it by turning it into a full body tattoo on the body of his sexy daughter Seska (her day job seem to be some sort of powerful spiritualistic traffic controller).With mad scientists banging on the door the shrinemen only hope of protection is to summon a powerful god called Susano and thus starts a power struggle for the fate of the world. Meanwhile, Seska gets a little confused on what side she's supposed to be fighting for after she gets swallowed and spat out by Susano and ends up a little more powerful than usual.Suffice to say you may not comprehend what your reading; its fun to follow, and has beautiful drawing. Its kinda like Dominiom conflict 1 (second tank police book), fun and a little silly.

Shirow Masamune had all kinds of sci-fi paths he first created, then wandered down. Some he followed farther than others. Orion is the best example of a path he followed just far enough. Originally only six issues (I think), this comic mixed non-stop, insanely fast-paced battles with some incredibly interesting "fusion mysticism" which, in this particular compilation, is explained to some level of detail in an appendix. I loved it enough to want more, but feel better knowing Shirow quit while he was ahead.Orion provokes thought, rewards multiple readings, and while it has its share of images of the scantily dressed villainess/heroine Seska it's not blatantly tasteless like Shirow's more recent work. As an avid non-manga reader I'd say this is definitely a must-read.

It's harder to quantify why I like this book, so I'll just qualify. The artwork was fantastic, with a very integrated, immersive world. I liked the silly main character, especially the way she's drawn in Shirow's shapely ways. I could not follow some of the dialogue, but it didn't detract enough to care; I'm sure translating this was a bear. Anyhew, you'll enjoy it if you like anime/manga in any way.

Bid fan of this book and the newer print runs that print Shirows stories the way they were supposed (Left to right) is so much cooler. I picked all of the newer version of his collected works.

Brilliant manga, combining Shirow's obsessive attention to detail with Shinto, Zen, and higher-order mathematics. It would take pages to explain everything. Just read it.

"What if Asian mystics ruled the future?"It would be pretty entertaining if it was all chronicled by Masamune Shirow. The SciFi and tech he's famous for in his later work are there, but such concepts take a backseat to the mystic avatars fighting it all out in this story. Shirow goes off into some obscure eastern philosophy stuff as well as quantum theory, but really it's all about as complex as an Airbender cartoon; it all boils down to good guys versus bad guys and who is more powerful. You really don't need his helpful marginal notes. We know a demon when we see one.In some ways, I liked this better than "Ghost in the Shell" because it was very linear, A to B to C, where "Ghost" drops more plot threads than it keeps. "Ghost" meanders all over the place before revealing what it's all about, which isn't the case in Orion.As this is an earlier work, Shirow is a bit more reliant on some cartooney Manga conventions here than he is later, when he became a more-confident artist, but that doesn't get in the way of the fun or the story. If you're a longtime Manga reader, those conventions won't be noticeable anyway.Really very engrossing and enjoyable.