Shirow's Characters

Masamune Shirow's Characters (as) you have never seen

On the right you can see the original Appleseed Book 1 cover and another one drawn for an humorous version. This comic was called Seedless Apple and obviously wasn't drawn by Shirow, but I think that this image was quite funny.

Well, I have bought this object during the last manga convention. I had just plunged into a huge a heaps of books (you know the incredible mess that characterized every comic convention) trying to find something interesting when I saw it. "APPLESEED!!! What in the hell is this?" I was happy but also quite disappointed since I had never seen that cover before and I didn't know what it was. So I leafed through it and I discovered it was ... an exercise book. I had to buy it immediately (during a life there aren't so many opportunities to do stupid things) but I'll never tell how much I have paid for it. Anyway if you want your own page with an Appleseed heading, here it is.
Note how the name of the main characters have been written: Dunan Nats - Brealeos - Hitomi.

This is an illo drawn by Shirow many years ago to advertise Intron Depot 1 in the Comic Gaia magazine. This drawing was printed inside an "Apple Note" short article (in the same magazine there was published a new Appleseed episode).
Thanks to Pedro Luis Grau!

On the left you can see what can be obtained from Shirow's design since the Clamposcephalon (this is the name of this mecha) was created by Shirow for the Eternal City game. Do you think you have seen it before? You are right. The original drawings were reprinted inside Intron Depot 1, page 61. Shirow: "This is a compound name I made from Greek words for "torn-off tail" and "big head." All seven of these characters [six enemy bosses and the player mecha] have Greek-or Latin-based names [...]."

These are the super deformed versions of Argyderos (the player mecha) and its pilot Minty Gale (Intron Depot 1, page 62) directly from the Eternal City game.

A full size replica of a Fuchikoma was the guest star of party organized time ago to celebrate the GitS PlayStation game. I don't think that a Fuchikoma was so shiny, but it had to be impressive!

GN Japan has released a computer network game (NRPG) based on the Orion manga and the name of one of the main characters is Fuze Naru Anju. Fuze? Oh, yes, she should be the daughter of Seska and commander Ronnel; you can see her on the right.

She is Belldandy from Oh! My Goddess, but she hasn't been drawn by Kosuke Fujishima. In fact this picture comes from Dai Gassaku (The Great Challenge), a story created to celebrate a decade of the Afternoon issue. The authors are 52 different mangaka and also Masamune Shirow has collaborated. This picture comes from two full pages representing a Goddesses Bikini Contest and there are a lot of Goddesses drawn by different authors (you can see some in the background). Obviously this Belldandy is one of the best (Shirow rules!).

Shirow: "... The painting above could be a Guges aerobatic team. Of course, nowhere in Appleseed will you find Guges aerobatic teams performing in these colors. Because, in fact the Guges D isn't even supposed to exist... ESWAT, of course, has no official units, and of course, team members like Deunan and Briareos don't really exist either, right? The Guges D was built in secret, tested in secret, and deployed in secret. With but very few exceptions, even the various component manufacturers didn't know what the parts they were making were for -- they just followed the specs.

(Of course, they could tell it was some sort of Landmate. But what sort...?)."

If you like it, try to find the model of this super deformed Guges D (acrobatic team version). Its price is 2,500 yen.

This is a real paper made Fuchikoma. You can have your own if you buy Cyberdelics.

Shirow: "... I did this painting in between Appleseed Two and Three. (...) The red dog Extol was my original idea for Fang. Like Artemis, he was anthropomorphized in the published edition. Maybe I should have left him like this, but if the point of Appleseed is to view us human beings from outside, then the bioroid viewpoint is enough, and adding more would only made things more confusing. Still, it might have been interesting to have Fang the dog thinking this and that about his homo sapiens masters. The guy behind Extol also lost his chance for fame when this painting was killed. His role was taken over by Sudo, Magus and others."

Shirow: "... it was destined for two color printing, so I used two colors. The girls are obviously the prototypes for Deunan and Hitomi."

Shirow: "... The illustration on the right was done for a New Year's card for Comi Comi. It doesn't have any direct connection with Dominion, but since it was a spin-off from my original character design work on Anna and Uni."

Shirow: "... Poor Bonaparte, I feel for his "feet" here converted from treads to wheels to satisfy the anti-tank-police citizen's movement. The real source of Leona's stress wasn't crime, however, but society as a whole (now that's a real problem...)."
This new Bonaparte appears in Dominion - Phantom of the Audience short story.

And now a question:
do you recognize Masamune Shirow and his assistant in the background image?

Pictures Copyrights
From the Top: 1) Appleseed ©1985 Shirow/Seishinsha. 2) Seedless Apple © (?) respective companies. 3) Appleseed exercise book © Shirow/(?) respective companies. 4) © Shirow/Comic Gaia. 5-6) Eternal City ©1991 Shirow(?)/Naxat Soft. 7) © (?) respective companies. 8) Orion Game ©1998 Shirow/GN Japan. 9) Dai Gassaku ©1997 Shirow and others 51 authors/Kodansha. 10) Intron Depot 1 ©1991 Shirow/Seishinsha. 11) Guges D Acrobatic ©1999 (?) respective companies. 12) Cyberdelics ©1997 Shirow/Kodansha. 13-14-15-16) Intron Depot 1 ©1991 Shirow/Seishinsha. Background: Intron Depot 1 ©1991 Shirow/Seishinsha. Left: Orion ©1991 Shirow/Seishinsha.

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