- Dear Masamune,
- Mr. Masamune Shirow
c/o Seishinsha Co., Ltd.
Shinkosan Building 710
1-13-38 Hishi-honmachi
Nishi-ku, Osaka-shi
T550, Japan - The Last Shirow
- News about Shirow
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| Masamune Shirow |
Mr. Masamune Shirow (a pseudonym) was born on November 23, 1961 in Kobe City, Hyogo Prefecture (in the southern part of Honshu, Japan's main island), a small port town near Osaka (the biggest Japanese city after Tokyo). Following the destruction of his home and studio by the Hanshin earthquake, Shirow has since moved, but still lives in Kobe. He is a graduate of Osaka University of Arts, Art College, Oil Painting Department (he was best at sculpture and not very good at painting and drawing). Then he taught art at the high school level for five years, even if he have often proclaimed his frustration towards the Japanese educational system.
is Shirow Masamune written in kanji. Shirow comes from shi- (it can mean "samurai") and -row meaning "man" (used as suffix in men's given names). shi can also be read as the combination for "ten" and "one" and the left part of row as "born" meaning "eleventh born", which is his month of birth in November. Masamune is the name of the finest swords in Japanese weapons making history. It comes from sei meaning "right", "correct" and shu meaning "source".
Masamune Shirow made his debut with Black Magic in the Japanese manga fanzine Atlas. Shirow: "I've always enjoyed drawing, but it wasn't until my work was published in a fanzine named Atlas that I became active as a manga artist. It was published by a group of friends... I was nineteen at the time. Even before then, I was drawing caricatures of my teachers in the margins of my grammar school notebooks and doing illustrations for the school newspaper."
Here are two ways Shirow draws himself: the name of this nice octopus (right and below) is TACOCHU (in Japanese language taco means octopus) and he is Shirow's own portrait; instead the other image has been retouched and it's the only photograph of his face I have found (Comickers magazine, September 1995). In fact he carefully guards his privacy; he never appears at comic convention and grants few interviews (some have been even conducted remotely).
Characteristics of Shirow's Works (according to the artist himself):
Have you ever thought to send your comments to Shirow? Well, now you can! Thanks to Seishinsha staff now you can tell him what you think about his works.
Sorry, but to be sure that your mail will be read, you must write it in Japanese.
Also I don't think that Shirow is doing a great job choosing his customers, since many of the external projects he has worked for have ended in a mess (look at Gundress) or used only a little of his drawings just to add his name on the cover (Bounty Dog and Landlock).
Meanwhile Toren Smith said to think that Shirow'd not have drawn any other manga, concentrating only on his work as an illustrator. Too bad...
"Thanks much to those who sent postcards and letters. I haven't been able to answer them all, but I hope you'll understand, as I'm putting the time and energy for that into my next work. The second collection of my art work had some difficult aspects to it in terms of size and price, so I'm both thankful and relieved to see that it appears to have been quite well received. Many people have said they prefer my analog work over my digital work, but I'm personally convinced that going digital is unavoidable. It's the only way to avoid the risk of having my art work degraded as it goes through the publisher-printer-distribution/transportation stages. One thing I do intend to work on, however, is to ensure that I can create digital imagery that is just as high in quality as analog art. And in that regard, I hope, dear readers, that you will understand that I am by no means ignoring your wishes. Many of you, quite understandably, have expressed the opinion that "Hey, Shirow, you ought to use the time and energy invested in this stuff to create more manga!" Well, rest assured, this year I will. And I'll draw the manga with good old fashioned ink. As far as my work in other media is concerned, it's frankly been terribly disappointing for me, so I don't intend to do anything in that area for some time.
Masamune Shirow, March 20, 1999" Except for digital art (but since Shirow has always used innovative technique, going digital was easy to foresee), I was really glad to read this comment. I hope that Shirow'll keep his promise.
Since now I had avoided to express my criticism so explicitly, but finally I see a way out and I think it is a good opportunity to take stock of the situation. What do you think?
Urged by an editor of the small independent publisher Seishinsha (based in Osaka) to "go pro", Shirow would not have published again until three years later, when the first volume of Appleseed was finally completed in 1985. Shirow credits the constant support and encouragement he received from Seishinsha's president Harumichi Aoki for making the series possible.
It'll be even more difficult to meet him in Europe or US because he dislikes planes. Shirow: "If I had time, I'd love to come at least once. I'd have to travel by boat or dirigible, though. [LAUGHS]"
1. Incorporates the traditions of early Japanese animation (e.g., has abstracted, but refined beautiful young women).
2. Features "mecha that are not absurd," spiced with high tech themes.
3. Incorporates an "information-intensive story-telling technique," with visual and textual information so concentrated it almost interrupts the flow of the story itself.
4. Strives for easy entertainment, and avoids emotional posturing.
5. Heroes are usually police women, and the genre is usually science fiction.
Mail your comments (specifying that your mail is for Mr. Masamune Shirow) to: seishins@osk.3web.ne.jp. Obviously this isn't Shirow's own address, but it's the e-mail of Seishinsha who has published most of his works.
This is NOT an official service, simply I have asked them how I could send my comments to Mr. Shirow and they have told me that they can do it for me. So be kind when you'll mail them.
If you prefer the classic way, write to:
Those among you who have read carefully all the Puto's pages, know that I'm quite critical about the last developments of Shirow's art and production. I'm not very happy about how much computer graphics he is using now. For various reasons, I think that it generally degrades the quality of Shirow's works. I know that I'm on one side of the barricade and I have received many mails from guys who think that Blades is a masterpiece. I don't (but still it is very good).
This abstract taken from an article by Cathy Sterling (Manga Max magazine, issue number 1) gives a clear picture of the problem: "[...] Shirow is already a victim of his own success. Projects like Landlock will pay hard cash for the most peripheral of involvements, his talent alone is enough to sell classical music and computer games, but ultimately, he runs the risk of becoming known for his name, and not his ability.
Name alone clearly means nothing to Shirow; if it did, he would have leapt out of the closet and taken the credit for his work. But this rich and successful man still hides in the shadows, happy to let his art speak for itself. By refusing to be identified or photographed, he ensures that his fans only see his work, not his personality. The fact that many companies seem to be paying for his name and not his immense talent, is something that only careful management can prevent from becoming a problem in future."
Anyway ManMachine Interface is going to be released soon and this news has relieved me. Even better was the special introduction that Shirow wrote for the Blades CD-Rom:
Since you have read as far as here... thanks for your attention!
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In the mean time are coming out more info about the MMI story: it's confirmed that Motoko'll have a new identity and that she is completely joined with the Puppet Master so now she has full power on the Web.
Do you know that Shirow has admitted to thrown out finished inked pages if he dislikes them (next time you go to Kobe remember to look into every litter can)? So don't be amazed if we have to wait a lot before every new manga! |
Surely this is not a news but I think it is an important info for all Shirow's fans. In fact I have just got the confirmation that two mythical Shirow's manga really exist. I'm speaking about Gun Dancing and Pile Up. Surfing the web I have found two photos that confirm their existence but few info. Pile Up has been published inside at least two different issues of Young Magazine Pirate Edition on 1987, instead Gun Dancing on 1986 (perhaps they were special issues).
It's hard to understand the Japanese text, but it is a proposal for a new manga called Fujinsho (roughly translated it means "The god which is enclosed in the book"). Its serialization will start from spring 2000. Also Shirow shows to be auto-ironic since the guy at bottom left tells him: "maybe it's a good idea to talk about this after Ghost in the Shell is completed?". Thanks to  |
Pictures Copyrights
From the Top: 1) ©1997 Shirow. 2) © Shirow. 3) ©1995 Shirow/Comickers Magazine. 4) Appleseed Hypernotes ©1995 Shirow/Seishinsha. 5) Franco ©1992 E. Ulivieri. 6-7) Dominion Conflict 1 © Shirow/Seishinsha. 8) ©1998 Shirow/Newtype Magazine. 9) Pile Up ©1987 Shirow/Kodansha. 10) Gun Dancing ©1986 Shirow/Kodansha. 11) Ghost Solid Box ©2000 Shirow/Kodansha. 12) ©2000 Shirow/Comic GUM. 13) Cybergirls ©2000 Shirow/(?) respective companies. 14) Fujinsho ©1999 Shirow/Kodansha. Left: Orion ©1991 Shirow/Seishinsha. |
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