“Intron Depot” is the quintessential guide to world renowned manga artist Shirow Masamune’s fascinating world of mecha and…beautiful illustrations of gorgeous, sexy women, more often a neat combination of both. Really, the incredibly important work done by Shirow-san cannot be overlooked – without the man the world would have never enjoyed so profound an anime film as “Ghost in the Shell”, ( can you imagine that ? ) for he was the artist behind the original manga ( respect ! ), and also the hugely popular Appleseed, which spawned two highly successful anime films.

(above) No offence Shinji Aramaki, but Deunan looks so much more bad-ass in the comics than in the anime film.

Sure, some of the character designs might look a little 80s ( especially the hairstyles ) but Masamune was designing mechas and robots that were way ahead of its time, seminary work that influenced and impacted the look of mecha design decades to come. This is a visionary at work.

(above) Illustrations for the original Ghost In The Shell manga, which was adapted into the anime film directed by Mamoru Oshii. One of the big differences between the anime and comic was that the original often allowed for comedic portrayals of Motoko and Patou ( and Deunan in Appleseed ) which had no place in the serious mood/setting of the respective anime films.

(above right) Patou, he’s as tough as cybernetically enhanced humans come. ( below ) Mecha suits, still looking devastatingly good – keep in mind these were designed a staggering 20 years ago.

The book comes with exceptionally well translated english captions, so you’ll have a deeper understanding of what you’re looking at.

Shirow Masamune’s “Intron Depot” art book details :

– Dimensions –11.1 x 8 x 0.7 inches
– Softcover, 150 pages
– Full color with English captions
– Comes with a pullout poster

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