Who Is Masamune Shirow?

Masamune Shirow (士郎 正宗, Shirō Masamune) is an internationally renowned manga artist, born Masanori Ota (太田 まさのり Ōta Masanori) on November 23, 1961.

Masamune Shirow is a pen name, based on a famous swordsmith, Masamune. He is best known for the manga Ghost in the Shell, which has since been turned into three anime movies, two anime TV series and several video games. Shirow is also popular for creating erotic art. Born in the Hyōgo Prefecture capital city of Kobe, he studied oil painting at Osaka University of Arts. While in college, he developed an interest in manga, which led him to create his own complete work, Black Magic, which was published in the manga fanzine Atlas. His work caught the eye of Seishinsha President Harumichi Aoki, who offered to publish him. The result was Appleseed, a full volume of densely-plotted drama taking place in an ambiguous future. The story was a sensation, and won the 1986 Seiun Award for Best Manga. After a professional reprint of Black Magic and a second volume of Appleseed, he released Dominion in 1986. Two more volumes of Appleseed followed before he began work on Ghost in the Shell.

Shirow is a world-famous illustrator. Indeed, for a time, he was more popular outside of Japan than inside. He was chosen as an early author to bring to the West because of many stylistic similarities between his work and traditional American comics. Ghost in the Shell is a famous anime in the West based on his work, hence his popularity. Many people mistake him for the creator of the original anime movie, but he had no major role in its production. Mamoru Oshii directed both movies, which were adaptations of several chapters of the original manga put to film. However, he did play a role in the development of the TV anime series Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex.

This is a terribly short and injust bio for Mr. Shirow. I condider his work to be among the finest cyberpunk graphic work ever made. Check out these excellent sites for much MUCH more and better information.

Masamune Shirow Hyperpage - basic Shirow infoand reports of cool liscensed toys and stuff
Artistic Genius - Shrine to Masamune Shirow
ShirowLedge - Bio, articles, manga, interviews, links and all kinds of stuff