Orion (3rd Ed.)

by Masamune Shirow

Orion 3rd Edition This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1569715726
• ISBN13: 9781569715727
• Release Date: May 2001
• Publisher: Dark Horse Manga
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.6" x 10.5"
• Age Range: 16 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 11 and higher

Customer Reviews

Tight storytelling, interesting concepts, gorgeous art

"What if Asian mystics ruled the future?" It would be pretty entertaining if it was all chronicled by Masamune Shirow. The SciFi and spaceships 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.

In the beginning...

Though this was just an excellent sci-fi/fantasy romp, it was so masterfully done it belongs as a classic. Shirow even as a much younger and less developed artist made a world so fantastic yet so believable. My favorite part of it was when they tied in the Yin/Yang mysticism to both binary code and essentially the rest of the universe. It's this that got my mind sparking to later discover "Sacred Geometry" or a collection of interesting mathematical correlations and patterns in the universe. How the universe indeed could be a mathematical concept. And the story itself is also good, beyond just the exciting action. The concept of an Empire at the zenith of it's rise trying to avert it's inevitable fall by using it's near god-like technology to destroy the 'evil karma' that will bring it down. Shirow's good at putting themes in his works. Orion was about morality. Appleseed was about the attempt to create paradise. Ghost in the shell about the end of the true definition of humanity in the face of advanced technology.

Well-translated

It must have been hard to translate this manga, in which Japanese and Chinese metaphysicism mix weirdly with Lovecraft. But the translator pulled it off, and the reader is left with a uniquely enjoyable manga.