by Masamune Shirow, Frederik L. Schodt, Toren Smith
“This book shares space structurally and thematically with Shirow's follow up to Ghost in the Shell, Man-Machine Interface, for it's schizophrenic story, mixture of mysticism and real world technology, mythology and about as much of the female form that he can salaciously fit on the page. However, Orion is more concise than Man Machine-Interface, perhaps because the fantasy elements overwhelm, and what remains is a mishmash of gobbledegook mystic flobotnam techno-speak invented almost whole cloth from Shirow's head that maintains the rhythms of characters talking about some kind of advanced mystical mathematics (psychoscience, darmaquation, etc) that provides a impenetrable context, leaving the reader to focus almost entirely on the fantastic imagery and manic visual storytelling. The characters appear intelligible, and their speeches all appear to follow rational syntax, but realistically, the dialogue may as well be Louis Carroll gibberish, loosely built around a myth that could have come out of Arthurian Legend (Susanoo and the Orochi) with elements here and there borrowed from Journey to the West.
For people who want to see what pure, formal fantasy comic storytelling is, this book is practically an instruction manual, since almost any plot would be more sensical--yet Shirow still manages to show a mastery of pacing, style, character, and action. I can't recommend it enough. ”
