What is Ghost in the Shell 2: Man-Machine Interface?
The sequel Shirow rebuilt twice: once in a luxury box, once again for the standard edition.
In 1997 Shirow returned to Weekly Young Magazine with nine issues of a new Ghost in the Shell, set in 2035 and following Motoko Aramaki, the merged successor of the Major, running network security for Poseidon Industrial. The chapters were first collected in the limited Solid Box of December 1, 2000. When the standard volume followed on June 26, 2001, it was not a simple reprint: Shirow added 24 color pages and made more than twenty large modifications to existing pages, a sequel revised by its author between editions.
TWO BIRTHS
2000 and 2001The Solid Box (2000)
Man-Machine Interface debuted in collected form as part of a deluxe limited box, a hardcover object aimed at committed collectors months before any ordinary edition existed.
The standard volume (2001)
The 2001 book is the one most readers own, and the more complete text: extra color work and authorial revisions separate it from the boxed first printing.
English: 2003–2005
Dark Horse serialized the book in eleven English comic issues across 2003 and collected it in trade paperback on January 12, 2005.