Many people know Ghost in the Shell the original manga, but the second volume "Manmachine Interface" is sometimes ignored.
In this essay, I'd like to explain the story and what each character is doing.
01 PROLOGUE
Introduction of Motoko Aramaki
The first chapter introduces a new character called Motoko Aramaki. As explained in Chapter 05, she is Motoko's 11th isotope. After the merger with Puppet Master, Motoko Kusanagi disseminated "memes" on the net. Those memes merged with various people and became Motoko's isotopes. Motoko Aramaki is one of those isotopes. She is a different individual from Kusanagi, but she inherited "Motoko element" and some skills.
The caption says that Motoko Aramaki's bio-components are her identity bais. The "bio-components" obviously mean her brain and spinal cord. Unlike the anime's interpretation, Motoko + Puppet Master's ghost cannot leave their biological brain. They eat, sleep, and die just like ordinary human beings. That is a very important point of the original manga series.
* [When I write just "Motoko" in this essay, it means Motoko Aramaki.]
Channeling Agency's Investigation
The first chapter also introduces Japanese Channeling Agency and a female officer named Tamaki Tamai. As some notes and lines from vol.1 suggest, the GitS universe includes spiritual elements. Ordinary people can recognize only the physical world, but there's another spiritual world behind it.
This chapter also depicts that Channeling Agency foresaw an emergence of "Those-Who-Are-Complex." Motoko Aramaki and Professor Rahampol are the creators of Those-Who-Are-Complex, so Channeling Agency is watching those two people. It seems that Those-Who-Are-Complex is a very important entity.
They don't explain what "Those-Who-Are-Complex" means. When you read through the volume, you will understand that it is a new silicon-based lifeform. There are two reasons why it is important in this universe:
1. Surpassing the limitation of organic life forms
As explained in later chapters, the silicon-based lifeform can inherit memes without any loss from previous generations, so it can surpass the limitation of the pre-existing lifeforms. Human beings and other living things have to maintain their redundancy with death. The characteristics of the new silicon-based lifeform can have a big impact on them.
2. The connection to GAIA
This is not explained at all in the manga. In the future, the silicon-based lifeform will be installed in a super computer called Gaia. *1 Gaia appears in the Appleseed series and Greaseberries 4. In other words, Those-Who-Are-Complex is actually an introduction of the character from Appleseed.
Motoko Meeting Tamaki
When Tamaki is spiritually investigating Motoko, Motoko meets a tanuki/ raccoon dog spirit. She asks about the spirit, but her supporting AI cannot recognize it. That tanuki spirit is, needless to say, Tamaki's spiritual avatar. Tamaki is investigating Motoko from the spirit's perspective.
Doctor's Request
On her boat, Motoko contacts a person named "Doctor." It seems that Doctor once cracked American military factory and stole a submarine, which shows his incredible hacking skills. This chapter depicts the business relationship between Motoko and Doctor.
Doctor requests her to suppress a coup in Central Najiq, and Motoko accepts it. Shirow Masamune planned to depict Motoko's anti-coup operation in a spin-off chapter, but it was suspended. That's why the conversation about Central Najiq is not linked to the main story.
Motoko's Main Body
Motoko turns off the remote-controlled body on the boat and comes back to her main body in a submarine. Her biological brain is put in this main body. She usually lives in the submarine and remote-controls other bodies called "decot" in various ares. That is Motoko's special skill. Ordinary cyrborgs cannot easily remote-control so many bodies.
Motoko's Public Persona
In this scene, she receives some business reports from a secretary named Grace. It seems that Motoko works for a big tech company. Grace uses a virtual avatar during the report, but Motoko hacks the network and sees what Grace is actually doing.
Introduction of Poseidon Industrial
Motoko says that she is an executive of "Poseidon Industrial." Poseidon is a conglomerate located on a giant floating structure. It will become a nation and interfere with Olympos in the Appleseed series.
In other words, Manmachine Interface is also a build-up for Poseidon and Olympos's conflict from Appleseed. Poseidon's history is written in the chronological table from Appleseed Databook.
02 UNDERWATER
Encounter with a Pirate
Motoko's submarine detects a pirate's submarine by coincidence. Needless to say, that pirate killed Professor Rahampol. Their submarine is not as high-tech as Motoko's, so they don't notice her.
Motoko Hacking the Pirate's Submarine
Motoko connects a cable to the pirate's submarine and puts mines on their torpedo launcher.
The Treasure Discovered
Motoko hacks a pirate crew's e-brain and steals Professor Rahampol's file. That file is the key item of this series. In a later chapter, it turns out to be the blue print of the silicon-based lifeform/ Those-Who-Are-Complex. In this chapter, Motoko cannot understand the file yet.
The Pirate in a Panic
The pirate crew notice that their submarine is being cracked, but they get panicked due to Motoko's virus attack. They activate Motoko's mines and self-explode. The crew evacuate from the submarine but get stuck under Poseidon't giant float. Motoko's AI recommends letting them die, but she sends a report to Poseidon's security to save their lives.
03 CIRCUIT WEAPON
The Terror Attack
Poseidon Industrial's 2nd cloned-organ factory in Monnabia is attacked by a terrorist group called HLF (Human Liberation Front.) Poseidon create human organs for wealthy people by using cloned pigs. In the exectuive meeting, they decide to relocate the factory to another place.
The target is the "2nd" factory, which means Poseidon has another factory in Monnabia. The 1st factory will appear in a later scene.
Lebris's Problem
A chief member named Lebris is responsible for the lack of preparation for terror attacks, but Motoko lets him stay in his position. However, he is frustrated by her you-owe-me attitude and makes a complaint.
Pigs' Weird Behavior
Motoko uses drones to check the damage of HLF's attack. Then, she finds out that one pig cut a cord of the terrorists' bombs. Moreover, the pig specifically chose the critical point of the detonating cord. Some parts of the factory was not damaged thanks to the pig's behavior. It suggests that somone with knowledge controlled the pig. Motoko keeps it a secret from the company.
The Terrorist's Identity
Motoko checks a security camera and detects a terrorist leader's identity. However, that is HLF's trap. They intentionally showed the fake leader's face to the camera so that they can counter-attack opponent hackers.
HLF's Trap
The HLF members drugged up the fake leader to get opponent hackers stuck in her e-brain. Motoko realizes that the leader is just a decoy.
Sudden Counterattack
Motoko's AI detects an enemy's response. Motoko thinks it's HLF's counterattack but also feels that the response is a bit too quick for HLF's auto-detection.
Actually, that response is not from HLF. As suggested in later chapters, it comes from Spica. Spica has utilizes Poseidon's pigs for her secret plan, so she checked the situation from distance. That is why the response is so quick. Motoko doesn't notice that she is facing the new enemy.
The New Enemy's Attack
The new enemy/ Spica sends computer viruses to Poseidon Industrial's facilities. Motoko's AI checks the infected areas and also starts analyzing the viruses. At this point, Motoko still believes that the viruses are from the HLF side.
Motoko's Ally
Motoko sends a report about HLF's hideout to a British agent called Will. Will is apparently Motoko's reluctant supporter. Four pages later, he sends a sarcastic reply to her, which is not translated in the English version.
An Unidentified Virus
The AI checks the viruses and finds out that the target is an underwater cleaning robot. It seems that the enemy wants to control the robot for some purpose.
Decot Clarice
Motoko launches another decot to check the virus-infected robots. She also sends a report to Poseidon's security to secure the robots later.
Searching the Enemy's Target
Motoko finds out that the enemy is aiming for a physical connection to Poseidon's network cable. That cable doesn't reach the core of Poseidon Industrial, so Motoko wonders what is the enemy's goal.
She also warns Lebris about the cyber attack because he is responsible for the security of that area.
The Enemy's Network
The AI checks the cleaning robots' wireless transmissions and finds out that they're communicating with someone via relay satellites. Motoko realizes that the robots function are not just virus senders but also the enemy's probe.
The Mysterious Enemy and Motoko's Counterattack
Motoko gets access to the cable near the robots and tries to trace the enemy. The AI detects the last relay satellite, but they cannot detect the destination. The possible area includes Monnabia, the country where the cloned-organ factory is placed in.
Motoko fails to detect the enemy, but she sends computer virus parts to the robots' report data. Her decot/ Claris is located near the robots, so the enemy's time-difference detection tool won't catch her viruses.
The Enemy's Target
The AI tells that the enemy's virus infected some cyborgs in the facilities. Motoko gets angry because it means that Lebris ignored Motoko's warning. It seems like the enemy's target is some data in Lebris's brain, but the virus has not reached him yet thanks to their firewalls.
The Malfunction of the Lest Ear
When the decot Claris dives in the water, the AI reports a malfunction of her left ear. Motoko hurries to Lebris's place without considering much about the report.
Motoko's Second Counterattack
Motoko utilizes Lebris to detect the enemy. She intentionally gets him infected by the enemy's virus and traces the real-time transmission from his brain.
Preparation for the Cyber Battle
Motoko sets various viruses into Lebris's brain for the counterattack. It seems that e-brain is multi-leveled, and deep levels are related to each person's "ghost."
The Enemy's Location
Motoko traces Lebris's transmission and detects the enemy's address. It seems that they're in Monnabia, but Motoko is dissatisfied with that answer. She thought that the enemy's response was too quick for HLF, so she instinctively feels that maybe the true culprit is unrelated to HLF. Her instinct is correct because she is tracing Spica's network, not HLF.
Motoko's Tactics
Motoko intentionally uses a new virus that causes a conflict with another virus. By causing a program conflict at the enemy's brain network gate, she successfully detect another gate and cracks the brain.
The Mystery of the Enemy's Brain
Motoko's AI searches the enemy's network, but, curiously enough, the enemy doesn't have any link to other facilities in Monnabia. Plus, the brain structure is pretty different from ordinary brains. They suddenly get into the 5th level after passing the 2nd level. It means that the enemy does not have an ordinary human e-brain.
The AI suspects that the enemy is AI, but Motoko feels that the response is too slow for AI. When she checks the enemy's neuro-network, she feels that it's like a neuro-chip test piece.
The Enemy's LAN
The enemy's brain is suddenly linked to other terminals. The AI finds out that it is just a part of a local area network. When the brain is linked to the LAN, it even stops controlling its body. In other words, the whole LAN is like one big body, and each brain is just a component.
The Enemy's Decoy and a Foreshadowing
In the 6th level of the enemy's brain, Motoko encounters a decoy that reflects Motoko's image. It seems that ordinary people wouldn't put such a program into deep levels of their brains. Motoko thinks that the brain is just a "host" of a parasite/ true enemy. The AI tries to detect the parasite, but they've already run away.
The reflecting decoy also foreshadows the identity of the enemy. As I mentioned above, the enemy is Spica/ Motoko Kusanagi. The mirror image subtly shows that Manmachine Interface is a battle between Motoko isotopes.
The Disclosure
Motoko and AI find out that the enemy's network consists of brains in Poseidon's cloned-organ factories. It's "the 1st factory," not the 2nd factory attacked by HLF.
Poseidon has never created human brains in their factory, which means someone cracked the factory's security and secretly developed the human-brain LAN.
After understanding the enemy's network, Motoko realizes that the enemy is not behind HLF's attack on the 2nd factory. As I mentioned above, the enemies switched when she reached the HLF fake leader's brain. As revealed in chapter 04 and 05, the culprit of HLF's attack is Millenium, another Motoko isotope.
Summary
1. The theme of the volume: Motoko Aramaki, Those-Who-Are-Complex = silicon-based lifeform
2. Motoko Aramaki gets a blueprint of the silicon-based lifeform.
3. Millenium controls HLF and attacks Spica's human-pig e-brain LAN.
4. Motoko Aramaki checks HLF.
5. Motoko Aramaki notices Spica's detection and counterattacks.
6. Motoko Aramaki notices the human-pig LAN and realizes that there are two different enemies.
*1:Shirow's note from PIECES Gem 01
