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Black Magic
It`s a time in the future -- a time where the creation of life itself has evolved to include biodroids named after the ancient Greeks and cyborg warriors programmed to destroy. The power struggle between the various synthetic life-forms and the humans could mean the end of all life. But there is one, named Typhon, who may be able to prevent that. This collection is the first-ever-published work of the genius behind Ghost in the Shell -- Masamune Shirow.
204 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1998
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155 people want to read
About the author
Masamune Shirow
426 books498 followersMasamune Shirow is an internationally renowned manga
Masanori Ota, better known by his pen name Masamune Shirow (Japanese: 士郎正宗), is a Japanese manga artist renowned for his influential contributions to the cyberpunk genre. Born in Kobe in 1961, he studied oil painting at Osaka University of Arts, where he developed an interest in manga. His early work Black Magic led to the critically acclaimed Appleseed, which won the 1986 Seiun Award for Best Manga. Shirow achieved global recognition with Ghost in the Shell, a groundbreaking manga that inspired multiple anime films and series, a live-action Hollywood adaptation, and numerous video games. His stories are known for blending action with philosophical inquiries into AI, post-human existence, and the ethics of technology. He has collaborated with Production I.G on projects like Ghost Hound and Real Drive. Shirow’s distinctive style and thought-provoking narratives have left a lasting impact on manga, anime, and science fiction worldwide, influencing creators including the Wachowskis of The Matrix fame.
Masanori Ota, better known by his pen name Masamune Shirow (Japanese: 士郎正宗), is a Japanese manga artist renowned for his influential contributions to the cyberpunk genre. Born in Kobe in 1961, he studied oil painting at Osaka University of Arts, where he developed an interest in manga. His early work Black Magic led to the critically acclaimed Appleseed, which won the 1986 Seiun Award for Best Manga. Shirow achieved global recognition with Ghost in the Shell, a groundbreaking manga that inspired multiple anime films and series, a live-action Hollywood adaptation, and numerous video games. His stories are known for blending action with philosophical inquiries into AI, post-human existence, and the ethics of technology. He has collaborated with Production I.G on projects like Ghost Hound and Real Drive. Shirow’s distinctive style and thought-provoking narratives have left a lasting impact on manga, anime, and science fiction worldwide, influencing creators including the Wachowskis of The Matrix fame.
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Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
July 20, 2018
A bioroid sorceress named Typhon is caught in the middle of a conflict between an AI called Nemesis and its creations.
I dug Appleseed when I was younger and this was part of the Masamune Shirow bundle that I bought along with the four Appleseed volumes on eBay.
Black Magic seems to be a retelling of the fall of the titans, featuring AI supercomputers and bioroids in lieu of titans and gods somewhere in humanity's distant past. Typhon, a bioroid created by Nemesis, goes to war against Zeus for humanity's future.
In a lot of ways, this feels like a trial run for things Masamune Shirow would tackle again later in Appleseed and Ghost in the Shell. There are cyborgs, AIs, and bioroids battling for humanity's destiny. The art is a little primitive compared to his later work but I found the story a lot easier to follow than Appleseed. Another thing Black Magic has going for it is that the ending is an ending, not just the story being dropped.
There are a lot of nice touches in the story, like the ice age being caused by Zeus' followers blowing up an artificial sun on the moon and the bulk of the story happening on Venus. There are some humorous moments and the action scenes were great.
The character and mech designs were interesting. I guess my only real gripe is that Typhon didn't do a hell of a lot beyond one or two action scenes and influencing things behind the curtain.
While it didn't bowl me over like I was hoping, Black Magic was a very worthwhile look at the early days of one of manga's masters. Three out of five stars.
I dug Appleseed when I was younger and this was part of the Masamune Shirow bundle that I bought along with the four Appleseed volumes on eBay.
Black Magic seems to be a retelling of the fall of the titans, featuring AI supercomputers and bioroids in lieu of titans and gods somewhere in humanity's distant past. Typhon, a bioroid created by Nemesis, goes to war against Zeus for humanity's future.
In a lot of ways, this feels like a trial run for things Masamune Shirow would tackle again later in Appleseed and Ghost in the Shell. There are cyborgs, AIs, and bioroids battling for humanity's destiny. The art is a little primitive compared to his later work but I found the story a lot easier to follow than Appleseed. Another thing Black Magic has going for it is that the ending is an ending, not just the story being dropped.
There are a lot of nice touches in the story, like the ice age being caused by Zeus' followers blowing up an artificial sun on the moon and the bulk of the story happening on Venus. There are some humorous moments and the action scenes were great.
The character and mech designs were interesting. I guess my only real gripe is that Typhon didn't do a hell of a lot beyond one or two action scenes and influencing things behind the curtain.
While it didn't bowl me over like I was hoping, Black Magic was a very worthwhile look at the early days of one of manga's masters. Three out of five stars.
July 10, 2018
However legendary the comics artist, there exists the occasional body of work that falls short of contemporary standards. For legendary sci-fi storyteller and artist Shirow Masamune, BLACK MAGIC is one such item. Originally released episodically, the manga, when compiled, is exquisitely confusing, inconsistent, and consumed with jargon.
So the story goes, once artificial intelligence starts conjuring together politicians to guide and rule human and machine citizenry alike, an array of individuals band together to push back and pave the way for humans and aliens to live in harmony -- absent the shadow of an autocratic A.I. The figurehead of the resistance is an esper known as Duna Typhon. Her power is off the charts. And while it's a bit confusing as to what the heck she's doing hanging around in dive bars and unleashing murderous bioroids on the local public, she is perhaps the only character the book commits to with any reasonable or consistent trajectory.
Not to say it's all garbage. The middle chapters are chock full of urban warfare and militaria. When a special forces unit, led by the indomitable Captain Adams, is assigned to take out a few M-66 models, the action is brisk and the page composition grows increasingly dynamic. Masamune's affection for the interface of mecha action and human drama hits its nadir as the special forces unit is continuously called upon to do more than they were initially assigned (sound familiar?).
Captain Adams, a true badass, leads his team of veteran soldiers into numerous skirmishes. The final fight of which pits the captain himself against an upgraded M-77 android. The suspense blossoms with a slow-burn intensity, as the machine snakes its way through a giant building with the nation's most skilled officers on its tail -- punching through firewalls, crawling through AC ducts, enduring handheld laser cannons. Once BLACK MAGIC finds its pace, it's quite a ride. If only Masamune had the experience and foresight to make the whole comic about the special forces unit, and not merely the middle third.
On the philosophical end, conversations about the role and relationship humanity has with machine intelligence is provided only passing discourse. BLACK MAGIC is full of the home-made jargon native to sci-fi adventures of this sort, and yet, such language mostly fulfills the duty of strategic filler. Masamune's social commentary on styles of governance, the role of the National Guard, and on the obligations of leaders to their people are all left hanging in the balance.
So the story goes, once artificial intelligence starts conjuring together politicians to guide and rule human and machine citizenry alike, an array of individuals band together to push back and pave the way for humans and aliens to live in harmony -- absent the shadow of an autocratic A.I. The figurehead of the resistance is an esper known as Duna Typhon. Her power is off the charts. And while it's a bit confusing as to what the heck she's doing hanging around in dive bars and unleashing murderous bioroids on the local public, she is perhaps the only character the book commits to with any reasonable or consistent trajectory.
Not to say it's all garbage. The middle chapters are chock full of urban warfare and militaria. When a special forces unit, led by the indomitable Captain Adams, is assigned to take out a few M-66 models, the action is brisk and the page composition grows increasingly dynamic. Masamune's affection for the interface of mecha action and human drama hits its nadir as the special forces unit is continuously called upon to do more than they were initially assigned (sound familiar?).
Captain Adams, a true badass, leads his team of veteran soldiers into numerous skirmishes. The final fight of which pits the captain himself against an upgraded M-77 android. The suspense blossoms with a slow-burn intensity, as the machine snakes its way through a giant building with the nation's most skilled officers on its tail -- punching through firewalls, crawling through AC ducts, enduring handheld laser cannons. Once BLACK MAGIC finds its pace, it's quite a ride. If only Masamune had the experience and foresight to make the whole comic about the special forces unit, and not merely the middle third.
On the philosophical end, conversations about the role and relationship humanity has with machine intelligence is provided only passing discourse. BLACK MAGIC is full of the home-made jargon native to sci-fi adventures of this sort, and yet, such language mostly fulfills the duty of strategic filler. Masamune's social commentary on styles of governance, the role of the National Guard, and on the obligations of leaders to their people are all left hanging in the balance.
March 21, 2012
As a teenager I dabbled in Manga and when I saw these comics for sale in the Oxfam I recognised the covers immediately. I had no memory of the story but they were very striking visually. I have to say given the choice beween anime worlds and the superhero worlds of American comics I much prefer anime worlds. This story took place many many milennia ago on Venus and transforms Greek myth into computer governments, robots and clones. It's a lovely setting and an interesting premise. Unfortunately, it's execution is a little rough. The four comics are mostly a series of short stories about different events in the world. There's kinda too much action and exposition and not enough of exploring the world through the events as they unfold. It's clumsy and awkward but still enjoyable. It made me think I should go back and try more manga again.
August 23, 2018
I believe this book proves the ancient alien theory. Probably Masamune Shirow was contacted by aliens telepathically, who info-dumped this historically accurate account of aliens misconstrued as gods directly into his brain, beings who influenced the early development of Earth and humanity, whose scientific abilities were interpreted as magic, and who all hung out in bars on Venus. Wow...it wasn't Orion's Belt or Nibiru, it was Venus all along. That being said, damn can he draw a great kinetic, high energy action sequence, but for the life of him, can't craft an actual cohesive story.
November 7, 2021
I picked this up because it's by Shirow Masamune - the creator of Ghost in the Shell. I wasn't expecting anything as good as GitS, as I hadn't heard of it before - and it's not that good. It's not terrible, but it doesn't seem to know what it wants to be or where it's going.
It was originally published as 5 or 6 individual stories, and then combined into one volume. It seems to be a retelling of parts of Greek myth (the Gods overthrowing the Titans) but set on ancient Venus - before global warming made it an 800 degree desert.
There is a big info-dump at the beginning, but it doesn't really stop much confusion. The 3rd story occupies about a third of the book, and is the best - it's a straight "bug hunt", where humans are hunting down a rogue AI.
Overall, it's not terrible, and the artwork is nice (although Masamune was apparently unhappy with it), but it's certainly not his best work.
It was originally published as 5 or 6 individual stories, and then combined into one volume. It seems to be a retelling of parts of Greek myth (the Gods overthrowing the Titans) but set on ancient Venus - before global warming made it an 800 degree desert.
There is a big info-dump at the beginning, but it doesn't really stop much confusion. The 3rd story occupies about a third of the book, and is the best - it's a straight "bug hunt", where humans are hunting down a rogue AI.
Overall, it's not terrible, and the artwork is nice (although Masamune was apparently unhappy with it), but it's certainly not his best work.
April 4, 2021
No passado longínquo, Vénus era o berço de uma civilização que se espalhou pelo sistema solar. Composta por seres antropóides, biodróides e humanos, vivia sob as maquinações de influentes políticos. As suas lutas internas levaram-na à destruição. Black Magic é a história dessas lutas, onde uma andróide biológica com capacidades técnicas e mágicas semeia o caos numa sociedade que está a ser conduzida para a sua aniquilação. Ou algo assim. Black Magic não faz muito sentido, é Shirow ainda jovem a desenvolver o seu estilo gráfico e capacidades narrativas. Nota-se os elementos estilísticos que veio a desenvolver em Ghost in the Shell, a incipiência dos seus grafismos tecnológicos e textos onde o humor e a ação coexistem.
December 31, 2020
2.9/5
Shirow Masamune's Black Magic is total nonsense, but it's somewhat enjoyable nonsense, even if the plot makes no sense and character motivations are murkier than oily water. His artwork is still very fine and a treat to look at, even if it's at the service of a befuddling story. The middle portion, 'Booby Trap,' is the best part, and I'm now grateful that the OVA adaptation of this adapted that one part, instead of attempting to decypher Masamune's dense, impenetrable plotline and mythological techno-babble and world-building. In most adaptations, it would be a travesty, but in the Black Magic OVA's case, it's a miracle the animation studio were able to get a plot out of this in the first place. Far from Shirow's best work, I'm afraid...
Shirow Masamune's Black Magic is total nonsense, but it's somewhat enjoyable nonsense, even if the plot makes no sense and character motivations are murkier than oily water. His artwork is still very fine and a treat to look at, even if it's at the service of a befuddling story. The middle portion, 'Booby Trap,' is the best part, and I'm now grateful that the OVA adaptation of this adapted that one part, instead of attempting to decypher Masamune's dense, impenetrable plotline and mythological techno-babble and world-building. In most adaptations, it would be a travesty, but in the Black Magic OVA's case, it's a miracle the animation studio were able to get a plot out of this in the first place. Far from Shirow's best work, I'm afraid...
November 8, 2017
There is a good middle action sequence where androids are being hunted down. The opening and closing have terrible narrator info dumps. Not sure what was going on with the spaceship or ruling AI characters, or how the magic fits in.
December 23, 2016
Some stunningly beautiful artwork, as with all of his work.
The story feels slapped together and fairly random, or as if there's a whole lot missing, but it's still good.
This was my first time reading it in the original format
The story feels slapped together and fairly random, or as if there's a whole lot missing, but it's still good.
This was my first time reading it in the original format
December 27, 2012
Meh. I like Shirow Masamune's work. This is early work. I feel like the story could be fleshed out better and if I wasn't familiar with the rest of his work aspects would not make sense at all.
November 15, 2022
This is interesting as a slice of thinking, more for the parts then the whole
Shirow Masamune has many books that show a skill of weaving a large cast of characters and a complex political/social/economic storyline together in a way that gives you a thrilling narrative.
This isn’t one of those. Instead the parts aren’t woven together, but stacked in some almost jarring shifts. The themes of his later works also show up but in a throwing down a flag to say look at this and then moved past.
As an artifact of an impressive career this work is worth a look as a starting point. As a stand alone book? I wouldn’t be so willingly say it’s worth a read.
All of that said I would be over flowing with pride if my first book was half as good as this one, so there is that.
Shirow Masamune has many books that show a skill of weaving a large cast of characters and a complex political/social/economic storyline together in a way that gives you a thrilling narrative.
This isn’t one of those. Instead the parts aren’t woven together, but stacked in some almost jarring shifts. The themes of his later works also show up but in a throwing down a flag to say look at this and then moved past.
As an artifact of an impressive career this work is worth a look as a starting point. As a stand alone book? I wouldn’t be so willingly say it’s worth a read.
All of that said I would be over flowing with pride if my first book was half as good as this one, so there is that.
August 27, 2025
The overall narrative seemed like chapters randomly taken out of a whole story, with many missing in between, still in a sort of linear order, but with many gaps linking the chapters together. The story is not too hard to follow, but it just seems unnecessarily out of order.
The action sequences were nicely drawn, and the idea of the story is interesting, if you can piece together the parts of the story and their overall connection to the main narrative. But for me, overall, not something I would read again or recommend to others.
The action sequences were nicely drawn, and the idea of the story is interesting, if you can piece together the parts of the story and their overall connection to the main narrative. But for me, overall, not something I would read again or recommend to others.
October 26, 2024
I am a huge fan of Ghost in the Shell and Appleseed. So the completist in me wanted to check this out. It has good art with interesting characters but it is not what I would call a mature work. This predates the two aforementioned works and it is full of the concepts and themes of what would come later. Not the best work by Shirow but still I understand why it got published and is beloved by many fans of Shirow, it just isn't my favorite.
May 24, 2019
While I want to give this a higher rating for the plot (which was bumpy for me at times due to some unknown reasons), the artwork was just my style (that 1970s-early 1990s look!).
I due plan on returning to the book and its science fiction/mythology based style and story line in the future, and hopefully the second time around will be an improvement from the first :)
I due plan on returning to the book and its science fiction/mythology based style and story line in the future, and hopefully the second time around will be an improvement from the first :)
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January 3, 2022Pretty skippable Shirow, only for completionists. Essentially a bunch of short stories with some recurring locations and characters. The storytelling is pretty incomprehensible and not overly interesting. The art, though, saves it from being a total wash, as even in his early work, he exudes talent.
November 24, 2021
I love the art, but the story is all over the place, and the different sections seem barely connected. But still, worth the read.
July 11, 2025
2.5. It has its charms.
June 19, 2024
Rambling and inconsistent. There's some great ideas here but poor execution as they feel half formed. Feels like he just flitted from one idea to another during the writing but slacked on the world building. I saw someone else say that it really shows he didn't have an editor look over this before it was published. And it really does show.
April 6, 2014
One of Shirow's earlier works, the art isn't as detailed as what we see in Appleseed and Ghost in the Shell. But you can see the prototypes for characters that appear in his later works. Still an interesting story and good art.
September 4, 2013
This is one of Shirow's very first published works, and it's kind of fun if you don't expect it to be a lost masterpiece or anything. But if you've already read "Appleseed" and "Ghost in the Shell," "Black Magic" is a fun read.
September 1, 2016
Re-reading. I found this to be the weakest Shirow graphic novel. It has the visuals but the story is even more non-sensical than usual and I found reading it to be an annoyance more than anything else.
April 5, 2008
Magic vs. cyborgs. A little silly, but well, cyborgs.
May 14, 2009
This is Shirow's first manga, so I can forgive it for being terrible...
January 29, 2011
grt .....try it
Want to read
June 14, 2016FALSE
Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews