CATDOLL: Shirow Masamune's work "Appleseed" is the first to be made into an e-book

The plan to convert Shirow Masamune's works into e-books has been officially implemented, and the first work, "Electronic Edition of Appleseed 1: Challenge of Prometheus", has been on sale at major e-book stores such as BOOK WALKER starting today.

This project is to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the release of Shirow Masamune's debut work "Appleseed". The e-book work will be supervised by the original author Shirow Masamune himself, and unnecessary annotations will be deleted and the content that may cause misunderstanding will be corrected. The second work "Electronic Appleseed 2 Prometheus Liberation" will be available for sale in March this year. In addition to the commemorative plan, "Appleseed Alpha" produced with the latest CG technology will be released nationwide in Japan on January 17. This film is different from the American version released half a year ago. This is the Japanese version directed by Shinji Aramaki, who has experience in producing multiple "Appleseed" theatrical versions.

The following is the message from the original author Shilang Masamune:

Appleseed was first published in 1985, but 30 years later, with the development of the Internet and mobile terminal dictionary functions, I think the need for footnotes is very, very low, so in the process of electronic book, I deleted all the footnotes that could be deleted. In terms of the character's lines, the parts that are too old-fashioned and easy to cause misunderstanding have also been corrected. Therefore, although I don't know whether such corrections will be recognized by readers, I personally think that this should improve the reading experience of the work and allow you to read more smoothly.

When I was deleting the footnotes, the editor told me that "footnotes are also a kind of personality", so I listened to the editor's advice and kept the three footnotes that were originally planned to be deleted. As for the basic content, era settings, and drawings, they are exactly the same as they were at the time, and nothing has been added or deleted. Of course, after all, 30 years have passed, and I also understand that the work will look a bit old, but I also think that this is inevitable and it is not a big problem for the work, so there is no plan to make new explanations or new changes at present.

I feel very sorry for not being able to add anything new to the old version. In addition to restoring the original manuscript in my spare time during my daily work, I am afraid that I will not have the opportunity to read my comic again if it is not for this opportunity. This time, I would like to thank everyone who participated in this e-book project and the readers who are willing to buy this comic from 30 years ago. I hope this work can still bring you fun!