*Ghost in the Shell

Theme, theme, everyone's got a theme and now, I need one too.

Cheesecake seems to be real popular these days and as a young, red-blooded male, I'd have to agree that there's nothing like the female form.

Remember that "Seinfeld" episode where Jerry's girlfriend walks around naked and Jerry decides to do the same, but it becomes a big turn-off for her? As Elaine Benes put it, "Well, the female body is a... work of art. The male body is utilitarian, it's for gettin' around, like a jeep."

And who wants a jeep, when you can have a Ferrari? Not that I want to make Elaine my theme either, although it'd almost be worth it to see someone drawing her "little kicks and thumbs" dance. Unfortunately, someone's already got a "dancing girl" theme.

And a Wonder Woman theme. And Batgirl. And Supergirl. And Mary Jane with Spidey's costume. And another Wonder Woman.

Sure, they're all classic choices, but I wanted someone to call my own.

There isn't any female character I really like, although Mike Grell's groovy bikini-clad Saturn Girl made an impression on me growing up, but I was recently blown away by Masamune Shirow's cover to "Ghost in the Shell 2."

It shows the title character, (in my best English-dubbed voice-over) Motoko Kusanagi, in a white, skin-tight suit with some military assault boots and matching arm guards against a hi-tech background. The contrast in her costume looks great from simple white to complex black and I love the sci-fi, dynamic action that Shirow puts her through, even if I don't understand it all. I even went out and bought the Japanese trade, just for the pictures.

She kinda represents the whole manga movement for me too, so I knew she'd be popular enough for other artists to be familiar with her.

So, that's my theme. What's yours?