it helps if the show contains many moods.  GITS for example (the movie, not

the

manga which doesn't appear to be much available in North America), has no

humour

at all, no warm and fuzzy romance, no horror, no lust, no fear, no

melodrama,

nothing except cynicism and intellectual angst.

Not much available in North America?  Nani?

The Ghost In The Shell manga is collected in a single volume produced by
Dark Horse.  Their manga can be sometimes hard to locate, but your local
comic dealer should have no problem ordering it, or you can order directly
from Dark Horse at:

Dark Horse Comics, Inc.  Department BL 10956 SE Main Street, Milwaukie, OR
97222.  Or by phone at  1-800-862-0052 9 am - 5 pm Pacific Standard Time.
I'm sure they have an easily-found web page, too.

They accept checks, money orders, visa and mastercard.  The paperback that I
have is ISBN:1-56971-81-3 and retails for $24.95 US, $34.95 Canadian.  They
list a "limited edition" hardcover version inside, ISBN:1-56971-153-4, price
unknown, and since it was published in 1995 I have no idea if there are
still copies of the hardcover about.

It's a big volume, and contains more than enough material for any fanfic
writer to sink their teeth into.  If you've only seen the movie, you have no
idea what you're missing.

Yes, it's missing a couple of famous pages.  ^_^

This doesn't mean that GiTS 'fics can't be written, of course -- your
BGC/GiTS idea sounds pretty interesting -- but there's considerably less
scope.

Only if you depend on the anime.  I see no reason to do that, and the manga
contains at least as much background as the entire Bubble Gum
Crisis/Crash/ADP storyline.  Shirow's writing is very dense....  ^_^

Miko!