Koukaku Kidoutai Arise: Ghost in the Shell - Border:1 Ghost Pain

The anime's story is set in 2027, one year after the end of the fourth non-nuclear war. New Port City is still reeling from the war's aftermath when it suffers a bombing caused by a self-propelled mine. Then, a military member implicated in arms-dealing bribes is gunned down.

During the investigation, Public Security Section's Daisuke Aramaki encounters Motoko Kusanagi, the cyborg wizard-level hacker assigned to the military's 501st Secret Unit. Batou, a man with the "eye that does not sleep," suspects that Kusanagi is the one behind the bombing. The Niihama Prefectural Police detective Togusa is pursuing his own dual cases of the shooting death and a prostitute's murder. Motoko herself is being watched by the 501st Secret Unit's head Kurutsu and cyborg agents.

(Source: ANN)

Kusanagi, Motoko Main

Sakamoto, Maaya Japanese

Batou Supporting

Matsuda, Kenichirou Japanese

Togusa Supporting

Shingaki, Tarusuke Japanese

Aramaki, Daisuke Supporting

Juku, Ikkyuu Japanese

Pazu Supporting

Ueda, Youji Japanese

Logicoma Supporting

Sawashiro, Miyuki Japanese

Kurutsu Supporting

Asano, Mayumi Japanese

Raizo Supporting

Hoshino, Takanori Japanese

Cook, Justin Producer

Abe, Kengo Producer

Nishimura, Tomoyasu Producer

Murata, Masahiko Director, Storyboard

Reviews

Jun 24, 2013

Stellio

Recommended

Bold and cryptic, the original Ghost in the Shell movie (1995) is considered by many fans to be the apex of sci-fi anime within its decade. Over time, Oshii’s adroit directing influenced a multitude of many abstract ideas, both ambitious and creative. However, it was Kamiyama Kenji’s Stand Alone Complex iteration of the series that helped further the franchise's reputation as a result of its superb action scenes, script, and sophistication.

With that said, Ghost in the Shell: Arise is a series that needs no introduction. But perhaps in an ironic way, it is essentially the introduction for the franchise. Although the franchise is largely ... an elaborate piece comprised of intelligent crime cases that tackle thought-provoking issues, the cast remains enigmatic as a whole. In its entire run, only bits of backstories about the characters are scattered throughout, and Motoko’s relationships with the rest of Section 9 are not specified until the second season of the Stand Alone Complex.

Arise however, gives very little in the way of answers for the amount of questions that it brings to the table. In many respects, the premise of a cybernetic hacker is redolent of the original Ghost in the Shell movie, though the unsettling atmosphere is construed and explained in a very different manner. Arise is very much focused on Motoko herself, rather than the broader social scope. In the event of Border: 1 Ghost Pain there is an alleged conviction that Motoko is the culprit of a murder case, and Motoko must confront herself in the midst of confusions to clear up her name.

Consistently incorporated throughout the movie, Arise's ambiguity is the foothold for its mysterious components. While murky at times, the enigmatic nature of the movie allows for the truth of Motoko's conviction to surface in a tangible fashion. The beginning of the movie arouses a sense of confusion (in a good way) and easily attracts the audience's attention. However, the nature of the Arise series being separated into 50 minute entries very much limits the extent of the storytelling. In the case of Border: 1 Ghost Pain, this is especially true, as the riddle is unraveled in a predictable succession of preface, hinting of a villain, uncertainty, and then a final battle with said villain. The conflict is weakened in the process due to the simple mistake of a rushed pacing, leaving us with a shallow sense of suspense during the latter parts of the movie.

Despite the contestable issues with the pacing, the essence of the character dynamics hasn't lost its touch in this movie. Motoko slowly re-encounters and stumbles upon many future members of the soon-to-be Section 9, and their relationships remain underdeveloped yet still sturdy. For an introductory plot, Arise made a first-rate effort of delivering the story in a simplistic yet appropriately mystical pattern. Unfortunately, the said deliverance is occasionally soiled by the inclusion of one-dimensional villains, whose actions conveniently fit as plot devices where needed.

By and large, the animation is pleasing to look at. On one hand, the action scenes are all fluid and splendidly done. Likewise, the aesthetics generally illustrate appealing appearances. On the other hand, while the character designs are fresh and new, they could be viewed as dubious alterations by older fans. Similarly, the music is not as excellent as hoped. It is perhaps too high a bar for one’s music to live up to Yoko Kanno’s distinctive style. However, as individual background music, the OST is actually fine in setting the gloomy mood during the movie.

As an experimental film to follow up on an imposing legacy, Border: 1 Ghost Pain has done a surprisingly fine job of providing basic background. While some lesser parts drag down the tension of the story as a whole, the core of the franchise is still there. Although it does not pay homage to the long-lived franchise, Arise proves to be a fascinating take on the sci-fi genre. For that, Border: 1 Ghost Pain still deserves a try for its creation of an intriguing thriller. Naturally, there are still three other movies that are subjected to their own merits, so it'll be interesting to see where it goes from here.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Jul 29, 2018

AnjuRatty

Mixed Feelings

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| Ghost in the Shell : Arise - Ghost Pain |
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Sadly, this is not the Ghost in the Shell that we all know and love. Yes, it is indeed a dystopian future sci-fi movie with androids. Yes, it has the same characters, (or at least the same character names.) Let's dive in shall we?

-Story-

The story of the new Arise series isn't a sequel or prequel to the existing Ghost in the Shell franchise by Mamoru Oshii, instead it's called a "re-imagining" of its older brother.
Let's start with the world and atmosphere - it's gone.
It's not the atmosphere you would expect to see from a ... Ghost in the Shell movie. Being different is not inherently a bad thing, but in this case it's a step back, and the world feels like just another futuristic sci-fi movie. That Blade Runner style of atmosphere we all loved is gone. This has much to do with the visuals, such as the art style and the color palette they chose to go with. In the original Ghost in the Shell, the visuals did a major part in telling the story. Here, it's just bland.

Despite being a "re-imagining" , the movie does nothing to introduce the viewer to it's characters and it's world. Besides a few action scenes, I felt like nothing really happened. There are many tropes, like the main character not being able to differentiate reality and what she's seeing, and they could have utilized these better. Instead the story doesn't really go anywhere with them. It's not the type of story that's going to ask you a lot of questions or keep you awake.

-Characters-

Oh Major, what a shame they did to you.
As you would expect from a re-imagining, the traits of the characters are not the same as the original franchise. Instead what we got are some characters that are just -there-. You're not going to grow any emotional ties to these characters from watching the movie. There is no depth to any of the characters, as it feels that they are there simply to move the plot along and have some interactions with each other.
A real let down for me was how they handled Major Kusanaji. They stripped her of all her complexity. The Makoto who was struggling to feel human emotions and was struggling to explore what makes androids different from humans is not there. Instead the Arise version of Makoto is your generic main character. No inner conflicts, no depth, just a pretty face who fights. What a disappointment.


-Sound and Animation-

Again, very generic and painfully mediocre.
The mesmerizing music from the original is gone and replaced with generic music that I don't even remember how it sounded like, and that tells a lot. Animation and Art Style is good, nothing special but it's good. However, it does not fit the dystopian setting of the movie at all. It lacks the visual story telling and the set pieces the original contained. Again I was bitterly disappointed.

-Enjoyment-

Ha ha , I did not.

-Overall-

It wasn't an appalling experience, but when you hear Ghost in the Shell, you expect more than just a sci-fi action movie. I feel like this would have been better if they did not slap the "Ghost in the Shell" brand on it and made it it's own franchise.
If you're a Ghost in the Shell fan , you're going to be disappointed with this movie. Even if you're just looking for Sci-Fi action movie, there are much better movies. But if you're really bored and have nothing else to watch, this is a serviceable.

[Proofreading - SomeRandomNerd]

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Apr 24, 2025

1stDecame4Danime

Not Recommended

Compared to the original movies: Far fewer filler scenes. More sensible dialogue with less exposition dumping for the audience and less juvenile attempts at quoting on-the-nose references and philosophizing. However, there's very little of anything being said that isn't just boring narration about the plot. And there's too much boring action filler, this feels like GI Joe.

The world/art design is a bit low budget and generic with almost none of the ruination dystopia visible instead just ordinary buildings and streets and grass, etc. Boring.

The characters are a bit shallow since its an introduction to all of them in a rather shallow action-focused murder mystery of ... the same style rehashed once again. Most of the characters are just around with barely any characterization, really they spread the movie too thiin trying to introduce way too many characters for the entire series in 1 hour when most all of them barely have any role in this movie.
The worst character is the robot mascot the movie never utilizes in any meaningful capacity (remotely syncing as a computer plot-device doesn't really count). Laughably they had the opportunity to use it in an action sequence when it shows up to save them... and then instead it just kinda sits there and does literally nothing until someone else arriving further deus ex machinas to save them instead... terrible. But it's a series of movies so hopefully it'll do something eventually to justify itself.

The plot is very brief, yet drawn out by contrived action sequences that don't really matter. And the ending is a lot of poorly conveyed exposition dumping of the dumb circumstances behind the murder mystery. Really the plot as a whole is just idiotic contrivance if you take them at their word and stop to think about it (the excuse of doing dumb bs from start to finish to try to find moles) but sure whatever, maybe they're lying and we'll find out later in the series.

There's a scene where she's going through some security check and puts in some info upload chip in the back of her head which seems to have been a redherring for how she got hacked... because it turns out to be entirely irrelevant to the movie, serving no real purpose and may just be a false memory? I have no idea why they included this scene let alone flashback to it so much, god knows the last thing this simple plot needs is to be made even more pointlessly convoluted.

Initially, I had given it a 4/10 (where 5/10 is average), but after seeing the next movie I'm thoroughly unimpressed by how little cohesion the arise movies have. It has no consistency in that it just completely 180s Major's choice at the end with zero effort and seems to just want to be episodic mindless GI Joe action movie rehashings of the same plot notes over and over again with no care to resolve any of the issues of this movie and even making it worse retroactively.
3/10 (where 5/10 is average)

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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