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

-------------------------------------------------
| Ghost in the Shell : Arise - Ghost Pain |
-------------------------------------------------

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]

Disclaimer: As another reviewer said, splitting up the Arise-Border miniseries into separate parts is just silly. This will cover the entire thing.

So what is Arise-Border? What should have been a straight-forward "re-imagining" of the cult classic turned international favorite strays all too quickly within the first few minutes. Instead of giving us a faithful "re-telling" with our characters being better-developed (a short-coming of SaC) and the story being old-news, Arise-Border seems to want to be something else while knowing it can't. So, basically the odd child in the family nobody knows what to do with. Just nurture them or something.

Arise-Border is what I think the ... first part of the Arise "retelling" and it hits the ground stumbling. The first episode plods along uncertain of itself and how to invest its viewers while trying to tell the story of Makoto before she left her military unit to become an "independent contractor" aka join Section 9. My initial issue with Makoto in SaC was her being seemingly unstoppable, but still likable. This Makoto is so wonderfully incompetent it makes you wonder at points how anyone held her in high regard.

Batou and Togusa are here, but the "buddy cop" relationship hasn't even had the seed planted yet. We do see a younger, stubborn Togusa (although his character hasn't changed that much, has it?) still green as a detective and instead of the highly-regarded guy any police force would want, he comes off as more the only guy who actually uses his brain on the force. Batou on the other hand feels like the perfect amount of goofy and "big guy" which saves the main trio. Thank the forces of nature, too, because the other members only exist to have a moment of exposure and then fade back into the background.

I'll continue downing on the other stuff in a second, but I wanted to give the technical side of things some exposure. I mentioned in my SaC review that the music was fantastic and worth a listen; Arise-Border doesn't seem to know why. The opening is almost a lazy attempt at the beauty of Origa's voice mixed with some half-baked synth and I won't even go into the other stuff. I've said in another review that the music isn't what makes a series, but it can hurt it. Here, the absence of any music in some scenes is a Godsend. If a series doesn't know what its sound department is doing, leave the tracks that are supposed to stimulate the viewer as part of the whole, out.

The art is good, but the designs that aren't set-pieces are okay. Some scenes really feel pleasing to the eyes while others (like episode 4's fight scene in the lab) are hard to watch if only because of how disjointed and out-of-place they feel. Thankfully, the series doesn't do this too often and when it does, you can take some comfort in knowing those scenes won't last long.

The story itself is episodic and struggling to remain interconnected. The overarching plot is the "Fire Starter" virus that is affecting our post-modern military structure and causing false memories which lead to otherwise law-abiding persons to commit crimes. The first episode plays too much with the "what is real?" concept and loses sight before making a sharp U-turn back to the plot. The second episode does it better, but the last few minutes feel more like an attempt to recapture what SaC did right and run with it. Unfortunately, that "out of place" feeling comes back.

The third episode is really good in that it takes advantage of having what the previous two set up and adding to the main plot. While nothing is actually resolved, there is development for the major. Unfortunately, the next episode shows a kind of unnatural regression for her character. Huh.

Aramaki in this version is hard to watch. The cool, steely-eyed monkey-face is reduced to a begging old man chasing after a young body for her "talent". If I didn't know him to be the badass old guy from SaC, I would feel contempt for the character. Instead, this almost seems like a betrayal and the way he constantly demands Makoto and co join Section 9 is almost as painful to watch as the hard-headed major act like a bratty child who either gets her way or nobody can play with the ball.

Arise-Border isn't a GitS series in the traditional sense. What should have been a creative re-telling is instead a lopsided building the engineers painted in bright colors and straight-faced told everyone it had "personality". Look at it, take a picture, but don't invest too much in it.

Full disclosure: I like anime with a clean narrative, witty dialogue, enthralling visuals, and clear direction. I really wanted to favorite this variant of GITS, but alas, my search continues

Story: 5. This is really what really let me down about the GITS Arise series. It might just be that I'm thickheaded, but I feel like the narrative is needlessly complicated. What is equally disappointing is that the convoluted story detracts from my ability to take in the (IMHO) beautiful animation that shrouds the narrative. Well crafted TV and anime shows each episode should have both elements of discontinuity (entertainment value without watching prior episodes) ... and continuity (value added as bonus for those who invested in previous episodes). GITS Arise prevails in the former, but fails to reward the latter.

Art: 9. Simply beautiful art and CG. Wish there was a bit more action, but the art is well done.

Sound: 9. I usually fast forward intros, but the opening song is so cute, catchy, and contextual to the whole cyber hacking/crime/technology theme that I have watched the intro 2x now! Great sound. Otherwise, the music within the anime is typical.

Characters: 5. There is very little character development. Perhaps it is because they are robots and don't evolve, learn, make mistakes, bruise, and heal like humans. In other words, the characters are not relate-able. In addition, I feel like the writers focus their efforts on crafting an elaborate conspiracy scheme, that character development takes a backseat.

Enjoyment: 5. Action, decent. Animation, great. Story and characters, blah. The story and characters fuel an enjoyable anime. I will find my enjoyment elsewhere

Still looking for a Bladerunner-esk anime to sink my teeth into. Till then, the quest continues...

Just like the rest of Ghost, his movie feels really average.
I'm not sure why people like it so much.
Its not even a satisfying mystery plot.
It suffers from a lot of generic anime cliches. MC with amnesia, obvious plot twist characters (with silly hair cuts), constantly explaining what we're seeing as we're being shown it.

The biggest problem is that the whole plot feels completely un-signposted, which kills any mystery. Since the main character can't rely on her own memories and nothing ever hints at that INCREDIBLY IMPORTANT CLUE. Because of this warped perception multiple scenes are highly confused. Are they flashbacks to REAL memories? New scenes ... that are highly similar? Things are so rushed its impossible to tell.

To try and put some kind of bow on this ramble, the whole movie feels rushed. It feels like one of those god awful Michael Bay movies that got written during that big writers strike, when all they had to go off was a bad first draft.