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

Nishimura, Tomoyasu Producer

Abe, Kengo 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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Dec 8, 2014

5camp

Recommended

::NOTE:: This is a review of the entire of Ghost in the Shell Arise because splitting them up is only done by dumb people and MAL admins. So basically just dumb people.

Ghost in the Shell has gone through a few hands in its life. From the cyberpunk manga origins by Shirow Masamune, before he turned into a weirdo who only drew calendars full of pictures of impossibly proportioned naked girls covered in machine oil, it then went to Oshi. There it had its most visually striking entrant with a gorgeously directed movie, albeit one lacking a little in character. Then he made a second movie ... which we should all probably not talk about. Then it was handed over to Kenji Kamiyama and was allowed to spread its wings a little in two full length TV series. With this space it was able to explore a wide range of typical cyberpunk topics with frightening levels of depth in what I consider to be the strongest the franchise has ever been.

The latest instalment sees it placed into the hands of Tow Ubukata as the chief writer and I will admit I was a little bit worried. This is the man whose most famous previous work was Mardock Scramble, a novel series that certainly had its interesting ideas but sorta lost track of them around about the time Norio Wakamoto was being eaten by flying homosexual sharks. Actually I think it was the dolphin that was homosexual…anyway, gay marine animals aside, it was a huge mess. So I tuned into Ghost in the Shell Arise with my expectations tempered significantly.

So, Arise. It’s a prequel-of-sorts to Stand Alone Complex (apart from the fact characters’ backstories have changed so it’s not actually a prequel at all but it hardly matters) featuring a younger Major Kusanagi leaving her old military unit to form Section 9 on behest of a boring old man called Aramaki. Despite the backstories changing and therefore COMPLETELY RUINING the franchise, each character introduced feels like slipping back into comfortable old shoes. The Major is still her headstrong self with that self-doubt and temper hiding beneath. Batou is still the cyborg dudebro with a kind heart. Togusa is still that intelligent family man. The rest of the crew whose names you can never remember are still hanging around in the background being not as interesting.

The story for Arise over its 4 episodes is about the nature of memories and how can you trust your cyborg brain when it can be hacked and change you as a person. Things you considered vital parts of your psyche could be lies and you doubt your own humanity when you can be so easily rewired. Who do you let past those defences you have built up in your fear that you may become something you are not. Who are you really and can you trust your body to represent you. Are you defined by your memories? Pretty standard stuff if you’ve ever experienced any previous iteration of Ghost in the Shell, but it hasn’t stopped being a fascinating subject in that time.

Arise focuses on memories most of all and builds on this theme in some really quite excellent ways that aren’t immediately apparent from the start. Part of this is because the show is so bloody difficult to follow. Episode 1 is the worst in this regards. Being incredibly complicated to the point that you can feel your brain slowly dribble out your ears through exertion is again something very common to Ghost in the Shell. Making a Ghost in the Shell not complex would be like making a Gundam anime without robots. But when you start throwing in an unreliable narrator created by false memories altering what it is she sees to the point that you question whether anything you saw previously is true, that’s when you’re just being mean. The show is complicated enough as it is without making us doubt everything we’ve seen.

Thankfully it improves immensely after that. Episode 2 is a perfect example of how to do it and should be a good outline for how to do every Ghost in the Shell episode. It’s about a military unit who have been put on a show trial for war crimes they didn’t commit so their boss shuts down the city by hacking into its traffic computers, so the Major and her team have to track the perpetrators down through both an epic car chase and hacking battle. It’s an episode that’s simple enough to wrap your head around with understandable motivations but still with the depth to the conflict that makes it interesting. It even has a twist involving the false memories that works because it’s only a single change that you can instantly understand the implications of and even throws in some character depth and themes of how our memories can define us.

It also has a kick-ass car chase involving Arise’s versions of Tachikoma doing their best Attack on Titan’s Survey Corps impressions, swinging through the cyberpunk city with their absurdly cute high pitched cheers. For as much as I like to talk about all the depth and complexity of Ghost in the Shell, I also want to see the Major punch someone in the face so hard her own cyborg arm is crushed. The production values here are about equal to that of Stand Alone Complex, which is a little disappointing in that we haven’t progressed that much in the 10+ years since then but since Stand Alone Complex still looks fantastic today that’s not as negative a point as it sounds. Fights feel impactful and I even like the Major’s character design revamp (it’s about time she put on some bloody clothes).

Where is has really upgraded is the CG. Where Stand Alone Complex CG cars look awful, Arise looks a lot better and even exciting. That car chase wouldn’t have looked anything like as good had Stand Alone Complex tried it with its CG. It can admittedly jump back and forth in quality though. Arise uses a hell of a lot of CG animation and it can be jarring when a character changes from one scene in CG to the second in hand-drawn, and it still lacks that all important weight that CG seems to be permanently saddled with. But it didn’t make me go “ewwww CG” which is an improvement in almost all other CG. On a cinematography standpoint though I feel Arise is the weakest in the franchise. The best it gets comes in the fourth episode when it makes some very deliberate call-backs to the movie.

In the end I came away feeling quite positive about the whole experience. It definitely has its weaker points. It can’t match the movies visual flair nor have the space to recapture the depth and character of Stand Alone Complex, but it does get somewhere in between the two. The most positive thing I can say about it, as a huge fan of this franchise, is it definitely feels like Ghost in the Shell. Its characters, themes, writing and even general flow feel like Ghost in the Shell. It doesn’t come across as bad fanfiction tacked onto the franchise or anything like that (which this same author seems to be doing with whatever the fuck he’s done to Psycho Pass). It has all the things I love about the Ghost in the Shell franchise. Not any more than that, but not any less either.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Jul 29, 2018

AnjuRatty

Mixed Feelings

-------------------------------------------------
| 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]

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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