teichmann - 2016-05-02 00:39:55

Ghost in the Shell: Arise is a series of four movies that aim to provide some background for the franchise's main character, Motoko Kusanagi. Or at least, that's what it looks like it was aiming to do.
This review is only of the first movie, Ghost Pain.

Story
It starts off in a bit of a messy state by simply chucking the viewer into the deep end with a barrage of context-less stuff happening until it eventually slows down a bit and explains itself. The sense of mystery and deep themes conveyed in the original movie are mostly completely absent here, instead choosing to focus on a fast paced action driven espionage story that seems to use it's intricate structure as a way of masking the fact that it doesn't really have much to say. Although a similar theme of the nature of being is vaguely set up, there is no exploration present in any way which was a real missed opportunity especially considering some of the later plot developments. It would seem that smoothly flowing action shoved everything else out of the way. In case you're wondering, the story was written by Tow Ubukata, who you may know better for Mardock Scramble. Although he's certainly good at writing an engaging action story, deeper themes are certainly not his thing based purely on what I've heard about Mardock Scramble and what I watched of the dismal Psycho Pass 2. 

CharactersThere are some interesting moments and character conflicts with Kusanagi that just didn't have the weight they should of done because the movie doesn't really provide you with a proper sense of what her character is like. Sure, you can watch the 1995 movie and both seasons of Stand Alone Complex, but the Kusanagi in those is noticeably different from this one. In Ghost Pain, she seems more casual and... bland. All the other side characters don't get enough screen time to really have any development or even much personality. I'd like to write more here but the movie really just doesn't provide me with much to go on.

Sound
The soundtrack in this movie was pretty fantastic. Some of the songs felt like they were trying to emulate the feel of the original and did a pretty decent job at it whereas some of the other tracks were trying to be their own thing whilst keeping in tone with everything else and, again, doing a pretty good job. The soundtrack in the original movie created a great atmosphere which this movie's soundtrack sadly couldn't do.

Visuals
The animation is liquid smooth and the art is consistently beautiful. But that's all it is. It doesn't really try and create any atmosphere or stick to a certain aesthetic. The run down dreary dystopia from the first movie is gone, replaced by a shiny, glimmering sci-fi city. As for Kusanagi's redesign, I was quite fond of it. I felt like it kept in style with the rest of the film but didn't deviate too far from anything we've seen before. The directing is overall pretty decent. The action scenes are coherent and flow very nicely. The framing of shots throughout the entire film was just pretty good overall. 

Verdict
It's an action movie. That's really were it starts and ends. The overarching plot will have you invested enough to carry you through but not interested enough to really think about. And that's a real shame. I feel like this could have been a good chance to really explore Kusanagi's character and further look into the themes explored by the original. 

jay11 - 2015-04-13 03:11:01

Kusanagi never really had a real back story, so this is a great start and addition to mythos of GitS universe. Seeing where she originated from and the how she became part of section 9, even if not initially intended and written Masamune Shirow, is great to see as she has always been one of my favorite characters.

To a fan (well at least to me) of the series who had been searching and hoping for new content for a long beloved series over the years, this is a treasure, long awaited over the years and gladly accepted as part of the cannon of the universe.

shahn - 2013-11-13 14:55:00

I had my hopes up, I was hoping 2013 would bring a few interesting anime. One of the anime I really wanted to see and enjoy was Ghost in the Shell: Arise, as it turns out a prequel to the first move, one of the most important and artistic cinematographic works ever made. But as soon as I started watching crap just started piling up. First things first, the animation, a huge element of the first movie that had a lot of beautiful imaginative work combined with fitting gritty hand drawn animation and magnificent visual exposition that in just a few minutes showed us how the world looked and how it was run. In Arise we get shiny animation, clean streets and a lot of sunshine. We get no visual exposition of the world, heck even the cyberpunk feel was left out. I mean remember those scenes where Major's body was being created and torn apart, where you could see all kinds of wires, occasional cyberbrain and cool types of futuristic weapons? Here we get 4 holes on her neck and a lot of normal handguns. Sometimes we get 3 second scenes of internet diving. Of course I may have had high expectations. But the thing that I simply can't let go is the random fanservice. First enemy they fight is a loli with fancy doll clothes. What the fuck? What the fuck? Rosen Maiden lolis in GITS? Furthermore Major's superior is a milf with huge boobs and no brah. I mean she looks like she was designed for a fucking hentai, not a (supposed to be) serious cyberpunk! A note to the creators. If I wanted characters that dress like they came from a hentai I would watch a hentai or anything by J. C. Staff. And like cherry on a cake Major now looks like a 15 year old with oversized boobs that change size due to slappy animation. Oh and by the way the villains look like they came from Naruto.

The sound was't a hit either really. The voices chosen for the characters seem like they were being picked for JoJo. I mean why does Bantou sound like a random brute and not like a really well made war veteran? Backgound music was almost non existend and city sounds were left out.
Now come the characters. Remember the philosophical dillemas they had about human existance outside a biological body? Remember moral dillemas about brain hacking? Well you are not going to see them here, they were (like everything else that made GITS good) left out. They also fight on every occasion, no reason, just start fighting and a minute later they say: "Lol, we are actually on the same side". No development or attention is given to their personalities, they feel blank and the whole thing is plot driven with characters having little influence on the overall story.
Now that we came to the story, Major is chasing a misterious murderer (wait what didn't we already have that?) that killed one of her friends. The clues are find just like that, the search was basically left out, they get a random lead we know shit about and they follow it. Than things go boom. There is nothing in it to keep you interested. Another letdown given to us by the anime industry.

gutmann.kristin - 2013-07-22 23:28:48

The Ghost in the Shell Franchise is known for crimes that exceed the complexity of most Anime of this kind by far. It keeps provoking thoughts about the series in every movie and every episode, with mostly unpredictable plot twists making it a really good franchise. The newest part of it, being Ghost in the Shell: Arise, is the prequel to everything else.Story: The Story is set in the year 2027. A high military high ranked man gets murdered in the streets and Kusanagi Motoko who was his subordinate wants to take it over. The movie follows her solving the crime, but soon enough she herself is getting suspected...In total the story is not engaging as earlier GitS crimes, such as the laughing man, but still has some really good twists.8/10Characters: The cast pretty much consists of the later Section 9 shown in the other franchise parts and centers around the coming together of them. They didn't really get a lot of depht in this movie, but considering how much it was in the other movies that is not that bad for people who already watched the other parts, but for someone that is new to the franchise, by now I wouldn't tell to watch this first. There are for more Borders on the way though, so maybe we'll see that in later parts.7/10Art: The Animation of Arise is done by the same studio who produced every single other GitS part, which was Production I.G. They did another really good job at this and that was what the made the action scenes really cool. The new character design of the Major was a bit unusual if you've seen earlier parts, but once you got used to it it was fine.9/10Sound: The thing I liked the least about Ghost in the Shell: Arise, was the soundtrack. Everything fit and so on, but it never did give me the feel of the show that Kanno Yoko and Kawai Kenji gave me. The voiceacting was good as always.5/10Enjoyment: Arise was everything but not flawless. But in total the movie was done fairly well. With a story that can confuse and excite you at the very same time I really enjoyed watching it.7/10Total: 7.5/10