Ghost in the Shell: Arise Borders 1–5 Anime Review

The gang’s all here. Or at least they will be… eventually.

It’s been a while, but finally, as promised, I’ve returned to Japanese mangaka Masamune Shirow’s voluminous Ghost in the Shell (GitS) franchise. Six and a half years after the final installment of writer/director Kenji Kamiyama’s take on GitS, Stand Alone Complex: Solid State Society, was released, anime studio Production I.G. (who have produced every GitS anime so far) unleashed the first part of Arise into Japanese movie theatres.

Unlike Stand Alone Complex, which mostly comprised standard 24-minute TV episodes, ARISE was originally a series of four hour-long movies (called “Borders”), released many months apart, with the first gracing cinemas on 22nd June 2013, and the fourth on 6th September 2014. However, that wasn’t the end. On 5th April 2015, the “Borders” were cut down into smaller chunks for the 10-episode GitS: Arise: Alternative Architecture TV series. The final two episodes of this comprised the previously unreleased Border 5, made to segue into the upcoming GitS: The New Movie (released 20th June 2015, six days following the end of Alternative Architecture’s broadcast), which was designed to conclude the story begun in Border 1.

What didn’t help was Alternative Architecture’s bizarre structure. For no good story reason whatsoever, the TV broadcast confusingly began with Border 4, before jumping back to Borders 1, 2, and 3, and concluding with Border 5. While Borders 1&2 and Borders 3&4 were packaged together respectively over two volumes on Western DVD and blu-ray, Border 5 never received an official release in the West until many years later, long after The New Movie released here. Therefore, while Borders 1–4 and The New Movie were all dubbed into English, and made available on physical media, Border 5 is a streaming exclusive and exists as sub-only. You can buy Border 5 on its own on very expensive Japanese blu-ray, or, oddly, on German blu-ray, but without English subtitles. What a mess. At least now everything is available to stream on Crunchyroll, though the service hardly makes any effort to clarify the proper watch order.

Arise is chiefly written by Tow Ubukata, who previously wrote the idiosyncratic Mardock Scramble film trilogy, and after Arise would continue to work for Production I.G, first with 2014's poorly-received Psycho-pass 2, returning in 2019 with the far superior Psycho-pass 3 and later both Psycho-pass First Inspector and Providence films, both of which are excellent. Considering Providence is more like a Ghost in the Shell movie than a standard Psycho-pass story, it’s clear the guy likes his violent cyberpunk stuff.

While Ubukata wrote Borders 1–4 and The New Movie, writing duties for Border 5 were delegated to Junichi Fujisaku who previously provided three scripts for SAC 2nd Gig, and also wrote Arise’s 7-volume tie-in manga, ~Sleepless Eye~. (After a long time of English unavailability, this manga is now available to read — in the US only — on Kodansha’s K-Manga app.) Fujisaku also wrote three novels set in the Stand Alone Complex universe (published in English by Dark Horse), and is currently scripting the manga The Ghost in the Shell: The Human Algorithm, the first four volumes of which are published in print in English by Kodansha. I intend to review all of these novels and manga eventually.

The main premise of Arise is that it’s a prequel — though perhaps not necessarily a prequel to any existing continuity, which frustrates me. This is often an issue with Shirow’s works — take a look at both Dominion and Appleseed, both of which have multiple manga and anime continuities, all contradicting the others. Would it kill someone to have some consistency here? Although Arise is set in 2027, only three years prior to the events of SAC’s first season, multiple aspects of Arise’s story contradict elements established in SAC — especially regarding main protagonist Motoko Kusanagi’s origins, while almost everything else could have neatly fit into SAC’s continuity. I guess it’s not a huge gripe, but it still irks me.

Border 1: Ghost Pain

New Port City, bathed in the red of the setting sun.

We start with Major Motoko Kusanagi working for the 501 Organisation, which appears to have ties to the Japanese military. Kusanagi works under the somewhat suspicious Lieutenant Colonel Kurutsu/Kurtz (that’s a suspicious name, Heart of Darkness fans). Interestingly, the fact that Kusanagi’s extremely expensive prosthetic body is government property is a central plot point here — if she wants to continue to live, she must serve her masters in perpetuity. Even her personal funds are tightly controlled, she has zero freedom.

It’s certainly a choice to leave your blouse unbuttoned to that degree. Guess this is where the Major picked up her later dress sense from, then?

In this continuity, Kusanagi was cyberised from birth — her parents died while her mother was pregnant with her, only her brain was salvageable, so she was immediately placed in a cybernetic body as a neonate. Kusanagi has never known what it means to have an organic human body, though still sometimes experiences phantoms pains in limbs she has never had. Her life in an artificial body has given her an affinity for technology, the digital world, and for hacking.

Kusunagi in a younger-looking prosthetic body.

Unusually, we see Kusanagi in a much more vulnerable light than her almost omnipotently competent older SAC self. Her nature as a predominantly cybernetic human is used against her as she’s implanted with false memories and framed for a crime she didn’t commit. Her realisation that her past is illusory and her current reality is a lie comes during a chilling and disconcerting scene, and the sequence where she has her fake memories of a loving family erased is quietly tragic.

Aramaki before his hair turns white with stress.

Also introduced in this episode is Daisuke Aramaki with Public Security Section 9, but his hair hasn’t greyed yet. I wonder what the hell happens between 2027 and 2030 to turn every single hair on his head a shocking white? Must be the stress of working with Kusanagi… Although he hasn’t yet properly recruited her, taking on her services as a private, independent contractor. He offers her the chance to build a government-funded counter-terrorism team though…

Logicoma… basically the Tachikomas’ older, less advanced siblings.

Although fan-favourite little blue mechs the Tachikomas are absent, their apparent predecessors, the bulky red Logicomas, are. When Kusanagi meets one, it can’t even speak yet and uses signal lights to communicate. In a cute touch, she uploads them with voice synthesiser and language software. It’s her fault they all squeal excitedly like little girls. These guys’ main job is to carry weaponry and act as bodyguards — they don’t yet have pods for riders like their successors. Kusanagi rides hers constantly anyway, mainly by hanging on precariously to its outer handholds.

These mobile mines shaped like little girls are creepy as hell.

This is a decent enough opener with a fairly intriguing central mystery, and we’re introduced to younger versions of Batou, Togusa and Pazu. The Major herself looks a lot younger and instead of her traditional purple hair she’s sporting a bright blue shade, in a shorter, almost childlike style. Her body’s proportions are more adolescent too, and the camera unfortunately tends to focus a lot on her butt. The other characters look more or less the same though, and their personalities are unchanged. Batou and Kusanagi obviously know one another, and have something of a combative rivalry, while Kusanagi has been secretly feeding police officer Togusa information on his investigation, because it aligns with her interests. Kusanagi already has fingers in many pies…

Border 2: Ghost Whispers

Never trust a CIA agent in the GitS universe.

With Border 2, Arise starts to address similar international politics as covered in 2nd Gig. At least in this continuity, the world’s backstory is the same — Japan’s economy is emerging as a technological superpower following a nuclear world war 3 and a non-nuclear world war 4. The last war between Europe and Asia only ended within the last couple of years, people are still coming to terms with the new world order, governments are trying to make reparations for war crimes by prosecuting those guilty of atrocities. Japanese forces were deployed to the fictional central Asian country of “Qhardistan” (no prizes for guessing this is a thinly-disguised alias for Afghanistan), and General Kazuya Soga is being tried for executing refugees. Soga and his allies hijack Japan’s traffic control AI system and bring havoc to the country. Their aim is to use the computing power of the AI system to decrypt secret government date repository “Pandora’s Box” and flood the net with evidence of Soga’s innocence.

Major and Logicoma lounge around in a weirdly underwater cyberspace setting.

This leads to many scenes of traffic chaos, with the Major and her Logicoma traversing dangerous freeways while fighting off enemies. Unfortunately some of those enemies are future compatriots Batou, Ishikawa and Borma, who are working for Soga’s group. Kusanagi already has Pazu on her side, and forcibly recruits a rather indolent Saito to snipe for her. Once more there’s an instance of memory alteration, by what seems to be the same “Stuxnet type” virus that infected the Major and her deceased commanding officer in the previous episode.

The central car chase/gunfight sequence is a definite highlight.

Border 2 is heavy on action, and I admit that when I first watched it I felt my attention wandering. It is redeemed by a couple of cool twists towards the end, one including a somewhat unexpectedly autonomous and embodied AI — I didn’t think those had yet been developed at this point in GitS’ world, preceding the movie and manga’s Puppeteer/Puppet Master by two or three years. Anyway, this plot point is discarded completely within moments and isn’t dwelt upon, which is frustrating.

Major Kusanagi vs oversized metal monstrosities: who do you think wins?

The animation is incredibly slick, with some well-integrated CG for vehicles and action. While SAC used quite decent CG for its time for its cars and helicopters etc, it looks more impressive here. Kusanagi gets to battle some large mechs with the help of her Logicoma. I really love the chunky designs of those not-so-little red guys, and their squeaky chatter do help to leaven the otherwise mostly serious and po-faced story. There are flashes of humour here and there, but without the fully-assembled ensemble of SAC, and the established relationships between the Section 9 members, it feels like there’s something missing here. It doesn’t feel right for Kusanagi and Batou to be on opposing sides, even if there is a mind-altering virus in the mix. At least at the end of this episode, Kusanagi has (using some dirty tricks) assembled five of her mandated six-man team of suboordinates.

Border 3: Ghost Tears

Kusanagi and Akira seem to mainly get intimate Demolition Man style — ie virtually.

In which The Major gets a boyfriend. This isn’t completely new — she has a boyfriend in at least a couple of chapters of the original manga, but I think this is the first time we’ve seen her in such a relationship in any of the anime. Obviously the relationship is doomed, because boyfriend dude Akira Hose has some rather shady friends. He makes expensive prosthetic limbs for rich people. At one point he and Kusanagi attend a wedding together — the newly married couples are both in their seventies, enjoying a new lease of life in prosthetic bodies, and apparently the wife is pregnant…? The enticing idea that (rich) human life may be extendable indefinitely due to technology is ripe for further exploration, as are the sociological implications of a divide between rich and poor, but here it’s just a footnote… Sigh.

We learn almost nothing about Hozumi, including why she looks the way she does.

There’s further reference to “Qhardistan”, and it appears that Major Kusanagi herself was involved in the conflict there during the last war, perhaps even as “Scylla”, leader of the separatist army… We’re introduced to the Qhardi citizen Dr Thied who works with Harimada Heavy Industries, providing purified water for the manufacture of human prosthetics. There’s some kind of conspiracy involving the memory-altering “Fire Starter” virus, Kusanagi’s former boss Kurutsu, a creepy cybernetic head-wearing Colonel Hozumi, Kusanagi’s boyfriend Akira, Dr Thied, and a strange red-haired girl. I initially thought Kurusu and Hozumi might turn out to be the same person, considering their similar roles in the story, but it turns out they aren’t.

This doll-like girl will be important later… I still don’t understand why she was in Kurutsu’s car though.

Due to the complexity of the backstory and the number of involved parties, it was at this point that I kind of tuned out of the overall plot. It’s hard to know what’s going on and why, and Arise doesn’t make it easy to follow. There’s so much subterfuge, double-crossing, and deliberate plot obfuscation that I really felt I was just along for the ride. Despite SAC’s complexity, I at least felt I had a chance of guessing what was going on. Arise’s plot so far has lost me, and that’s even after watching it through twice. There are some cool concepts though, especially the scene where the Major rushes to confront her virus-controlled boyfriend as the new prosthetic legs he gave her begin to set alight as they threaten to explode. His final sacrifice is noble and tragic.

The moment Togusa learns he’s become a dad!

It’s nice that Togusa finally officially joins Kusanagi’s independent team, though she’s blindsided by the fact he’s married, plus his wife has just given birth. Poor Togusa gets nothing but grief from his team-mates for being mostly organic, for his choice of weapons etc. Kusanagi knows that a fully organic human being is an asset to her cyborg-heavy team, though, as he offers a unique point of view. And Togusa’s investigative instincts have impressed her on several occasions. (It’s a shame the later SAC_2045 shits all over that cocept.)

Border 4: Ghost Stands Alone

Police officers executing each other, festive style.

It’s now Winter 2028, and GitS: Arise decides to do a cheery festive episode where terrorists control armed police officers to slaughter crowds of civilians. Merry Christmas, everyone! It’s getting hard to tell if any of the antagonist characters are acting of their own volition, or if they’re controlled by the “Fire Starter” virus. I suppose that’s the point, but it does make the threat rather nebulous. Once again the Qhardi’s are blamed for this, though this plot point fizzles out, never to be mentioned again. Kusanagi gets to play with her beloved thermopto-camouflage and assassinate the publicly ranting corporate spokeswoman Thied. I’m unsure if she did this because she was hacked again, or if it was something she intended to do? I felt Thied’s character was undeveloped, I never really got a handle on what she was up to. Was she also hacked? Perhaps she was just another puppet?

Uh-oh. Silly Togusa gets hacked and starts using his gun like a cellphone.

Kusanagi apprehends Emma, the red-haired girl we glimpsed last episode, who appears to be another super-hacker, though in fact she harbours two “ghosts” in her head, but her original ghost may have been destroyed by “dubbing”. There’s an interesting parallel here between Emma and the 501 organisation’s robotic-like cyber-doctor Tsumugi, who has a set of conjoined twins’ cyberbrains in his head. I never realised on my first watch through that he speaks with two separate voices and converses with himself. I may be a bit dumb.

The overt Wizard of Oz references are kind of cool but honestly don’t really lead anywhere particularly interesting.

Once more the actual plot of this episode is overly complicated, with conflicts between multiple organisations like Kurutsu’s 501, whoever Colonel Hozumi represents, plus Emma (and the “scarecrow” guy Brinda Jnr) in her head, and the Major’s team. Then there’s this whole Fire Starter virus thing. I get it’s meant to be a mystery where it came from, but why is everyone so keen to use it? What benefit is it to spread such a chaotic virus that causes false memories and indiscriminate violence? What was the point of the Christmas Massacre at the start of the episode, other than edginess? I don’t know. The episode looks great, of course, but the story gives me little of the satisfaction I got from watching and understanding SAC’s complicated but understandable stories.

Border 5: Pyrophoric Cult

Kurutsu’s up to no good… for some reason, it’s not completely clear.

Now onto the last of the episodes before the concluding movie, and the only installment not written by Tow Ubukata. Does that mean this is an afterthought? Is it really necessary to understand the story? I’ve watched it twice now, and… I don’t know. It does conclude Colonel Hozumi’s story, now that she’s a disembodied cybernetic head, who is amusingly abused by being shot at, stuffed into a case, and thrown around like luggage.

I like pretty colours. Do I understand what the hell is going on? Not really. But pretty colours are maybe all I need now.

The main antagonist in this final installment is the “Fire Starter broker”, dubbed “Pyromaniac”. He’s targeting Hozumi’s head and causes all manner of chaos. There’s a fair amount of running around and some cool, colourful scenes of cyber hacking. In the end this is a fairly inconsequential installment that doesn’t add a whole lot other than Kurutsu smirking that she got what she wanted at last, as she is predictably, somehow, the brains behind whatever the hell plot this show has been lumpenly staggering towards completing. Pyromaniac’s just another puppet with false memories, like just about everyone else, apparently. That twist’s been overdone in this series.

Kusanagi kicks virtual ass.

I guess I can see why it wasn’t a massive issue this wasn’t released widely. I’m glad I’ve seen it, but it adds very little to the previous four episodes, and I think the subsequent film is intelligible without it. Some minor plot threads are ironed out, that’s true, and it remains as shiny and slick as ever. It’s by no means worth shelling out the asking price for the JP blu-ray.

Overall, I have mixed feelings about GitS: Arise. It’s an overly complicated story that’s told with little finesse or clarity, yet it has some excellent moments, and at times looks spectacular, if a little cartoony. It overuses certain tropes such as the memory virus, and the constant wink-wink nudge-nudge of the “will Major Kusanagi join Section 9 or won’t she?” gets irritating. By the end of these five hour-long films, we’ve still not reached the status quo of the rest of the franchise. That seems to warrant an entire other 100 minute movie’s worth of time.

Another thing I take issue with is the music. The entire soundtrack, including openers and enders is by Japanese pop musician Cornelius. I’ve enjoyed Cornelius’ music for a long time (I saw him live in 2002 at the T in the Park music festival in Scotland, promoting his “Point” album, which I subsequently purchased), however I feel he was a poor choice here. Some of his incidental music is very good with throbbing, urgent electronica vibes setting the mood adequately, but his themes, especially the opener for Borders 1–4, are just too languid. Compared to Yoko Kanno’s godly SAC anthems, Cornelius’ tunes sound shapeless, unexciting, and dull.

Major Kusanagi with her fully assembled team. Took her long enough.

Main writer Tow Ubukata does an admirable job of attempting to step into predecessor Kenji Kamiyama’s shoe, but comes up short. His central, labyrinthine plot is hard to follow, and the direction and characterisation lack the spark of SAC’s. I was never bored with SAC, yet during most of Arise’s extended episodes I found my attention frequently wandering. I was excited to recently revisit the entirety of SAC. I can’t ever see myself willingly returning to experience Arise ever again. It feels like ersatz GitS to me, a cut-price knockoff that lacks soul. A ghostless shell, if you will.

Anyway, I’ll be back again soon to cover The New Movie, which wraps up Arise’s garbled storyline.

Ghost in the Shell: Arise
Directed by: Kazuchika Kise, Masahiko Murata, Atsushi Takeuchi, Susumu Kudou
Screenplay by: Tow Ubukata (1–4), Junichi Fujisaku (5)
Based on the manga by: Masamune Shirow
Music by: Cornelius
Studio: Production I.G.
JP Theatrical release: 22nd July 2013–26th Aug 2015
JP TV broadcast: 5th April 2015–14th June 2015
UK DVD release: 24th Nov 2014 (Borders 1&2), 30th Nov 2015 (Borders 3&4)
UK DVD/blu-ray distributor: Manga Entertainment
US/UK Streaming: Crunchyroll
Languages: Japanese audio with English subtitles, English audio
Runtime: 109 mins (Borders 1&2), 112 mins (Borders 3&4), 46 mins (Border 5)
BBFC rating: 15

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex Episodes 1–13 review

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex Episodes 14–26 Review

Ghost in the Shell: SAC 2nd Gig Episodes 1–13 Review

Ghost in the Shell: SAC 2nd Gig Episodes 14–26 Review

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex: Solid State Society Review

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