Monday, December 7, 2015

Ghost in the Shell: Arise Part 1

Border 1-Ghost Pain
Newport City, 2027AD.  Major Motoko Kusinagi returns home from an assignment only to learn that her unit leader and mentor has been murdered.  Determined to find the killer, Motoko begins her own investigation, leading her into a labyrinth of deceit, lies and false memories.  It is an age when the line between man and machines has begun to blur.  But what happens when the line between reality and illusion begins to merge as well?  What awaits Motoko at the end of this case is a hard truth that will set her free.  And along the way, she will cross paths with a Public Security officer named Aramaki, a man who is destined to change Motoko’s life forever.

Ghost in the Shell Arise, or as I tend to think of it, Section 9 Begins.  This is a brand new take on the GITS mythos, looking back at the origins of our favorite band of cyber cops and how they all came to work together at Section 9.  This is a totally separate iteration from the early 2000’s Stand Alone Complex saga, much like that series was separate from the Oshii movies, so hope that avoids some confusion looking at this series.

So yes, the is the beginning and it’s an area we haven’t really seen much of in this franchise.  Normally we come in with Section 9 already together and doing their thing.  That being said, it was fun seeing the casts first interactions together.  Motoko slowly pulling in outside help on her case from familiar, if differently designed, faces offered a lot of smiles.  I’m really happy mostly with Paz’s depiction here.  This is an area I think is improved greatly over Stand Alone Complex.  Paz has more backstory, personality and moments to shine in Episode 1 alone than he had in the entirety of SAC.  So hopefully a couple other characters I found a bit lack in that incarnation can get the same treatment when they eventually come on board.  It is a little strange yet chuckle worthy to see Aramaki handle himself in a fight with a remote control puppet.  It’s also almost strange to see Motoko and Batou pointing guns at each other and theyre NOT on the same side.  Guess this becomes a bit of an in joke between them when we see this traditional moment in later stories.

This is still Motoko’s show and I loved this take on her.  Not only is her Akira costume design really cool and hot but this is far from the Motoko we’ve seen before: younger and uncertain but still a sure fired hot head and no nonsense taker like we know her to be.  The Mamuro mystery is a great occasion to show Motoko not at her lowest but at her most disadvantaged.  Her mind is being warped and she cant figure out even her own past or her phantom pain because of it.  I enjoy stories like this if only because characters become so much stronger once they’ve conquered their greatest trials.  And man does Motoko ever get put through the ringer.  I get that she’s a cyborg and cant really feel much pain if she doesn’t want to.  But still, some of the blows she takes in this premiere episode look like they hurt, a lot.  I’m not certain how close to the source material her “birth” actually is since I never read the manga and it could divide fans, knowing how Motoko came to be.  Still, the concept of Motoko coming into the world is fascinating to me and I wonder what others will think of.

Animation wise, this series looks pretty good.  It gets a little wonky in some of the fight scenes, some characters looking a bit cartoony and wobbly in their movements.  The quality of animation Production IG puts into it’s other Ghost in the Shell entries is still there though.  The soundtrack well…I’ll be honest I still think Yoko Kanno’s ground breaking score for Stand Alone Complex cannot be topped.  The music for Arise is more technological than Kanno’s techno punk meets classical fusion.  It adds a more cyberized feel to the world of Arise.  It’s not bad but it’s not Stand Alone Complex either.

One episode in and I’m sold.  There’s more to keep viewers interested as Motoko goes her own way, supposedly to start the building of her team.  And we haven’t even seen Ishikawa and Borma yet so we have their appearance to look forward to.  So far though, Ghost in the Shell Arise is a nice new take on a franchise I enjoy and is treating it just as right as all the others.

See you next week for Border 2-Ghost Whispers.

Special Note:
Though I decided to run with Ghost in the Shell Arise for the December final feature, a snag is still in effect.  I have access to the first three episodes of the series (Part 1 and 2 on Blu Ray and Part 3 on Netflix).  I am assuming I’ll have Part 4 by Xmas but I don’t want to run the risk that I might now.  I’ll look into it but if worst comes to worse, I have a potential compromise worked out and I’ll share that in an extra note at the end of Border 2 if it comes to that.  Til then…

 

No comments:

Post a Comment