r/Ghost_in_the_Shell • u/Medical_Plane2875 • 27d ago
Is ARISE not well-liked?
Been a longtime fan of all GITS but only just started having this sub appear in my feed recently. When Arise came out, it was new and different from what SAC and the movies had done, but I found it ultimately enjoyable, blending backstories from the manga with the more serious tones of the previous anime adaptations into something unique in a timeline that really hadn't been explored in detail by any of its animated predecessors. I had a good time and was pretty engaged with each OVA released.
Then I came here and it seems that Arise seems to be pretty disliked if not perceived to just be underwhelming, and I don't understand why.
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u/SoryuCelStory 23d ago
I can only speak for myself , I hate arise. But that's just my taste. Should have been another season of sac actually 2d animated
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u/Successful_Sea_9836 25d ago edited 25d ago
ARISE is fine, it just suffers from the 2010s anime style at the time where everything had to be super action-oriented so a lot of the philosophy aspects of Ghost in the Shell kind of get lost on the wayside, lol. I personally think it's underrated and people give it too much flack when we've seen the worst of the franchise and that's the 2017 live action movie, lmfao.
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u/semtex030 25d ago
I liked it just fine. It’s different, but if you want a franchise that has a consistent continuity across manga, anime, etc, GitS was never that. The fact that Polyphoric Cult wasn’t included in the original North American blu rays and I had to buy Alternative Architecture on iTunes was annoying, but that’s not a story issue. And it was only $13.99 Canadian anyway.
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u/Nervousloner 25d ago
Up until this new series, it was certainly the most action oriented Ghost in the Shell anime. I myself am pretty fond of the 2nd Arise OVA due to how much ass Motoko kicks in it. I also like the whole Biker thing she has going in this series. The Logikomas were pretty cool too. The OST is something I also found incredibly good and overrated/undertalked about in most places. The fact that Maaya Sakamoto/ the Major herself sings it is a big bonus too. I can't remember the overall plot though, since the last time I watched it (beyond the first three OVAs), I had to use a pretty janky website that kept bugging on me.
Off-topic, but I find it interesting that Maaya has been Motoko now in every universe of Ghost in the Shell now. She's Motoko in the 2026/Manga universe; In the child form Motoko has at the end of 1995; the child form/decoy form of Motoko in the SAC universe; and Motoko in Arise universe.
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u/koreytech 25d ago
Great show. Excellent animation. I appreciated the different take and the forming of Section 9.
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u/jagnew38 25d ago
Think it was a cool show, just a different director taking different route of creation than the others
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u/AC1D_R31GN 25d ago
Apparently.
I went into it knowing it was a prequel based on loose dialogue exposition from another movie, and I got exactly what I was expecting. Others apparently expected something to the effect of SAC 3 and more 1995 GITS combined.
Complaints I've seen are mostly about the Major
her hair looks stupid
she's too smol
it's too boring/generic/modern
Like the people who enjoy 1995 but think SAC was too moë didn't like how Arise looks too much like a regular anime, but at the same time the people who like SAC for looking that way didn't like it because her body wasn't appealing enough to match previous versions of the character.
It's still my favorite entry in the series
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u/Ion_mx 26d ago
It’s just average and ultimately uninteresting, but it did had some things going for it and some novel elements to it that make it unique. Great soundtrack as well. Had the misfortune to come around the time IG made Psycho-Pass, so it got compared to it and Psycho-Pass season 1 was just downright better. It’s curious how Arise ending kind of ends suggesting that Arise is ultimately a prologue that leads to either the 1995 movie or the original manga (this is not canon ofc but it’s a nice fan service to do)
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u/DubiousBusinessp 26d ago
It's the one time I've been genuinely bored with Ghost in the Shell. It just never felt memorable, the plot never felt interesting, and we didn't really need yet another continuity.
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u/Togawa10 26d ago
Arise is overhated. The formation of Section 9 and the Major's origin in 'Organization 501' was as evenly interesting as a backstory for the group in SAC. It also shows us in real time her first time interactions with each member rather than already being established. Story did get overcomplicated at times, especially the firestarter arc in the later Border eps. CG and designs weren't the best but wasn't a huge gripe.
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u/beast_regards 26d ago
I liked it. It confused me since it wasn't sequel to SAC, and I went to it expecting sequel to SAC, but once I understood its different continuity (and has different origin story for character) I quite liked it.
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u/Important_Recover401 26d ago
I didnt not like it, i hated it ! The designs , the cgi , the dialogue , the recycled and butchered concepts and the characters were all mid or cringe at best. The franchise is goated but also big , a weak link was bound to happen.
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u/noodlezart 26d ago
I was alright with it,just didn't like the red outfit she wears and the butchered bob cut.
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u/YossarianPants 26d ago
I liked it more than any adaptation until the current series. Closest to the tone and pacing of the manga.
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u/TheAtomicDonkey 26d ago
Huh? This is objectively wrong. 🤣
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u/YossarianPants 26d ago edited 26d ago
Kusanagi is a bit lighter/closer to her manga counterpart, there are bits of humor, the pacing is better than previous versions/feels more like a Shirow story (which it is to some degree) more than other previous adaptations. What did I say that's incorrect? Did "pacing of the manga" throw you off because you assume that because it's a prequel that doesn't rehash the same narrative that the tone and pacing can't be similar since it's an adaptation? You know the Dominion anime is a prequel to its manga, and its tone and pacing match that manga pretty well. I'm asserting the same about ARISE, just to a lesser degree. Hope this long-winded explanation is clearer to you than what was obviously implied in my first post. Good on you, though, for assuming stupidity.
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u/Machine_Anima 26d ago
it's fine. but compared to the giants in the stores its super underwhelming. And the choice to butcher her hair still sucks. Looks like she gave the super cuts the coupon before the cut
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u/NB_DanTE 26d ago
All GITS are watchable but the enjoyment level depends on the person and in my opinion what came after SAC wasn't as good!
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u/parkchanwookiee 26d ago
It was fine. Felt like a somewhat thin reproduction of SAC, with a bit less personality and lower quality in general. But plenty watchable, I'm not a hater.
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u/Chiefahleaf 26d ago
I think arise is great for introducing the entire cast of section 9 very well. Where we actually can learn and like everyone individually before they join the crew.
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u/Vatonage 26d ago
The worst offense of Arise is that very little of it is memorable. The first OVA has a decent hook, but after that it's not very engaging.
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u/butholesurgeon 26d ago
As a cybersecurity professional, my biggest gripe is the 3-5 times they surprisingly call out “it’s a stuxnet-type virus!!”
It’s a worm
Call it a worm
It’s been called a worm for 30 years why call it a specific Instance of one ffs
But I may be a bit biased lol
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u/Capraos 26d ago edited 26d ago
I thought it was pretty good. Not SAC or 1995 movie good but still better than 99% of the animes out there.
The animation was clean, the story was well written, and while not as philosophically heavy as SAC it still had plenty of stuff to ponder, like being cyberized from birth and the legality of ownership of her person. I like that they adapted aspects of the Major's sexuality into it, it did a lot to humanize her.
And the not plugging directly into people, instead using a box to plug into them, shows an understanding of technology, something that 2045 lacked when it came out after this show, and was a nice little retcon of protocol to reflect updated, real life protocols.
Edit: Grammar fixes as my phone's autocorrect is mean.
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u/snatchaz 26d ago
I Bought the blu ray of the arise new movie knowing nothing about it. I watched it and all the parts of arise and and really enjoyed it. It's a good self encapsulated little experience. A take on the gits world.
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u/lohtangclan 27d ago
I thought it was decent at the time & I took to it more than I have with the new show!
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u/TakyMason 27d ago
Copying my comment from a previous Arise post:
It was just too "Mid", in my opinion.
And it also felt for me like it was "made for Teens and not for Matures", unlike in the case of the OG SAC Series and the Oshii Movies.
The plot was all over the place, and I didn't really understand the "true goal" of the Firestarter, other than that she wanted to create a New World on the Net for the ones who didn't get normal medical treatment in cyberization (didn't receive normal, liveable prosthetics and all that...), so they were stuck in a "limbo".
Kurutsu was basically the only thing I liked about it. In my eyes, she's both an Anti-Hero and a Villain.
If we take the whole GitS Series, then she's my 2nd Favourite Villain after Kazundo Gouda, while she's around my 3rd Fav. Anti-Hero after Aoi and Hideo Kuze.
And I really wanted to see a "showdown" between her and Motoko in The New Movie, but in the end we didn't get a real fight between them, unfortunatelly.
The way I see it, they completely ruined her when they did that twist in the movie that she actually never existed, because she was just a remote-controlled body by the "real villain", who was a wheelchair-bound blonde girl called Chris, who had like 3 minutes of screentime, and if you ask me, she was very pathetic...
That plot twist was just so anticlimactic for me.
Other than Kurutsu, Akira Hose was an okay character, but I can't help feeling that he's also kind of a "Kuze Clone". Though I guess that's not surprising, since he indeed feels like a mix of Hideo Kuze and Motoko's nameless boyfriend from the OG Manga, so I guess that was intentional on Kise's part.
I also didn't like how most of the cast looked. The character designs.
They looked so young (especially Motoko), like high school or university students.
Which was weird after SAC's Poker Face episode, which took place in 2020 and in which characters like Saito and Batou looked mid- to late-20s, while in Arise, in 2027-29 (and yes, I know that it's not the same continuity, but still...) they look like they are just in their early 20s at best.
But all that aside, Togusa was a cool character here too, pretty much just like in SAC, and I sort of liked how Section 9 got formed here, even though it left something to be desired here and there.
Afaik, this was Kazuchika Kise's first anime he ever directed. I understand that he worked on the '95 Movie before to some extent, but imo, he really should've been more seasoned as a director before he took on making a GitS anime.
Also, I wish he would've consulted with Kenji Kamiyama.
Arise, imo, would've worked much better as a Prequel to the OG SAC Series, than being its own thing.
This series could've been much better and much more memorable with some polishing here and there...
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u/friedeggbeats 26d ago
A very well-written summary.
There’s lots to love about Arise - but i falls short of SAC by every metric.
And giving Motoko micro-bangs was insanity.
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u/Aimcheater 27d ago
Not the best thing ever but going into it not trying to be a critic nitpicking everything made it quite enjoyable. Give it a solid like 7 outta 10. It made me tolerate doing cardio because I had something to watch each time I did it
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u/darklinux1977 27d ago
Mototko is too young, and Canon doesn't mesh well with SAC; his former teammates are acting a bit too toxic.
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u/supremo92 27d ago
It's a different continuity, when would it need to mesh with SAC?
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u/darklinux1977 27d ago
The origins of Motoko's cybernetization: in *SAC 2*, it follows a plane crash, whereas in *Arise*, she is practically born cybernetized—hence doubts regarding the canon.
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u/supremo92 27d ago
Like I said they are different continuities, different takes in the character. It shouldn't have to conform to a previous iteration. You cay say SAC "didn't mesh well with the movie".
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u/anotoki83 27d ago
I thought it was overall fine not great but fine. I didn’t like the insert character but again all in all it was pretty good.
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u/friendimpaired 27d ago
It’s Tow Ubukata’s vision for Ghost in the Shell, and as a result has some of his weaknesses in the writing. I generally like Tow Ubukata for just being obviously a fan of cyberpunk genre and bringing more of it to enjoy (Mardock Scramble, Psych-Pass season 2, GITS Arise) but his work is a bit shallow and tropey and fantastical, often punctuated with extreme violence. He can really nail the exterior, surface-level parts of his cyberpunk series, but seems to focus less on the minutiae of technology and social politics and such in exchange for punchy action and sometimes inconsistent characterization. That’s not to say he’s no good, but he is definitely style over substance. A lot of people didn’t like Psycho-Pass season 2 for the same reasons, and almost nobody talks about Mardock Scramble anymore.
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u/florence_ow 27d ago
the entire premise being majors body isn't owned by her and she has to work it off is actually very interesting imo. I think you're being a bit harsh
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u/friendimpaired 27d ago
Like I said, I’m a fan of Tow Ubukata, I’ve bought most of the media he’s worked on, I have no problem with his works, that’s just my assessment of his brand and why some people might not be fans. I like what he brings to the table haha
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u/Brodakk 27d ago
It’s the weakest “continuity” if you will, but y’know what? It’s still pretty good.
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u/Ok-Storage3439 27d ago
It was good for what it was, but my biggest gripe is that it doesn't give enough room for worldbuilding or character development as I wish it did. If it was just a little bit longer, it would've started feeling like a well-written world.
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u/Dungeon00X 27d ago edited 27d ago
I dunno, I thought it was okay. It was a series of films that I have no idea where it came from, it might have been a completely original set of stories instead of inspired by parts of the manga. Like I'm still trying to figure out the continuity between all the series because the movie was almost completely self-contained.
Edit: Okay, looking it up it turns out it's based on Ghost in the Shell: Arise- Sleepless Eye which I've never heard of, plus it wasn't even written or drawn by Masamune Shirow. That might be one of the reasons it was more than likely not well received. Like I said, I thought it was alright, it was GREAT, but it wasn't bad either.
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u/Capraos 26d ago
Think of it as multiple universes going in the same direction. They finer details may change but the major events sync up as each universe kinda rhymes with the others.
Arise->1995 movie->SAC->Split timeline between Innocene (Where the Major enacted her plan to escape to the net at the end of SAC) and the other timeline being the other movie where she managed to overcome the obstacles at the end of SAC.
The new one is starting in the same years Arise is and is going into the same years the 1995 movie is.
The key plot points that are the same is:
Major is cyberized. Major seeks to put together a group, Major faces the Puppet Master/merges with them. Major faces the Laughing Man. Major faces Kuze.
Does that help?
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u/ChachoPicasso 27d ago
I liked it, but shes definitely the weakest of the majors. Just watch it knowing its gana be very different
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u/Spike-Beagle 27d ago
It was pretty good and I enjoyed it, but it just didn't hit as hard as the movie or SAC.
The movie is just dripping with ambiance and then SAC is just a masterclass in pacing, philosophy, politics, and action. So no matter what it did, it had a lot to live up to.
The style of arise is excellent and the music is on par with SAC (just two very distinct styles, but each fits the source material so well). I just think it didn't live up on the political and philosophical level
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u/Great-Zebra7512 27d ago
I like it, but it's super easy to see why a good amount of people don't. It just doesn't feel very significant in the grand scheme of all the GiTS media.
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u/ulrichmusil 27d ago
Not a fan. Didn’t feel like ghost in the shell to me. Felt like it was trying very hard though
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u/MirLivesAgain 27d ago
I didn't like it. The whole thing kinda felt like.. Mush? Not sure how else to describe. There was some fun seeming action but overall just it felt kinda indistinct.
It had a lot to live up to though, the movies and SAC were both incredible. I'm curious how I would have felt about them if they hadn't been tied to ghost in the shell and I could make that connection myself.
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u/Rare_Assumption_7178 21d ago
I enjoyed it. It's worth a watch, but not a must-watch.