Production Studio: Production I.G
Staff:
Chief Director: Kazuchika Kise
Director: Atsushi Takeuchi, Masahiko Murata
Series Composition: Tow Ubukata
Screenplay: Tow Ubukata
Storyboard: Masahiko Murata, Shunsuke Tada
Music: Cornelius
Original creator: Masamune Shirow
Character Design: Kazuchika Kise
Art Director: Takaaki Mashiki, Yusuke Takeda
Animation Director: Takuya Saito, Tetsuya Nishio
Mechanical design: Takayuki Yanase
3D Director: Eiji Inomoto
Sound Director: Yoshikazu Iwanami
Director of Photography: Koji Tanaka
Art Setting: Hiroshi Kato, Naoki Arakawa
Editing: Junichi Uematsu
VA staff Sub
Kenichirou Matsuda as Batou
Maaya Sakamoto as Kusanagi Motoko
Tarusuke Shingaki as Togusa
-----------------------------------------o0o-----------------------------------------
Ghost in the Shell ARISE was an anime by Production I.G responsible for the works such as Patlabor and the Ghost in the Shell series, The End of Evangelion, Blood: The Last Vampire, Blood+, xxxHolic, and FLCL and the recently reviewed Momo e no Tegami.
The story followed the major in the years before she joined Section 9 and follow her attempts to clear the name of her mentor from a mass conspiracy. The story was all I expected and more as it showed the creativity of Stand Alone Complex in the amazing high definition it deserved.
The animation was a testimony to its predecessor giving a modernised styling to classic character designs gave this movie a nostalgic feel. The backgrounds and action scenes were extremely well choreographed with the fluid motions of each character within the scene left me wanting more.
As the OVA was designed to be a boost for a lot of characters to be developed in more depth I cannot complain as its purpose was achieved flawlessly with amazing character portraits dealing into their psyche and sanity along with several realisations left you connected with the characters in a way Stand Alone Complex did not achieve and that was to the creators benefit.
The music to me was a massive part of ARISE with the Intro for Border 1: Ghost Pain by Keigo Oyamada being a catchy mix of techno and vocals to be the most simple song but brilliant at the same time. Other than Ghost Pain some other notable tracks included the song for the Closing for Border 1: Ghost Painじぶんがいない” being the most notable the rest were good but nowhere near as catchy as the Intro and the Closing
In summary the anime was a refreshing reboot to the franchise and if you can get past the constant Microsoft Surface shout outs as blatant advertising the anime is for the large majority of anime fans as it is a testimony to the creativity of Production I.G. and their full potential all this left me awarding Ghost in the Shell ARISE with the following scores
Story
|
7.1/10
|
Characters
|
8.1/10
|
Animation
|
8.6/10
|
Sound
|
7.9/10
|
Personal Enjoyment
|
8.7/10
|
Final Verdict
|
8.1/10
|
Leaving ARISE with a respectable 8.1/10 and a recommendation to buy when released if you enjoy the original series with a recommendation for Serial Experiments Lain and Evangelion if you enjoyed the OVA
~Ota~
