Watched Ghost in the Shell: Arise Part One. I recently grabbed parts three and four at the library, so wanted to watch it all again. It’s set about two years before the 1995 film and, among other things, tells the story of how Major Motoko got her Shell team together. In this first instalment, where she’s out to prove the innocence of her dead commander, she encounters Paz, Batou and Togusa. The scene where they get together in a warehouse of cyber spiderwomen/bombs that are out to kill them is a highlight. We also get an early version of the Tachikomas, called Logicomas. I’m looking forward to re-watching the rest of this fabulous series. Also, bonus points for the awesome music by Cornelius.
Watched GITS Arise Part Two. Called Ghost Whispers, Motoko goes head to head with Batou, Ishikawa and Borma, who she will soon recruit for her team. At the moment, they’re enemies working for different bosses. She tries to recruit Saito the sniper, but he quickly changes his allegiances when the other side ‘sweeten the pot’. There’s a rather disturbing detail about refugees who turn out to be terrorists that’s way too close to that awful racist anti-Arab film The Siege. Great scene on the highway with Motoko and the Logicoma battling Batou and his gang. By episode’s end, Motoko has most of her shell group in place. All that’s missing is Togusa, who’s not seen at all in this ep.
Watched GITS Arise Part Three. A crucial episode in Motoko’s development featuring a phantom terrorist bomber. She takes a lover and experiences her body as a physical thing. We get to see her in a curvy cocktail dress and sporting lipstick for a party scene. Batou makes a comment about the dress and gets punched in the face with his own fist for the effort (coz she can bypass his network and control him). Always a comedy classic. Togusa joins the team, and Borma gets a nice moment figuring out how the bomber does his thing. The scene where he and Paz throw the hapless guard, who has the bomb in one of his prosthetics, down an elevator shaft is a classic. Of course the lover betrays Kusanagi and kills himself in the end. The course of true love never was smooth. Especially in Motoko’s world.
Watched GITS Arise part three again, because it’s too dense for just one viewing. I still can’t work out half of it. And how many times have I watched this? Heaps, but I keep coming back because it’s so damn cool. The ending is classic, with Motoko offering Togusa a job with Section 9, but his wife’s water’s just broke and he’s off to attend the birth, surprising the hell out of Kusanagi. Operatives in her line of work aren’t supposed to be married – and they sure shouldn’t have kids.
Watched GITS Arise part four, called Ghost Stands Alone. With Togusa in place, the team have all come together. Starts with a dramatic Christmas Eve mass extermination of protestors, and an opto-camouflaged Kusanagi killing the speaker at the nearby function that is the cause of the protests. Kusanagi and her team are then tasked with escorting the suspected cause of the extermination – a young girl, the only survivor – to an installation for analysis and/or dissection. Turns out there’s not one, but two ghosts inside her shell, both sharing a Wizard of Oz mental aesthetic (the girl is Dorothy, the man is the Tinman), and they escape. I loved the fact that Batou didn’t have a clue about the Wizard of Oz reference. Dorothy and the Tinman almost reach their Oz along a cyberized yellow brick road but are blown up at the last minute – and Motoko with them, but she’s saved by Batou. An explosive ending to another great instalment in the franchise. The team are up and running and we’re ready for the first film.