Koukaku Kidoutai Arise: Alternative Architecture

What makes us human? A body made out of flesh and blood? Emotions? These are the kind of questions we ask ourselves when we look at the complex universe of Ghost in The Shell.
Ghost in the shell alternative architecture is a 10 episode series that covers a more condensed version of the 4 Arise Borders 1,2,3,4 movies plus a new story arc, each divided in 2 episodes.
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The Story: Section 9 solving different cases that involve cyberterrorism, ghost hacking and government corruption. Issues that are the main focus of the series.
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The Art: gorgeous to look at. A beautiful futuristic world full of color from the ... character design to the scenery everything looks amazing, bringing the world of Ghost in the Shell to life.
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The Sound: The sound quality is excellent. The music is amazing and fits the whole cyberpunk theme perfectly.
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Being a huge Ghost in the Shell fan and having already seen the 4 Arise movies I enjoyed this series a lot. This is a good recap of the 4 movies with a bonus extra story in the last 2 episodes that ties in with the new Ghost in the Shell movie released in 2015.

Warning: This series reprises the original Arise story (and adds one new story arc), but it does so out of order, starting with the conclusion! Don't watch this series until you've watched the original films, or else start the series with episodes 3-8, then watch episodes 1 and 2 (the original Arise conclusion), and then episodes 9 and 10 (the new content) followed by GitS: The New Movie (2015).

Now, some details: First off, GitS Arise: Alternative Architecture (or GitSA:AA) is a more-concise version of the four GitS: Arise movies, which basically focus on the creation of The Major's team (which eventually becomes the core ... of Public Security Section 9) plus an additional two episodes of new content at the end. But bizarrely, the first two episodes in the GitSA:AA series are the (trimmed-down) final Arise movie, Border 4: Ghost Stands Alone - in other words, the series starts with its climax, spoiling itself right from the start for people who haven't watched the movies yet. That disorder is the main reason for my low rating for GitSA:AA; my rating for the original Arise films is higher, as they are the same good story but presented in a sensible narrative order. GitSA:AA is an alternative architecture, all right: one that puts major components in the wrong places, resulting in the failure of the structure. (Insert collapsing-bridge image here.)

So if you haven't watched the four Arise movies yet, I'd strongly recommend watching them first, and then just watch GitSA:AA episodes 9 & 10 followed by GitS: The New Movie (2015). Or if you'd rather watch the abbreviated version of the story, start GitSA:AA with episodes 3-8, then watch episodes 1-2, and finally watch episodes 9-10. You'll be glad you did! Either way, if watched in the correct narrative order, I would recommend these stories, especially for fans of the Ghost in the Shell franchise.

Aside from the bizarre re-ordering of the story here, this is a good series overall. It's hard to compare this series (or the Arise films) against the GitS: Stand Alone Complex / 2nd GIG series, which is a masterpiece and (in my view) the best anime of all time. The original series' depth of writing and characterization, exploration of existential and other thought-provoking themes, and brilliant filmcraft, all make a fair comparison impossible. Still, the Arise stories feature competent, character-driven writing. Although this series can be seen as an alternative continuity to the original series (which itself was a bit of an alternate continuity to the original 1995 GitS film), even the idea of different continuities without a "privileged" continuity can be seen as yet another facet of the existential themes that are at the heart of Ghost in the Shell.

The characters are a bit different here: better in some ways, sure, but perhaps worse in others. And if you watch the English dub, it can be hard to get used to the different voice actors. But the series fleshes out its characters pretty well and does a bit more for side characters like Ishikawa, Borma, and Paz than Stand Alone Complex did, providing some additional (and in many cases alternative) detail in their implied backstories and more meaningful screen time. And if you finish the series with GitS: The New Movie (2015), you'll get a satisfying conclusion to the overall Arise story.

In short, GitSA:AA is worth a watch (again, assuming you watch it in the proper order to avoid the spoilers).

(Having watched this for solely ep 9-10) Arise continues to be more of the same strung together bs and ultimately went full 'all according to keikaku' in exactly the way of dumb antagonists successfully failing their way to success as I expected. This franchise's adaptations are dumb. Pretentiously dumb.

The final two episodes were entirely macguffin filler to bridge towards the next movie with the macguffin all ready to do the thing presumably all according to Keikaku.

The sub translations seem to be of low quality.

I genuinely have nothing to say about this dumb action movie...

The cyberspace haxing fight visualizations were goofy filler 90s cringe I guess.

It ... continues to astound me how everyone is utterly shocked that adding hackable augmentations to their bodies in fact makes them security risks as they continually put so much effort into making themselves more vulnerable by spending even more money and effort on more technology rather than just remain normal humans for free and not constantly worry about being hacked. Majordysfunction has gotten hacked practically every single movie yet everyone still acts oblivious and surprised and they waste dialogue on how officially putting in fake memories is impossible when it's being done constantly in this series and an established inevitability everyone already knows yet ignores for no reason, jesus I can't believe the meh Cyberpunk anime actually handles this stuff better.

3/10 (where 5/10 is average)