Ghost in the Shell: Arise - Ghost Stands Alone

By: Robert Murphy

Finishing off the Ghost in the Shell: Arise series, Ghost Stands Alone puts all the pieces together and the Major and her team finally have come together and not a minute too soon either with a looming threat on the horizon. Yes, all the juicy little details from Ghost Tears start to develop this time around but whether or not the Major's team can handle this threat is yet to be seen. 

The mysterious face that arose in last chapter makes her presence known almost immediately in the story, her name is Emma and she is a cyborg who has some impressive skills as a programmer but there's far more to her than that. Emma is a very rare case of a cyborg with two ghosts in one shell, two different souls inhabit her cyborg body and it makes for some trippy scenes in the story. Her body speaking in a male voice in particular gave me a slack jawed kind of moment while I was watching it. It's an overall interesting aspect to the story that makes you question any number of things such as whether or not the two are working together or is one controlling the other, which is what I thought for awhile until the end. However, their purpose in the story is something I had to question because of what happened in Ghost Tears, Emma was suppose to be some big threat to the Major and some seedy plans left by her former C.O.. This doesn't ever come about though, yes the Major foils Emma's attempt to do whatever she was suppose to do but her overall purpose seemed flawed right from the get go.

This brings me to the mystery bubbling under the surface is on a far larger scale than the previous chapters, the Major and her team are now dealing with something on a whole other level with a lot of higher ups in the mix. It's more akin to what we have seen before from the Major and her lack of fear in facing down big challenges in her way, no matter your name or the power you have, Section 9 will route you out and bring you to justice. The Major at one point even makes this claim outright when things are wrapping up. But, the whole situation was entirely too vague when all is said and done, I personally had to take some time to put the dots together and when I figured it out it wasn't a grand sort of sensation. Conflicting views and the quest for advancement is really the key behind it all as the old story goes, people did some unseemly things back in the war and in order to gain the positions they have in present day, they've taken steps to make sure they stay in power. The worse part though is it was all just way too convoluted for the overall pay off that goes on and you think that it all could have been done far easier and presented far better. 

Now when I think about all of this convolution, it also makes me wonder about the overall conclusion of the series. Ghost Stands Alone is suppose to close everything up with a neat little bow but that doesn't come across, much of what connects all the stories together is the Major and her recruiting the different members of her team, all leading up to them become the powerful asset to Section 9. Besides this though everything else feels like just some separate stories that serve to form the Major's team, especially when you look at the way things end off. In fact when the credits were rolling I almost felt like there was meant to be more, maybe the story isn't finished, perhaps there is something else but there apparently isn't.  

What is left of Ghost Stands Alone revolves around some hefty action scenes, now that the Major's team is formed and things are beginning to take shape, they all work together like a well oiled machine and seeing them go into action is just great. The first part of the episode involves a heavy shootout in a skyscraper and in the surrounding streets. The concluding ten to twenty minutes also involves a fight between some of the Major's old team, her new one proving more than up to the task of taking them out. Also, a giant mechanical robot prototype gets taken over and we see everyone work at taking it down, Saito sniping out the eyes, Batou and Togusa hindering it's movements and the Major coming in for a decisive blow. 

In conclusion, Ghost Stands Alone wasn't what I was expecting for the concluding chapter to the Arise series. There were definitely some interesting ideas floating around behind the scenes, Emma in particular was an interesting case and made a unique character. Witnessing the Major and her team finally coming together as well as kicking some serious tale as an exceptional unit was also another great attribute. The confusing and convoluted plot though did not sit well with me though, Emma served some deeper purpose to her former C.O.'s plan but it felt like an overall bust. The trickier and other plots going on also don't pan out too well and made me question whether or not there should have been more to the story because it doesn't end all nice and neat like a concluding chapter should. I'm overall not too pleased with how things turned out and aside from some good action scenes, Ghost Stands Alone doesn't reach the heights it could have. 

Good:

- Emma is an interesting character, two ghosts inside of one body brings up some very unique questions and issues that really make you think 

- Some overall good action scenes

Bad:

- The story has a strange political in-fighting aspect that doesn't make a whole lot of sense and doesn't pan out too well

- The concluding chapter doesn't feel like a conclusion but rather just another episode

- Emma's sinister role was not so sinister at all and makes me wonder what was really the point to her character other than for her to serve as another case to solve

Scully Rating: 6.0 out of 10