This review is pretty casual. I started Arise because I had heard it balances the action and philosophy monologuing more for a mass appeal and I was a fan of that concept for this franchise. This movie is 60 monologues about bureaucratic conspiracy stuff and I can get behind a bureaucratic political conspiracy but this one is boring and pedantic. Writing this review Im already forgetting details that would help me explain it which is likely telling. I dont want to watch it again to elaborate but its mostly about this new character who is a deceased benefactor of the Major whom we never see and do not know or have any reasons established for why we should care about him. The plot is about the mystery of his actions and why he did certain things. There arent any flashbacks that flesh out his personality or his connection to the major which is an odd decision. All we know about him is he favored the Major and gave her leeway but we dont really know his personality or why the Major may feel a connection to him if she does. Similarly we dont have much reason to care about the organization that has Motoko in their employ in the beginning of the movie. The leader who is Voiced by the incredible Mary Elizabeth McGlynn my favorite voice for the Major largely serves the role of the fall guy that keeps her out of trouble for most of the movie what is Motokos history with this woman does she hold reverence for her is she like her sensei? Who knows shes just kind of there until the not that interesting plot twist On the voice acting I can understand why McGlynn is not the Major here because her Major voice is powerful and commanding and this is meant to be a young inexperienced prequel Major. I still found this Major to be very wooden though tolerable. Its probably difficult to find that balance where there are glimmers of emotion but still stoic. That being said I watched the sub version of a later installment because I tired of this voice and although I obviously cant comment on the little nuances of the performance since I dont speak japanese I found the actress has a noticably greater range of emotion in her performance and thinking about it I dont know if this is meant to be like Mamoru Oshiis ultra reserved Motoko. Besides the Major Batou has a much deeper voice this time around in the dub and while I cant say its not fitting for his character I prefer the SAC and Oshii voices where he was a grizzled old guy but had more range and wiggle room to be a little goofy and a multifaceted person. Though given the plot circumstances in universe here he doesnt have much room for that anyways A major player of this film didnt have that much going on at all besides being antagonistic to The Major and when Motoko went after him in climax I was just like Oh it was him? Ok We dont know much about his desires or motivations. Its pretty apparent watching this which scenes had more budget than others like when the major has a suddenly ultra flat no detail face. Somebody told me its an OVA and not a film which explains why it lacks the production values or gravitas I would expect from film animation. This also isnt my favorite design for the major but its not that bad Id say it helps that I saw the 2045 design first. I wont go too in depth about the spoileriffic plot twist except that I thought it was stupid and unearned. A potentially interesting idea but the execution is ultra straight forward where its like Major hunted by others because bad guy? No Major not bad guy because plot detail she found out of nowhere. Since we havent been acquainted with Motokos status quo or her dynamics with others once again I dont see why we should care. At a moment near the end Kusanagi pieced everything together and delivered it in a corny monologue to a bad guy and I felt like they were doing the Benedict Cumberbatch Sherlock thing of ass pulling detective details that werent really foreshadowed earlier. I wasnt overly invested in this but while its uninteresting I found my attention span didnt wander that much so its perfectly watchable but thats the best I can say about it.