More Notes on GitS Arise
I had watched GitS Arise twice, and i figured I wouldn't watch it again for at least another month. But what can I say - my ghost kept whispering to me. So, now I've finished a third run of the series, including the movie.
I'm going to be going over all the important details for the series / movie, so turn back if you're trying to avoid spoilers.
This is the second time I'm doing a write up on GitS Arise. The previous post was me trying to put together what I recalled, this time I was taking notes.
My biggest question was - who created the Fire Starter Virus?
Border 02
The most interesting part about Border 02 is Agent VV. The big twist at the end is that she's actually a rogue AI. As they explain, it was an America AI that came into contact with the Fire Starter virus and went rogue. It brought a powerful hacking unit to Japan to force open Pandora's box to try and figure out what gave it sentience.
This episode gave us one detail - the Virus came from the Net.
Border 03 / 04
These last two OVAs boil down to a battle between Kurutsu / the 501 and Hozumi and Army Intelligence. They were fighting over the future of weapons development. Kurutsu wanted to keep make it domestic, while Hozumi was interested in keeping it foreign. Hozumi uses the FIre Starter virus very effectively, but she states someone else developed the virus.
The strange twist is that each of them have a Wizard hacker on their team - Kurutsu had Emma, and Hozumi had Brinda Jr. When these two met, they fell in love and vanished into the Net when they died.
Border 05
The Pyromaniac is a hitman for the Kuzan Cartels out kill Colonel Hozumi who barely surived Border 04. It is believed that he is the Broker of the virus. He has a cult like devotion to the virus, "Fire Starter will cause an evolution in men's ghsots," he says.
In the end, Kurutsu gets a sphere from the Pyromaniac that supposedly contains the last version of the virus, but this does not match up with anything we see in the Movie. I'd guess there was a lack of communication between teams at Production I.G.
I think the only thing that counts is that the Fire Starter virus seems to be linked to the belief in the Third World. That people can eject their Ghost into the Net.
The Arise Movie
The big overarching plot is a "war" between the Prime Minister and the Trade Federation. The PM wanted the head of the Trade Federation (Robert Lee) out of his hair, cut a deal, but angered Lee, and Lee responded by having the PM killed. To accomplish this, he used the Hacker called "Fire Starter" as his partner.
The deeper plot is Kurutsu's plans. Her main goal was the slowing down the advancement of Cyberization. The pace of advancement was leaving old cyborgs behind because as tech advances old cyborg parts become incompatible with newer technology leaving old cyborgs in a state of walking death.
I theorize that she discarded her shell "Kurutsu" and assumed the identity of Kusanagi because of the Ghost Squad's unique status. If she could fully replace The Major, they would be in a much better position to manipulate politics. In the end, Fake Kusanagi was captured.
However, when "Kurutsu" died she also sent a package to Chris. "A gift from the third world." It's possible that was the fully evolved Fire Starter Virus that she got from the Pyromaniac. Maybe that's what allowed Chris to go into the Third World at the end of the movie.
Lingering Questions
At first, the biggest question I was trying to answer was - who created the Fire Starter Virus?
I eliminated the candidates from before. While Chris seems the most likely candidate, she never confirms of denies that she created the Fire Starter virus. The likelihood that Chris created the Fire Starter Virus seem slim.
It either came from the Net, or is a secret government program that was never revealed. Or it's another Stand Alone Complex
Second, what is the relation between Chris and Kurutsu?
The simplest conclusion would lead you to believe that Kurutsu was always just a puppet controlled by Chris. Either from childhood, or from the start of Border 01, or after Border 05.
What's strange is what Chris says when the Major calls her Kurutsu. "Even if I could use that shell, I could not recreate her personality."
She doesn't say she was Kurutsu the entire time, she says she was only using her shell. Couple that with the head of the Cyborg Institute says - "Don't look for those who are long dead." This raises the possibility that Kurutsu was a real person, and Chris assumed her identity.
Alternatively, maybe the real Kurutsu had her identity overwritten like that other character (Nada) did in the movie.
Finally, who is that girl that appears at the start of the movie?
We could assume that she is Kurutsu, but I find it hard to believe. Nothing in the past interactions between Kurutsu and the Major leads me to believe that they're the same age or that they grew up together.
I think that girl has to be Chris. At some point she did have a functioning body, but it broke down over time. Just like what happened with Hideo Kuze in GitS SAC, over time her hair and skin turned white, and she lost most of her motor functions except for her face.
Of course, in the end, Chris had to jump into the Net. Her body had already broken down, their outside patron Kurutsu was gone, and now the Japanese government was going to arrest her (for killing the Prime Minister). The Fire Starter virus allowed her to leave behind her body and try to exist as a ghost in the Net.
My Ghost is quiet now.
It was a delight to chew on a plot as dense as Arise. The funny part is the last scene in Arise is the first scene from the new Anime. So, I'll have something new to look forward to.