Ghost in the Shell: Arise - Border 1: Ghost Pain

Ghost In The Shell: Arise, is both a Reboot and a Re-imagining of The GITS Universe. It is also a 4- part OVA series. That goes back to to How SECTION 9 Began. The first notable change is the character designs, Most notably Saito and The Major(Motoko) have the most drastic Changes. This isn't The Major You Know as here she is presented as Young, Hot-headed and a bit Naive (mostly innocent). They story or stories reflected in each part do STAND ALONE, but the overall thread links them all together. The voice acting is passable as they did get some of the originals from GITS SAC to come back. or got sound alikes. (interesting enough Mary McGlynn does Voice a character.)

The beauty in this series is in its imperfections. The major is still a badass but yet severely flawed because he desires Freedom Above All Else. You also see certain characters in their early development.

As a standalone OVA, It just didn't have anything special about it. It's far from the worst I've seen, but in key areas it didn't hold up. As a reboot of an established franchise, I don't feel like it improved on anything or even made the characters interesting enough that newcomers to the series would want to see more of it.