Trivia / Ghost in the Shell: Arise

• Colbert Bump: Funimation's official trailer for The New Movie uses the song Grasslands by Ramzoid, and led to a modest bump in popularity for that group.
• Defictionalization: The assault rifle used by the JGSDF Rangers and later by Section 9 in the AAA TV series is made by Laylax in either an airgun model or a model replica version.
• Executive Meddling: While Funimation was under no obligation to listen to the fandom's wishes to see the English dub have the Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex voice actors reprise their roles, the decision to completely replace the cast in order to follow what Japan had done for their version was pretty much an order from Production I.G directly. That said, Mary Elizabeth McGlynn was still cast as major character Kurutsu for her efforts of trying.
• Promoted Fanboy: Elizabeth Maxwell mentioned on her Twitter that she was happy to get the role of Motoko Kusanagi, having watched the original movies when she was growing up.
• Star-Making Role: While Elizabeth was known to the English-speaking community for her role as Ymir in Attack on Titan, her role as the Major made her even more known to the public.
• The Other Darrin: The entire voice cast of Section 9 was replaced. For the dub, Production I.G insisted that Funimation do it, despite what the fans wanted.
  • Major Motoko Kusanagi: Atsuko Tanaka —> Maaya Sakamoto (also a Casting Gag where Sakamoto also voiced Kusanagi in the original Ghost in the Shell as the new cyborg body she was placed in at the end. She also voiced a young looking remote body in ''Stand Alone Complex).
  • Batou: Akio Ōtsuka —> Kenichirou Matsuda
  • Togusa: Kōichi Yamadera —> Tarusuke Shingaki
  • Daisuke Aramaki: Osamu Saka —> Ikkyuu Juku
  • Saito: Tōru Ōkawa —> Takurou Nakakuni
  • Pazu: Takashi Onozuka —> Youji Ueda
  • Ishikawa: Yutaka Nakano —> Tomoyuki Dan (Unfortunately, Dan passed away on October 2013 just before the second OVA was released. Shunsuke Sakuya replaces him for the 3rd and 4th OVA).
  • Borma: Tarou Yamaguchi —> Kazuya Nakai
• Predecessor Casting Gag: Mary Elizabeth McGlynn has been the voice of Motoko Kusanagi for the entirety of the Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex continuity. The announcement of Arise as a new installment in the franchise was a big thing back in 2013, so Mary flew to Funimation in Texas to audition for the lead role again. Arise would end up following the Japanese dub's own precedent of using a new cast for the characters because it was an Alternate Continuity from everything else, so Mary was cast in the role of Kurutsu, who served as Motoko's commanding officer within the JGSDF and ultimately the Big Bad of the entire storyline.

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