Appleseed
Masamune Shirow's celebrated manga of the fusion of humans and technology in a world devastated by war has been given a new and visually impressive adaptation in this anime drama. In the year 2131 A.D., Deunen Knute (voice of Ai Kobayashi) is a female warrior for hire who, after encountering her former lover Briareos (voice of Jurota Kosugi), discovers he's not the man he once was -- he's now part human and part robot. As Deunen and Briareos venture into the high-tech city of Olympus, they meet Hitomi (voice of Yuki Matsuoka), who is a member of a genetically engineered race of strong and intelligent beings who have taken over rule of the city. They have not done so without resistance, and Deunen and Briareos join forces with Hitomi and her cohorts when rebels launch an attack on the city. But while she defends Olympus, Deunen begins to suspect she has a greater alliance to those who wish to defeat Olympus than those who defend it. Appleseed (aka Appurushido) was previously filmed in 1988; this version incorporates new digital animation technology which combines the look of rounded, three-dimensional images with the visual style of the traditional pen-and-ink process. more..
Director: Shinji Aramaki
The film has enough originality to interest demanding fans of the genre.
While there are some genuinely dazzling moments of visual bravura, the marriage of flatness and depth that Mr. Aramaki attempts doesn't quite work.
At this point, there's something almost masochistic about the way animators in Japan use cheesy ''Westernized'' heroes to fuel their fantasies.
Whatever is lost in translation can't keep Appleseed from feeling a decade late--and its animation from looking like a relic on arrival.
Dazzling visually but is flattened by corny dialogue better suited to the 1936 "Flash Gordon" serial, a needlessly hard to follow plot and heavy-handed exposition clotted with pseudo-scientific mumbo jumbo.
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