What does it mean to be human? What defines us as unique? How do we choose who we fall in and out of love with? Is there truly such thing as “Utopia” These are the questions asked in the latest installment in the Appleseed Trilogy from acclaimed director Shinji Aramaki and world renouned producer/director John Woo.
Initial Impressions - 9/10
Now I have to say first off I am a huge fan of Masamune Shirow’s work, from Appleseed to Ghost in the Shell, his work has walked a fine line between entertainment and philosophy often blending the two seamlessly into amazing stories that must be seen to be believed.
Appleseed: Ex Machina is the follow up to the critically acclaimed Appleseed from 2004, at the time the animation was considered groundbreaking and the cinematography to be some of the best ever presented in animated form. So it was great excitement that I ran out to get a copy for my new PS3 and its HD Blu-ray drive.
The packaging is very simple with a stunning portrait on the front taken of Deunan and Briareos, it captures the feel of Shirow’s work beautifully and only hints at what is yet to come.
The package is the standard light blue Blu-ray disc packaging, which for some reason looks really good with this cover. Probably because it has that futuristic look to it.
Story - 9/10
Without giving away too much the story is amazing, it once again centers around the Bionoids and Cyborgs and what makes them human or not. Olympus is trying to bring the world under their influence to form a massive communications network to try and prevent terrorism, during this time there are surgical strikes by combat borgs that due signifigant damage around the world forcing E-Swat to mobilize into action. Augmenting the human forces of E-Swat is a bionoid clone, Triareos, derived from the DNA of Briareos, who is assigned temporarily as Deunan’s new partner. As the attacks increase and get closer to home, Deunan struggles not only with her feelings for Briareos, but Triareos as well.
The first film was truly Deunan’s story, this one is much more balanced between her and Briareos. You see the tenderness between the characters, as well as the distance that exists because of Briareos being more machine than man. Deunan’s conflicting emotions for Triareos complicate the matters, as she sees in him all the qualities she loves so desperately in Briareos, but can no longer have due to his change to a cyborg. Briareos struggles with anger towards seeing himself in Triareos as the man that he wished he still was, while coming to terms with what he is now.
The story is fantastic, the only quibble is that even by the end we still aren’t sure of the actual relationship with Briareos and Deunan, surely E-Swat would never risk having a pair of lovers on active duty together? If they are just partners there seems to be a closeness that would be almost uncomfortable. Hopefully this will be resolved in the third installment in the trilogy.
Art - 9/10
WOW! That’s about the best description for the animation and art direction in the show, the movement is stupendous, and the emotion conveyed by the characters is simply amazing. One can certainly see the influence of John Woo on the fight scenes, especially the gun battles, from Briareos’s usage of twin assault rifles, to some trully cinematic kills, the master of Hong Kong cinema’s stamp is clearly on the film.
Unlike the previous film the rendering of the characters is a little less heavy this time round on the cell shading allowing for a much more natural look. While clearly still Anime there is a humanity about the characters that helps to suck you into their world.
As usual the vehicles and weapons are all Shirow, with a painstaking attention to detail the technology of the future has never looked cooler or more refined.
This is a film that cries out for an HDTV and it looks simply amazing on my 50” 720P Panasonic Plasma TV, verything is so vibrant and clear, mark my words, this will be used as a reference disk for many people for demonstrating what Blu-ray can do.
My only issue is that its so dark a lot of the time that you don’t get a chance to see the amazing designs at their best, which is a real shame, I realize the need for story purposes to set it they way they did. But the most breathtaking scenes were the ones that were shown in daylight.
Audio – 9/10
A film can have wonderful visuals but will fall flat on its face if the audio is terrible, no such problem here, the dialogue both in English and Japanese [in Dolby 5.1 is well done [Additional language tracks are Spanish, Chinese, Portuguese, and French language tracks in 2.0 stereo], with more than competent actors handling both. The soundtrack is an awesome mix of haunting instrumentals and techno rock. This film has to be heard in Dolby 5.1 to be believed, it’s a wonderful auditory experience
Extras - 8/10
Initial Impressions - 9/10
Now I have to say first off I am a huge fan of Masamune Shirow’s work, from Appleseed to Ghost in the Shell, his work has walked a fine line between entertainment and philosophy often blending the two seamlessly into amazing stories that must be seen to be believed.
Appleseed: Ex Machina is the follow up to the critically acclaimed Appleseed from 2004, at the time the animation was considered groundbreaking and the cinematography to be some of the best ever presented in animated form. So it was great excitement that I ran out to get a copy for my new PS3 and its HD Blu-ray drive.
The packaging is very simple with a stunning portrait on the front taken of Deunan and Briareos, it captures the feel of Shirow’s work beautifully and only hints at what is yet to come.
The package is the standard light blue Blu-ray disc packaging, which for some reason looks really good with this cover. Probably because it has that futuristic look to it.
Story - 9/10
Without giving away too much the story is amazing, it once again centers around the Bionoids and Cyborgs and what makes them human or not. Olympus is trying to bring the world under their influence to form a massive communications network to try and prevent terrorism, during this time there are surgical strikes by combat borgs that due signifigant damage around the world forcing E-Swat to mobilize into action. Augmenting the human forces of E-Swat is a bionoid clone, Triareos, derived from the DNA of Briareos, who is assigned temporarily as Deunan’s new partner. As the attacks increase and get closer to home, Deunan struggles not only with her feelings for Briareos, but Triareos as well.
The first film was truly Deunan’s story, this one is much more balanced between her and Briareos. You see the tenderness between the characters, as well as the distance that exists because of Briareos being more machine than man. Deunan’s conflicting emotions for Triareos complicate the matters, as she sees in him all the qualities she loves so desperately in Briareos, but can no longer have due to his change to a cyborg. Briareos struggles with anger towards seeing himself in Triareos as the man that he wished he still was, while coming to terms with what he is now.
The story is fantastic, the only quibble is that even by the end we still aren’t sure of the actual relationship with Briareos and Deunan, surely E-Swat would never risk having a pair of lovers on active duty together? If they are just partners there seems to be a closeness that would be almost uncomfortable. Hopefully this will be resolved in the third installment in the trilogy.
Art - 9/10
WOW! That’s about the best description for the animation and art direction in the show, the movement is stupendous, and the emotion conveyed by the characters is simply amazing. One can certainly see the influence of John Woo on the fight scenes, especially the gun battles, from Briareos’s usage of twin assault rifles, to some trully cinematic kills, the master of Hong Kong cinema’s stamp is clearly on the film.
Unlike the previous film the rendering of the characters is a little less heavy this time round on the cell shading allowing for a much more natural look. While clearly still Anime there is a humanity about the characters that helps to suck you into their world.
As usual the vehicles and weapons are all Shirow, with a painstaking attention to detail the technology of the future has never looked cooler or more refined.
This is a film that cries out for an HDTV and it looks simply amazing on my 50” 720P Panasonic Plasma TV, verything is so vibrant and clear, mark my words, this will be used as a reference disk for many people for demonstrating what Blu-ray can do.
My only issue is that its so dark a lot of the time that you don’t get a chance to see the amazing designs at their best, which is a real shame, I realize the need for story purposes to set it they way they did. But the most breathtaking scenes were the ones that were shown in daylight.
Audio – 9/10
A film can have wonderful visuals but will fall flat on its face if the audio is terrible, no such problem here, the dialogue both in English and Japanese [in Dolby 5.1 is well done [Additional language tracks are Spanish, Chinese, Portuguese, and French language tracks in 2.0 stereo], with more than competent actors handling both. The soundtrack is an awesome mix of haunting instrumentals and techno rock. This film has to be heard in Dolby 5.1 to be believed, it’s a wonderful auditory experience
Extras - 8/10
The extras are a decent lot, there are the usual commentaries and making of features, the most notable is one about Anime fandom both in the west and Japan which is really cool and worth watching. I wish there had been more, since the Blu-ray format is capable of so much, but alas it wasn’t to be in this release.
Final Conclusions overall - 9/10
I can’t say enough about this film its got a rich beauty to it with amazing art and sound direction with a story to match. There hasn’t ever been anything that can compare with this film visually computer generated or not, this is going to be one for the ages.
Pick this up if you get the chance I guarantee you won’t be disappointed.
+ Amazing art direction
Stunning audio track
Richly detailed story
- A little dark at points
Could have used some Blu-ray exclusive features
Studio: Warner Home Video
Cost USD: $29.99
Rating: PG-13
Final Conclusions overall - 9/10
I can’t say enough about this film its got a rich beauty to it with amazing art and sound direction with a story to match. There hasn’t ever been anything that can compare with this film visually computer generated or not, this is going to be one for the ages.
Pick this up if you get the chance I guarantee you won’t be disappointed.
+ Amazing art direction
Stunning audio track
Richly detailed story
- A little dark at points
Could have used some Blu-ray exclusive features
Studio: Warner Home Video
Cost USD: $29.99
Rating: PG-13
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