Appleseed Movie
Release Date: 2005
Japanese Dub, English Subtitled Version
When this film turned up on my doorstep I was quite excited to have a chance to watch Appleseed – another anime brought to life with CG? But I was somehow disappointed.
As the film began, I felt this horrible feeling creep into my head that it was familiar. And yes, it certainly brings back a lot of Metropolis (2001) which can only be a direct inspiration to what I ended up watching. But it wasn’t just that. I’ve definitely seen this before. In fact, by 20 minutes into the film, I know I had.
But what this meant was the first time I watched it, it obviously didn’t leave a lasting impression. And now, it was getting a second chance. Lucky or what.
So, the general storyline is as follows:
Opening up in the post-apocolyptic war, we find our heroine ‘Deunan’ is fighting against what appears to be super soldiers, until she is rescued (and knocked out) by soon-to-be-comrades Hitomi and soon-to-find-out-he’s-not-dead ex-comrade Briareos. Taken back to the pristine and immaculate ‘Olympus’ city, she is provided shelter, clothes, guns and everything else whilst being brought up to date on Bioroids and the new life in what can only be described, as the idyllic Olympus. Add in a few chase scenes and you get the idea that Deunan is not particularly wanted and that there is a bit of evil work going on behind the scenes, which comes together in a dramatic and epic battle between the good that is Deunan and Briareos and the evil which is… well you’ll have to watch to find out.
There isn’t much else to the storyline, and although they are more than happy to describe endlessly to you about Bioroids and why things have changed or what has happened, there is definitely this feeling of completely disconnection between me as a viewer. For a start, there is no explanation or even slight hint as to why there was a massive war in the first place – and when Deunan is told about how the war ended years ago, she is more than happy to leave it on “so I’ve been fighting a pointless war for years?”. Yes, yes you have love. And what’s more, she just moves on… what about all the incredibly deep and moving psychological impacts that would have on a person? The realisation of fighting a war for years and years to find out, actually the world has moved on and you’ve been left behind. But no, not bothered at all, I’ll keep my sudden nightmare sequences to seeing my best friend/lover Briarus explode into some form of mecha. We know where our priorities lie.
There is definitely one HUGE positive to this film and that is the outstanding scenic views – some which look to have real life literally filmed and put in. There are some amazing CG works that have developed for this film. The only problem is, I’m not sure if I’m that open minded to really completely enjoy the cell-shaded (yet still CG) animation of the characters. Whilst the background is still CG, it does help to stand them out, but still brings a cartoon innocence to a topic which surely is quite hard hitting – we’re talking about war, and the battle between good and evil and whether we will exist as a race. I perhaps, personally, would have loved to have seen this portrayed either completely as an anime or completely CG in order to really deepen the seriousness and emotions of the characters.
In conclusion, this film is pretty good if you want to see something a little bit more up to date, or if you must see everything which involves mecha or a hint of apocalyptic anime in it – however for me, I see myself forgetting this the second time round as I did the first. It feels like I walked away knowing the storyline yet feeling completely oblivious to perhaps what was really going on, and felt that whereas this would have been perfect in a serious anime, it felt cartoony and a bit of a joke. However, CG landscapes and amazing works definitely are a positive in some scenes, especially the opening, not to mention the blisteringly amazing soundtrack which features tracks from Basement Jaxx and Boom Boom Satellites.
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