Description: Earth's last city, Olympus, rose from the ashes of a global war on the backs of Bioroids, artificial clones who make up half the city's population. Under the strict guidance of a supercomputer, humanity's last survivors enjoy an idyllic peace, but only on the surface Human terrorists within the military seek a return to power and clash with the government's ESWAT forces lead by the legendary soldier, Deunan Knute, and her boyfriend who is 75% machine. Retrieving the Appleseed will end the conflict, and Deunan alone holds its secret. The outstanding feature film based on the manga by SHIROW Masamune (Ghost In the Shell), directed by Shinji ARAMAKI (Bubblegum Crisis), and produced by SORI (Ping Pong) features a soundtrack by Boom Boom Satelites, Paul Oakenfold, Basement Jaxx and more and will be available from TOFU records. The DVD will feature high quality video encoded directly from the HD master in 16:9 anamorphic widescreen with 5.1 English Dolby Digital and DTS audio as well as the original Japanese 2.0 stereo and 5.1 DTS Dolby Digital soundtracks! This DVD also features commentary from both the director and the producer!
Amazon.com: The 2004 Appleseed feature is a reworking of the earlier video based on the manga by Masamune Shirow (Ghost in the Shell). In 2131, most of humanity has withdrawn to the glittering city of Olympus after a devastating war. When the curvaceous Deunan Knute comes to Olympus, she encounters her former comrade Briareos, now a cyborg, and the lovely android Hitomi. The fate of Hitomi, Olympus, and humanity rest on the lost "Appleseed" technology that Deunan's mother helped to develop. A standard series of chases, mecha battles, and confrontations leads to a predictable ending. When the original Appleseedappeared in 1988, it felt like a summary of anime's past, while Akira pointed the way to the future. This new version feels like a mishmash of Ghost in the Shell, Akira, Jin-Roh, Evangelion, and other, more exciting works. The motion-capture CG is typically weightless, and the mecha look oddly squat. (Rated R: violence) --Charles Solomon
Visual eye candy I recently discovered the Appleseed movies a month ago. I had seen the film VEXILLE which was made by the same person who did the 2nd and 3rd Appleseed films. After I was blown away by the mix of hand drawn animation and CGI, I knew I had to check out his other film work. I was even more blown away by APPLESEED and APPLESEED EX MACHINA.
It is 2131, there is one city left remaining on Earth called Olympus. Humans and bioroids (artificial clones) appears to co-exist peacefully. All is not well underneath the idyllic surface. The existence of bioroids have angered some humans thus leading to the destruction of a government building that contained third generation bioroids. The destruction of the building also means doom for bioroids who needs a life extension like Deunan's friend Hitomi.
Deunan Knute, a tough as nails female soldier and her ex-boyfriend Briareos, who is 75% machine and the other members of the ESWAT team needs to retrieve the lost Appleseed technology to help Hitomi and the rest of Olympus, and put a kibosh on the growing threat of the military.
I personally loved this film. The action was non-stop. The animation was awesome. I love the combination of hand drawn animation and CGI. The techno soundtrack fits perfectly into the setting of the film. I personally enjoyed the storyline.
All Action, No Story By the end there just wasn't enough to keep me entertained and I found myself growing bored with it very quickly. The break neck action and interesting concepts were fun at first but by the end, I really felt like I needed more and this feature wasn't going to provide it. If you were a fan of the manga, you'll probably be a fan of this feature as well but otherwise this is really just a release for people who are looking for some decent mech action without much story to bog you down.
The best anime of the decade!!! Mind blowing... It is just AMAZING the kind of animation achieve on this ANIME/movie. Watch it! Own it!!! It reminds me of my ROBOTECH days...
Action, love, technology... perfection... This was very enjoyable and satisfying.
The case is the finest I have ever seen.
The content on the bonus disk is fantastic too...
This entire work says, very simply: "Someone Cared Enough to pay attention to everything and get it right."
The few criticisms that one might have over it not being exactly like the original Appleseed VHS back in the day, can be addressed by saying simply that it is 2008 not 1988.
The fact that the story, character design, and over all impact of the original work was retained is good enough for me.
The new take on this material is fresh from every perspective, without destroying what was truly the core of the original Anime.
I have watched this 3 times since purchasing it and it is beautiful and exciting.
Worth every penny. I'm just picked up the Appleseed ExMachina collectors edition also. I'm excited to watch it.
:D
Better Rental than Purchase I am glad that I 'flixed this film before purchasing. It was entertaining, but I have little desire to see it again. There were several holes in the story and the characters were flat and uninteresting. The theme could have been made into a great sci-fi anime series and I hope that this will be the next step, that and going to a hand drawn style rather than CG.
If you want to see a CG film that is just as pretty (or more so) then check out FF7 Advent Children. Guaranteed to rock your world!
Pros: Pretty CG, action, good theme and story Cons: lots of loose plot threads, dull characters, too short, needed fleshing out
Viewing preference: Japanese with english subtitles
Anything Goes Trivia
Megaton Man
Tony's Online Tips
Trevor
