Armitage III

Riffing on popular American movies like Blade Runner and The Terminator and taking advantage of a new home video market that allowed studios to bypass broadcast standards, violent and gory sci-fi OVA series about hot girls who fight aliens, robots, and cyborgs were a pretty big deal in the 80’s. By the 90’s, however, the trend had already reached its intellectual apex with Masamune Shirou’s Ghost in the Shell manga series (and later its acclaimed film version) and the anime OVA market was beginning to trend more towards fantasy than sci-fi. Armitage III, the 1995 OVA series from AIC, the studio that kicked off the ... earlier trend with series like Gall Force and Bubblegum Crisis and written by the future creator of Serial Experiments Lain, might be characterized as an attempt to kick back against the rising tide of fantasy, isekai, and harem animes by showing that they too can create sci-fi films that are more than just violence and hentai.

Brief storytime: I used to see the DVD for this series at the Goodwill a lot but always passed on it because I’d never seen the first two. Just to be clear, Armitage III is an original 1995 OVA series, not a sequel; although there is a 2002 film sequel called Armitage III: Dual-Matrix which is not to be confused with Armitage III: Poly-Matrix which is the re-edited film cut of this series, you get all that? In this series the “III” refers to “thirds” the 3rd gen. of bio-synthetic androids that possess intelligence and personalities indistinguishable from the human beings they hide amongst, androids such as our titular protagonist: Naomi Armitage.

While the basic plot may sound familiar, unlike the villainous robots of Hollywood and earlier OVA series, this sci-fi action/mystery series depicts the thirds as victims of an anti-android serial killer in a plot with political implications. It’s a take on the cyberpunk anime genre that owes more from the classic works of Osamu Tezuka and Go Nagai than 80’s blockbusters by using science-fiction as a way to explore the bigotry and fear of the other in society. Or, alternatively, it’s just a theme that makes for a convenient excuse (not that AIC ever needed one) for the series’ many snuff film style murder scenes, which are often carried out from a first-person perspective against victims that initially have the appearance of independent, successful women.

While A3 is decently well-written, it’s also a series that can be interpreted charitably or very uncharitably. If viewed as a story about bigotry it can, very easily, be viewed from a queer perspective as way ahead of its time but it’s also a story that’s explicitly, and I mean that in a literal sense, anti-feminist. I mean, this series comes at women from every angle: violence against women as voyeuristically appealing; feminism as a foreign, suspicious, and birth-rate reducing ideology; women as objects to be sexualized, to be put to the nation’s needs, or else to be replaced. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t necessarily think that A3 was created to push a particular point of view, rather I think it was written to be a crowd pleaser and it accomplishes this in part by both stimulating the imaginations and appealing to the grievances of it’s primary audience of young male, gen x otaku.

Overall, I personally liked A3 even if it didn’t resuscitate the 80’s style action/sci-fi genre or give GitS a run for its money. It’s well directed and the soundtrack isn’t too shabby either. The writing is a bit cliche and has an appeal that’s left largely to the eyes of its beholders with themes that some people may find distasteful or way ahead of its time depending on who you ask. Mostly because I find Naomi Armitage to be a sympathetic and appealing main character, I personally lean more towards the latter. At the very least it's an above average production for the time that lands somewhere in between GitS and the violent and/or pornographic OVAs AIC churned out in the 80’s.

Regarding Armitage III: Poly-Matrix, the film version removes some of the less important scenes and slightly alters the plot (including a total rewrite of the ending) in order to create an illusion of a more cohesive narrative when compared to the OVAs which were episodic. The movie version also boasts improved sound and image quality and its English dub replaces its two lead VAs with film actors Elizabeth Berkeley and Kiefer Sutherland (!) (also both dubs feature then unknown Bryan Cranston from back in his Anime VA days, just fyi). Berkeley does an okay job as Armitage but Sutherland’s wooden performance gives the impression that he’s just reading lines and not receiving good voice direction although he lends his character an improved voice quality. Between the different versions of Armitage III, I think the best version is the original Japanese OVA as neither dub is particularly good and the more cohesive plot doesn’t make up for the scenes that were cut, a few of which were pretty memorable.

Poor character designs are what drive me away from a lot of shows. I watched this one anyway, and it's not just the art I don't like, I think it's boring as hell. I also don't like the obvious fan service. Like there's a reason people think all weebs are incel freaks and shit like this doesn't help lol. But, like most things, I have to give it some credit. It was animated well and the premise was so cool. Its influence on TV as a whole can't be ignored, it really did inspire a lot of people to create. It's also a staple of ... the cyberpunk genre. I think it probably would have done a better storytelling job had it had a couple more episodes, because it does feel rushed. And I suppose that is the recurring problem with OVAs isn't it? I would recommend it cause it's a classic, and the issues I have with it are just a me thing

Conceptual merit is probably the only positive of Armitage III, but that’s entirely by virtue of the cyberpunk themes. It’s simply half-baked, inept at forming an identity for itself as it meanders in its lackluster plot and world. Mars has developed a civilization advanced enough to develop Androids physically and intellectually indistinguishable from humans, and it leads to an insurgency from the human populace that fears they’ll snatch opportunities away from them. Armitage (an Android) and Sylibus are designated with the task of capturing the terrorist D’anclaude, who murdered a Third (advanced Androids), propelling the majority of the show to operate as a police procedural. ... The direction is downright awful, with nothing of worth occurring throughout the show as it insistently surrenders itself to a barrage of asinine retcons. It wastes potential by emphasizing the chase (in a tedious manner) instead of examining the Androids’ reception to political strife and intolerance. A significant amount of plot points go nowhere, which could be a product of the short runtime, but I’m rather inclined to believe this is due to the production being severely mismanaged. It is most evident from the egregious last episode that suddenly features overdue exposition in hopes of wrapping things up quickly. Even the action segments are uninspiring, with dreadful editing playing a significant role in how scenes are strung together, constantly switching focuses. The show also lacks stylistically, with only Armitage having a chic and risque fashion sense, while the other character designs and the world layout are disappointingly humdrum. The Techno music tracks don’t fit most of the scenes, with the show’s opening being the only exception; in hindsight, Armitage III would’ve been better if it had ended right after the first opening had concluded.