Appleseed

After Earth was decimated by World War III, the ruins of civilization were rebuilt, with the futuristic city of Olympus standing out like a crown jewel. Overseen by the supercomputer Gaia and populated with an extremely large number of Bioroids—genetically engineered people designed to handle all administrative functions—Olympus affords its citizens lives free from all worries. However, a surge of crimes has been occurring within this seemingly utopian environment.

In order to protect the people, Deunan Knute and her partner Briareos Hecantochires work for Olympus' Enhanced SWAT team, taking on the most violent criminal cases. When a group of terrorists threaten to destroy the Olympians' way of life, Deunan and Briareos swear to take them down—no matter the cost.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Knute, Deunan Main

Katsuki, Masako Japanese

Hecantochires, Briareos Main

Sakaguchi, Yoshisada Japanese

Areios, Athena Main

Sawada, Toshiko Japanese

Mautholos, Calon Main

Furukawa, Toshio Japanese

Hitomi Supporting

Shou, Mayumi Japanese

Nike Supporting

Takizawa, Kumiko Japanese

Sebastian, A. J. Supporting

Wakamoto, Norio Japanese

Maki, Taro Producer

Sugita, Tsutomu Producer

Katayama, Kazuyoshi Director, Script, Screenplay

Wolskel, John Script

Reviews

Feb 28, 2011

GoodEnoughForMe

Recommended

Appleseed is a work that seems to show up every now and then, after many of us have forgotten it, usually in the form of a reboot or remake. As it stands, the original 1988 anime is the best of the anime versions, so far, but it is not without its flaws.

Appleseed is one of a minority of animated works that can lay claim to being too short. There's is just way too much going on for a single 1 hour film, but, to director Kazuyoshi Katayama's credit, he manages to keep the threads of storyline together enough to make this a largely enjoyable fare.

One ... thing that Appleseed, this 1988 version, does much better than the 2004 version, is moral ambiguity. This sci-fi is ripe with it. Earth is introduced to us having recently suffered catatrophe through World War III. Olympus, a protoype "utopia" of sorts, is the setting, where in step the Bioroids, genetically engineered beings, created by humans, to oversee society and prevent another near apocalyptic event from occuring. As with most political scenarios where control is vested in some people, there are others who want it. The Bioroids, while they do a decent job maintaining peace, are also in total political control of Olympus. This doesn't go over to well with certain humans, who view Olympus as a cage.

One refreshing thing about this anime is the tag team duo of protagonists, Deunan, a very skilled female E.S.W.A.T (read; Special Ops) member, and her partner, the human on the inside, cyborg on the outside, Briareos. Deunan is thrust into the conflict of humans seeking to wrestle power from the Bioroids, and she follows her convictions to their conclusions. Whether or not she makes the right choice at the conclusion of the film is debatable, but it's one of the endearing features of the work.She shines here as a strong female lead, and her relationship with Briareos doesn't fall into a rushed, corny romance trap that we often expect of works like this.

Another note; for an 80s anime, there is a surprising amount of women in positions of power here.

This whole conflict that takes place is complicated with E.S.W.A.T mole(s) corraborating with the humans seeking power, a meddling prime minister, and the computer helping to run the whole show, all of these setting the stage for a solid sci-fi thriller.

However, as I alluded to earlier, the one hour runtime just isn't enough. When you combine these subplots with the various, lengthy action sequences, it becomes apparent that plot development is given the fast track, often to the detriment of the work. Plot developments and devices are introduced almost haphazardly at times, and you're given little time to contemplate on the importance of one thing before another important one springs up. To this point, one major plot device, inolving the character Hitomi, who is, essentially, the key to everything, is severely mishandled. It's thrust into the film in mere seconds even though it is such a crucial point.

The ending is a bit of a mess too, featuring a terribly cheesy Star Wars like apparition imparting words of wisdom. It's almost comical.

That said, the Appleseed universe is a very compelling one because it takes the sci-fi genre and puts a new spin on it. The Bioroids are right to have grievances in that they are meant to serve humans, the humans are right to have grievances in that they have little political power, and so, you have a great setup here with no true good guys or bad guys. Sadly, the potential feels a bit wasted with the rushed nature, but the strong characters, particularly Deunan, and the compelling scenario and moral conflict largely allow Appleseed to be an enjoyable work.

7/10

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Mar 16, 2010

kekekeKaj

Mixed Feelings

This anime lacks a certain... something... Nothing seems to be horribly wrong, but at the end of the day, it's no more than mediocre. The best word to describe this anime is "bland". It's like drinking water - I don't hate it, but it just doesn't really leave much taste behind. I had a really hard job trying to get excited when watching it because, frankly, there's nothing about it that's very interesting.

Going through everything categorically: the animation... not bad, but not amazing. Music... so bland I can't even remember much about it (though I guess that must mean it can't have been bad ... at least). The story didn't really inspire. They failed miserably to engage my emotions with their boring dilemmas because they couldn't put together a convincing case about why I should give a toss about it. In addition, parts of the storyline seem a bit muddled up, though that's possibly because my attention was wandering at that point. The characters annoyed me a bit. The police in the anime are a joke. They seem to have no sense of responsibility, and are able to just do things like transfer to a different division without any restraint, as though they are free to do whatever they want. Do they have no superior officers to report to?!

This anime isn't horrendous in any particular category... but it's not really outstanding in any category either, so it's hard to recommend this anime based on any area. And besides, there's a movie out now that's apparently a re-make based on the same source material as this. Though I've not seen it, at least it looks visually stunning, which is more than what I can say for this...

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Aug 4, 2017

Katrov

Not Recommended

I don't feel like saying to much about this, and that's about how much this anime did for me. The premise sounded cool enough, plus I don't mind older animes although I haven't seen that many, but this felt super bland.

I struggled to sit through the whole thing because it simply did not keep me interested.

TL;DR watch if you really like the premise and older anime hits your sweet spot, you should be entertained enough by something, if you want a decent story that keeps you engaged, don't bother.

Story: 4/10

I liked the premise, which was what got me interested, although the villain(s) were revealed quite ... early on which felt too quick and left the middle to the end rather dull and little suspense. It got dull, which felt disappointing. The ending also felt a bit random but that may have been due to the fact I wasn't really paying attention after like 20 minutes in lol.

Art: 6/10
The animation is rough, but its also old so that's to be expected. I don't mind the roughness because of that, although if you don't really like the look of it going in the sometimes jumpy and awkward animations it won't do much for you.

Sound: 4/10

I'm no sound expert but it felt like the same basic "80's style action synthesizer" played multiple times during any sort of suspense or action scene...didn't really add to the experience for me.

Character: 4/10

Some characters seemed interesting although never got fleshed out(and I know that is also because this is an OVA). A couple things were brought up that felt like never got addressed later or made an impact on the story(like Hitomi the Biodroid girl was shown to be a drunk I think?? But I also never understood WHY she was so important outside of the exposition by the government lady whatsherface...Athena.

Enjoyment: 3/10

I started to get bored at about 20 minutes in, not due to the pacing that generally seems to be slower for older animes but rather how nothing interesting was happening. It was just dull.

Overall:
Good premise but ended up rather dull...watch something else with a vaguely similar premise and there's a good chance you won't regret it.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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