Appleseed α
Appleseed Alpha

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I am writing this having not read the original Appleseed series yet, though I have flipped through book 1 of it to get a feel before reading Appleseed Alpha. The art style of the two are radically different and I think for someone who has read the original Appleseed first this could be bothersome. Whereas Masamune Shirow's original work is highly detailed and very precise, this one has much more of a casual sketched tone to the art. This personally did not bother me and sometimes I even enjoyed it as it kept everything feeling very easy going - but if I had clear impressions ... of what characters and scenery should look like it may have been bothersome.

The art pacing is pretty well done, and the characters are interesting to look at. Humans do not all look the same which is nice. Paneling is decent to good, though I would say there were still a handful of times where I had to trace back to figure out what was trying to be implied as having happened. This occurred more frequently towards the end of the book.

The actual story itself is fun, approachable, and imaginative. Based on the end commentary by Masamune Shirow - it seemed he liked it too. It isn't too serious of a story and has genuinely humorous elements to it. I think each character had a good life to them, even the ones firmly relegated as side characters. For a shorter story, I was happy to see this.

If I could, I think I would rate this a 7.5/10 due to the paneling issues. However, I've rounded up to an 8 as I still enjoyed it considerably. I certainly recommend it!