Appleseed (2004) movie review

Appleseed is a re-imagining more than a direct adaptation of the original manga from 1985, and not to be confused by the 1988 release, in which inspired this version. Appleseed is a beautiful CG anime, with amazing cell shading techniques used, and looks absolutely beautiful. Appleseed might be one of the best uses of this technique. Appleseed is a post apocalyptic science fiction anime movie, that takes place in a world after human's destructive nature has lead to the world being destroyed in war after war. The movie starts off with the main character Deunan being chased by war machines, and being rescued by the young Hitomi. Deunan is a young warrior and one of the survivors of the Global War. While being rescued she is reunited with her ex-lover Briereos. There is a lot of information given at this point where she learns about the Bioroids (which Hitome is one), which are a race created from the DNA of Deunan's father. Ok, the story is really complex, but basically there are warring factions with different views on human and bioroids, and there is conflict that leads to a big battle in the end. The name Appleseed refers to some information that is coded into a pendant that Deunan is protecting, and different factions want this pendant for different reasons, but this information contains the data to keep the bioroids alive, which a faction of humans are really against. There is a lot going on in this story. Appleseed is a beautiful movie, and very beautifully executed. It has a nice in depth story that explores themes of existentialism, and a warning about human's destructive nature. The art and the characters all look really beautiful, and lack the cartoony traits of many anime, and there is this beautiful realism to the art. The animation includes motion capture digital animation, and beautiful cell shading. Some of the art actually reminds me of Japanese video games' cut scenes, and I mean that in a very good way. The only real flaw of the movie is that it can be a bit challenging to follow at times, because of the complexities of the story. The movie also tends to get too slow at times, but it does have a great bit of action. ad some great story lines. This is definitely an anime movie for fans of mech fighting, fun action sequence, a powerful female lead, and a nice complicated story. The engish dub on this were also pretty decent, though I know mnay anime fans will judge me for watching it with dubs, but I found my self wanting to look at the art of the movie rather than reading captioning. Would I recommend this movie? Yes, not just to anime fants who should know this classic, but also to people who are fans of this style of science fiction. Like I said it is beautiful to watch, and has a great complex and interesting story, even though it does get a bit too slow at times. Definitely a good movie, and I am happy to have it in my collection. I first watched this around 2008 with an ex who was very into anime, and I remembered really enjoying it.