Anime Movie Review: Appleseed

Before Major Motoko Kusanagi and Bateau there was Deunan Knute and Briareos from Shirow Masamune's manga Appleseed. The story revolves around the couple who are members of ES.W.A.T, Olympus's special forces that protect the surreal peace and tranquility of the city state.
The story takes Deunan from the war torn badlands where a war that has ended years ago still goes rages on. Brought back to Earths last remaining city, Olympus. Here she is reunited with her ex Briareos who is now seventy five percent machine. Olympus appears to be paradise, a utopia of sorts, but all is not as it seems in Olympus. The story begins to unfold when Hitomi, a Bioroid, explains that the half the population of Olympus is actually bioroid to help qwell human emotion and maintain the peace and tranquility. But there are some who resent the bioroids intervention with humanity and stage a terrorist assault on the bioroid care center where bioroid life extention is administered, thus causing bioroid genoside. After a special session of congress is assembled Prime Minister Athena declares marshal law without the assistance of the Olympus regular army lead by General Uranus an avid anti bioroid supporter.The only way to save the bioroids now is to unlock the secret of Appleseed.
Shirow Masamune once again pushes the limits of CG animation, the visuals of Appleseed are simply amazing, the first few minutes of the post apocalyptic fight scene alone rival that of top hollywood blockbusters such as Terminator. The story isn't childsplay either, this anime deals with aspects such as racism, human preservation and evolution, fate, love, trust and betrayal and even has shades of Issaac Asimov's I robot and the laws that govern all robots.
The Appleseed soundtrack has some sweet tracks from world famous DJ Paul Oakenfold, the Basement Jaxx, Boom Boom Satellites rocking track I will dive for you and others. The movie is rated R and has a running time of an hour and 45 minutes. Appleseed features Dolby Digital 5.1 and is presented in anamorphic widescreen, extras include commentary by Director Shinji Aramaki and Producer Sori, Staff profiles and music/scene cues. Check out http://www.appleseedthemovie.com for more.
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Also check out the upcoming Appleseed ExMachina DVD website http://www.warnervideo.com/appleseed/