Anime Review: Appleseed Ex Machina (2007)
Appleseed Ex Machina is another sci-fi anime from the creative mind of Shirow Masamune, creator of the popular Ghost in the shell series. Appleseed Ex Machina is the sequel to the 2004 Appleseed and is directed by Shinji Aramaki and produced by John Woo.
Following the end of Appleseed, the main characters Deuna and Briareos have settled into their roles in E.S.W.A.T and Olympus is peaceful, until of course the antagonists show up.
The plot revolves around the ambitions of Dr. Kestner, a previous member of HALCON, who seeks to take control of the world by enslaving the minds of each and every human, cyborg and bioroid.
If you have watched Appleseed, somehow the storyline of Ex Machina seems to pale in comparison to that of the original Appleseed, which although was technically not on a grander scale, but allow for more tense action sequences.
The movie is produced on a technique call 3D Live action CGI, which basically means that the characters are animated by real live actors who has little ball things stuck to various points on their bodies and faces that allow computers to trace movements and motions.
This technique allows for much more realistic and lifelike animations sequences, throughout the animation, you would get a lot of close ups of the characters and appreciate the range of facial features they are able to display.
The 3D graphics in Ex Machina are clear and crisp. On the scenes where you get a zoomed out view of Olympus, you really appreciate the details of Blu-ray's 1080p. Unlike the run of the mill 3D animations, the characters are nicely drawn and do not look as if they are composed of random ill-fitting blocks of body parts.
Not much surprises in the audio quality, you get the typical Dolby TrueHD quality that you would expect from Blu-rays. The tracks are pretty okay and flow with the story and actions, though not especially outstanding in their own rights.
One thing to note though, the English voice acting for Ex Machina is pretty well done, and they seem to fit with their anime persona. It is not often that you do not find anime characters sounding funny when they speak English, either due to the bad translation or the Americans giving too much of a western accent to their voice acting.
4 out of 5 stars.
Where to find it
Visit the links below to read more reviews on Amazon. There are other disc formats available also. Do note the region code for the disc and your player before buying.
Country-specific Amazon links for Appleseed: Ex-Machina [Blu-ray]:
Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.fr
Amazon.de | Amazon.co.jp
Comments
I love Appleseed and Masamune
I love Appleseed and Masamune Shirow!
The story is really quite
The story is really quite straightforward, and this movie is just about action and eye candy. There's no deep psychological plot which is almost strange for a Japanese anime. Because of that, I thought the anime is quite forgettable
I'll give it 4-stars as well since it's still pretty entertaining.
Shirow Masamune has the
Shirow Masamune has the Appleseed series out for a few books I think, so Ex Machina would be the second book, hopefully the series isn't finished. The storyline should flesh itself out when we do watch the series together, but as usual, it might take years for them to move the whole manga to animation.
Maybe I'll see if I can find the original Appleseed.
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