Appleseed (2004)
"Appurushîdo" (original title)

In a utopian society created at the end of the third world war, a female warrior who has been plucked from the badlands begins to see cracks in this new facade. And what does this community have planned for the rest of humankind?

Director:

Shinji Aramaki

Writers:

Masamune Shirow (comic), Haruka Handa (screenplay),

Stars:

Ai Kobayashi, Jûrôta Kosugi, Yuki Matsuoka

Cast

Credited cast:
Ai Kobayashi	...	Deunan (voice)
Jûrôta Kosugi	...	Briareos (voice)
Yuki Matsuoka	...	Hitomi (voice)
Asumi Miwa	...	Deunan (motion actor)
Akimoto Tsubasa	...	Deunan (motion actor)
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Jack Aubree	...	(voice)
Chris Ayres	...	Elder (voice) (as Christopher Ayres)
William Bassett	...	(voice) (as Frederick Bloggs)
Deborah Sale Butler	...	(voice)
Shelley Calene-Black	...	Nike (voice)
Luci Christian	...	Deunan Knute (voice)
Jason Douglas	...	Uranus (voice)
Marty Fleck	...	Elder (voice)
Michael Forest	...	(voice) (as Russell Thor)
Yuzuru Fujimoto	...	Uranus (voice)

Storyline

In a utopian society created at the end of the third world war, a female warrior who has been plucked from the badlands begins to see cracks in this new facade. And what does this community have planned for the rest of humankind?

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Plot Keywords:

female warrior | machine gun | cyborg | remake | tank | 

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Taglines:

Humanity's last chance for survival.

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Genres:

Sci-Fi | Action | Animation

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for some violence

Details

Official Sites:

Geneon Entertainment [us] Kaze [fr]

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

17 April 2004 (Japan)

Also Known As:

Appleseed

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

$79,818 (USA) (14 January 2005)

Gross:

$124,967 (USA) (11 February 2005)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Appleseed Film Partners, Digital Frontier, Geneon Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

101 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The tattoo on Briareos' left upper arm says "Cogito Ergo Sum", which is Latin for "I think, therefore I am." It also has the dates 2096-2122, which are Briareos' date of birth and date of his "death" when he became a cyborg.

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Goofs

When General Uranus is on the roof trying to convince Deunan and Briareos to give him the Appleseed pendant, it is raining heavily, but everyone's hair is dry and blowing around in the wind.

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Quotes

Athena: What a creature is man, he would choose to cage himself so willingly?

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Connections

References Ghost in the Shell (1995)

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Soundtracks

"Under Dog"
Words & Music by Boom Boom Satellites
Performed by Boom Boom Satellites
Produced by Boom Boom Satellites
COURTESY OF SONY MUSIC RECORDS INC.

User Reviews

Pretty cool

With nice cel-shaded graphics and fantastic CGI in a nice blend, Appleseed will not disappoint the eye. There is enormous attention to detail, reflections, shading and other small things. Many of the scenes, especially involving the giant city complex, could have worked as art if you froze the frame.

The story is pretty unoriginal though, which is a shame. I won't tell you anything, but it's likely you'll see references from a wild collection of sources. Characters have varying depth, and some felt like they needed a bit of fleshing out. Lip-sync was so-so and the same goes for most of the voices(in Japanese).

Music is cool and futuristic, with a few surprises thrown in(Basement Jaxx? What the?) and fits the scenes nicely. Sound follows the same pedantic attention-to-detail pattern as the animations. The action is very, very cool, even though it's not a pure action fest.

While the storyline doesn't feel too much like Manga, the animation really is. Manga eyes can be bugging, but it was OK. The transformer-esquire mechs where really cool even though they were very similar(then again, I've never watched Transformers).

So, in closing, is this worthwhile? Sure. It's storyline is not so complex you need to scratch your head, like other anime(Akira or Final Fantasy), and the animation is a feast to the eyes. Give it a try.