Appleseed: Ex Machina

[Buffalobiian]

I happened to stumble upon the 1988 version many years back while I was looking for DVD/VCDs in the house. I have to say, back then it wasn't half bad. Kinda like Ninja Scroll/Fist of the North Star quality. I've no idea which one follows the original story more, but the 2004 one seemed pumped with visuals and Hollywood action. Which I honestly don't mind.

[Ryllharu]

Finally found some free time to watch it. That was quality cyberpunk that satisfies my random cravings. Story was a bit on the cliche side of cyberpunk, but who cares?

The motion capture on this was much, much better than the previous film (if they did it at all). Motions and a ton of physical expressions were spot on. Combined with the shiny animation, there were points I forgot I was watching anime.

If James Cameron's live-action Battle Angel (with Alita being 100% CG) turns out even halfway as good as this....I'll be extremely happy.

[Idealistic]

I've seen this thread around but never really checked it out until I saw the preview on TV just now. It looks amazing.

My question is, do I need to watch the first film to watch this new one?

[Kraco]

No. But Appleseed 2004 is a very fine film as well so there's no reason to not watch it if this interests you. And for sure you will get some extra character background if you do.

[Buffalobiian]

Finally, new billing month, new quota!!! My ISP is getting smarter, so I didn't get to steal that much extra download, but back to the movie.


Awesome.

They did an even better job this time with things like facial expression compared to Appleseed 2004, especially Deunan's hair. I'm loving the 2D/3D art. They did it so well, at times I don't even notice 2D, and to me it's no less realistic than full 3DCG movies like FFVII - AC. The whole Halcon collapse reminds me of Laputa- Castle in the Sky, a childhood favourite. They also developed more on Deunan x Briareos relationship, which is nice. And Hitomi with long hair = win

If I had to pull it apart and complain, they could have timed the subs better to fit phrasings and perhaps made them more accurate. Hearing something and reading something else just throws you off a little bit.

Despite that, Awesomeness = Over 9000!

(R2 anticipation is getting to me, but I thought I saw a Geass @ 1:12:41 BluRay )

[Ryllharu]

Hitomi voiced by Miyuki Sawashiro this time = win, longer hair or not.

[Buffalobiian]

Wow. Now that you mention it, every single recurring character bar one had different VAs this time round. The only one they kept was Ai Kobayashi as Deunan Knute.

[Ryllharu]

Damn. Hitomi was the only one I outright noticed, but I thought for sure that Athena and maybe Nike were the same, but nope.

[Buffalobiian]

If you can't get enough of this, Shinji Aramaki plans on making this a trilogy, so expect one more from this franchise, as well as a tv series that's under production. I really hope they surpass EX Machina like they did Appleseed 2004. I can't bare the thought of them stuffing this up like Terminator 3 did.

[Ryllharu]

...or you could always get a completely different angle on the entire thing by reading the original Shirow Masamune's manga.

Definitely starts out differently, and I'm not entirely sure where it all goes, but I certainly liked the take on it of what I read.