Appleseed

Appleseed

Episodes: 1 (Movie)

Aired: Apr 17, 2004

Appleseed is a sci-fi anime based on a manga of the same name which was written by the "Ghost in the Shell" author Shirow Masamune. A global war has just ended and the world is left as a big wasteland. Deunan Knute, our main heroine, is a very skilled soldier who participated in the global war. Having no knowledge that the war was already over, she was still fighting (with fellow fighters) against androids trying to survive on ruins of what was once cities. She was rescued by E-SWAT (Extra-Special and Weapons Advanced Tactics) members along with Hitomi which is a 2nd gen Bioroid. Bioroids are like artificially created humans that were based on the DNA of Deunan's Father, Carl, effectively making them clones. She was taken to an advanced city called Olympus, Olympus is a Utopian city in the middle of ruins and wastelands.  In a hospital Deunan planning to escape, encounters Briareos, Deunan's former lover who is now turned into a cyborg. She then decides to stay and join E-SWAT to accompany Briareos. The plot focuses on the issue of creation of artificial humans or clones.

Deunan performing her acrobatic feats

Sweet bioroid Hitomi

The bioroids are human like, they possess limited emotion making them always act rationally, unlike humans who can sometimes act illogically due to emotion, making them devoid of human error and also some free will. Bioroids may be above humans but they can only live for a very limited amount of time compared to the humans because of their lack of reproductive functions. They cannot bear offspring and must periodically undergo a "life extension process".

Briareos Hecatonchires our resident terminator.

The 7 elders and the Gaia System

The City of Olympus is a very advanced one (with flying vehicles and other stuff). Half of it's population is composed of Humans while the other half is composed of Bioroids. At the middle of the city are two superstructures called Tartarus and Daedalus which provides the city its power (through solar panels installed on both structures). At the top of the structures contain D-tank, a tank containing a virus that is meant to wipe out the bioroids (Humans' built this for security). At the core of the Tartarus and Daedalus resides the biological supercomputer Gaia which monitors the whole city specially the bioroid and human interactions (maintaining the balance between the two races).

Now inside this somewhat peaceful Utopia, tensions and conflicts still exists, specially between bioroids and humans. General Uranus, the leader of the Olympus regular army, is an extremist who sees bioroids as threat to humans. The governing body including the Prime Minister Athena are all composed of bioroids. The highest authority however still belongs to the supercomputer Gaia. The Gaia is accompanied by the council of 7 elders. (Gaia's "decisions" are based within debates of the computer itself and the 7 elders) These 7 elders provide Gaia's only lacking component, emotion. The conflict between humans and bioroids hit its peak when a group of androids destroys the breeding grounds effectively destroying a lot of 3rd generation bioroids and disabling them access for life extensions as well.

Cute chibi-Deunan

Deunan doing her usual stunt as she, in mid-air, enters the "Landmate"

The story focuses on Deunan and Brioreos' efforts to save the bioroids (and Hitomi) by searching for the technological data called "Appleseed" which will restore all bioroid reproduction functions making them a new race of humans. A lot of plot twists and role reversals is in store, from Deunan's mothers' (Dr. Gilliam Knute) past to Deunan and Brioreos' relationship towards each other as human and cyborg. Everyone has their own secret schemes and a lot will take you by surprise. The plot is intelligently well made, just what you would expect from Shirow Masamune. The art is good, it is 3D animated and it its well done for its time. The action scenes are detailed and are fluid! If you liked "Ghost in the shell" you'll surely love this. A true sci-fi classic that'll make you think and be amazed of it's plot and will also please your eyes with its good and detailed 3D animation.

the former lovers

The Landmates are really awesome

the MAJOR SPOILERS!!

It is later revealed that the 7 elders are the masterminds on destroying the bioroid breeding facility, prompting Deunan to remember the whereabouts of the appleseed (her mother left it to her hands when she was a child) in order to force the activation of bioroid reproduction functions. Another revelation is that the D-tank contains a virus that doesn't kill bioroids but instead inactivates the humans' reproduction system. The elders manipulated General Uranos to destroy the breeding facility and the D-tank which will slowly kill-off the human race and will let the bioroids replace them and become the new humankind. The 7 elders came to this conclusion when Gaia predicted that humans will destroy itself and the world within 3 generations. They figured that the bioroids will be better suited to live and restore the world than the humans.

My Personal Rating: 9/10