Appleseed Ex Machina

Appleseed Ex Machina

Episodes: 1 (Movie)

Aired: Oct 24, 2007

Warning: Spoilers!! Appleseed's second movie, Ex Machina, Is a direct continuation from the first movie. The duo of Deunan and Briareos are back and are still active members of E-S.W.A.T. After a mission which left Briareos injured, Deunan was assigned a new partner, a Bioroid name Tereus, who is the splitting image of Briareos when he was still a human.(Tereus was a bioroid designed from Briareos' DNA). After recovering from injury Briareos himself was assigned a new partner, half human half cyborg Aeacus.

The improved graphics is awesome

The animation is fluid

After peace was achieved in Olympus, Prime Mister Athena was looking for bigger scale peace,she held a conference with other world leaders for the discussion of the creation of a unified satellite system which will aid in issues regarding international peace. Without any sign,  Robots, citizens and even E-S.W.A.T. members (Aeacus) tried to terrorize the on going meeting. It was found out later that the individuals involve in the terrorism were all infected by a virus which affects cyborgs and half cyborgs alike.

Briareos meets Tereus  who looks like his human self

Half-man Half-Cyborg E-SWAT member Aeacus

During the demonstration of the unified satellite, Briareos, who was wandering in the city, loses control. From a some kind of a computer terminal in the streets, Briareos was able to connect and hack the unified satellite command center. (Indirectly, he actually just crashed the system since the virus was installed on the back up module which will then install itself after the system failure)

Hitomi Returns as the new Minster of Political Affairs

Still Prime Minister Athena

Briareos was detained and was put under surveillance. Connecting the Briareos and Aeacus individual cases, Briareos, with the help of Hitomi, was able to deduce that the doctor(Richard Kestner) that he and Aeacus shared was somehow involved. They were able to learn that Kestner was a former doctor of a laboratory named "Halcon" which was based on another utopian city called Poseidon. Briareos eventually escaped and hunted for the doctor.

Briareo's Innards

Duh!

The doctor admitted to his involvement in using Briareos to hack the satellite, and spilled the plans to use the satellite to expand the mind control through Connexus (Device that citizens wear, kinda like a computer you wear on your head). The Doctor also justified the mind control actions as a means of achieving peace by eliminating individuality which is the source of human conflicts. After the Doctor committed his suicide, Briareos escapes from soldiers who were able to track him, he then lost control again but was luckily saved by Tereus and Deunan with the help of a vaccine.

Zombies err...Mind controlled citizens

Infected Briareos

The three then met up with Poseidon officials, and asked for help regarding the mind control and Halcon. The three found out that Halcon was a former leading laboratory which was led by Doctor Elizabeth Xander and Doctor Richard Kestner. The Lab focused on helping war veterans to regain mobility with the help of cyborg and artificial intelligence. However it turned for the worst when the doctors became obsessed with "mind control" which led to the Laboratory's downfall. The three then with the assistance of Poseidon, sets to intrude the the ruins of the Halcon Laboratory and find out the secrets within it's walls.

Unknown creature appears!

The Unified Satellite system demonstrated that it can project cool holograms of olive trees. lol

My Review:

The plot was okay, it was again complex and well made, but not a masterpiece. While the First movie focused on the issues of the co-existence of Humans and Bioroids (Artifical Humans who can't feel anger nor hatred) this time the movie focused on the vulnerability of our cyborg friends through mind control. It was stated by the enemies in the film that mind control can erase individuality which will then eliminate, again "self-will", which is the root of greed, anger and other bad stuff. The show also focused on ethical issues with bioroid again when a new character named Tereus was introduced. Tereus is designed from the DNA of briareos which makes him the mirror image of the human Briareos. Tereus' introduction also stirs up things for the relationship of Deunan and Briareos, specially when Briareos was replaced by him as Deunan's new partner. The art is a lot better that the first film (should be because they were about 3 years apart.) The 3D graphics is extemely good, detailed and more beautiful. The whole film is a great eye candy. If you liked the first film and you like sci-fi or just plain 3D movies, im sure you'll love this sequel.

E-S.WAT

The Landmates (should be airmates) are back!

My Personal Rating: 8/10

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

Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae wa Bokutachi wa Mada Shiranai

Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae wa Bokutachi wa Mada Shiranai

"We Still Don't Know the Flower We Saw That Day"

Episodes:11

Aired:Apr 15, 2011- Jun 24, 2011

Ano Hi Mita Hana is about a group of childhood friends who is being haunted by their cute childhood friend who is now a cute ghost. The show focuses on the now teenagers as they try reunite the old childhood group and try to come to terms with each other and their own pasts. Along the way they will realize their regrets and past mistakes as they try to fix these mistakes and move on with their lives. Eventually they all have to deal with the acceptance of someone who will never come back to life. Meiko Honma (menma) is our cute ghost who unfortunately died on an accident when she was still a child, She comes back to the physical world probably because of things she has yet to settle before she can finally rest. Our main protagonist, and the only one who can see our Menam is Jinta Yadomi. Now Jinta's issue is that he probably loved Honma back when they were still young/ He was a typical rowdy kid who always makes the crybaby Menma cry.   Unfortunately Honma died before Jinta could ever apologize nor express his true emotions. Now after a lot of years Honma appears before the now hikikomori Jinta as a ghost, how will Jinta handle this situation? The other characters Naruko Anjou, Tetsudou Hisakawa, Atsumu Matsuyuki and Chiriko Tsuyumi also has "heavy" issues of their own which stems from their past as childhood friends and the death of their beloved Honma. All of them will have to deal with these issues in order to set Menma free. The characters are the driving force of this show.

L-R: Jinta, Tetsu, Anjou, Menma, Atsumu and Chiriko (Super Peace Busters)

L-R: Satoshi(menma's lil bro), Chiriko, Atsumu, Jinta, Anjou and Tetsu.

Ano Hi Mita Hana is a real tear Jerker, in each episode they'll have something under their sleeves that'll make your eyes wet. It's an emotional roller coaster through remembering the bitter-sweet past and learning how to get over it and move on. The art is good, vividly colored and consistently top quality. Animation is fluid too. The script is something real special as it sounds perfect for each scene, nothing really sounded forced or out of place and you could really feel their emotions through their words. Besides the ghost, everything feels realistic and the show itself feels like a drama instead of an anime. This is recommended for everyone except those who don't want to cry.

Menma's Goodbye Letters

From the start you'd expect that in no way this'll have a happy ending.

My Personal Rating: 9/10

OP1: Aoi Shiori (Blue Bookmark) - Galileo Galilei

ED2: Secret Base ~ Kimi ga Kureta Mono (After 10 Years) - Ai Kayano