20th Anniversary Appleseed and Appleseed Ex Machina Double Feature Interest Thread
Tags: Mecha, Sci-Fi, Action, Naval-Gazing
Appleseed was my favorite translated manga from Viz. You can't imagine my consternation when the mangaka, Masamune Shirow, moved on to start some other stupid manga called Ghost in the Shell or something.
The initial story, from which the series gets its name, has never had a proper adaption. Both the 1988 OVA and the 2004 movie took aspects of the first two collections, The Promethean Challenge, and Prometheus Unbound, but wrote their own stories. The OVA was condensed down to be an action vehicle. The movie took other aspects, but wrote in a new villain, and flipped philosophical perspectives. At least it features [2004 spoiler]robot gun platforms, the absence of which in the OVA really torqued me.
Oh, did I mention philosophy? Yes, this is the same guy that wrote the Ghost in the Shell manga. Sure, it's not written and directed by the team of Oshii and Ito, but they didn't pull that out of nowhere. You will definitely get people standing around arguing about what it is to be human.
Oh, did I mention directors? The man responsible in this case is Shinji Aramkai, who had quite a pedigree in the mecha genre before going down the rabbit hole of CGI for the remainder of his career. Apparently partial to exoskeletons, Aramaki designed the transforming motorcycle suits in Genesis Climber Mospeda, Bubblegum Crisis and Megazone 23, and other exoskeletons in shows such as Metal Skin Panic Maddox 01.
Starting with Appleseed (2004), he has focused exclusively on motion-captured CGI mecha series, including Starship Troopers sequels and GitS 2045. Appleseed, in particular, features a digital painting technique intended to emulate hand cel shading. The Appleseed franchise has been stuck in bad CGI hell ever since.
Yeah, I hate it too. But this is Appleseed. And it's 2024. And that means ANNIVERSARY REWATCH!
I figured that if I show the first Aramaki movie, I might as well show the second, Ex Machina, an original story. I propose a single rewatch thread for the double feature in the first week of November (say, somewhere between Nov. 1 and Nov. 9):
Not included:
- Appleseed (1988) (alternate version)
- Gainax PV for 1998
- Appleseed α (total reboot movie)
- Appleseed XIII and its compilation movies. I'm rather fond of this PV, though. (total reboot TV series)
Since these are movies, there will also be a 1-week reminder.
There is the option of splitting them up, a week apart. Less of a double feature, though. And I don't want to get too close to U.S. Thanksgiving / college exams / football.
Setting
Appleseed is set in the utopic city of Olympus, a perfect society populated by perfect people: engineered by the city designers to perform the functions of the city in a peaceful, orderly manner. The striking arcologies visually underscore the meticulously designed nature of the city. Olympus is also home to some number of natural humans: refugees and recruits from the post-nuclear wastelands outside the Olympus. While the old nation states still exist, Olympus is the dominant global power and attempts to maintain order via mandatory disarmament.
The main characters are Deunan Nut (Knute) and her partner (literally) Briareos, now Briareos Hecatonchires, a rare Hecatonchires cyborg. Both are skilled fighters, formerly part of her father's mercenary group before being separated when Briareos was mortally wounded. They are aggressively recruited by Olympus to join E.S.W.A.T. (Extra-special weapons and tactics) to handle global and domestic security threats. There are those who value freedom and individuality over the rational paternalism of the bioroids.
I may hate the CGI, but this opening is gorgeous, one of the best I've ever seen.
Sub or Dub: It took me many years to find a JP version of Ex Machina, and I didn't watch it until I found it. You might as well stick to the localizations if that's what you have.
Where to watch: There's an easily obtainable 4K upscale of 2004 in English. AI can't make it look any worse, right? Peacock seems to be rather confused about which version they have, it seems to be the OVA. It appears Sentai has the rights, but they are not streaming either movie.
The original PVs for Appleseed
Mecha content: Powered Armored Suits, Tanks
Trivia: Ex Machina was produced by John Woo. I guess he liked the first one.
Reply positively to this thread to be tagged for the 1-week reminder and actual posting.
by JustAnswerAQuestion
14 Comments
Hi JustAnswerAQuestion, it looks like you might be interested in hosting a rewatch! [There’s a longer guide on the wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/anime/wiki/successfulrewatchguide) but here’s some basic advice on how to make a good rewatch happen:
* Include **basic information about the anime** such as a description for those that haven’t heard of it as well as where it can be watched (if legally available).
* Specify a **date and time** that rewatch threads will be posted. Consistency is good!
* Check for **[previous rewatches](https://www.reddit.com/r/anime/wiki/rewatches)**. It’s generally advised to wait a year between rewatches of the same anime.
* If you want to have a rewatch for multiple anime, they should be **thematically connected**. You can also hold multiple unrelated rewatches if they aren’t.
* Ensuring **enough people are interested** is important. If only a few users say they *might* participate, you may end up with no one commenting once it starts.
[](#bot-chan)
I hope this helps! You may also want to talk to users that have hosted rewatches before for extra advice, also listed [on the rewatch wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/anime/wiki/rewatches).
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[Appleseed Movies Double Feature Interest Thread](/comments/1g5jwa9/)
^(/u/shimmering-sky /u/no_rex /u/nazenn)
Sorry but pass, I don’t do anime movies. Or regular movies. Fuck, Oppenheimer is the only movie I’ve watched since Joker and before that was Endgame.
Also, you do know it is almost 2 am Eastern, right? You might want to link this to CDF come morning for you.
Put me down as a maybe. I’ve done a fair bit of series back to back this year so some breathing room might be nice, but two movies is probably easily doable depending on the schedule.
I don’t think I can fully commit right now but I am interested. If you tag me for the 1 week reminder, I’ll know then whether or not I’ll be able to join.
Hooo, yeah that’s some rough CG. The opening does look super dope, though.
I’ve never seen these, might be fun. See how much I have to say.
I’m interested as a first timer, though I’m not 100% sure if I’ll have enough free time for the watch.
If there’s enough interest I’d probably recommend splitting the movies into 2 threads just to keep the discussion focused (unless maybe there won’t be enough to talk about without both?).
Oh, I can probably do this! I’ve not been expecting to join any Rewatches for a bit but a movie is pretty low commitment and Appleseed is a pretty big name I’d like to get around to in some form.
Probably count me in. Early janky looking 2000s CG sure is something I probably interested to watch for a nice change of pace after finally got past this year of college.
Still sad that I wasn’t able to join Infinite Ryvius.
Put me down as a maybe. I’ve been planning to read the Appleseed manga for quite a while now, so I’m interested in the series. I may have time to participate in this, but I’m busy so I’m not sure.
It may be terrible CG, but it is *my* terrible CG. I actually quite liked the first movie (and *Starship Troopers Roughnecks* for that matter) back in the day.
I’m in.
Two movies in one thread is too much for me, sorry. Maybe if it was individual threads, but it’s too much to put three hours and two different stories into one discussion
Thanks for tag, and absolutely, why not? Sounds like it could be… certainly something
Probably down