Paradise Lost

Much has been said about Masamune Shirow's other epic influential manga, Ghost in the Shell. That manga, and the anime movie and television series that followed it, helped popularize and revolutionize the anime phenomenon.

That isn't Shirow's only manga, however. There is one manga that he considers his "life's work-" that manga is Appleseed. Still ongoing after around 20 years (and uncertain if it will be finished at all) it is a deep reflection on man, technology and society.

An anime adaptation was made, if I recall correctly, in the early nineties, and it wasn't all that good. The story was taken out in favor of the angst and action - and considering that what was left was mediocre animation, it wasn't all that appealing.

Years later, I found out that there was a second adaptation of Appleseed, and when I saw the trailer, I was stunned. Unlike the full CGI approach that movies like Final Fantasy The Spirits Within took, Appleseed took the approach of cel-shaded 3D graphics, used previously, to my knowledge, only in videogames like XIII.

Having seen the movie, my verdict is: the movie looks spectacular, but if you're looking for a deep story, there's none of that here.

Appleseed takes us to the future earth of 2137, where man has almost driven itself to extinction. In a bleak, devastated field of battle (in a spectacularly choreographed scene that shows us how to use slow mo the right way) a warrior named Deunan Knute is rescued. She is taken to Olympus, one of the last refuges of man, a city that looks like paradise... at first. In this land humans and artificial creations called bioroids live side by side. But there are forces that conspire to destroy this balance between human and bioroid. Deunan and her former partner (and lover?) Briareos Hecatonchires team up to find out who before a terrible mass murder is committed, as well as uncovering the secret of Appleseed.

Visually, this movie is, for lack of a better term, gorgeous. The CGI is astounding, a significant leap over previous Japanese attempts at CGI (Visitor and A.Li.Ce come to mind) The ocean scenes showcase the added visual power the movie has in comparison to its predecessors. The climactic final scenes are fast and are a delight to watch.

The pulse-pounding soundtrack is excellent - while it lasts. Somewhere in the last quarter of the movie, the frenetic electronic tracks are replaced with much more standard action movie soundtrack fare, only to reappear in the opening credits. I wish the whole film was included in the soundtrack - it gave the first 3/4ths of the movie life.

The story, unfortunately, is where the movie begins to falter. The scenes feel too tacked on with respect to each other. It feels like a cliff's notes version of the manga - and even then, it takes a lot of liberties with the original material. More importantly, the philosophical discussions and overtones of the manga have been all but omitted in the film - and that's what Shirow's manga in general has in substance: the complicated politics and sci-fi metaphysical musings.

Appleseed succeeds in being a revolutionary movie in terms of visuals, but in everywhere else, it's your normal anime movie. Sadly, this trend has been seen in several other anime as well, and the use of cliche may not be as appreciated by some audiences. For me, however, it turned out to be a very satisfactory experience all around. Watch out for it, if just for the eye candy.



p.s. speaking of eyecandy, Appleseed 2 is in the works. John Woo is reportedly producing. Not to be outdone, Square is releasing the much antipated CGI-animated sequel to Final Fantasy 7 - Final Fantasy Advent Children. The movie premiers in the Venice Film festival at around this time. I've seen the trailer and I was pretty much blown away...