Review of 'Appleseed Ex Machina (Ekusu makina)'

Appleseed is a long-running Japanese animation series. It tells the story of two members of the E.S.W.A.T. team that serves to protect the city-state of Olympus. Deunan is a young female warrior and Briareos is her cyborg partner (and lover). This story sees our two heroes battling not only a threat to Olympus (and the security of the fledgling world order) but also to themselves as Briareos is mortally wounded very early in the story. Tereus replaces Briareos as Deunan's partner in an awkward fashion as he is a Bioroid copy of Briareos – Having the (now obscured) face of Briareos. Wierd.

Action flies thick and fast in this follow-up to the 2004 Appleseed movie by the same director. This time the computer animation is even better and the action is stepped up (if possible). As has always been one of the strengths of Appleseed it is the characters that really shine through with the tension between Deunan and Briareos raised as the movie progresses. Once again what it is to be human is called into question as a cyborg terrorist unit attacks Olympus. With repression of cyborgs and the mysterious mind control devices how will E.S.W.A.T. save the day…?

Fan of Appleseed? Fan of contemporary Japanese animation? Like action? Like good science fiction and believable characters? Say no more…

Rating: “Nearly perfect, but not quite”

Review Date: 2008-05-06

Directed by: Shinji Aramaki

Studio: Ex Machina Film Partners

Year: 2007

Length: 103 minutes

Genre: Japanese Animation

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1043842/

• Appleseed (Appurushîdo) (2004)