A couple years ago I picked up the DVD for Shinji Aramaki’s 2004 take on Masamune Shirow’s Appleseed, based purely on the spectacle of the trailers shootin’, explodin’ and robot violence. I’m no manga/anime conniseur but yeah, I’m a sucker like that.
The film attempted full integration of manga style while overlaying the traditionally animated look over smooth and sexy CGI. My eyes had a lot of fun. As an Appleseed noob however, the film actually took four attempts at beating sleep to wade through soggy and disjointed plot points and characters. Nevertheless, forth time was the charm and I’ve got no plans to hawk it off via used DVD buyback any time soon, thanks to mech on mech violence, explodey action set pieces and an unsuccessful attempt by a human head to avoid popping ala a cyborg hand hug.
Appleseed: The Movie Theater Movie was given a limited theatrical run in the U.S. (to the whopping sum of 129k) and was quickly released to DVD thereafter. Still, in the greater Asian market it must have done something worth repeating (despite earning only a shade over $1 million—DVD sales?) as Appleseed won fandom from the fantastic Hong Kong director turned crappy Hollywood director turned Hollywood ex-pat John Woo. So much in fact, that he produced a sequel titled Appleseed Ex Machina, which was released in Japan last month and hits LA via Jules verne Adventures Film Fest December 15th.
Appleseed Ex Machina features version 2.0 of the same animation style, so it’s bound, at the least, to give your eyes a lustful humping of spectacle if you’re into that kind of thing. If you’re interested and not living in/visiting LA, Warner Home Video has announced a DVD/HD/Blu-Ray release for March 11 of 08.
In the mean time, you can view the trailer at the official site here.