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Appleseed

Appleseed

List Price: $24.95
Your Price: $22.46
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 2 stars
Summary: go buy the manga
Review: i went to see this pile of... at the cinema and what a waste of time and effort that was. i then got it on vhs, but only becasue it was doubled with the infinitely superior "battle angel alita"
this anime is simply not worth the money. go hire it from a video shop so you can see for yourself. and then go and buy the manga, which is from a totally different world.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Only a version of the Shirow stories, but entertaining.
Review: I'd have given this movie 5 stars, but it falls a little short in the quality of animation, but in execution only. And by all means avoid the dubbed version like it'll blow up your DVD/VCR player. It's horrible! The voices are bizarre, they don't follow the bio's of the characters. For example, in the comic books the character Briareos is a 'Mediteranian Black' with a full cyborg body after he's severly injured in a accident with a land mine. But, in the dubbed version of the movie he sounds like a cab driver from Brooklyn! Besides that, the story is truncated and subtly altered into confusion. I guess when the movie first came out, it was thought that the US market wouldn't understand the story in the original context, so they changed the translation to make it simpler. If you were to watch the movies back to back the stories would appear very different.

I've been a huge fan of Masamune Shirow since the first issue of the 'Appleseed' comic book. This movie does hit the high points of the general themes in the comic books, but doesn't really follow any one story found in the comic books or graphic novels. It's kind of like David Lynche's version of 'Dune', it's one way of telling part of a much larger deeper story that's found only in the print version. To really enjoy and understand just what's going on in the world of Appleseed you've got to read the comic books and graphic novels. Shirow is really on to something in his views of human cloning, cybernetic technology, and the politics of the future. In short, the movie's cool, but the graphic novels and comic books are much better.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: ...............
Review: I'll confess that I am a Shirow fan and I've enjoyed reading Appleseed. I was looking forward to the anime, but I was a bit disappointed by it. This anime is based on Appleseed: Book 2, but to condense that lengthy volume into a one hour movie, some sacrifices had to be made.

One of the major things which suffered in the conversion was the characterization. The same familiar characters of Deunan, Briarios, and Hitomi are still there, but they are very watered-down when compared to the rich characters they were in the manga. They have very little character depth or personality in the anime.

The entire storyline is also somewhat different. While the overall plot is the same, the complexities are toned-down. It essentially follows a typical "police versus terrorist" storyline, with a little political intrigue from the manga thrown in. For those who find Shirow's works confusing, then this may be a blessing, but for those who enjoy the rich depth of his stories, then this will be a bitter disappointment.

The animation is of pretty average quality. The characters look the same as the manga, but it's generally not too flashy. While I haven't seen the dubbed version, I heard that excessive swearing was added in. The subtitled version has almost no profanity in it.

Appleseed does have some entertainment value. If you've never read the manga before then you'll probably get some enjoyment out of this. Fans of the manga should probably give it a pass, though.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: English translation is terrible
Review: I've seen both the English dub' version and the Japanese language/English sub-title version. The sub-titled version is orders-of-magnitude better. Whoever did the English dub' for Appleseed didn't just translate, but tried to localize it, swapping the original dialog for phrases and text that would sound "more american". The result is almost two different movies. If you have a choice, ONLY get the Japanese language version.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: READ the comics! Masamune is a genius!
Review: Masamune Shirow is a wonderful writer & artist. The appleseed comic series is really wonderful: both intelligent, funny & beautifully drawn, everyone I've lent this to or bought it for has LOVED it..

The video is interesting, but might dissapoint. The story is well done, but lacking the details and beautiful art of the comics. It is not as good as his other stories on video (M-66 Black Magic, about escaped battle droids that need to be recaptured) and Ghost in the Shell (about intelligence in the robot and computer systems and what is a soul, anyways?) ...

But: I still recommend this! =)

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: READ the comics! Masamune is a genius!
Review: Masamune Shirow is a wonderful writer & artist. The appleseed comic series is really wonderful: both intelligent, funny & beautifully drawn, everyone I've lent this to or bought it for has LOVED it..

The video is interesting, but might dissapoint. The story is well done, but lacking the details and beautiful art of the comics. It is not as good as his other stories on video (M-66 Black Magic, about escaped battle droids that need to be recaptured) and Ghost in the Shell (about intelligence in the robot and computer systems and what is a soul, anyways?) ...

But: I still recommend this! =)

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: READ the comics! Masamune is a genius!
Review: Masamune Shirow is a wonderful writer & artist. The appleseed comic series is really wonderful: both intelligent, funny & beautifully drawn, everyone I've lent this to or bought it for has LOVED it..

The video is interesting, but might dissapoint. The story is well done, but lacking the details and beautiful art of the comics. It is not as good as his other stories on video (M-66 Black Magic, about escaped battle droids that need to be recaptured) and Ghost in the Shell (about intelligence in the robot and computer systems and what is a soul, anyways?) ...

But: I still recommend this! =)

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: A Major Let Down Compared to the Manga!
Review: Shirow, Shirow, Shirow what were you thinking! Allowing Appleseed one of the greatest cyber punk story lines of all time becomeing a 50 min Anime! Not only that but the main story line is taken mostly from the second book in the manga series, published by Dark Horse. The voices are absolutly annoying and the animation is average. If you want to get the true value out of your money pass on this and get the manga by Masamune Shirow, author of Ghost in the Shell.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Good start, needs more
Review: The animation in this one was good, and the plot was compelling enough, but if you're looking for high action, blood, and what have you, go see ninja scroll or ghost in the shell. The ending was also a bit anti-climatic

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Well, I liked it
Review: The animation was superb and the characters were likeable. The plot wasn't well defined but I can over look that due how beautiful the movie was. If you like Mecha and anime, you'll enjoy this movie. If you don't know what mecha and anime are, you'll be left a bit cold. However, my girlfriend managed to sit through the whole thing, and that's saying a lot.


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