Appleseed

• (Japanese: アップルシード, Hepburn: Appurushīdo)
• Directed by Kazuyoshi Katayama
• April 21, 1988
• Based on the manga of the same name created by Masamune Shirow

Voice Cast

• Hitomi-Julia Braams as Julia Brahms
• Athena-Lorelei King
• Karon-Alan Marriott as David Reynolds
• AJ-Vincent Marzello
• Dunan-Larissa Murray
• Bularios-William Roberts as Bill Roberts

After WWIII a police officer and her cyborg partner fight terrorism in a city built to usher in a better tomorrow.

Personally I was drawn to the Japanese OVA Appleseed based on the animation style that reminded me heavily of the classic series Battle of the Planets. Not great stuff but there is real nostalgia from my youth for that show. But I’m getting a little off track. This is based off of a manga which has inspired so much else, but it’s my understanding that only the location and character names are used with the story itself heavily deviating from the source material. How much of a deviation I do not know.

What is clear is that this film relies heavily on the viewers’ familiarity with the source material. It engages in virtually no characterization. I know nothing about our central characters Dunan and Bularios. Barely even know their names. And Bularios particularly intrigues me because it wears a police uniform yet is largely mechanical. That is a big question to me.

Nor do I know much about Olympus city police officer Charon Mautholos and the terrorist A. J. Sebastian who are conspiring together to destroy the city’s governing computer Gaia. Motivation is a bit thin. They are simply in their respective corners and must face off because that is how things are.

The whole scenario you are just dumped in and trying to figure out what’s going on. There’s very little if any set up. Appleseed just hits the ground running and doesn’t stop to take a breath which is a real shortcoming. This is clearly for fans of the source material even if it doesn’t adhere to it. I’m guessing at 70 minutes or so of runtime decisions needed to be made so rather than spend some time on character development they just went in on story.

The dialogue feels like it’s written for a children’s show. And maybe this was aimed at kids. I know Japanese OVA has adult fans but not sure what age group it may be aimed at. Or this is just an example of what passed for mature dialogue in Japanese animation dubbed for American audiences of the time. I can’t say. 

The background designs are fairly generic and not too different from anything you might’ve seen in American Saturday morning or first run animation of the era. Even the character designs are pretty standard stuff. What stands out are the machine designs. They are imaginative and bordering on fanciful. The machines themselves I found reminiscent of the film Chappie as well as Mother. Just take a look at the character Bularios. I know Appleseed is considered a bit of a classic and classics have influence so I’m guessing they took some liberal inspiration from this film. 

I cannot quite recommend Appleseed. There are far too many shortcomings in my opinion. Perhaps it was more intriguing back in the day, but it is a film that has not aged well. Maybe later iterations of the concept are worth it but not this. Skip.