Appleseed: Difference between revisions

 

 

The one-shot OVA was produced in 1988 and has little in common with the original manga except the setting and the characters. The plot concerns a colleague of Deunan and Briareos, who feels that instead of Utopia, Olympus is a [[Gilded Cage]] designed to prevent humans from living a fulfilling life. To destroy this cage, he conspires with a professional terrorist and it's up to Deunan and Briareos to stop them.

Sixteen years later, the first feature film was released. Just like the OVA, it shares little with the original manga and diverges even in the premise: instead of joining ESWAT together, Deunan and Briareos are separated by accident long before coming to Olympus and have to regain mutual trust over the course of the film. The main plot centers on the struggle of two equally extremist [[Fantastic Racism|racist]] factions in Olympus, each desiring to destroy either the original humanity, or the bioroids to make way for the other. The movie featured a unique for that time style of animation that seamlessly blended traditional anime designs and [[All CGI Cartoon|CGI]] and which was later reused in the sequel and an unrelated movie ''[[Vexille]]'', produced largely by the same people.

 

 

 

Not to be confused with [[Johnny Appleseed]], or anything else named after the man.

 

----

* [[Action Girl]]: Deunan.

* [[After the End]]

* [[Battle Couple]]: Deunan and Briareos.

* [[Beast and Beauty]]: Deunan and Briareos, though in the OVA they've been a couple since before he had his cybernetic upgrades.

* [[Blade Run]]: Deunan vs. that construction mecha in ''Ex Machina''.

* [[Bloodstained-Glass Windows]] The opening sequence of ''Ex Machina'', in fine [[John Woo]] tradition.

* [[Bullet Time]]: Used extensively in the movies, especially ''Ex Machina''.

* [[But Not Too Foreign]]: Averted, Deunan once spells out her ancestry for Hitomi and there is a lot of variety (she's mixed-race African on her mother's side), but no Japanese. Shirow has mentioned that she won the genetic lottery as far as physical skills go, which is why her employers and colleagues put up with her eccentricities.

* [[Catch a Falling Star]]

* [[Cavalry Betrayal]]: There's a bit near the end of ''Ex Machina'' where we're led to believe that the Poseidon special-forces are pulling this. {{spoiler|Turns out it just took them a while to spot the protagonists in need of rescue, and they turn up shortly afterwards.}}

* [[Cel Shading]]: The 2004 movie is entirely in CG with a blend of motion capture and cel shading.

* [[Chainsaw Good]]: Briareos wields a freaking chainsword in ''Ex Machina''.

* [[Composite Character]]: Tereus from ''Ex Machina'' has elements of both Briareos and Fang from the manga. Makes sense, seeing as {{spoiler|he's a clone of the former}}.

* [[Cowboy Cop]]: Colonel Hades was one during his LA SWAT days; this factored into his expulsion from the group by Deunan's father, [[Jumping Off the Slippery Slope|which fueled his ultimately suicidal revenge scheme against the Knutes]].

* [[The Empire|Empire, The]]: The American Empire in the manga (they just left it as "USA" in the film, they didn't want to make anyone angry)

** Which is stupid, because Stand Alone Complex used the term American Empire constantly.

* [[SWAT Team|ESWAT Team]]

* [[The Evils of Free Will]]: {{spoiler|Serves as the villain's primary motivation in ''Ex Machina''.}}

* [[Ignored Epiphany]]: After Briareos delivers a [[Kirk Summation]] to the Regular Army, everyone realizes what they had almost gotten themselves into... save for Colonel Hades ("I've heard enough--''and I'll be damned if I let some machine tell me what to do!''").

* [[It's Personal]]: What blinds Colonel Hades to the fact that {{spoiler|his vendetta against Deunan's father for booting him off of LA SWAT, which he hopes will destroy the Bioroids, could actually lead to humanity's extinction}}.

** Likewise General Uranus; he was trying a coup ''and'' a genocide, but apparently calling off your attempt at the last minute and saying "sorry" is all that it takes to be forgiven. {{spoiler|On the other hand, it was implied that the Elders were manipulating him into taking action and that it was his own race that he was unwittingly endangering (and not the Bioroids like he had thought for most of the film), which might have factored into his rather lenient sentence.}}

* [[Knife Nut]]: Deunan grabs her knife when going for the ubercyborg during the [[Church Shootout]] in ''Ex Machina''... and kicks his ass badly. She takes out three guys with a very large knife (she insists it's a sword) in the manga, too.

* [[Mecha Expansion Pack]]: In the fourth volume of the manga, Briareos uses a series of attachments that basically turns him into a Landmate.

* [[Mega Corp]]: Poseidon in ''Ex Machina.''.

* [[Meganekko]]: Chiffon, the [[Dark-Skinned Blond]] who befriended Deunan, was part of the human insurgency and [[Boom! Headshot!|killed brutally]] by Deunan unknowingly in the manga's first volume.

** Unknowingly? Chiffon flat-out recognized Deunan and called her name, and Deunan knew exactly who she just gunned down. This is, also, after Chiffon and company shot the hell out of Briareos too, so you can kind of forgive Deunan for plugging her "friend" like that.

* [[More Dakka]] Spider Gun Platforms in the manga and OAV, Mobile Fortresses in the first movie.

* [[Narm]]: ''Ex Machina'' has lots of mildy narm scenes and dialog lines. Arguably it applies to the whole plot, as all the problems are really the result of [[Too Dumb to Live]] by both the main characters and the government.

* [[Orphaned Series]]: The manga.

* [[The Password Is Always Swordfish]]: {{spoiler|Hitomi}}.

** "Don't fuck with me!"

* [[Race Lift]]: Though it's nearly impossible to tell in the manga due to the lack of a... well, a FACE, Briareos is apparently African-American originally, as seen in some artwork Shirow has done (including a very odd-looking beach-scene). In the 2004 film and ''Ex Machina'', Briareos is retconned to be a rather Japanese-looking [[Bishonen]].

* [[Real Men Wear Pink]]: Implied by way of [[Fridge Logic]] in ''Ex Machina'', when Deunan receives a top-of-the-line and very, ''very'' pink Landmate from the Poseidon assault team she's working alongside. Meanwhile, the Poseidon commander, Argus, uses the ESWAT model that she turned up in. Now, normally, one would expect him to use his own suit... unless, of course, he'd given it to someone else to pilot instead. Perhaps bubblegum pink is a signifier of rank in Poseidon?

* [[Reasonable Authority Figure]]: Athena tries to get Deunan killed at the start of the film; however, in truth she didn't know Deunan's role in what was going on at the time, and when the Regular Army comes close to committing genocide she sends her, along with the rest of Kudo's ESWAT unit, on a mission to retrieve the Appleseed (which can save the Bioroid race and was long thought destroyed by Dr. Gilliam until an Elder revealed its existence at an emergency meeting called by Athena to discuss the implications of a terrorist attack on the Bioroid day care center).

* [[Scary Black Man]]: In the original manga, Briareos was black before becoming a full-body cyborg.

* [[The Smurfette Principle]]: Deunan is the only on-screen female in ESWAT, but she is [[The Hero]] and leads a team of elite soldiers.

** At least in the OVA she is the only female Landmate pilot, or at least that's implied.

* [[Spider Tank]]: Spider Gun Platforms, and smaller Spider Drones.

* [[Unwitting Pawn]]: {{spoiler|The Regular Army.}}

* [[We Can Rebuild Him]]: Briareos in the OVA.

* [[World War III]]: And IV, for that matter.

* [[Zombie Apocalypse]]: not exactly, but the [[Brainwashed and Crazy]] mob in ''Ex Machina'' looked much like it, right down to the [[Zombie Gait]].

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Anime]]

[[Category:Manga]]

[[Category:Dark Horse Comics]]

[[Category:Geneon]]