Appleseed Alpha [DVD]

My first experience of the Appleseed universe was over 25 years ago, on a second-hand videocassette of the OVA (Otiginal Video Animation). At the time I was impressed by the way it treated its audience as adults, without the need to resort to ultraviolence or explicit and graphic imagery (yes, I am looking at you Urotsukodoji), but disappointed at the sometimes confusing plot. However, it did introduce two of anime's most resilient characters: the feisty Duenan and her cyborg partner Briarios.Over the years, Appleseed has been updated to reflect changing styles in animation, world view and writing styles, with mixed results. But, with the release of Appleseed Alpha we seem to have finally returned to the heart of Shirow Masamune's incredible world.Alpha is different from previous material in several ways: firstly, the animation. Is incredibly detailed, right down to imperfections in the fabrics that people wear; secondly, the story is much more coherent and has a proper narrative flow that you can understand in a single viewing and finally, it is a prequel, taking us back to before everything we have hitherto seen and introducing Deunan and Briarios in a whole new way.It is this final element that is perhaps most compelling, the decision to take our heroes back to before they found Olympus and made it their home is a brave one. We see the detail of the post-apocalyptic world they came much more, with a beautifully realised and entirely recognisable New York acting as a focal point for much of the film.The reboot has stripped away some of the naive idealism and clumsy moralising that had entrenched itself in parts of Appleseed, replacing it with a sense of desperation and disillusionment, with the only the tiniest promise of hope: the war had clearly gone on for too long, with too much destroyed and far too many people killed. Our heroes are living day by day, working on pointless 'missions' for a ruthless gang boss who is largely running the city and they struggle to see a way forward.The way forward comes unexpectedly, in the form of a pair of individuals claiming to be on a mission for the mythical city of Olympus, and it is down to Deunan and Briarios to either help them complete it, or watch what's left of the world be destroyed.The world and our heroes are in need of redemption. Who will get what and how they will get it is where this film is taking us. And what a visually stunning journey it is. Hopefully, this marks a new series of Appleseed adventures that take us all the way back home.The disc [Blu-Ray]The image is pin-sharp and fantastically detailed, with every pock-mark, crumbling piece of concrete and piece of dirt on Deunan's top popping out of the screen in outstanding clarity. The colours are also well-balanced with a broad palette throughout, as you would expect on such high-end digitally sourced material, but these are somewhat weakened by the poor contrast and black level. Many of the black and shadow areas disappear into a murky grey that lets down the other elements of the picture. Riding the contrast on the TV helped to compensate, but this shouldn't be necessary on a release like this.The sound is generally good, with the mix being put to some work in the battle scenes, managing to provide good bass levels and clear speech.The extras informative and interesting, without being groundbreaking. That so many had previously worked on other Applseed projects explains why so much care and attention had gone into the production and such information makes the extras worth a watch.

I've been a big fan of Appleseed ever since I first bought the  original VHS  back when I was 17. The franchise saw reprints of the Manga come and go until the  reboot  and the  2007 sequel , both of which I also really enjoyed. This particular movie, despite being from the same creative team, is sadly not in continuity with the others and is a "soft retelling" of how Deunan Knute and her rabbit-eared cyborg boyfriend Briareos fought their way through a post-WIII America before arriving in Olympus City.It is by no means bad, but still a bit of a disappointment. I will chalk this up to the fact that Sony have gotten their dirty hands on the franchise since they have a long history of mis-managing pre-existing properties. This instalment honestly feels and looks more like one of the disposable CGI Resident Evil movies than Appleseed. There is a decent atmosphere in the empty cities and quiet, lifeless deserts but it doesn't have the gloss and tech that I am used to from this series. The tech on display here is old and war-scarred, adding a riff of grubbiness to it that I'm not used to. Plus, there's very little to identify with, Deunan seems to be the only pure human with no bio-mech augmentations. I know it's a cliched criticism to make of such movies, but it did honestly make me feel like I was watching a video game cut-scene. A bit more of the human element would have balanced things out and eliminating that truly, truly, utterly awful soundtrack would have pushed my final score a little higher.I don't know what Sony were thinking. I liked the Japanese textures of Appleseed, and their attempts to Westernize it just don't sit well with me as a fan. It's worth watching but definitely the least appealing in the entire series so far.The Blu-ray looks okay in 1.78:1 1080p. The brightness could have been lowered a little to make the movie look a bit more cinematic. The DTS HD-MA soundtrack fares better though. The soundtrack was honestly so awful I was disappointed that there was no Japanese track on this Blu-ray. I would have happily read subtitles if it meant the removal of all those terrible hip-hop sounding songs. A small amount of extras are included.