Forum - View topicThe Mike Toole Show - Need for Seed
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Zhou-BR
Posts: 1461 |
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The only animated installment of Appleseed I've ever tried to watch was the XIII TV series, which I dropped after two episodes because the CG was unacceptably bad. The writing wasn't bad, though.
Still, I'm posting here just to say I agree 100% about Tetsuya Takahashi's terrible Hollywood-wannabe soundtracks. For some reason, anime studios keep hiring this guy when they produce something with an eye on Western markets, but his music somehow manages to be overblown and boring at the same time. |
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belvadeer
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I really need to invest in Appleseed more since I fondly recall the 1988 OAV (Bri is such a badass and his very design is iconic).
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NormanS
 Posts: 167 |
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I really enjoy the appleseed franchise, i hold the 2004 film my top favorite (theres something fantastic about fighting a giant walker spider fortress with a cannon) and the tv series as the least.
I didn't like Alpha as much, the antagonist of the series were pathetic and forgettable, and didn't quite like the changes to Deunan showing that much skin when the previous series often shot deunan in practical full battle gear. Speaking of Masamune shirow, im surprised that Hollywood decided to adapt GiTS instead of Appleseed: its got simple antagonists, full of explosions, a mostly caucasian female character (easier to find actors), and its sci-fi/cyberpunk. Plus Briareos is fits the "macho badass" archetype too. |
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Alan45
 Village Elder Posts: 10019 Location: Virginia |
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All of the anime listed in Mike's column are available from RACS. They are probably available from RS but I can't get their new set up to work. All of the manga is also available from RACS except the first volume. It is available on E-bay but you have to be careful to get a Dark Horse edition.
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EricJ2
 Posts: 4016 |
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Only knew Appleseed from the 80's OVA (again, back when we "had" to watch it), and it was....okay:
The heroine was good, but we were drowning in 80's-OVA dystopic future cities at the time, and this one didn't have the offbeat spark of Shirow's Dominion, it was just sort of there. |
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Animechic420
 Posts: 1733 Location: A Cave Filled With Riches |
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In the very beginning, when I first saw Appleseed (OAV) in the late 90s, I became intrigued over the two main characters. It was later that I discovered the two were lovers.
Coolest. Thing. Ever! It's one of the reason I started liking the series Appleseed. The idea of a cyborg and a human together: I loved it!  They made such an interesting couple.
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rep21
Posts: 13 |
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Appleseed has always been my favorite Shirow work, even more than GITS. Which is why it saddens me that while the series has gotten various adaptions, none of them do the manga any justice at all. At least the GITS adaptions tend to be quality affairs and for the most part even if they are not 1.1 with the manga version at least capture the overall spirit of the story.
I have yet to see one Appleseed adaption that is really anything like it's source material. ( to be fair i still haven't watched the tv series as of yet) Right off the bat none of the anime versions of Duenan have really done her character justice. She isn't even a quarter as badass as she was in the manga where she was damn near a super soldier level fighter who in Vol 4 took down a basement full of terrorists ( starting with a group of combat cyborgs before moving on to the human ones) single handed armed only with her knife after running out of bullets, in one of the best action scenes i have seen drawn in a manga to date. Even the best action scenes in either movie were nothing compared to that. I really wanted them to attempt to copy that scene in at least one of the movies, sadly it never happened. They seem to make her a bit too emotional and whiny in the movies too when she was pretty hardcore in the books. Not to mention the overall plots of the ova, movies etc tend to suck as well. I mean the whole "ipod zombie" plot of the second movie, really? The manga plot was pretty good and also dealt with things like religious terrorism, racism, Human x Bioroid relations, and the overall under current that Olympus maybe wasn't the "paradise" it was made out to be. Almost none of this is ever touched on in most of the adaptions. I didn't particularly care for the "race lift" Briareos got in Ex Machina. ( he was a Black dude before becoming a full body Cyborg and Duenan is also of mixed race which is touched on in the manga) What really makes it frustrating is Shirow who has claimed that Appleseed was his "life's work" pretty much gave up on it after his stuff was all destroyed in an earthquake, i don't think he will ever complete it in my lifetime. 
To people who have just been exposed to Appleseed through the anime versions, you should really check out Vols 1-4 of the manga and Appleseed: Hypernotes. It's really good and easily the best versions of Duenan and Briareos, not to mention characters like Artemis who hasn't been in any of the movies. I really hope that future adaptions are more faithful to the manga. As someone posted already, a Hollywood adaption makes a lot of sense. More sense that Ghost in The Shell anyway. |
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nobahn
 Subscriber Posts: 5147 |
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I saw the OAV on SciFi one summer when Manga Entertainment was re-airing its catalog. The only thing that I remember from the OAV was the last scene, which struck me as being psychologically muted.
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TarsTarkas
 Posts: 5935 Location: Virginia, United States |
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Always loved Appleseed. Still have the laserdisc too. Always keep hoping they will move on from the origin story to an actual sequel, whether or not Shirow writes anything new.
I also keep hoping someone picks up Shirow's Orion manga. Really liked its science fantasy appeal. |
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Top Gun
 Posts: 4792 |
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I bought the steelbook release of the 2004 movie early in my anime fandom (and to date it, I think I got it when the Sam Goody in our mall was having its bankruptcy sale), and I remember it being really spectacular from an action standpoint at least. I might need to double-dip on Sentai's Blu-ray release of that. Never got around to Ex Machina though. I later caught the 80s OVA on SyFy, and it didn't really leave much of an impression of me, other than it being very much a product of its time. It's a fascinating setting, and I'd love to see someone go full-monty on it with a production on a similar level to Stand-Alone Complex.
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Fronzel
Posts: 1906 |
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He's kind of washed-up, isn't he? |
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Zhou-BR
Posts: 1461 |
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He's still working, but judging by his more recent output, its seems all he cares about drawing nowadays are oiled-up babes having sex with each other or getting gang-banged by faceless ogres. |
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One-Eye
 Posts: 2267 |
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I think all the Appleseed anime are pretty mediocre, but I still enjoy them and own a few of them pretty much for the reason that Mike gave in his article; Briareos and Deunan. I think they should be on an awesome anime couples list, because I always enjoy their dynamic. It is what keeps me coming back to the franchise in the hope that this time they will put out a story that is just as interesting as the characters.
The OAV: I have it on VHS in a box somewhere. One of the few VHS I didn't sell or give away in transitioning to DVD. Mostly what I recall was the misspelling of English in the anime (I think police was one of the words), the changing of Briareos and Deunan's names, the somewhat blocky/dumpy looking figures, Briareos sounding like he was some old near retirement cop on the beat (my VHS was dub only), and that there wasn't enough run-time to flesh out backgrounds and characters like many OAVs (sometimes that's part of the charm, sometimes not). Appleseed (2004): Perhaps my favorite one. I really liked the look of it and the music was actually decent in this one. There are somethings that bugged me like sometimes the skin on some characters comes across as glossy and makes it look too artificial. Its distracting. This may be more noticeable in the BD version than the older DVDs. A few of the antagonists who supposedly have history with Deunan are given zero background or setup. The morality of suppressing or tampering with another groups biological functions is never addressed. There were a lot of juicy possibilities in this movie that are never explored. I do think that overall the movie gets too strong of a bad rap among some people. Yea, it has many lost opportunities that add up in the story. Still if you take it as a straight up action movie with the upgraded sound and visuals of the BD release it can be plenty fun. Ex-Machina (2007): I don't think this follow up to 2004 was nearly as fun nor as consistent in both looks and story. Main characters and backgrounds looked fine but some other characters were like bad models from a 3D program along with clothing that looked painted onto bodies. Not so good and neither was the story with the silly headset tech nor the forced romantic tension. If you are going to explore Briareos and Deunan's relationship then do it, don't half-ass it which is what I feel they did. Its not a terrible movie, definitely watchable but man couldn't believe that John Woo was somehow attached to it. Appleseed XIII: Yea, really didn't like this TV show at all. In all of the Appleseed's movies and even in the manga Deunan is a pretty tough chick. In the manga she could be bratty but she never lost her toughness or her effectiveness. The same goes with the movies. Here they turn Deunan into a weaker character. She acts more childish and is less effective. She regularly needs saving and emotional support from Briareos. A lot of retread on same ideas already explored in movies and manga. Can we get beyond bioroids at some point? Please? Appleseed Alpha: I had fun with the latest iteration of the franchise. I'm all for some new stories and locales. They couldn't quite do it completely as they felt the need to tie it into some previous plot ideas (be brave let it go) and yea the bad guy sucked hard but almost everything else was fun (not crazy about Deunan's new video game look). Again the core relationship is the strongest part of the franchise. Mike is so spot on about the music. In general I like 2004's soundtrack (own it). Basement Jaxx and Boom Boom Satellites contributions worked well in that movie. Every other soundtrack is a snoozefest. Dull and boring. Even though I'm critical I want the franchise to continue. I hope there's another movie and its in the badlands and they go all MadMax.
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Tenebrae
Posts: 490 |
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The original 4-volume manga Appleseed was good, and is still on my lost of top manga I've read. The 80s OVA, on the other had, was very average and not really worth a look. The plot, as far as I can recall, recycles and rearranges elements from the manga. Of the movies I've only seen one, which was the first (the 2004 version?) Both the bad CGI and forgettable plot pretty much put me off checking anything else done with the franchise.
Too bad we'll never get the fifth manga volume. He seems to have given up on manga for stuff that makes better money, |
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rep21
Posts: 13 |
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I guess with all the GITS money he's making from various adaptions and a Hollywood movie, he can pretty much do anything he wants for the foreseeable future. Sadly this doesn't include a new Appleseed , or third chapter in the Dominion series or anything new. At least we still have Intron Depot i guess... |
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