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Column by Scott Green
Anime Spotlight: Appleseed Ex Machina To be released on DVD, Two-Disc Special Edition DVD and Blu-ray By Warner Home Video on March 11, 2008
I try to eschew hyperbole in this column. When I palm my hater card and say Appleseed Ex Machina is simply one of the most fun, pure action sci-fi anime movies, know that I'm not boosting the movie for the sake of boosting the movie. It's been a while since an anime movie provoked verbalize excitement from me and this one did the trick. While there were appreciatable spectacles in the previous CGI Appleseed, Final Fantasy: Advent Children, and this movie's contemporary, Vexille, Appleseed: Ex Machina is the first of what Jerry Beck and producer Joseph Chou identify as "3d live anime" in their commentary recording to lock together as a blisteringly paced action movie. From the moment that the special ops team heroes corner a shadowy figure, who throws off his cloak, and pivots towards his opponents with a mini-gun at his hip, a move countered with a sort of huracanrana /knife in the eye, the movie declares its contention for a prominent spot among all action movies, regardless of the medium in which they were created. It proceeds to live up to this promise. The Beck/Chou commentary states that "3d live action" (a term that is admittedly muddied by Beowulf and the like) is still developing, but in Ex Machina this new tradition that has branched off the trunk of anime has crossed a boundary where it has become a mature form. The degree of detail in Ex Machina, as well as the fact that it can assume a simplicity where a complex plot and a steady stream of action sequences can maintain a coherent arc, indicate that the form is no longer simply a domain for projecting video games into another medium or chaining set pieces. Here's an inexcusably geeky metric... I'm a fervent appreciator of action figures, but rarely a purchaser of the items. In addition to feeling the urge to re-watch Ex Machina after its completion, I was sorely temped to track down the action figures that it spawned. After Ghost in the Shell, Applesed is the second most recognized creation of manga artist Shirow Masamune. Again, this is cyborg cops and tactical robots, but as compared to Ghost, there is a firmer break between our progression of history and the world of Appleseed. Politically, economically, and even geographically, Applseed's globe has been rearranged. The premise is informed by the global conflicts of the mid-eighties given that the manga started in 1984. According to the annotated map in the manga/art/design book Appleseed: ID, large meteor strikes have radically impacted the United States, China, and Russia. Global, non-nuclear war incapacitated most nations, leading to a large scale social collapse. In the wake of this crisis, the Central Management Bureau stepped in, rolled out its disarmament policy and vision for global trade, then set up its utopian city, Olympus, with a society leveraging genetically engineer bioroids to dull humanities baser instincts. Of course Olympus is tainted in some fashion, and it has to contend with wasteland bandits, terrorists and citizens who yearn for existential freedom. On the other hand, as Utopian visions go, and considering that they actively work on building their own Tower of Babel, Olympus is one of the more robust human built paradises. The heroes of the franchise are Deunan Knute and Briareos Hecatonchires, LAPD SWAT officers who were in the thick of it during the bad times. Both are designed with Shirow Masamume's vision of a pan-racial future in mind. She is one of his tough, mind on the business, gear head heroines. He lost most of his natural body in the line of duty, and it's been replaced by the cybernetic Hecatonchires system, recognizable for its trademark bunny ear sensors. In the manga, Deunan and Briareos were pulled out of their gatherer life style among the wasted cities to work as part of Olympus' ESWAT unit (Extra Special Weapons And Tactics). The manga and the earlier Appleseed movie saw the pair embroiled in the complex, frankly, needlessly confusing, power struggles and secret histories behind Olympus. Ex Machina does not ignore the frenzied intricacies of Shirw Masamune's world or the scope of the previous movie. It does pair its perspective down to the essentials. The feature finds that it is able to layout the background context in a matter of sentences and a missile launch flashback. Like Blade Runner, it conveys a sense that it is dwelling in one particular juncture point of a larger, interconnected system. If there are conflicts between different ideologies within Olympus or rivalries between Olympus and other states, those points of friction inform Ex Machina, but they aren't fully the subject of the movie. The concept of Appleseed should be anchored by the Deunan and Briareos dynamic. This is not true of every Appleseed incarnation. He might be a metal hulk that does not look conventionally human and she might be a martial rage-a-holic, but they share a sane relationship in a world divided between anarchy and utopia. While a central element of Ex Machina is a sci-fi ménage a trois, the movie is convincing in establishing the relationship between the pair. It's welcome to see what amounts to a rare institution in anime, especially among protagonists: two adult sharing faithful, unambiguous love. Two qualities establish Appleseed Ex Machina as a thrilling, new experience: vision and cohesion. The vision is a superset of the output from three minds: John Woo, Shirow Masamune and Shinji Aramaki. One of these you've probably heard of. Another you've at least seen mention in this review. The third is the designer of Soundwave as well as much of M.A.S.K and is a name worth remembering. Appleseed is a middle point of Shirow Masamune's three primary works. It isn't as close to modern life as Ghost in the Shell. It isn't as far off as Dominion Tank Police, a world of sand oceans and deadly bacterial smog, featuring a team of antagonists with a short, pudgy, bandit king, twin muscle women, cat girl sex androids, and a bioengineered plant, fairy girl. Whether it is Ghost in the Shell's notion of an IT explosion channeled into human augmentation or Appleseed’s social engineering, the common feature of these worlds is that they follow a fundamental revolution. Humanity has moved beyond its current slate of problems, and it now has to start contending with how the next stage brushes up against the nature of the species. The corollary to this, and what really seems to fire up Shirow Masamune's idea engine is that this affords him an opportunity to redesign the world. Architecture, city planning, heavy machinery, desktop gadgets, he goes crazy intricately laying out everything from the hero's side arm to the coffee house of the future. Ex Machina isn't one-to-one with the original manga, but it is faithful both in the scope and the details. Part of the manga's vision is reflected in the movie's post modern globalism. There is still identity, but everything is also scrambled and free to be claimed. The opening shoot out is in a church, but like Neon Genesis Evangelion's cross shaped explosions or Judeo-Christian allusions, it seems there for aesthetic reasons rather than sectarian. Similarly the Greek mythological naming system for the utopian society seems appropriated with deliberate indifference. The meeting hall is named Tartarus. Is this a function of a society with a built in sense of humor? This global buffet table approach is further reflected in the movie's gathering of talents and borrowing of ideas, whether it is dressing Deunan in a Miuccia Prada designed outfit for her fish out of water high society engagement, electronica by DJ Towa Tei, or the nods to Romero in zombie-riots. Then, there is the maestro of bullet ballet and heroic bloodshed John Woo. He has a producer credit on the movie, and the various features on the DVD both point to ideas that he suggest and state that a number of the movie's Woo-affectations (doves, some of which are robotic and a plot device) were homages rather than Woo's direct input. Regardless of the exact degree of creative presence in the project, the Appleseed Ex Machina house is built with Shirow Masamune as the foundation and John Woo as the windows. The animation technique employed by Ex Machina uses digital environments and cell shaded depictions of its characters, but it also uses human motion capture. (ANN has some intelligent criticism of this approach that is worth reading, but which never the less didn't bother me upon viewing the movie.) This gives the animation a wide field of freedom for how to work the perspective and how to cut the action. As much as it is the case for the doves and duel wielded pistols, directly or indirectly, Woo's finger prints are on the fashion by which this freedom is employed. There is a context that is appropriate for jittery camera and quick cuts. It is the right motif for internalized action. It gets inside the head of the person throwing the punch. Constantly focusing on the critical, it is a fighter time view of events. This John Woo vision, leveraged by Ex Machina is an audience time view of events. It pulls back or it tracks, it slows down or it goes at full speed. Whatever ensures the grandest canvas. This works brilliantly for Ex Machina. There is a lot of gimmicks, whether they are camera angles and effects or in-context special techniques, such as Briareos firing with both hands, ejecting his cartridges and re-loading with the magazines secreted in his cyborg body. Even if these are gimmicks, the movie uses them as building blocks for its action. It moves beyond simply showcasing effects. We were all wowed by the Matrix's bullet time a decade ago, but as Ex Machina demonstrates, it is now past due to push that, the jittery camera and the rest into part of the grammar of action movies. Ex Machina sets itself apart by chaining and layering all of these things into statements: establish an interaction between characters, background and props; build up the athleticism of the characters so that ducking through closing doors and the like, implies danger and ability; shade it in darkness or illuminate it in direct sunlight; use posture and sound design to suggest body weight and make that distinct from dead weight. Ultimately, as well as it handles blazing gun battles and mecha riots, this approach is able to inject thrills into silly anime tropes. The Thundercats routine of running and leaping... set arranged with obstacle and a construction mecha, it turns into some crazy wuxia American Gladiators. Gun-fu versus tentacles, maybe "only in anime" groan worthy, but it is sold as a heated deathmatch here. Shinji Aramaki is the least known, as far as the US goes, but in this case the most prominent of the three. Read Matt Alt's two part interview in the third and fourth issues of Otaku USA. It is a fantastic meeting of a deeply informed interviewer and a fascinating creative voice. (An excerpt is here, Twitch also has an interview here). Indirectly, these conversations may reveal how Aramaki was able to integrate his ideas, with John Woo's with Shirow Masasmune's. Creatively, commercially, this is someone who works hard to successfully realize such complicated visions. This might be a forced analogy, but this arrangement of animation technique, narrative style and stacks of design work seems to recall Aramaki's mecha design days. You have in mind the idea of a motorcycle that turns into a robot. You want the motorcycle to actually look like a motorcycle and you want to minimize the kludge on the robot. You have to think through the process forwards and backwards in 3d space. You have to factor in all of the pieces, how they fit together and what they mean for the whole. To take the density of Appleseed and arrange it into a compelling narrative takes the sort of mind that can envision microscopes turning into robots. What could be credited as a Shirow Masamune artifact or a John Woo inspiration in Ex Machina was undoubtedly worked through by Aramaki. That the pieces coalesce together is to his credit. If you're a genre fan, store Aramaki's name in your file for great creative talent. If Ex Machina receives as much notice as it should (and it isn't grossly pirated), we can expect to see more from Aramaki. The host of inspirations is directed into a feature that is clean, clear and doesn't exhibit a need to invent the genre. Working with credible people in exotic, but recognizable surroundings, Ex Machina manages to be boldly unpretentious. There is not much in the way of jargon talk at work. Starting with Shirow Masamune’s designs, taking Aramaki's work, the world of Appleseed looks functional. There is no need to start explaining the fundamentals and the minutia, because a glance is enough to convey that designers were mindful of the details. Things start going pear shaped outside the glass dome surrounding a contentious diplomatic negotiation. Athena, the administration executive of Olympus simply commands the attending representatives to keep working, assuring them that the protective barrier will hold, with no explanation for why that is the case. If you want to study the joints and calibers, it looks like it works. If you want to take the movie's word of its thoroughness, you can relax and accept what is presented without being jarred out of that complacency. This approach is a return to how well vetted genres function. In westerns, a movie could establish a year, establish a state, and let it roll. Look at Once Upon a Time in the West. Location is engrained in the story. There is a tapestry of complex motivations woven throughout it. And there is no need to spend time, drilling through exposition. Shown the way, the viewer understands railways and homesteading and revenge. There's not need to make it more complex with too much discussion. Ex Machina rightly assumes that at this point, the audience comprehends the notion of bioengineered people, comprehends the notion of cyborgs, and comprehend how these breaks from conventional definitions of humanity might upset people. It rightly assumes that the viewer has internalized the idea of technology as potentially dangerous, both in fictional and in real contexts. Ex Machina doesn't use this as a license to dart around, unbound by logic or sense. Instead, it lets characters discover and discuss matters at their own, theatrically paced, time. Ex Machina is not the most artful, not the most intelligent anime. If the movie has the viewer invested in the Deunan/Briareos relationship and it's pinging their awe reflexes, it's working. Its simple effectiveness is not strictly a function of the crutches it employs, but whether it is a deus ex machina solve-all device or melodramatic heavy handedness, it is employing some fairly easy narrative bootstraps. At the same time, it doesn't pretend that it is out thinking the viewer. The audience is going to put the pieces together pretty quickly, so the feature moves at a suffiecient pace to keep up. For the most part, it is a predictable movie, if a twist isn't guessed outright, it is probably suspected. Moving from set piece to set piece without losing a rational, causal flow, it maintains momentum that does not suffer for failing to keep its audience guessing. Despite lightly provocative elements, such as using portable media devices as a vehicle for a borg takeover, Ex Machina is not astonishingly new in its ideas. Even with disappointments in the video game like propensities of its presentation and the simplistic uses it found for the introduced concepts, Vexille was more aggressive in attempting to establish its own, new niche in sci-fi than Ex Machina. From a perspective of someone perpetually excited by the boundaries and diversity of anime, whether it is an unusual Ghibli work like The Cat Returns, a more avant-garde work like Mind Game or a very thoughtful take on what could be considered very mainstream subject matter, like the Girl Who Leapt Through Time, it's almost lamentable to see a work that is as potent as Ex Machina enforce the notion of anime as action sci-fi. Except for piracy, there is nothing evident to hamper Ex Machina from being a considerable success in North America. Without shedding any of what makes anime a distinctive, vibrant tradition, Ex Machina conforms to American narrative sensibilities. That doesn't necessarily mean being dumbed down, making every element explicit or even providing a definitive ending and it is not just because Ex Machina is a populist action spectacle. Look at the reactions provoked by Paprika or TekkenKinkreet, even though the latter was written and directed by Americans. They engendered plenty of admiration, but also plenty of ambivalence. Ex Machina is going to connect to its American audience where those didn't because the captivating sensory experience is coupled with a clear objective and a clear narrative arc. This wasn't just in-process inspiration. As that commentary track made clear, the movie's producers were mindful of establishing this coherence and ensuring that the movie wasn't weighed towards thematically connected set pieces and info bytes.
