Appleseed simultaneously suffers from the worst Anime has to offer and benefits from the best animation and production a modern production can have. If you are a hardcore Manga fan (or just occasionally fond of it like me) you'll be aware of the most typical clichés, most of which make up the bulk of the Appleseed story.

So...we have a world set after WWIII, in which a Utopian Society has finally found peace. But there are still some people who cannot help but let their anger and bigotry take hold. Android/Clones with suppressed emotions help balance out Utopia and some even want to be fully-fledged humans. There are humans who hate these Androids and wish them to all die out. And there are some Android who hate humans and wish them to all die out. And finally, there is a big computer who runs everything.

Nothing there you haven't seen before huh? It also takes a while to build up momentum. Though when it does, the plot twists and turns and action scenes are truly exhilarating. The animation quality is breath-taking with seamless blending of hand-drawn, motion capture, CGI and 3D images. Style and plot-wise it is very, very similar to Sky Blue/Wonderful Days. But since they were in production at the same time one cannot accuse the other of plagiarism.

The sheer amount of technology and hardware in the movie will make you drool. There are loads of cool devices, futuristic inventions and awesome weaponry. There is also loads of atmosphere with gorgeous, gorgeous sunsets, storm-lashed oil rigs and wonderfully blue-sky-ed cityscapes with an environmentally friendly amount of trees everywhere.

The Matrix 'inspired' action can be a bit annoying sometimes. We've seen people diving through the air in slow motion will taking out supposedly highly-trained soldiers? And the music is kinda uninspiring. With contributions from Basement Jaxx and Paul Oakenfold one expected it to be a lot better.

When you take the good with the bad, Appleseed still comes out as worthwhile and enjoyable. If your new to Anime then you can forgive the clichés, if your a big fan then you'll be awe-struck by the impressive production values.

It seems mankind (no emphasis on kind) has done it again and destroyed much of the world. There is a paradise city called Olympus which is run by a group of bioroids who get advice from a computer named Gia. Bioroids are cloned humans who cannot reproduce and have limited emotion. They live among the humans and keep them under control so they don't hurt themselves or each other. Meanwhile there are brutish humans in the military who want to destroy the bioroids.

Deunan is a female human who lives outside the city in a wild zone where humans are fighting humans and they don't know why. She is taken captive by the bioroids and is enlisted to help them. The twist of this movie is that we are tricked into rooting for 1984ish Brave New World. Clean English translation.

Set in the year 2131 AD after the world has emerged from a global war but not all fighting has stopped. Deunan Knute is still caught up in the fighting until she is plucked from the wasteland and taken to the city of Olympus. This is an apparent Utopia where humanity survives and lives alongside 'Bioroids', sterile clones who need to have their lives regularly extended; they are also far less emotional than humanity. In this city Deunan befriends Hitomi, a bioroid, and is reunited with her former lover, Briareos, who following serious injury is now a cyborg. Olympus isn't quite as peaceful as it appears; there are humans determined to exterminate the bioroids and certain individuals who believe humanity needs to make way for the new race. Deunan will have to choose sides and learn who she can trust if she is to preserve peace in Olympus.

When I picked up this film on DVD I was a little unsure of whether I'd enjoy it; I like traditional 2D anime but was unsure about 3D anime, especially as it is almost fourteen years old now... I needn't have worried about how the film looked; it looks fantastic and the action is very dynamic. The story might not be the most original but it was solid enough and there were some unexpected twists. The character designs are impressive; it is definitely 3D anime not a Japanese attempt to replicate the styles of western 3D animation. The backgrounds are impressive too; it feels like we are in a real city. If you like action packed sci-fi I'd definitely recommend this.

These comments are based on watching the film in Japanese with English subtitles.