Matrix Dragon, J. Random Nutter

Yeah, I dunno, I've never really managed to cotton to Kusanagi as a character. By design, she's such a cipher there's just nothing there to get ahold of (as it were). I mean, that's not even really her name. She's closer to interesting in the manga, albeit often in completely random ways (there's that weird scene where we find out that she moonlights as a simstim porn performer, which, wha?), but my clearest mental reference is from the Mamoru Oshii movie, in which she's almost a complete blank. By design!

(I don't want to give the impression that I don't like the Oshii movie; I haven't seen it in ages, but I went to see it probably half a dozen times when it was doing the art theater circuit, some in Boston, some in Berkeley. "Togusa, if you're still alive, get off your ass and arrest those garbagemen.")

All that said, that movie has a moment that led to one of my favorite unused UF-universe images. The scene in the street market, when Batou hauls out a gun and yells, "Police! Everybody get down!" Zoner and I decided, after we saw that, that if something like that happened on Funkotron, it would cause a spontaneous dance party, and that this must have happened.

(Although it'd still be funnier if it happened to Deunan and Briareos. :)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

And the places the Oshii version isn't a complete blank she's generic. Again, intentionally so. All part of that whole deconstruction of what we typically consider what "human" means.

I'm going to have to ponder a bit before voting. Deunan is much fresher in my mind than the rest since I just finished watching "Appleseed XIII" and that's almost certainly throwing excessive bias at my fore-brane. Aside: "Appleseed XIII" is worth seeing. It isn't a rehash or reboot but a closure to the stories left unfinished in volumes 4 and the incomplete volume 5. And it has humor. In fact the entire final episode is GAIA playing a practical joke on E-SWAT.

It's a pretty good show; It's got some pacing problems, though. If you like extremely long shots of Deunan expressing dull surprise, interspersed with a lot of slo-mo, soft-focus flashbacks and/or lovingly slow pans around a complicated piece of monumental sculpture depicting the Labors of Hercules, Appleseed XIII is definitely for you. :)

(Also, from the neck up Deunan looks like she's about 12. I mean, unusually so even for an anime character. And why they decided to go with that design for Briareos I really couldn't tell you. But these are quibbles. :)

Animated adaptations of Appleseed have always been a bit uneven. I just re-watched the 2004 movie and Ex Machina the other day, and so was reminded of what a weirdly mixed bag they are. The 2004 movie gets Deunan's ancestry wrong (her mom's a white lady who does sinister science things? wha?) and has that baffling twist in the middle where you find out that the incomprehensible weapon of mass destruction in the middle of Olympus is actually a different incomprehensible weapon of mass destruction, but it's also got some stonking good action (I adore Deunan's dispatching of Chief Bad Guy Minion) and the animation has held up reasonably well for ten-year-old CG.

Ex Machina (2007) has aged even better visually, the designs are better (that's my favorite version of Deunan and Bri, visually speaking), and while the storyline doesn't have much that's new to say (I can only assume that the world war happened before the Doctor Who episode about the parallel-universe Cybermen would've gotten made in the Appleseed universe :), it is at least not as confusingly arbitrary as the 2004 movie's. It does have the weird subplot where they set Bri up in a romantic rivalry triangle with Deunan and, um, himself, which is... yeah, but to be fair, they did resolve it pretty well. Briareos spends a little too much time clutching at his head and going "UAAAARRGGGHHH" and Deunan spends a little too much time shouting his name with dismay, to the point where both of them start resembling hooks for a drinking game. Still, it's a fun film, and in my opinion the better of the two.

I haven't seen Alpha yet, but I'm a little dubious about what I've heard regarding it. I'm generally not a big fan of prequels, and given that Deunan and Bri spent the time immediately preceding Appleseed grubbing around in the post-apocalyptic part of the world eating 200-year-old Salisbury steak*, well, probably not my cup of tea. We'll see, though. I probably won't be able to leave it unwatched forever, I mean, Deunan and Bri.

--G.
* Obligatory Fallout 3 reference.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

I can't really decide. Except I'm fairly sure anything involving Deunan and Leona on the same planet should, for a reasonable level of safety, be watched from another one.

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Unable to save the day: File is read-only.

I also remember watching Earthian about the same time (I think on the same weekend), which was a bit of a trip for white bread me.

As for the poll, I've only seen Appleseed, GitS, and Dominion in some form, so don't really want to vote not knowing the others.

And as for the Major, she has more personality in the magna, and in a different form in the Stand Alone Complex animes, don't know if anyone has seen those. Not much, but she at least gets an expression and cracks a joke sometimes.

Fair warning if you haven't, and if you like cute robots like the tachikomas, the ending of the second series will make you cry.

Also, don't know if anyone knows, but there is a prequel anime series for GitS coming out now, called Ghost in the Shell: Arise. Only four parts, and I know at least two are out now. The first two were interesting, IMHO.

I recorded it off satellite TV back in the day, re-recorded that using my dad's mastering VCR when the tape started getting old, and still have that second-gen copy in a box in the garage.

I really need to acquire it in a format that is, y'know, playable.

(I still have a VCR, but haven't had the time to tear it down and rebuild it since it stopped working. Yay useless certifications!)

--sofaspud
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