As my husband and I were sorting out our DVDs, we noticed that I had a LOT of anime. Sometimes, when I go out to buy more, I forget which ones I’ve already seen; especially those that didn’t make much of an impression on me 
So I decided to write a review of all the ones I have in my collection.
Please note, that these are my personal impressions and opinions, and that I do not know much about the background of each anime that I review. I hope though, that my reviews will help you in deciding which anime to watch, and which ones are not worth your money.
Appleseed: Ex Machina
I used to go to the bookstore a lot, to buy Ranma mangas. I used to see Appleseed and Porco Rosso books- I didn’t like the drawings so much, so I always ignored them. So when I saw the DVD cover of Appleseed: Ex Machina, I thought I’d check it out. Boy, oh boy! I should have been interested in this earlier!
Appleseed: Ex Machina is a CG movie. It’s cell-shaded, too. I won’t spoil everything for you, so let me just give you a brief outline of the story.
They live in a futuristic world where people can be cloned, and humans can be merged with cybernetic body parts. The protagonists of the story are a cute chick called Deunan (it would be weird for me to say “hot”, since I’m female!), and her lover, Briareos, who used to be her human partner during a war. Briareos’s human parts have been merged into a machine, so basically he now looks like a mecha robot with rabbit ears and eight eyes (or are those cameras?). He is the only cyborg who has been fully merged with a cybernetic body called a Hecatonchire.
They both work for a peacekeeping force. The story begins when they stop a terrorist attack led by cyborgs. During the course of their investigation, Briareos got incapacitated. Deunan gets a temporary replacement partner – a new bioroid called Tereus. Bioroids look human. Since he was new, he needed to be placed under observation. The problem was, Tereus was Briareos’ clone.
Elements of the movie:
Action – I LOVE action movies! And this one was directed by John Woo, so it contains lots of good action – and by that, I mean interesting camera angles. This movie doesn’t have a boring part (at least for me).
Love – If you were Deunan, how would you feel if you lover doesn’t look as good as he used to, and he has a clone who looks exactly as good as he used to, and seems to like you back? If you were Briareos, how would you feel if you saw your former face on someone else’s body, someone who could potentially make Deunan happier than you can?
Drama – Just a little bit, not too much. Nothing in this movie will make you cry 
Have they explored every possible angle? No, not really. Drama is kept at a minimum. You might ask if interaction between the characters are shallow – not at all. Feelings here are felt, like a strong undercurrent that you choose to ignore. If the movie were longer, then they MIGHT have been able to add more drama. But it’s okay, it’s not too bad. The characters are still believable.
Humor – There’s a tiny bit of this, cleverly inserted here and there, but not enough to make you think this is a comedy.
Music – Didn’t leave much of an impression on me.
Is this not enough to make you want to watch it? No? Then let me insert some appetizing screenshots Where’s my DVD… Sorry about lowering the quality of the pictures a little bit – I don’t want it to take forever to load.
That’s Briareos and Deunan, in the middle of an action scene (obviously ).
Briareos’ before and after picture. Just kidding! That’s Tereus and Briareos in a sparring session.
That’s Deunan – in “chick” mode.
Briareos meets Tereus and says “It this supposed to be a costume party?”
Well, that’s enough teasers for now I hope you enjoy watching this movie as much as I did. I give it a 5/5!
NB: Some interesting stuff: Hecatonchires are three giants in Greek Mythology. Briareus was one of those three giants.
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