Anime fans hungry for whatever series would fill the gap post Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex have been keeping their eyes on Appleseed XIII for a good while now. It makes sense. The two series share a production company in Production IG - though IG is only in a support role on this new effort - and both are based on works by Masamune Shirow set in high tech, cyborg based future scenarios.
A thirteen episode television series with plans already announced for a pair of feature film releases, each of which will compress the story of half of the television series, the first trailer has arrived on the official site, though it takes a bit of IP jiggery to be able to see it. We've done it so you don't have to and you can check the trailer below.
Verdict? There are bits and flashes that live up to the legacy of Shirow's work and the gorgeous animation of the two recent features but there are also parts that just don't feel done. There's enough to get me to look at the first episode or two but this certainly does nothing to heighten expectations.
A thirteen episode television series with plans already announced for a pair of feature film releases, each of which will compress the story of half of the television series, the first trailer has arrived on the official site, though it takes a bit of IP jiggery to be able to see it. We've done it so you don't have to and you can check the trailer below.
Verdict? There are bits and flashes that live up to the legacy of Shirow's work and the gorgeous animation of the two recent features but there are also parts that just don't feel done. There's enough to get me to look at the first episode or two but this certainly does nothing to heighten expectations.
Looks like XIII has no connection to the 2 previous big budget feature films...
Ex Machina was the worst. Honestly even if this series is supposed to be a departure, the style suggests we're in for more woefully bland CG Japanimation that I can't even sit through anymore. Sketchy animation at that.
Ex Machina was an achievement in CG anime, but unfortunately, like Hollywood, they spent most of their budget on the CG and John Woo and not enough developing a compelling script.
You can tell that the budget needed to pull this off to the quality level of "Macross Frontier" or "Last Exile", is not there, Part of it seems to be the insistance on using CG character animation instead of matching the mecha CG with 2D character animation.
The efficiency of character animation with CG is still to slow for it to be economical on a TV series budget and from what we've seen in the trailer, that is still the case.
Hopefully the story will be better developed than the last theatrical film.