When a show looks this good, does the story matter?

Appleseed is the first anime feature ever done completely in 3D CGI, a blend of motion-capture technology, 3D computer animation, and stylized two-dimension character animation. Voice actors had sensors attached to their faces during the dubbing process, actors played out action scenes with motion-capture, and characters and mecha went through a three-step process – conceptual, digital layout, design – before the finished project hit theaters. We've come a long way from those cheap 3D glasses. The creators are calling it the "Birth of 3D Live Anime." Call it a work of art. Characters jump off the screen, moving with grace and depth that you won't find in other animation. Their interaction between each other and their environment is a wonder to behold. The CG settings are vivid and richly colored, leaving you guessing how many sleepless hours the creators must have contributed to this movie. The action is constant, hard-core, and satisfies any adventure movie fan's thirst.

Visually, there's nothing quite like Appleseed. Malice@Doll would be close. Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within is probably closer. The Incredibles looked pretty sweet, right? A nod to the genius of Pixar aside, none of these films look as constantly vivid, as sweet or richly detailed as Appleseed.

The story? Do you really need one?

World War III is in the past, except for a few factions that don't seem to realize it. In the war-torn land of old, they continue to fight. The opening act of Appleseed sees WWIII end for one hardcore holdover of the conflict, the talented and lovely Duenan Knute. She's been tracked down by her former boyfriend. Brought to the advanced, sprawling city of Olympus – the last refuge of man – Duenan is thrown into a complex and deadly political struggle between the military and the ruling government. You see, Olympus was built by bioroids, artificial clones engineered without certain emotions, and without the ability to reproduce. Now that they comprise half of the city's population, military leaders have decided they're a threat to mankind, one that needs to be eliminated. But the elders of the city – and the city's ruling supercomputer, Gaia – have a different idea, one that may mean the end of humanity. And they need Duenan to meet their goal.

Duenan is sent to retrieve Appleseed, the data that will allow bioroids to reproduce, creating an eternal race of mankind. She has the help of her ex-lover and comrade in arms Briareos, who is now 75 percent machine after being injured in the war. But some startling revelations are around the corner, and Duenan may be forced to make some hard choices. And whatever her choice, it will change the world as we know it. One thing's for sure, Appleseed ends much the same way it began: in ruins.

The author of the original Appleseed manga, Shirow Masamune, is also the man who brought us the world of Ghost in the Shell and the creepy Black Magic M-66 (still in love with the former, didn't particularly like the latter). He's known for his mecha designs and heavy philosophical touch. The first is heartily represented in Appleseed, the second isn't. Briareos is easily one of the most well-liked mecha characters in anime (I think it's the rabbit ears, not the bulging eye) and Appleseed is filled with similar neat-looking machines of war. But while all forms of Ghost in the Shell have been layered with deep thought on the human condition, Appleseed doesn't try to be a shrink session over the state of bioroids or the future of mankind. It tells us what's at stake, and leaves it at that. Our time is better spent with battling mecha, a kick-ass heroine, and lots of explosions. You know, the good stuff.

The movie is directed by Shinji Aramaki, the brain behind Megazone 23, the director of Madox-01, and the mechanical designer for a slew of anime, including Bubblegum Crisis, Gasaraki, and Astro Boy. Aramaki has a lot of fun using the CG platform, slanting the image at odd angles, slowing the action down for dramatic affect and rotating the camera around (a la Matrix), dedicating long, sweeping views to those beautiful settings, and cropping close and hard on the characters during those serious moments. Every action scene is treated with care and a certain fervor. And detail. Detail, detail, detail, down to the last bolt being torn away from that assassin robot. You get the feeling you're seeing something special when the bullets start to fly. Probably because you are.

Aramaki is convinced the characters are more engrossing than they actually are, though they sure look fantastic in action. Appleseed easily has some of the greatest character movement you'll find in an animated feature, and not just during the action sequences. The combination of motion capture technique and CGI makes every character look as close to real as possible in an animation. Hair shifts with each subtle movement, eyes meet each other, emotions are relayed easily by a furrowing brow or a sideways glance. The only oddity is the shiny sheen many characters have during the darker scenes.

If there are flaws in Appleseed, they lie in the story. It runs through the history of many of the players at break-neck speed, skipping solid character development for the sake of a few extra explosions. Duenan goes from wayward war renegade to special forces recruit to solo crusader at a vicious pace. Her connection to the technology behind bioroids feels contrived and rushed. When the bioroid manufacturing facility is destroyed and the city's leaders come together to discuss the crisis, it becomes very obvious who initiated the attack. But the elders seem ignorant to the threat in front of them. When we reach the climax (hell, it's 100 minutes of climaxes), you wonder why, dear God, WHY is anime so melodramatic? The Appleseed storyline is full of pin-prick holes: enough blanks and senseless moments to be noticeable, but not enough to sink the experience in less than two hours.

This movie has an epic feel to it, though its power lies in how it looks, not the tale that's told. Which is just fine by me. This movie is a joy to just sit back and watch. It's high-production, high-action fun, with lots of mecha and guns set in a digital environment that can simply do more than cell animation.

Damn if this isn't the best quality picture I've seen on an anime DVD. Encoded directly from the High Definition master, Appleseed comes through beautifully and free of flaws. The 16:9 anamorphic widescreen presentation is one long visual treat, with eye-popping colors, deep and varied blacks, a crisp, "yeah, you better be impressed" feel of depth, and a host of detailed settings. From the cold, foreboding ocean to the brilliant city of Olympus, every scene is flush with the wonders of CGI: wind-swept rain falls at different angles, a hundred moving vehicles dot the city's landscape, a sunset could be paused and mistaken for real if it wasn't for the shiny animated characters.

Don't be shy, turn that sub-woofer up. The praise for the video goes the same for the audio. Language tracks are solid, background music is at just the right volumes, directionality – especially when we've got a battle on our hands – is superb. Explosions move across the channels in most every battle. The DTS 5.1 Japanese option is a pleasure to sit through, with scattered debris, dialogue, the rush of cars, the rumble of tanks, selected music beats, all coming through crisply and from several directions. The music ... oh, the music … does it say anything that the neighbors asked me to "turn it down" while I reviewed this DVD?

Dance, techno, electronica, whatever you want to call it, it pairs well with action-adventure anime, especially anything with a neo-punk feel. When I heard Paul Oakenfold was on board for this movie, I was overjoyed. And he's just a bit contributor. Appleseed has the best anime soundtrack since the first volume of Ghost in the Shell: Standalone Complex, with music by Basement Jaxx, Akufen, and Carl Craig. You could throw a dance party with this music.

And none of this 2.0 crap for those without DTS: Japanese and English 5.1 options round out the audio selections, and both are just a notch below the DTS option. All voice casts are solid, though the Japanese voice of Briareos comes across strangely. He's mostly machine, yet his voice is perfect, unfiltered human. Other than that, I couldn't find anything to complain about. An excellent set of audio tracks on this DVD.

Many of Geneon's releases have hardly any extras on them, a real bummer when it turns out to be a good show (read: Paranoia Agent and Samurai Champloo). But thankfully the bigger, well-known titles get better treatment. The bonus disc is stuffed with several goodies, and the DVDs are dual-stacked in one of the best anime DVD cases to date.

A few years back, when it was Pioneer, Geneon released an anniversary edition of Akira in a fold-out metal case, which was very nice, if a little bulky on the shelf. With Appleseed, the company went with SteelBook, which is the same size as a standard DVD case. It's exactly what it sounds like: the outer shell is steel, with smooth, slick edges, and the art looks like it's been airbrushed on to the package. Inside is a see-through plastic lining and the spine is plastic as well. Besides looking very cool (and cold!), it's also durable as hell. Reluctantly, I tested my copy, dropped it from the highest DVD shelf, attempted to scratch it against a couple surfaces, piled a few dictionaries on top if it. Short of taking a knife or hammer to it, the SteelBook holds up well, and the overlap DVD setup inside is sturdy. Overall, an excellent packaging idea, one that's only been used for a few video games and DVDs in region four. Maybe Geneon will start a trend here in the U.S., though this is the collector's edition I'm talking about ($29.98). The standard edition includes only the movie DVD with limited extras (read on), and comes in a slipcover ($19.98). If you're a hardcore collector (you know who you are), you've got the "deluxe" edition, which includes a limited edition figurine of Briareos, on top of the SteelBook and bonus disc. Is he worth an extra $20 to you ($49.98)?

On to the actual DVD bonus disc for the two higher-priced versions, you get your "How the hell did they do that!?" questions answered in the Birth of 3D Live Anime featurette. From storyboards to CG production, we get excellent insight into the process the movie went through. You can't get the detail Appleseed features with simple cell animation (well, I'm sure you could, but how long would it take?). The stop-motion bits are the most intriguing, showing several actors at work at one time, with the scene in the movie inset during the discussion. It's anime, but these people had a ton of acting on their hands to make things look right. Of course the production team makes Appleseed sound more dramatic than it is, but you get the sense everyone involved really enjoyed working on this film. Even the voice actors, with dozens of pea-sized facial recognition sensors attached, seem excited about the project. Either that or they were just smiling for the camera. We discover that multiple actors were used to create one character, while in other cases the same actor is used for several characters. This feature is more than 35 minutes long, and is an excellent addition to this DVD and movie.

Set to the awesome techno music of this show, there are design archives organized by each designer who worked on them. These include several simple character conceptions (seen through to the final product) and complicated CGI sequences. There's a good 45 minutes worth of fun in this feature. An image gallery included is less exciting, with the viewer forced to punch buttons to move to the next character or mecha design. No music either. Good only for stealing character and mecha images for nefarious computer purposes. There's also an extensive Appleseed dictionary, with key word definitions, character profiles, and mecha information.

A music video by the Boom Boom Satellites is showcased, but I really wanted something more from Paul Oakenfold, the really well-known artist contributing to the music. A DVD-ROM link sends you to the Appleseed video game site, and there are also three trailers for the film.

But wait, there's more. On the actual movie disc you get a nice Music Cues With Scenes which showcases the movie scenes where each soundtrack song played (and thank you for the play all feature). There's even a profile option for each artist. An extensive staff profiles area offers background and resume items for the crew. Also included are DVD credits, six Geneon anime previews (some of their best and most anticipated titles represented), and an all-too brief promo for the soundtrack.

The fourth audio option on the movie DVD is a commentary track with Director Shinji Aramaki and Producer Fumihiko Sori weighing in. It's presented in 2.0. You know things went well when they talk about trying not to make characters and settings look too real. They even feel regret for not getting eye contact between characters perfect. You got to laugh when the makers of Appleseed find fault in their pretty much flawless visuals. We learn that the ending was a source of argument late in the process (and how the final ending was influenced by none other than James Cameron), the audio tracks on the disc come through better at home than in the theater, how much stress a couple of the animators went through during the process, and how infatuated these guys are with the beautiful Duenan. But while the commentary is a decent listen, it's got that standard problem with anime commentaries in general: it's all but impossible to enjoy the movie and the commentary at the same time. If the commentary had been laid along with the English dub, it would have been easier to follow the movie and the insights, but the commentary track comes only with the Japanese audio and no English subtitles for the film, only for the commentary. Sure, I understand these guys were watching the film during their discussion in their language, but that doesn't mean you can't cater to this DVD's audience.

Still, there are a few hours worth of special features on the two DVDs, all of them interesting and enjoyable. I had a lot of fun looking through everything Geneon included here, and appreciated the sheer amount of stuff to sift through. I can't think of anything else they could have thrown in.

The video menus for both discs are sharp, easily navigated, and have a long loop of music before starting over.

Turn off the lights, pump up the volume, and enjoy. Visually, Appleseed is wonderful. The creators set the bar really high for any future studio that wants to do something similar. Many live action movies seem like they would be much easier to make than Appleseed. American audiences are more receptive to all-CG animated films than the Japanese (or so I hear), and this film has a ton of action to keep us cheeseburger-eating brutes extremely entertained.

The story doesn't quite live up to the package it's delivered in, but marginally. It's interesting enough to fill in those spots where you aren't going "ooh" and "ahh." Overall, based on the constant eye-candy action, the wonderful characters, and the treatment of the DVD SteelBook editions, Appleseed is Highly Recommended. Slated for release summer 2006, a sequel 3D CGI movie produced by John Woo is expected, and a TV series is reportedly in the works.

Well, yeah.

I never read the 1985 manga the movies are based on, so I can't help you there. But I pulled out my copy of Manga's 2001 DVD release of the 1988 film, and did a simple show comparison.

In the 1988 Appleseed , Duenan and Briareos are members of the E-SWAT tactical police squad, and they're after a terrorist group looking to take down the bioroids (biodroids in this Appleseed). In the name of "freedom for humanity," the terrorists battle with our heroes using giant mecha and a mole in the police organization. The biodroids comprise 80 percent of the population in this future city of Olympus, and are the ruling element.

The core story is the same, but with a running time 40 minutes under the new film, fewer angles are delved into. Duenan and Briareos are just here, no exploration of the past needed. There are fewer supporting characters, with just the core players. The political infighting is nearly nonexistent, as we're herded straight to the street battles.

Duenan isn't nearly as attractive, acting and sounding like a tomboy fresh from a trailer park. Briareos looks cool, but is a pretty thin character, without much dialogue. And, being a late-80s production, the animation isn't special (though the robots sure look cool).

Appleseed improves on its predecessor in many ways, and not just visually. The story is better, the music is … well, it's not from the '80s, and the English dub isn't filled with constant cussing, language largely missing in the original Japanese of the 1988 film, but included in the DVD English dub. Maybe Manga thought Americans couldn't enjoy it without the foul language.

All-in-all, it may be nice to add the 1988 movie to the collection, if you're going to own the new Appleseed, but it's not a necessity. You're more likely to replay the new movie before you take the shrink-wrap off the 2001 DVD.