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Based on the manga from Masamune Shirow and directed by... (Hold on a second... let's see... AH!) Shinji Aramaki - man behind such works as... I suppose he previously directed "Part 3" of Megazone. You know: the Weakest Megazone 23 OVA. He directed that. Therefore it comes as no surprise, that this movie is as much of a cliched jumbled mess of a ideas as it is. And don't even get me started on the dated CGI that ruins almost every single character design (except Briareos).

Appleseed (2004) is a CGI Blockbuster Action Sci-Fi Movie that somehow takes a Simple Story/Concept and ruins much of the fun or intrigue surrounding it. Perhaps the most telling way that it accomplishes this is by breaking every single rule of "Show don't Tell" and spoonfeeding every freaking detail in every single conversation possible. That last part might be a little exaggerated, but Jesus Christ, it comes pretty damn close to it.

With a Fitting introduction surrounding an opening 6 minute action scene with no context or investment, all filled with dated matrix esq. Timelapse sequences. A little after it wastes no time and It quickly ruins Hitomi by turning her from a fun-loving party-girl to a hollow exposition dumping machine. She has one scene that remotely resembles emotion and it's an "on-the-nose" cliched dialogue about "love" and "anger" instead of the "show don't tell" from the 1988 Movie with Hitomi trying and failing to flirt with guys, while drunk from the partying.

In fact, Most of the Characters just feel like stiff versions of their original counterparts. Deunan is mopy and depressed instead of being a fun-loving badass. Briareos is stiff, unusually bitter and cold for much of the runtime rather than being a Man of Steel Armor with a Heart of Gold. (In the same vain as perhaps Alphonse from FMA.) Athena's role in the Movie is confusing and never expounded the same way it was in the Original, despite this movie's longer runtime. Hitomi is ruined the most perhaps, going from her bubbly charming personality to this boring CGI husk of a person.

The Witty Comedy that gave the Characters a sense of lighthearted fun, likeability and breathing room between the Drama is also GONE! Not even just toned down, it simply isn't there. I do not remember there being a single joke. Not even from Hitomi, it makes the characters downright boring. It's instead replaced with constant usage of exposition that is placed without any respect to the context of its scenes.

Perhaps the Biggest Flaw of this Movie is the lack of Good Villains and a complete Lack of Moral Ambiguity. This is not to say, that every good story needs it, however, when dealing with philosophical themes it fails miserably precisely because of a lack of ambiguity. The Main Villains of this Movie are TERRIBLE. In direct contrast, the villains in the 88 Anime were compelling, their motives were reasonable and understandable. They had a coherent ideology and real sense of purpose. "DA Ebil Cliched Military" Villains pale in comparison to 'the Terrorist and the Traitor' from the first Movie. They have no clear reasons for disliking the Biodroids or the Order of GAAIA, other than "oh, they're just ebil natzeees!" it's ridiculously black-n-white, one-dimensional and plain childish. What this means for the Themes is that it makes them one-sided, simplistic messages that are NOT open to questioning, or disagreement, which ends up becoming a detriment to the conflict and the themes, thereby making them NOT compelling.

The Action Scenes all focus on being as bombastic as possible, trying to squeeze as much action into the scene as possible instead of intricately delivering with planning and/or skill. (i,e; the shooting scene near the end of the first movie, or the arrest of the terrorists.) There are only about two scenes that are anything close to providing good action. There is also a considerable lack of stakes (until the very end) which makes it plain boring to watch.

Around an hour into the movie, we finally get an effective flashback scene that is done half-decently, right after which we return to the same "ebil military", exposition dump, "tell-don't-show" crap, with 4 plot-twists in quick succession, making the plot feel bloated and overdone, much like the graphics.

Speaking of which, the Dated CGI becomes an eye-sore after a while and Janky-looking Character Animation ruins the emotions that the characters are supposed to express. Couple that with the Horrible Soundtrack, with hipster music and compositions that sound like they belong in a 2000s B-movie or low budget video-game.

Which is why I am completely lost and confused as to why this is rated higher than the 1988 OVA that did far more with far little. It's a shame that adaptation is acknowledged less as it was significantly better. The only thing that the 2004 Film has over the 1988 Film was the Dub. The Dubbing was an improvement, obviously because more modern dubs tend to be better produced, however other than that I could not see a single thing that this Film did even moderately well.

5.5/10 (Bad CGI Blockbuster Movie from the Early 2000s, with much of the cliches of that Era.)

Based on the manga from Masamune Shirow and directed by Kazuyoshi Katayama (who would later go on to direct "The Big O"), Appleseed (1988) gives us a sci-fi thriller plot that moves at a break-neck space, with wonderfully stunning animation, characters that are easy to get invested in and while also providing social commentary on the idea of utopianism and the role of chaos within in an orderly setting. All the while, it makes it so that it does not come across as preachy, since the characters through which the 'more' philosophical dialogue is introduced are speaking in context of their own experiences making the employment or use of the themes to be coherent and well-related to the story as well as open to criticism by other characters.

The Movie opens up with somewhat of a tragic event that leads us into expertly establishing the motivations for its Antagonist from the get-go. This sort of pacing made it so that it never felt too rushed while also telling the entire story within just an hour of film. In this way the characters managed to be well-fleshed out within a short amount of time without rushing any development. Subtle choices through dialogue that made sense and flowed smoothly throughout the OVA.

The Main Plot revolves around these terrorists that the Police Force has to combat in order for the city's security and people's safety. While most terrorists are doing this for money, there is one particular character who, like Kazuho Yoshii from Texhnolyze, or Joker from The Dark Knight, does it for the sake of "sending a message". While now seeming cliched, one must keep in mind that this was not so cliched in the 80s. So in a lot of ways, Appleseed can be said to be ahead of its time.

Other than the Plot and Characters, The Art and Animation were fantastic. Some of the songs from the Soundtrack were pretty great and complemented the scenes well. Overall it was good and worked for the Film. The Dub was quite dated, but can easily be enjoyed by any anime fan who grew up on old dubs. Some of the voices for the main cast were decent and serviceable, while the side-characters sounded comedically bad. So take what you will from it or avoid it altogether if you dislike dubs.

Overall: Appleseed kept me engaged throughout, had quality action/animation, gave me memorable characters while also providing interesting themes to think about. 8.5/10.

This Movie not only improves on the Previous Film with addition to working as a Great Sequel - it also stands as my personal favorite movie from Rintaro.

All of the flaws from the Original Movie are gone in the Sequel. Probably one of the best Sequels I've seen other than Godfather Part 2 or Mamoru Oshii's Patlabor 2.

It has the same themes of tackling the idea of the "so-called" transhumanist utopia. The characters are far more engaging then they were in the first film, and that's not because they were bad in the first. Rather, they are developed far more in this movie.

Even the settings and the way that the Plot begins is done with such mastery that pulls you in with great immersion. Maetel's character is far more nuanced in this one. Tetsuro is a lot more older and mature and grasps the concept of living in a way that builds on his character from the previous film. The pacing issues in the first movie are nowhere to be seen here. It's undeniably a great sequel.

Watching both of Rintaro's two "Galaxy Express 999" movies back to back was a treat. Both are definitive classics but this one takes the cake.

9.5/10 (Best Rintaro Movie)

The first time I watched this movie 4-5 years ago, it made me feel the emptiest I had ever felt. Now rewatching it the third time I can say that this is as good as I remember it being.

Eva is very divisive, you either don't get the characters and end up finding it pretentious, OR really relate to it and end up hating it because of how awful those characters are as people. OR you end up loving it because the relatability of the cast speaks to the truth of how often people tend to shut themselves off and become awful irreprehensible human beings in the process. End of Evangelion is that tale. While the TV Series Ending tells you that it's possible to fix yourself, End of Evangelion instead tells you bluntly to accept the Misery for the sake of Living. You may not be even able to fix yourself, but escape from it will never change things. So Life is worth the shot, no matter what pain it causes you.

From the psychedelic visuals to the fast cuts of dialogue to Shinji and Asuka's character arcs, you get the sense that these are real people put in an unreal environment that makes the psychological bits all the more disjointing and even horrific. The frustration each character feels is conveyed brilliantly and the mistakes they make are also soul-shattering - especially Shinji. End of Evangelion brilliantly concludes the character arcs of awful people.

It's thesis on humanity is that, despite all of the terrible people, the pain, rejection, and inability to truly love others, Life is still worth living for your own sake. There's nothing that puts this more at the forefront than Misato's talk with Shinji before she pushes him into the Elevator. People make mistakes but they can change for the better or for the worse, but regardless: seeing that change through, no matter how painful it might be is preferable to never experiencing pain or making mistakes.

And that is the core of why Evangelion, even after all these years, is so fascinating to so many people. Despite all the cringe-inducing terrible things these characters do, they never feel out of place for them and do serve to remind us that the Human Condition is riddled with these problems that keep recurring. But it builds on that premise to still give us the conclusion that despite all of its problems, Humanity does in-fact deserve to live on and survive.

With High Ratings on both sites like MAL and IMDB, you would expect at least something to get from this show but alas, there is nothing.

Watching Mushishi is like staring into the abyss. If you wanna be episodic, at least make every episode somewhat interesting or intriguing in some way. Mushishi doesn't want to do that. At least more than half of its episodes feel the exact same. The stories are too similar and formulaic, so you'll feel at times like you've already watched some of these episodes, despite it being your first time viewing them.

And it's so repetitive that it induces you of extreme boredom, not because there isn't enough action or fanservice or whatever. It's because every episode with few exceptions is the exact same.

This could be excusable had we been given interesting characters or themes. But alas Mushishi doesn't even want to do that. The most interesting episode is Episode 21 because it actually presents us with a Moral Dilemma, but it happens to be the only episode where this is done. Most of these episodes deal with conflicts that are one dimensional and uninteresting.

The side-characters are given these problems that then Ginko has to come and solve, but the biggest problem is that these side-characters are irrelevant by the next episode and so there is no meaningful progression and it feels like a waste of time. And this wouldn't even be a Problem if they impacted the Main Character: Ginko in some way, but they don't.

If only the main character learned something from these experiences, I would find it interesting, but alas, he learns absolutely nothing. He is completely static and doesn't develop. Not only that, he doesn't even have an interesting motivation for his actions or for being a Mushi-Master. He just does it because of plot-convenience. (Lol, he attracts Mushi, so he can't stay in one place for long) - that's it.

That's the only reason we are ever given. We don't even get any meaningful introspection on how this kind of life makes him feel, he has no thoughts on it. It's left completely irrelevant. Even the backstory of Ginko only explains his character design and explains his attraction to Mushi. But that's it. He doesn't even care to learn about his Past or find out who he was before or question if it even matters. It's a complete after-thought. None of these Ideas are ever explored.

So Mushishi suffers from a boring protagonist who can't keep this show interesting, a concept that is rarely explored beyond surface level. Multiple side characters that feel the exact same and have the same range of boring personalities. Episodes that are formulaic and rarely written with any creativity.

It makes one wonder.

Why should I give a damn about this show? It has decent artstyle and backgrounds, but that's it. That's so superficial and stupid. And it's not even like groundbreaking in Animation, the majority of it is just Average at Best. It's not reason enough to like something.

It doesn't present you with any interesting themes to think about, nor does it give you a good cast of characters and neither does it give you a meaningful story. What is there to like?

So I end this Review with this Question. To all of you who like Mushishi, do you feel intelligent? You like a show that is about as shallow as any other fan-pandering action TV show but without the action or fanservice? Does that make you feel intelligent? The simple answer is that: It shouldn't.

This Movie is not terrible... It's decent! The English voice acting for this movie is actually hilarious. It made the movie really fun to watch as me and my friends were nitpicking the hell out of it. The plot was okay, though it was a little convoluted at times... but the animation was pretty great for its time... So overall it's not bad but not any good either as the incompetent dialogue completely takes away what made Yu Yu Hakusho's characters great in the first place... Also it's impossible to understand where this movie fits in the cannon.

The first half of the film was consistently entertaining but as soon as Alex goes to jail the film turns into a bore-fest and never picks up instead it stumbles for another hour until it's painful death... Was I supposed to feel bad about the main character? Because if I was... Then I just feel bad for the idiot who wrote this story... The violence in the first half had no point... And none of the characters were interesting... I thought it was going to be a two hour epic, but I was wrong. From what I can tell, People like this film because it explores themes of Freedom of Choice and what it means to strip it away... But the film isn't a deep exploration of that, instead it wants us to believe that that the main character is the victim in all this without even giving us a single reason why... The first half is so cartoony that it makes Jim Carey look like a badass "Riddler". The second half is so pretentious that it makes Serial Experiments Lain look like a Masterpiece. The film does not have layers to it and it doesn't give a single crap about subtlety or nuance. It's like the exact opposite of Fight Club... There's nothing of value in this movie... man! Bugs Bunny is a smarter satire comedy than this crap. And if it was intended to be a comedy then the second half of this film blows... The only thing good I can say about it is that the Soundtrack was good and the Cinematography was great. First Half: 7/10 Second Half: 5/10 Overall: 6/10

The first 20 minutes of this film were slow. But then it took off and the plot got more and more interesting until some stuff happened and the main protagonist had to go to some foreign place. After that, it became a bore-fest filled with long drawn out scenes that added "little to nothing" to the plot. Like the guy's foreign wife... What was the Point of That!!? Fortunately, It ended in a pretty bad@$$ and brilliant manner. The last 20 to 30 minutes of this movie were pretty great. Still, that doesn't excuse the amount of filler and lack of character development for the characters that were actually important in the next film. That includes The protagonist too. (His Character Arc wasn't handled very efficiently. He was a lot better in the second movie.)