Appleseed Ex Machina

Director: Shinji Aramaki
Country: Japan

It is the year 2135 in Olympus, a neutral city-nation built after World War 3. Humans, cyborgs and bioroids working for the city's peacekeeping force, ESWAT, must solve a mystery involving cyborgs going rogue. The story focuses on Duenan, a no-nonsense field agent, her cyborg partner Briareos, and newcomer Tereus, a bioroid based on Briareos's DNA as they slowly uncover the true reasons behind the cyborg attacks.

This anime is a sequel to 2004's Appleseed, which features the same director, Shinji Aramaki. While the movie shows off (often gratuitously) stylish action sequences, I found that the accompanying plot was a bit lacking. Everything was predictable, and the character development was far too melodramatic for my liking. Even some of the action scenes seemed a bit too impractical despite the style the movie was going for. Overall, I didn't think much of the movie; it was enjoyable enough, but only just.

Appleseed Ex Machina is a movie that fails to incorporate action and plot in a fluid fashion, and both aspects get a bit too exaggerated at times. I would only recommend the film to dedicated anime fans.