Appleseed

Design - 8.0

Story - 7.9

Character - 7.6

Value - 7.6

Enjoyment - 7.7

Average - 7.7

Reviewed 7 times

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nauXolo

(2006-11-18 08:39:17) 2006-11-18 08:06:21

Average	7.6
Design	8
Story	8
Character	7
Value	7
Enjoyment	8

Appleseed is a pretty dense manga read, but despite that it remains quite engaging throughout. Often times, mangas that have a high density of words/perpage in them lack a good balance between plot details and plot progression. However, Appleseed's detailed dialogue actually supplement the action scenes quite well - they create a realistic and more engrossing atmosphere around the story.

However, I did find the subject material to be a bit tedious at times. Although it was well written enough that you kind of knew what was going on with GAIA, Bioroids and humans, I was not really convinced by the philosophy presented in the detailed dialogue. In other words, I didn't really understand what GAIA was doing. I got as far as the fact that the council wanted to enhance humans into bioroids in order to preserve some sort of unification and communication of organisms, as well as allowing humans to preserve their original species if desired (the execution HOPE plan, the last thing that remained closed in Pandora's Box) . But hm.... I didn't really understand reason why GAIA was trying to destroy bioroids. As for the second part of the story, it focuses on the progress and aftermath of the events that happened with the HOPE plan. Here, there are still various renegade groups out there that still seek to achieve their own ends.

The art is quite nice with a lot of details put here and there that enhance the sci-fi mood of the manga. The action scenes were nicely drawn with a lot of detail put into the robots/battle suits as well as guns, surrounding destruction and effects. There is also quite some fanservice shown through a muscular full frontal nude Deunan going to the sauna or changing or showering.

As for character development, Appleseed does not really focus too much on deep development. There are occasional times when Deunan reflects deeply about her troubled past as well as what she should do about her future but nevertheless, Deunan and Bri make an excellent combination representative of the world that they live in - as those who have elements of the past preserved in them as well as the seeds for the future. It is also pretty entertaining to watch this girl and a cyborg showing romantic signs of flirting and physical bonding.

As a whole, this manga is a good read with a good solid story. Action scenes are nicely drawn, too. But it is a bit lacking in terms of active reader involvement and emotional strength. For those who enjoy and are interested in a strong female protagonist (but not as cold-hearted as Kusanagi Motoko) as well as a futuristic science-fiction setting with various integrations of philosophies about overall human social behavior (much similar to the more well known later works called Ghost in the Shell - although not much focus on the issue of individual human identity) then Appleseed is well worth the read.