Appleseed

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The manga Appleseed was drawn from 1985 by the then 25-year-old Masamune Shirow and published by the Japanese publisher Seishinsha . It belongs to the genre of science fiction . The name comes from the American folklore figure Johnny Appleseed .

There is also a 70-minute anime feature film from 1988 manga series, which is more of the action - Genre is located. This was filmed again in 2004 as a three-part film using modern animation technology ( Cel Shading ). There are slight changes in the story from the manga to the remake.

action

After a war in the near future, large areas of the earth have been depopulated. In North America, where the story takes place, life is centered in the futuristic metropolis of Olympus. The two protagonists Deunan Knute , a former policewoman, and Briareos Hecatonchires , a cyborg and Deunan's partner, arrive at Olympus, but have to discover that they have been outsiders there for how long they have been separated from civilization. In addition, there is the stark contrast between the two previous lives in the so-called “Badside” - an urban landscape marked by the long war and largely deserted - and the (almost too) idyllic life in Olympus. In addition, the two discover that a large part of the population in Olympus consists of so-called "bioroids": these are genetically modified people who are supposed to contribute to a global new beginning after the long war. Soon after their arrival in Olympus, Deunan and Briareos join a paramilitary police unit (SWAT; later: ESWAT), which also carries out secret special missions. With this, Deunan and Briareos finally get sucked into the technical and social experiment that Olympus represents.

An important technological achievement from Olympus are the so-called landmates or exos (armored exoskeletons ). At the beginning of the second German volume, Deunan bought one of these exos , which promptly had to pass its first test when a group with heavily armed exos, who had also come to Olympus from the Badside, wanted to destroy the central computer of Olympus.

The story is not closed in the Japanese edition either, it was laid out for 8–10 Japanese volumes. It is unclear whether there will be a sequel.

The German edition

The German edition of the manga appeared as Tankōbon in the first edition in 1994 by Feest Comics , at a price of 16.80 DM each. The format is between DIN A4 and A5, each book has about 100 pages.

The total of four books in the Japanese edition were thus divided into nine volumes in the German version.

Characters

  • Deunan Knute ( デ ュ ナ ン ・ ナ ッ ツ , Deunan Nattsu )
Year of birth: 2105
Deunan Knute is the main character in the Appleseed series. She is of mixed ethnicity and has green eyes and blonde hair. Before the war, she was a police officer with the Los Angeles SWAT unit. Her partner, friend and former lover is Briareos Hecatonecles, with whom she moves to Olympus in 2127. Deunan is a specialist in weapons, explosives and hand-to-hand combat, and is an extremely talented pilot. Despite her qualities, she is accepted by her colleagues, but not popular, which is due to her sometimes somewhat opinionated nature and sometimes fiery temperament.
  • Briareos Hecatonecles ( ブ リ ア レ オ ス ・ ヘ カ ト ン ケ イ レ ス , Buriareosu Hekatonkeiresu )
Year of birth: 2096
Deunan's partner and confidante, a cyborg , whose body consists almost entirely of cybernetic limbs and implants and is equipped with special sensors for combat use. According to an interview with the author in the magazine "B-CLUB" and a picture in the Appleseed Databook, Briareos had dark skin before his modification, which contradicts the portrayal in the film, in which he is shown as light-skinned.
In his youth he worked as a spy for the Soviet KGB , but had to flee after an assassination attempt on an officer and worked as a mercenary . In 2116 he met Deunan and joined the team led by Karl Knute, Deunan's father. Six years later he has to undergo his cybernetic modification after an explosives accident.
While Briareos' appearance makes him appear like a robot, his body unites artificial skin and muscle fibers with organic tissue. His internal organs and brain are also intact. The latter has been improved with technical means, which also serves to process the information obtained by its new sensors.

Motion picture

Appleseed was remade in 2004 by Shinji Aramaki . In the production of this new edition , producer Fumihiko Sori supported well-known personalities from the anime scene. For example, the creator of the final fantasy characters was hired for the character design .

The film tries to imitate the manga series of that time and to implement Masamune Shirow's worldview as best as possible in the script. The production of the film was made possible by various modern techniques such as motion capturing , face capturing, cel shading and 3D animations. These modern techniques create a special atmosphere which - in contrast to the 2D animations in the anime - should bring the viewer closer to the plot and the characters.

The film was released on DVD on December 12, 2005 in German-speaking countries.

On March 11, 2008, the second part with the title Appleseed: Ex Machina was released in Germany on DVD and Blu-Ray disc. In addition, a 26-part anime series was produced in 2006. Whether and when the series will find its way to Germany is currently unclear.

In 2011 the series Appleseed XIII was created , which Universum Anime released on June 15, 2012 in Germany on DVD and Blu-ray.

In Germany, the fourth part of Appleseed was released on July 31, 2014 : Alpha on DVD and Blu-ray.

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