Appleseed

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Appleseed

R

2004

1h 45m

Fantasy

Action

Sci-Fi

Anime

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

26%

Tomatometer

31 Reviews

73%

Popcornmeter

10,000+ Ratings

Deunan Knute (Ai Kobayashi) is a female warrior who survives the Global War. When she meets her old love, Briareos Hecatonchires (Jûrôta Kosugi), she finds that he has become a cyborg due to his injuries from the war. Deunan soon learns that a new race of cyborgs called Bioroids have been created in the peaceful city of Olympus. However, Deunan also discovers that something is sabotaging the Bioroids, causing their lives to be very short, so she dedicates herself to finding out the cause.

Critics Consensus

While visually arresting, Appleseed's narrative and dialogue pondering existentialism is ponderous, awkward, and clumsy.

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J. R. Jones

Chicago Reader

The stock characters and leaden stretches of expository dialogue are welcome evidence that there's still no computer program capable of telling a decent story.

Apr 25, 2007

Full Review

Maitland McDonagh

Time Out

Shut your brain down for optimal viewing pleasure.

Feb 9, 2006

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Tasha Robinson

AV Club

It's busy, stiff, artificial graphics are a perfect match for its busy, stiff, artificial plot.

Sep 26, 2005

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Bill Gibron

DVDTalk.com

It's an exceedingly brilliant combination of future shock set-up and old school moralizing, a deconstruction of what it means to be human rendered in tech tones so slick that you often forget you're watching a cartoon.

Rated: 4.5/5

Sep 26, 2009

Full Review

Felix Vasquez Jr.

Cinema Crazed

I really wish I could have liked this more.

Rated: 2/4

Apr 29, 2009

Full Review

Jeffrey M. Anderson

Combustible Celluloid

With all that gorgeous imagery, you'd think the filmmakers would have found a way to tell the story visually without using mountains of expositional dialogue.

Rated: 1/4

Feb 1, 2005

Full Review

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Igor K

a thoroughly enjoyable lighter of the 3 films - imho the plot is good and the villain concept is timeless

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

07/20/25

Full Review

Anderson O

Well CGi animated introduction to Appleseed for a new generation. A very confusing plot to follow, but actions scenes later deliver and an abrupt ending. The scope and setting, character designs in the CGI world of Appleseed don’t disappoint either.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

01/31/25

Full Review

Greg B

One absolutely unforgiveable choice by the writers was turning Deunan Knute, a confident survivor and partner to Briareos into a conflicted mommas girl! It was as though the writers never even read the Manga? See Nintendos take on Samus Aran for a similar screwup! This movie is barely watcheable but the soundtrack is good.

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

10/06/24

Full Review

Liam D

It’s animation is beautiful but the story, voice acting and story are very unoriginal

Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars

08/03/24

Full Review

Audience Member

Sadly this succumbs to the constants problems with anime sci fi, exposition is managed in the worst possible way, they think that they are doing a complex worldbuiling narrative with twist after twist when they are just making the pacing unsuferable and convoluted. This cell shaded art style is way more unique and interesting than the one used in the sequels.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

02/27/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Definitely better than "Alpha", and certainly having some great aspects, but there are a number of detractors inhibiting me from giving it a higher score. Check out my full review at https://geekyngodly.blogspot.com/2020/04/appleseed-2004-was-it-better.html

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

01/19/23

Full Review

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Shinji Aramaki

Director

Ai Kobayashi

Deunan

Jûrôta Kosugi

Briareos

Yuki Matsuoka

Hitomi

Yuzuru Fujimoto

Uranus

Mami Koyama

Athena

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Synopsis

Deunan Knute (Ai Kobayashi) is a female warrior who survives the Global War. When she meets her old love, Briareos Hecatonchires (Jûrôta Kosugi), she finds that he has become a cyborg due to his injuries from the war. Deunan soon learns that a new race of cyborgs called Bioroids have been created in the peaceful city of Olympus. However, Deunan also discovers that something is sabotaging the Bioroids, causing their lives to be very short, so she dedicates herself to finding out the cause.

Director: Shinji Aramaki
Screenwriter: Haruka Handa, Tsutomu Kamishiro
Production Co: Geneon Universal Entertainment, Digital Frontier, Anime Network
Rating: R (Some Violence)
Genre: Fantasy, Action, Sci-Fi, Anime
Original Language: Japanese
Release Date (Theaters): Mar 5, 2004, Original
Rerelease Date (Theaters): Jan 14, 2005
Release Date (Streaming): Nov 3, 2016
Box Office (Gross USA): $125.0K
Runtime: 1h 45m