Nostalgic Anime Retrospective #3: The Cell-Anime Version of "Appleseed". The only OVA with live action footage!

Veteran writer Keisuke Hirota takes a nostalgic look back at the anime works of the past in " A Middle-Aged Anime Writer's Nostalgic Anime Retrospective.

In this third installment, he looks at the origin of the "APPLESEED" anime series, the latest of which, "APPLESEED Alpha," was released last month. APPLESEED" (2004), "EX MACHINA" (2007), "APPLESEED XIII" (2011), and "APPLESEED" have all been associated with 3DCG, but in fact, there was only one cel animation produced in 1988!

As I watched the promotional rollout for "Appleseed Alpha," I thought to myself, "Oh, this is another nostalgic visual." I'm not talking about the visuals, I'm talking about the cosplay. Gravure idols such as Ami Kikuchi, Asuka Kishi, and Mirai Nakahara were posing alongside a man in a Briareos costume, wearing the costume of the main character Dunan. If you thought, "Surely this looks familiar," you were probably a reader of Bandai's magazine "B-CLUB," right?
Let's start with an explanation of the "B-CLUB" magazine. It is a monthly magazine published by Bandai, so naturally, there is a lot of information on Bandai-funded anime and special effects. However, sometimes, we find a work that has little to do with Bandai, and we think, "This is interesting! and even works that have little to do with Bandai are featured in "B-CLUB" at the sole discretion of the editorial department.

One of the B-CLUB's top picks was "Appleseed," which was still only available in the original manga by Masamune Shirow. In addition to interviewing Mr. Shirow, "B-CLUB" magazine began to take on the challenge of sculpting the world of "Appleseed" by creating figures, and finally produced a 1/1 full-scale head of Briareos.
The magazine even produced a costume for Dunant, which is a bit too much of a flirtation. They even made a costume for Dunant, had a white woman dress up as him, and started taking pictures as if a live-action movie existed. While I was wondering why ...... was so far gone when there was not even an animated film yet, plans for an animated film of "Appleseed" were underway.

At that time, "Appleseed" and Mr. Shirow were both minor characters known only to those in the know, so "B-Club" was the earliest and most knowledgeable source for information on the "Appleseed" anime adaptation. Initially, it was reported as "a theatrical anime produced by GAINAX," but was later corrected to be a 60-minute OVA. It also became clear that GAINAX was not directly involved in the production, but that it was produced by AIC and Cente Studio, which at the time had hit OVAs such as "Megazone 23" (1985) and "Bubblegum Crisis" (1987), so it was expected that AIC would be good at mechas.

However, what was Sente Studio ......? Everyone raised their eyebrows. In fact, they had produced "Amon Saga" (1986), a fantasy animation based on the novel by Baku Yumemakura, but no one immediately thought, "Oh, Cente Studio, the creators of that Amon Saga! (1986), a fantasy animation based on Baku Yumemakura's novel. At any rate, GAINAX, which at the time was making headlines in the anime world with "Royal Space Force: Wings of Honneamise," was adapting "Appleseed" into an anime! The surprise that GAINAX, which at the time was making headlines in the animation world with "Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honneamise," would adapt "Appleseed" into an anime gradually faded.

Anyway, the first "Appleseed" anime adaptation was released in the spring of 1988. Fans of the original work must have been astonished. The atmosphere of the pictures was completely different from that of the original work. The characters were designed by Yumiko Dorozawa. At the time, she was the animation director for the Witch Girl series produced by Studio Piero, and she also designed the characters for "Magical Idol: Pastel Yumi" (1986), I must say that there was a long distance between "Appleseed" and the Witch Girl series. The animated version of "Appleseed" is somewhat soft and fluffy.

Then, who was the director?　Kazuyoshi Katayama, who worked as assistant director on "Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind" (1984) and later became the animation director of "Giant Robot: The Day the Earth Stood Still" (1991), wrote the script and directed. However, Shirow's original work was supposed to be appealing for its density, with the backstory elaborately drawn even outside the columns.
It is hard to tell what is going on just by reading it, but at any rate, the paranoid depiction of mecha is cool. The well-drawn girls are kawaii. Such fetishism is not felt from the anime "Appleseed. Somehow, the view is very clear. There is a sense of being left out of the picture.

However, this "detached feeling" is the key to the 1988 version of "Appleseed. If you want to enjoy the dense visuals, just watch the "Appleseed" series from 2004 onward. Watching the 1988 version of "Appleseed" now, you can see the framework of the difficult original manga little by little. You will be a little bit persuaded, "I see, so that's what the story was about. So, for those who want to clear their memory, "What was the original story about? This is the perfect anime for those who want to clear their memories of the original story.

The B-Club's out-of-control cosplay of Briareos and Dunant is included in the DVD as a short film (the only live-action film of its kind in the world!). . The cheap stage set is a condensation of the atmosphere of 1988, the year "Dracula III" became a hit, and is sure to be strangely comforting.

(Text by Keisuke Hirota)