To whoever put this clip up on Google Video: this IS something the God of Biomechanics will let you into heaven for.
Move over, "Ex Machina": the 1988 live-action Appleseed Special Prologue is a sci-fi spectacle to die for. The saxophones! The clumsy-looking, cross-eyed Briareos! The bored-looking blonde gaijin who looks like she's taking a break from "Diff'rent Strokes" to play Deunan! Doin' a drive-by in Odaiba with uzis! Along with the legendary Nutrocker, this is one of the pure, glittering moments of Eighties otakudom. Enjoy it while you can.
Produced as PR for the 1988 Appleseed anime OVA, it's the brainchild of legendary producer Takami Akai, of late forced to resign from Gainax for posting disparaging remarks about anime fans on the Japanese BBS system 2ch (to wit, that it's "like putting his face next to an anus and inhaling deeply.")
Man that is so....something. I've wanted to see this since finding out about it, just since the still I'd seen made it look so 80's. Glad someone posted it. Now hopefully someone with more geek juice than I can capture and torrent it.
Posted by: EricMc | November 04, 2007 at 12:55 PM
Oh, god, that was awful, and on the outer fringes of being unwatchable again. Maybe. It's SO 80s.
I think that's Fuyuki Shinada directing Briareos' suit design.
I like the little Briareos doll, too.
Posted by: Roger | November 05, 2007 at 12:39 PM
Man, that just hurt to watch. And to think that back in the day there were waaaay too many of us (myself included, probably) that would have thought this was the greatest thing since the metaphorical sliced bread...
Posted by: Surfpenguin | November 05, 2007 at 01:10 PM
Reminds me a lot of CAPTAIN POWER - only not as good....
Posted by: AcroRay | November 06, 2007 at 01:29 AM
I've got to see that movie. I can't believe people are hating on it... without seeing it. I guess they're not Appleseed fans.
Posted by: James Leung Man-Fai | November 06, 2007 at 06:47 AM
My God, that actress...it's like the result of a worldwide talent search for a girl who is almost but not completely UNLIKE Deunan...
Although, really, I wonder who you would cast in that role? It wouldn't be anyone with pronounced Asian features, so that half of the world is out. Maybe a light-skinned black girl...
Posted by: DensityDuck | November 06, 2007 at 11:07 AM
"I've got to see that movie."
Just to clear up the confusion here and on other sites -- this isn't a preview for a longer film. It's a three-minute PR short created to promote the 1988 Appleseed anime OVA, with a fifteen-minute "making of" thrown in. As far as I'm aware, this is all that was ever made. I wonder where it was originally shown? In theaters, perhaps?
Posted by: Matt | November 08, 2007 at 11:32 AM
...And so begins my search to find this song >_>
Posted by: Mike D. | November 17, 2007 at 02:22 AM