12.28
Pip got the Appleseed UMD for PSP as an xmas present. It was one of those presents that Dad’s buy for their kids because they want to play/watch/mess with I’m ashamed to say.
I’ve blogged about Appleseed before and when I was last in Japan I bought a special preview DVD pack with character figurine etc. From the very first time I saw the trailer I was desperate to see the movie but until now there hadn’t, to my knowledge, been an English version available so you can imagine my excitement when I saw the UMD version.
I wasn’t disappointed – at all. The movie is astounding, simply beautiful to watch with it’s brilliant mixture of photo-realistic and cell shaded cgi. With a little more publicity it’s this kind of thing that would see Japanese Anime become mainstream in Europe. It has a typically apocalyptic story line for a Japanese animation but with some level of subtlety which isn’t so typical. I can’t recommend it enough.
I’ve always been a fan of portable media consumption. I’m a mobile phone freak, have read entire novels on Pocket PC’s and Palms, watched full length movies on my iPod and have my gym workout schedule on one too. There is something so right about watching Bladerunner on a PSP it hurts. Appleseed slots into that bracket without doubt. PSP is the platform to watch this on and it’s inspired me to rip a lot of other sci-fi dvd’s like Casshern and The Matrix onto memory sticks too. I can’t wait to see Final Fantasy Advent Children either – with the largest sales of any UMD title in Japan yet I think we’re in for a treat.
Oh, and the soundtrack is pretty nifty too.