is a 2011 Japanese CGI

anime is a Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, , in Japan and in Ja ...

adaptation of

Masamune Shirow , better known by his pen name , is a Japanese manga artist. Shirow is best known for the manga ''Ghost in the Shell'', which has since been turned into three theatrical anime films, two anime television series, an anime television film, an ani ...

's science fiction

manga are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long history in earlier Japanese art. The term is used in Japan to refer to both comics ...

series '' Appleseed''. Composed of 13 episodes, the series retold the exploits of E-S.W.A.T. member Deunan and her cyborg partner Briareos. The series was produced by

Production I.G is a Japanese animation studio. Headquartered in Musashino, Tokyo, Production I.G was founded on December 15, 1987, by producer Mitsuhisa Ishikawa and character designer Takayuki Goto as I.G Tatsunoko, a branch studio of the animation giant Ta ...

and under the direction of

Takayuki Hamana is a Japanese animator and director known for directing ''The Prince of Tennis''. Career Upon graduating high school, Takayuki Hamana joined Ajia-do as an in-between animator for four years. Hamana left Ajia-do and joined Production I.G, I.G Tat ...

with Junichi Fujisaku as script supervisor. All 13 episodes were compiled into two feature-length films. The first feature film titled was announced by Shochiku and released on June 13, 2011. The second film, was released on October 24, 2011. A North American release of the TV series was released in June 2013. It was licensed by

Funimation Funimation was an American Video on demand#Subscription models, subscription video on-demand Over-the-top media service, over-the-top Streaming media, streaming service. Launched in 2016, the service was one of the leading distributors of anime ...

Plot

Setting

Following World War III, a global-scale conflict fought with non-nuclear weapons that almost halved the earth's population, the city-nation of Olympus stands as a beacon of hope in a world of chaos. The utopian metropolis is governed by Gaia, a vast artificial intelligence, and administered by genetically engineered humanoids known as bioroids. Although Olympus seems like a peaceful city on the surface, racial (human vs. bioroids vs. cyborgs), religious, and political conflicts lurk underneath, threatening to overturn the delicately balanced peace of this so-called utopia.

Story

Deunan, a young female special agent, and Briareos, a veteran cyborg soldier, are both partners and lovers, as well as members of E-S.W.A.T., the elite

special forces Special forces or special operations forces (SOF) are military units trained to conduct special operations. NATO has defined special operations as "military activities conducted by specially designated, organized, selected, trained and equip ...

serving Olympus. They are deployed wherever trouble strikes. Conspiracy, terrorism, deadly military weapons technology, greedy corporations, and power-hungry politicians: these are just some of the threats that Deunan and Briareos must contend with as they fight to protect Olympus and conduct their personal quest to find Eden in the wasteland. As Olympus is carrying forward the Ark Project, aimed to preserve the future of human kind under bioroids' supervision, the Human Liberation Front is strongly opposing the plan and the very existence of the bioroids. The Front is supported by a radical fringe known as the Argonauts, a terrorist group hiding inside a legendary self-propelled city-fortress. But very little is known about the Argonauts, and their leader, Alcides is a man who reportedly died when the maritime industrial nation of Poseidon bombed the Argonauts' fortress, 20 years before.

Characters

; : :Deunan is a young woman of both African and Caucasian descent and the daughter of an American Securities officer named Carl Knute. Her mother was gunned down for crossing a street designated for white people. After that day, her father began drilling her in combat and survival skills to the point where she became a mercenary. During her training, she encountered Briareos, a former puppet for a KGB linked terrorist group. The two began training together and eventually became lovers. ; / : :Originally, an African man from the Mediterranean, Briareos was used as a terrorist by the KGB while still a child. He sought political asylum in the former USA after killing the unit's commander of operations - for which he was put on the international "most wanted" list as an assassin. After meeting an agent from Special Security Forces, he began operating as a partner with the man's daughter, Deunan Knute. Caught in an explosion, the 31-year-old survived only by undergoing a full cyborg body replacement - and has been making modifications ever since. Briareos is a

Hekatonkheires In Greek mythology, the Hecatoncheires (), also called Hundred-Handers or Centimanes (; ), were three monstrous giants, of enormous size and strength, each with fifty heads and one hundred arms. They were individually named Cottus (the furious), ...

Combat Model cyborg. ; : ; : ; : ; : ; Deia Chades :

Media

Anime

directed the anime at various companies in cooperation with Production I.G. Junichi Fujisaku supervised and co-wrote the scripts, and Takayuki Goto designed the characters based on Shirow's original work. Atsushi Takeuchi led mechanical design efforts. ''Appleseed XIII'' was released in Japan as a 13-episode

OVA , abbreviated as OVA and sometimes as OAV (original animation video), are Japanese animated films and special episodes of a series made specially for release in home video formats without prior showings on television or in theaters, though the ...

series and was compiled into two theatrical feature films. The first feature film titled ''Appleseed XIII: Tartaros'' was released on June 13, 2011. The second, titled ''Appleseed XIII: Ouranos'' was released on October 24, 2011. During the release of the feature films, limited edition first Blu-ray volumes were being sold in theatres and the episodes were being streamed online. A 2-disc soundtrack was released under catalog number KICA-3146 on October 26, 2011, by

King Records (Japan) , commonly known as King Records, is a Japanese record company founded in January 1931 as a division of the Japanese publisher Kodansha. It initially began operating as an independent entity in the 1950s. It later became part of the Otowa Grou ...

. The names of episodes 1 to 12 are a direct reference to the Twelve Labours of Hercules.

Manga

A manga adaptation titled by Akira Miyagawa was published by

Kodansha is a Japanese privately held publishing company headquartered in Bunkyō, Tokyo. Kodansha publishes manga magazines which include ''Nakayoshi'', ''Morning (magazine), Morning'', ''Afternoon (magazine), Afternoon'', ''Evening (magazine), Eveni ...

and was serialized in ''

Monthly Afternoon is a Japanese monthly manga anthology published by Kodansha under the ''Afternoon'' line of magazines. The first issue was released with a cover date of January 25, 1986. ''Afternoon'' has spawned many successful manga series such as '' Oh My G ...

'' magazine from October 25, 2011 to April 25, 2013. The manga was collected into three volumes released on April 23, 2012, December 21, 2012, and May 23, 2013.

References

External links

* * {{Production I.G films 2011 anime ONAs Japanese adult animated films Appleseed (media franchise) Crunchyroll anime Funimation Kodansha manga Production I.G Science fiction anime and manga Seinen manga 2011 films Television shows based on works by Masamune Shirow ja:アップルシード