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Metropolis
Episodes Reviewed: DVD, subbed (forgot to check out dub, oh well)
Overall Grade: A+
The overall look and feel was really the clincher in this already awesome film.
Storyline: 10
During the city's festival celebrating the construction of a huge tower, Dr. Laughton is supposed to create Duke Red's masterpiece, a robot to control all, and in the image of his deceased daughter. Meanwhile, detective Shunsaku Ban and his nephew Kenichi arrive in the city and enlist the aid of robot detective Pero in their search for Dr. Laughton, who is accused of using human organs in experiments. Things go awry when Rock, an adopted "son" of Duke Red, kills the doctor and tries to kill the robot, who he feels will have Duke Red's affections. In the explosion that follows, Kenichi finds the robot girl, Tima, and is seperated from his uncle, who receives an important book from the doctor. The rest is Rock's search for the girl, as well as Duke Red's search for her, but for different reasons. And of course, Kenichi and Tima have to run away from Rock and a friendship is formed, as was probably predicted by practically everyone.
Type: Mystery?
If that's true, it's new to me.
Ch. Development: 10
So much development in one movie, and all of it seamless! So Tezuka is the god of manga after all!
Sexuality: 2
Tima is naked when we first see her, but because she is in a blinding white light, we don't see anything.
Romance: 4
What goes in between Tima and Kenichi somewhat resembles romance... and then it gets blown all to hell.
Drama: 9
Truly heavy stuff here, with plot twists that I never expected straight through to the end. Rivaled only by Grave of the Fireflies.
Action: 5
Quite a bit, unexpectedly. There's some gunfire (mostly Rock), there's a revolution, and there's, well, all hell breaking loose near the end.
Comedy: 2
Only a little.
Dub not reviewed
Well, I've read about them, but this is the first time I saw an anime about robots and humanity. To me, the point didn't really get across, but that only means that it's open up to debate, which is a better response to stories such as these. I think the main point was that humans should be careful never to allow machines to be able to replace humans, and that they should also keep their ambitons and pride in check. Of course, that's just my opinion, and know you'll see the opinion you're here for.
As I've said, the story is good, but there's also a decent amount of action, and luckily not too much romance. The story gets to be alittle heavy near the end and yes, you could describe it as shocking. It's hard to come across something as good as this. Let's not forget the visuals either. Though the style is similar to that of recent disney films, it still retains enough of the anime style to show us emotion without laughing. But the style isn't important. The most noticable feature of this feature is the fact that the CG is first-rate, high-quality stuff. Although numerous other anime have attempted it before, none of them reach this level of detail and none of them blend as well as they do in this movie. This is truly a technological marvel. Oh, and don't even get me started about Disney's Treasure Planet..
All in all, I'd say Osamu Tezuka's legacy is personified by this film, and it is most definitely worth a look. Seriously consider adding it to your collection.
That's my Story and I'm Sticking to it!
