Entertaining for fans of earlier animes from Matsumotos' works, but not good enough to stand by itself. This story (13 tv episodes) is based on a video game, and I have yet to find a reference to an actual manga that preceded it. Main characters (in Matsumotos' works) tend to be personifications of a way of thinking or of living, and their interactions tend to lead to the writers ideals on the relative merits of those ways of living. Not really saturday morning cartoons for kids here. Especially not with all of the children (and occasional house cat) getting blown up.
The music was a strong point, and the animation was a low point. They seemed to try for a neo-retro look, but it just looked low budget and even inept most of the time. The story itself proceeded along rather predictable paths, but the character development was adequate for the story.
One complaint that I have may come from the original writing, or from the sub titling and that is the Mechanized Men. They were not generic robots or androids, as they (it seems) had been humans once. Were they 'cyborgs' (android bodies with human brains inside) or androids (with human memories loaded into their CPU)? If you are going to be getting philosophical in your story, you really need to define your terms. There was a vague tie in with the earlier Galaxy Express 999 anime series, as one of the two main characters was traveling on the Express for the purpose of getting his human body replaced with a 'mechanized' body, so as to achieve practical immortality.
In the end, I did enjoy the 13 episode run. But, I would not have if it had not had the connection to the previously seen Matsumoto works. Note, they leave room for a sequel.
The music was a strong point, and the animation was a low point. They seemed to try for a neo-retro look, but it just looked low budget and even inept most of the time. The story itself proceeded along rather predictable paths, but the character development was adequate for the story.
One complaint that I have may come from the original writing, or from the sub titling and that is the Mechanized Men. They were not generic robots or androids, as they (it seems) had been humans once. Were they 'cyborgs' (android bodies with human brains inside) or androids (with human memories loaded into their CPU)? If you are going to be getting philosophical in your story, you really need to define your terms. There was a vague tie in with the earlier Galaxy Express 999 anime series, as one of the two main characters was traveling on the Express for the purpose of getting his human body replaced with a 'mechanized' body, so as to achieve practical immortality.
In the end, I did enjoy the 13 episode run. But, I would not have if it had not had the connection to the previously seen Matsumoto works. Note, they leave room for a sequel.