Ex Machina is the 2nd installment of the Appleseed animated film series, adapted from the original manga by renowned comic artist/character designer Masamune Shirow. (who also gave us Ghost In The Shell) The film was released in Japan in late 2007.
While I wasn’t a very big fan of either films, mostly because the motion captured animation, the character and mecha design are really superlative and definitely worth checking out :
Character design was entrusted to Yamada Masaki, a veteran animator/character designer who has a long string of credits including Bumblegum Crisis, Gurren Lagann, Samurai Champloo, just to name a few. Fans of the Playstation game Basara will probably also recognize his art work.
The bulk of the CG animation was handled by Digital Frontier, one of the bigger 3D animation houses in Tokyo. Their studio is located in the fashionable shopping area of Daikanyama in Shibuya. Quite a number of my ex co-workers in Polygon Pictures worked on Ex Machina before moving over after the production wrapped.
This book has been out of print for quite a while, but you can still purchase a used copy from Amazon Japan Marketplace. However, you will need to engage a reshipping service like tenso.com as Amazon Marketplace sellers usually don’t ship outside of Japan. ( unless specifically stated )
The Analysis of Ex Machine – Appleseed Art Book details :
– Dimensions – 10.1 x 8.2 x 0.6 inches
– 144 pages
– Soft cover
– Color and b&w, in Japanese
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February 3rd, 2011 at 11:05 am
i loved the original Appleseed comics, but i really couldn’t get into the movies at all. i sort of like the old OVA, but even that wasn’t too great. the premise is fantastic, there is always just something in the execution of all the animations that falls short in one way or another or is just unappealing to me. it’s almost like this movie was made purely for the still images.
February 3rd, 2011 at 1:33 pm
Having seen both films, I don’t remember much about either of them. However, the intro from the first film with the Basement Jaxx music is pretty memorable, to me at least.
February 5th, 2011 at 9:06 am
I’m a big fan of the original manga and while I don’t like the films as much I still find them enjoyable nonetheless. With that said, the art for the films is very nice. I love the hand-drawn pieces.
February 5th, 2011 at 12:41 pm
to kind of add to what i said before, and only because Hina mentioned something do i think of it, but i think one of the problems with the newer films is that they look like they were made by machines, not people. like she said, i love the hand-drawn stuff in the artbook the most. i mean, i love technical and mechanical designs, but i love a human touch in the animation. these just felt robotic to me; and maybe that was the purpose, but i just can’t fully enjoy it like that.
February 6th, 2011 at 3:51 am
Zack / Hina – Much agreed, the very human and organic touch of the original artwork were not very successful reproduced in the final 3D versions of the characters.
Otto – I’ve completely forgotten that they used music by Basement Jaxx ! I believe in Ex Machina it was music by the great Ferry Corsten, but it just felt so out of place somehow…