Ranked #1114

The Animatrix: Beyond

From a Matrix fan's point of view, I feel it's one of the weaker pieces of the collection. It wouldn't be able to really stand well on its own because there's not enough substance. However, in tandem with the rest of the shorts, I think it gives an interesting view into how the Matrix affects "normal" people's lives. It displays the extent of the Agents' and Machines' control over even the most seemingly innocuous areas of the system.

The art and animation were done quite well by Koji Morimoto, who did the art direction for Akira. The characters were a bit generic, but they're not really meant to be the main focus of the piece, in my opinion. It's more of a look at the Matrix itself and how it shapes the lives of its inhabitants. You could've inserted different characters and still had the same story, basically. The ending of this piece is what really makes it worthwhile to watch for me. There's a sense of loss that colors it that is made more striking because of the difference in mood from the beginning of it. read more

[Intro]
This wasn't really matrix related...the matrix was involved but it seemed fairly irrelevent.

[Story]
This was pretty plain, few strange happenings because of the matrix, nothing special...

[Animation]
Animation was nice and detailed, added a decent touch, if the animation wasnt up to scratch i don't think i'd have carried on watching it...but hey it's only 10 minutes...

[Sound
Sound wasn't bad either...the sound and animation was the best part about this animatrix.

[Characters]
I personally found the characters really boring and nothing good was really happpening...

[Enjoyment]
Was hoping I wouldnt have to say this but I hope this was just an odd filler and not running out of ideas because i still have the last two OVA's to watch next. This OVA: Beyond, was really poor. read more

I LOVED this short. As amazing as the actiony bits of the other shorts are, this one feels more like a slice-of-life part of the Matrix. And it's interesting to see what happens when people stumble upon glitches!