Appleseed

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Alternative Titles

Japanese: アップルシ－ド

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Information

Type: Manga

Volumes: 4

Chapters: 25

Status: Finished

Published: Feb 15, 1985 to Mar 15, 1989

Genres: Award Winning, Sci-Fi

Serialization: Comic Gaia

Authors: Shirow, Masamune (Story & Art)

Statistics

Score: 7.33¹ (scored by 2,537 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #4318²

² based on the top manga page. Please note that 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #2078

Members: 9,072

Favorites: 158

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Wikipedia

7.33

Ranked #4318Popularity #2078Members 9,072

MangaComic GaiaShirow, Masamune (Story & Art)

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Volumes: /4

Chapters: /25

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Synopsis

It is the 22nd Century, the Third World War (2099-2126) has decimated a large part of Earth even though nuclear weapons have not been employed during the conflict. Old nations such as England, France and China have survived but have difficulty restoring their power. On the other hand, new nations and organizations such as the Sacred Republique of Mumna and the Poseidon Organization have been born on the ashes of the world resulting from the Third World War.

In this bleak future, we are introduced to ex-L.A. SWAT members Deunan Knute and Briareos Hecatonchires. Having survived the world conflict and living in a desolated city, they are found by a young woman called Hitomi who proposes them to follow her to the utopian city of Olympus which has become the world's most powerful organization and which registers the new relations in terms of politics, economics and military between new and old nations/organizations. In Olympus, they are integrated in the prestigious ESWAT (Extra Special Weapons And Tactics) organization, whose main mission is to protect Olympus from terrorist attacks and Olympus's interests in the world.

From here on, the two main protagonists encounter a great number of other characters and organizations who will be implicated in international plots that target Olympus.

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Background

Appleseed was published in English in-print and digitally by Dark Horse Comics from November 7, 2007 to March 11, 2009 and on September 10, 2014, respectively.

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Related Manga

Side story:	Appleseed Hypernotes
Prequel:	Appleseed XIII
Adaptation:	Appleseed

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Characters

Knute, Deunan

Main

Briareos

Main

Areios, Athena

Supporting

Hitomi

Supporting

Yoshitsune

Supporting

Reviews

Jan 10, 2022

giffica

Recommended

Appleseed is a step up from Masamune's previous work, Black Magic, but still suffers from many of the same exposition/dialogue heavy philosophy that doesn't really serve any purpose in the building of the world. A lot of it is a very dramatized version of what you might be accustomed to from some of the GitS franchise, without the critical philosophical edge that you've come to know from GitS.

Deunan is far less fleshed out than Motoko, but a significant step up from Black Magic. However, very little of that traditional "Cyberpunk" in present in Appleseed, and it reads more like a space epic, with elements of ...

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Dec 19, 2011

ashadowalker

Recommended

Masamune Shirow's artwork is stunning as always. Meticulously detailed and beautiful. Of all his work, the Appleseed manga is by far my favorite. Although Shirow clearly enjoys drawing cute girls, the integrity of the story is always his highest priority.

The story has depth, breadth, and coherence (also a staple of Shirow's work). Appleseed has suspense, action, drama, romance, etc., all expertly blended into an examination of human nature. If you're looking for the closure of a "good guys always win" story, you will be ultimately disappointed as the transient and personal nature of values is one of the themes Shirow explores. You ...

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Apr 30, 2022

Protocultured

Not Recommended

Preliminary (13/25 eps)

Having seen the Ghost in The Shell movie adaptation countless times (that really obscure one no one ever talks about of course), I didn't feel quite up to reading the original adaptation quite yet. I figured, hey, why not check out Appleseed, Masamune Shirow's fairly direct predecessor to Ghost in the Shell?

Unfortunately, it turned out to be a burning-car-battery of a mess.

While the world is interesting and the central conflict engaging, with the enjoyable staples of 80's cyberpunk and Shirow's insistance on shopping-cart-wheeled-mechs, the worldbuilding itself is a disaster. So many concepts are introduced through extremely clumsy, peacemeal exposition by nameless or very minor ... characters, often portraying situations and characters in certain situations or factions with the reader having to assume "oh, I guess they're doing this now".

Character motivations and backstories are similarly obfuscated, making essential character traits - like Deunan's age and role during World War III - really hard to determine. It's hard to root for anyone if they're all vague archetypes who's backstory *might* be elaborated on in the future.

By the time I got to the "Appleseed" chapter - you know, the one that presumably would explain the concepts behind the manga's name and themes - it was so obfuscated by technobabble and hard-to-decipher character motivation that I didn't have the energy to go on.

Although Shirow's involvement in Stand Alone Complex was probably minimal, I definitely get those vibes when it comes to Appleseed's exposition dumps that clumsily explain the entirety of what's going on and if you don't understand you're just a big dummy. SAC had the excuse of interjecting philosophy for all of those people who insisted anime wasn't art until it had random quotations of Catcher in The Rye as antagonist mottos and near-pornographic interjections of random philosophy from hardened police officers. What's Appleseed's excuse?

It's a shame the designs for the cyborgs, mechs, and other technological miscellany look so cool, because the art itself is a mess and woefully inconsistent, especially during action scenes. I wasn't aware overshading was a thing, but Shirow's "attention to detail" can get you lost in the details and make it hard to make out the entire panel at points. This is especially a problem with action scenes are an absolute chore to read (not surprisingly, they're the longest chapters!). No matter how cool everything looks, the aformentioned shading problem + inconsistent action between panels makes reading action scenes feel like reading some ancient, obscure verse of English - the shapes generally make sense, but trying to figure out how they go together takes quite a bit of interpretation.

Character designs often get lost in the action, with minor features such as antenna or eye count adding to the muddled mess that is the action scenes. I was even mistaking key characters for others at some points!

If the very original Appleseed is like this, it's no wonder was sidelined in favor of Ghost in the Shell for media dominance. I wish the world Appleseed created got a better manga to go with it.

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Recent News

New Appleseed CGI Anime Series Announced

According to MyCom Journal, a new anime series of Appleseed was announced to start in the Spring of 2011. It's a 13 episode CGI anime series titled "Apples...read more

Oct 24, 2010 8:52 AM by dtshyk | Discuss (37 comments)

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Poll: Appleseed Chapter 9 Discussion Z24hourgamer - Mar 13	0 replies	by Z24hourgamer »» Mar 13, 11:09 PM
Poll: Appleseed Chapter 8 Discussion Z24hourgamer - Mar 10	0 replies	by Z24hourgamer »» Mar 10, 3:57 PM
Poll: Appleseed Chapter 7 Discussion Z24hourgamer - Mar 4	0 replies	by Z24hourgamer »» Mar 4, 12:11 PM
Poll: Appleseed Chapter 6 Discussion Z24hourgamer - Mar 4	0 replies	by Z24hourgamer »» Mar 4, 11:41 AM
Poll: Appleseed Chapter 5 Discussion Z24hourgamer - Mar 3	0 replies	by Z24hourgamer »» Mar 3, 12:18 AM

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