The best part of this movie is easily the animation. There's not a second that goes by where something isn't moving. There could be a very basic shot of the main characters walking down a street, and you can see stray cats jumping around or other people going about their business as the town lulls into a quiet evening all in the same frame. The environment becomes alive with dynamic lighting and ambience at every corner that can fully immerse you into the setting. All of this is matched with a level of detail in the sound design that completely elevates everything about the visuals.
The story runs with a simple enough premise at the beginning with a crime investigation, but quickly evolves into this gargantuan epic as you get a deeper look into Metropolis and see the boiling revolutionary movements, the corrupt bureaucracy of its government, and the multitudes of robots mistreated by both. The conflicts of these groups continuously unfold as the backdrop for the main characters to navigate through and eventually involve themselves with towards the end.
This is my favorite anime movie. To me, it shows the promise of what anime movies could've been after the turn of the millennium.
