Metropolis

I knew little about this film but when I saw that it was going to be on television I decided to watch it; there is so little non-Ghibli anime on TV one has to take what one can get. When it started I knew this was going to be different; most of the characters didn't look like anime characters, they looked more like characters from western cartoons of the 1930s. This fitted in with the feel of the whole film which was a 1920s/1930s view of the future reminiscent of Fritz Lang's film of the same name.

Set in the city state of Metropolis where the robot underclass must stay in their designated areas and a scientist is building a robot that looks like a girl but is destined to run a new skyscraper known as the Ziggurat. Into this city comes a Japanese private detective and his nephew Kenichi who are seeking to arrest the scientist for organ trafficking. The state's de facto leader Duke Red's adopted son Rock is determined to destroy the robot thinking his father is replacing him. Rock starts a fire in the lab. During this the robot is activated and escapes with Kenichi although neither know that she isn't human. Rock continues to hunt them as the flee through the various layers of the city to a climax in the mysterious Ziggurat.

I loved the retro feel to the animation along with a sound track that also felt like it was from that time. The use of the song "I Can't Stop Loving You" during the climactic scene was inspired. Even if you don't normally like animation this is worth watching as it is a good story which is well told.

These comments are based on watching the film in Japanese with English subtitles.

I have always been a fan of the 60's and 70's anime. I feel that the 80's and 90's Anime got a bit out of hand, but this film brings me back to the experimentation, the wonder, visuals and the drawing you into forgetting this is only 'anime' at all.

The story is an update of the fantastic silent film Metropolis, and at points in this telling, the story falls flat, but just watching the film drew me in and made up for those story gaffs. There isn't any one who can look at this and not be taken with its ambition. Old anime elements, new ones, stop action, realism -- you name it, its all in one nice package! I am looking forward to additional works from this team, I hope they continue on for I feel this project was a great venture and to what they are capable of. This film is really wonderful, I recommend it highly.

For crying out loud, it's stylized! That's why the soundtrack is jazz and blues and stuff. That's why the character animation is "crappy".

Look at a comic book from the twenties/thirties, namely Herge's Tintin books, or Tezuka's manga (fifties actually), which this is based off of, DANG IT! The characters are designed to look like comic book character's from that era. Shinsaku looks like one of the Thompsons. Kenechi looks like a cross between Tintin and Astro Boy.

It's meant to be like a Prohibition era Chicago or something.

Fritz Lang's original 'Metropolis' is an enduring classic of cinema. The techniques used at the time that it was made were absolutely astounding and it is still astounding to consider the technical achievement that Metropolis represents even these days. This Japanese re-telling of the classic story doesn't follow the plot of the original film, but they are linked due to the way that they both utilise grand settings for their thrills and although it was a lot more impressive in 1927, this version of the story is still a very decent film. I can't say that I'm a big fan of Japanese 'anime', but every time I see a film in it's style I tend to at least enjoy myself, and that can be said of this film. The plot has too many elements to be fully coherent, but it serves its purpose and is always second to the visuals anyway. The story follows two societies; robots and humans, and comes together when a private investigator's nephew meets a robot girl constructed to rule the city. The script is somewhat taught, this may be because of the fact that it has been translated into English, or it may just be a bad script. It doesn't really matter though as, again, the sharp visuals are always enough to distract the viewer from the other areas of the movie. It's almost a shame that this movie isn't better when you consider that it has an absolutely great source of inspiration, but then again you can hardly expect it to rival Fritz Lang's classic. On the whole, I recommend this movie if you've seen Lang's and want some more, but otherwise I just recommend the original classic.

I'm not a big fan of Manga I must admit. The movies I've seen have been few and far between and while I certainly enjoyed the likes of Ninja Scroll, Akira and Ghost In The Shell, I've never had much urge to seek out a really wide knowledge of the genre. That being said though, Metropolis has to rank as one of my top five films of all time, not just the animated ones.

Telling the story of a far future world where humans and robots exist alongside one another, it focuses on the adventures of a Private Investigator and his son visiting the city for the first time and hunting down a missing robot called Tima. And what a city it is! The animation, simply put, is stunning. The epic scope of this vast urban world is beautifully captured on screen. It is richly detailed and lit up like a fantastic world of colour, like a fine piece of dramatic art that has come to life. The animation on the characters meanwhile is no less amazing, it is more akin to French than Japanese in stylistic terms, but is still very detailed and beautifully realised.

But this is no piece of aesthetic beauty with nothing to back it up as the storyline is truly gripping. As the boy befriends a young girl, both of them unaware that she is in fact an experimental robot, you find yourself getting swept up in their plight and they have just as much, if not more depth and emotion than any real-life actor's work.

Come the climax, you'll be simultaneously thrilled and left emotionally stunned. This is a magnificent film, I can't praise it enough.