Ms Deunan wears Prada

Being recently consumed by Shirow’s work again, I have to say that this time I am more than ECSTATICALLY EXCITED by the upcoming new Appleseed movie – ‘Appleseed 2: Ex Machina‘. The previous film was awesome to say the least, but after watching the trailers of this new film, I feel that this one is going to be far far greater! The CG quality is slicker and very cool, and the heroine, Deunan, looks more mature and gorgeously shheexyy! You can expect to see plenty more mecha action, gun action, and pure action, action, ACTION! as the film will be directed by John Woo! (Mission Impossible fame). But what makes this anime very unique, besides its excellent graphical quality, story, characters, etc. is that most of Deunan’s clothes are designed by Miuccia Prada! Now putting real fashion labels into anime is pretty extraordinary, and I think it’s a great idea as it gives more ‘credibility’ to anime – that it is a viable medium for advertising and inspiration, like most Hollywood films. It is true that the previous Appleseed movie inspired most of the designer’s fashion ideas for this one. You can read more and view a sample clip at: http://blog.newsarama.com/2007/08/08/fashion-guru-prada-designs-for-appleseed/

As well as Appleseed, Ghost In The Shell had also produced three films. The most recent one – ‘Ghost In The Shell S.A.C: Solid State Society‘ was released on DVD in the UK a few days ago, and I managed to pick up my copy yesterday at HMV (the special metal case edition! ooo ya). The film was good! It was said to be based after its second TV series (S.A.C. 2nd Gig), but I feel that it is based more strongly on the first chapter of the original manga volume 1 (the child abduction brainwash content). The overall quality is similar to the TV series (was intended to be) and much cleaner; it is fast-paced; but sadly in my opinion, there just wasn’t as much action scenes as I initially expected it to have, and the end climax wasn’t particularly grand enough. It feels like it’s playing out the manga chapter in full quality, so there is ‘past’ content but not enough ‘new’ / innovative content in it (the kind that makes you hunger for more GITS afterwards!). But overall it is a decent film. Much more understandable than the 2nd one (GITS: Innocence) but maybe less ‘charming’ than its first film.