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APPLESEED VOL. 4: THE PROMETHEAN BALANCE (3RD EDITION) |
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Reviews
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Wednesday, 22 April 2009 |
 | | ▪ | RELEASED BY: | | DARK HORSE | | | ▪ | AUTHOR / ART: | | SHIROW MASAMUNE | | | ▪ | FORMAT: | | JAPANESE / B&W | | | ▪ | PAGES: | | 216 | | | ▪ | RATING: | | 16+ | | | ▪ | RELEASE DATE: | | 02/25/2009 | | | ▪ | REVIEW DATE: | | 04/22/2009 | | | ▪ | REVIEWED BY: | | SCOTT CAMPBELL |
Paradise isn’t always easy! In the future utopian metropolis of Olympus, a blazing beacon of humanity amidst a post-global-war wasteland, ESWAT agents Deunan and Briareos have fought tooth and nail to keep the peace and prevent Olympus from sliding back into chaos. When Olympus intelligence learns of a giant Landmate powersuit being built in secrecy, and on the threshold of a top-secret international conference of the highest importance to be held in Olympus, ESWAT is mobilized to crack the mystery and disrupt a terrorist operation that could turn the fragile peace into World War IV! From the imagination of Ghost in the Shell creator Shirow Masamune comes the manga masterpiece Appleseed, an epic cyberpunk vision deftly balancing hardcore techno-science, wry political commentary, and explosive action. A visionary work that inspired the wildly popular animated film, Appleseed is now presented for the first time in America in right-to-left reading format, as originally published in Japan. If you’ve read any of Shirow Masamune’s works before, than you are already well aware of the quality and attention to detail that this artist provides with every single page of manga he produces. Shirow is oldschool – those 35 year old guys that come in to your local anime/manga store and pick up a few things know who Shirow Masamune is and have likely loved the many series he has created over the years before you even knew what anime was! He does some amazing sci-fi works and his imagination is boundless. Pretty much anything he sinks his teeth into as a project is worth you taking a look at, because no one really does manga like he does. Are you sold? Good! Appleseed is a great manga – it’s hard to really know where to start. The art is amazing – the details are just unexplainable – you have to read the series to have any idea how well-drawn and well thought out this book series is. Absolutely everything - from characters to cityscapes in the backgrounds - are created with the finest attention to detail that anyone could ask for today, or 20 years ago for that matter. The eighties and nineties produced some awesome anime and manga that many of the younger generation may not know about – Appleseed is a fine contender! The story is in no way lacking either – don’t go thinking this one is just about the looks without the much needed content to keep it alive. The action is delivered in bucket loads, but there is always a direction and a point to all the inner-workings of the plot – this is an intelligent story for mature readers. Another great thing about this series and this particular printing of the series is that it is in a large format – it is a good half an inch taller and wider than most other manga, so you know the visuals are going to be properly shown off here. Appleseed is a must-read for sci-fi fans and manga readers who love great cyberpunk thrillers like Akira and Ghost in the Shell – don’t pass this one up just because it isn’t the newest manga on the block!
IN SUMMARY:
Appleseed is a great down-and-dirty cyberpunk romp through the imagination of Shirow Masamune… so you KNOW you want to be there! Everything from the art to the story has an immense amount of thought and time put into it – this is a real quality manga series that the mature crowd with applaud without any prodding. |
