First of all, I would like to warn everyone to watch The Matrix and The Matrix Reloaded, if you haven’t already. This would help you understand the animated series-and this review-better. Second of all, I’d like to say, “Finally!” We have here an anime from the makers of The Matrix itself, so maybe that means we’d have lesser wannabes to deal with in the near future. Needless to say, The Animtrix was the pleasant surprise I was looking for after much disappointment from the annoyingly talky and repetitive The Matrix Reloaded.

The Animatrix is composed of 9 short films. When I say short, expect really really short. The kind of “short” that makes you itch for more while the end credits are rolling. The package brings forth stories of various people who have come to awaken inside the Matrix-from students to athletes to typical teenaged girls and children who have discovered their “gifts”. The Second Renaissance tells the history of how the Matrix came to be and how everyone ended up as living fuel for the machines. Episodes, like Program, Marticulated and Final Flight of the Osiris, on the other hand, are all about the current state of the human beings struggling outside of the Matrix’s control. Final Flight of Osiris, in particular, has been intricately woven into The Matrix Reloaded. How? Well, let’s just say that Scion’s final battle with the machines have been defined by what happened in this feature.

All the films are somewhat reminiscent of Serial Experiments Lain, Aeon Flux and Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust in artwork, animation and storytelling. You do have a lot of philosophical watchamacallits going on in there. But instead of boring everyone with circular dialogues, The Animatrix makes full use of visuals to render a positive effect. You find yourselves taken to worlds that you might never have thought possible both within and without the Matrix. To me it seemed like different dimensions. Like for instance, in A Detective Story, you’d think the setting is in the early 20th century. Only the computerized typewriters would give away the fact that no, it really isn’t the early 20th century. What’s certainly unique about The Animatrix is that, unlike most trying-hard-to-be-deep anime out there (ahem, Soul Taker) that can either make you sleepy, dizzy or kill you with ennui, this one will certainly keep you on your toes. Take note of the essential: In the end, you understand everything.

Mind you, not all 9 of them are totally amazing. I became acutely aware of suddenly heavy eyelids when I was watching Beyond and Marticulated. Beyond didn’t really interest me as it was only about a cat, a pink-haired girl and a bunch of weird kids playing around. Marticulated basically had the same concept, except this time they added a wide-eyed tarsier into the fray. Lots of running around and lots of swirling colors/graphics get old after some time. Thank goodness each presentation only lasted a few minutes!

My personal favorite? It has definitely got to be Final Flight of Osiris. Being the gamer that I am, I couldn’t help but notice how smooth and real the 3D CGs are-so real, I could feel Squaresoft’s butt getting kicked big time! At least here, when the characters go through tough times, you can actually see them get filthy and exhausted. I don’t see Doctor Aki Ross (of Final Fantasy: Spirits Within) getting a lint on her perfectly combed Lux Super Rich hair. Do you?

Now, if they’d only narrate what happened to the other Ones that came before Neo.

Individual Rating: Art:10; Story & Plot: 10; Characters: 9; Sounds: 9; Overall: 9

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 11th, 2003 at 6:53 pm and is filed under Animatrix, The, Anime. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.