When I learned that the best anime directors of Japan went to collaborate on none other than a concept that revolved around The Matrix, I just knew I had to get the DVD for myself. No questions asked. Lack of funds delayed my purchase but I luckily received it as a birthday gift. No sooner was it in my hands that I swallowed the red pill and was extremely amazed at everything that I saw. The artwork was definitely amazing, going beyond the stereotypes of traditional anime and introducing surreal concepts by having photo-real stills, film-grain montages, and sketchy caricatures.

If you’re one who watches The Matrix series for the eye candy instead of the futuristic and apocalyptic philosophical story behind, then this one has to be it. The artwork of one story differs from another since it is a series of animated film shorts. The Wachowski brothers boldly and brilliantly used the genre as part of the storytelling since their ‘bullet-time’ concept has been inspired by anime such as Ghost in the Shell… For example, Final Flight of the Osiris is in almost realistic 3D as it is a prequel to The Matrix Reloaded movie. Kid’s Story and World Record ask the difference between dream and reality, along with the psychological trauma in seeking the greatest question of all, “What is the Matrix?”

And yes… the story… yah… I really paid attention to all that. Or did I? Let me put it this way: as there are different directors, there are different ways of telling the story. One thing is clear: the Wachowski brothers wrote most of the stories as they are related to the movie and the game to glue the series of film shorts together, but the beauty lies in the distinction of how it was told. Mahiro Maeda is more straightforward while Shinichiro Watanabe is more laidback and mysterious, always wanting you to draw the hidden answers in the dialogue. My favorite director, Yoshiaki Kawajiri, director of X and Ninja Scroll, is great at executing fight scenes as well as focusing everything on angst and tragedy. So you can tell, Program is my favorite of all. Yes, it’s one that’s most unrelated to the story of Neo and his posse in The Matrix, but heh… neo-samurai fighting SIM existing in there just made me want to plug in and engage in one myself.

What’s great about this of course is that you discover more of The Matrix. Things just got started in the first movie and climaxed in a cliffhanger on the second one, but this one takes you on a ride to the stories of other ‘less important people’ other than ‘The One.’ It tells you how extraordinary people came to know about the Matrix and their hardships in existing apart from it. It makes you realize the depth of the Matrix universe that you haven’t yet explored — worlds that even Neo, Trinity and the gang have not visited since they’re clearly bent on their own mission. You must go check on The Second Renaissance which tells the story of how machines dominated over the world. It’s a story that not only astounds me to this moment, it made me think about the current status quo and even making me feel guilty about the future that could be. The images in there can be so cruel and has no qualms telling to your face how evil both the human race and the machines can be. It has scenes that are eerily similar to Hitler’s Holocaust except this time, this is about the enmity between man and machines.

All in all, there are just too many reasons to buy The Animatrix and all of them are GOOD reasons. Apart from making you understand more about the Matrix and its HUGE universe… it’s just damn good to look at. And why not? The best… if not the GREATEST anime directors went in and collaborated on this one. So if all that geek talk didn’t impress you, you’ll remember watching everything for the sheer coolness. And this is one good series you can refer to your non-anime loving friend so that they won’t be like those people who think anime is just all about Akira.

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

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 12th, 2003 at 6:56 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.