Angel's Anime Rating Guide

Rintaro had asked Osamu Tezuka, creator of the graphic novel on which this feature is based, for permission to make the Metropolis anime and Osamu Tezuka refused... Based on a Osamu Tezuka's graphic novel first published in 1949 more than 10 years before the inception of Tetsuwan Atom (Astro Boy). Metropolis: A giant futuristic city-state above, and a decrepit underworld below. Ostensibly it's a utopian society, with humans and robots co-existing peacefully. But rolling beneath the surface of this well-ordered mechanized world is resentment between the haves, who thrive from the robotic labor, and the subterranean-dwelling have-nots, those who are afflicted with unemployment and poverty because of the robots. There's also friction between the human workers and their stronger, more productive robotic counterparts, whose labor is seen as indispensable to economic development. But necessary or not, robot activity is strictly regulated in Metropolis, with many robots pro

After anime distributors had switched from VHS to DVD-only products, I picked up Spriggan ... Directed by first-time director Hirotsugu Kawasaki and supervised by Katsuhiro Otomo, the legendary creator behind the cinematic masterpiece Akira, Spriggan is based on the comic Striker by Chu Takasige and Ryoji Minagawa, which originally appeared in the Japanese monthly magazine, Shonen Sunday. The comics were a popular success, selling millions of copies of the paperback releases, which led to a fervent bidding war over the right to make a movie based on the property. Otomo and Kawasaki eventually won out, and with the backing of acclaimed animators Studio 4°C, masterfully combined traditional cel animation with ground-breaking computer animation to create a stunning action film. There is a single plate. Its message is a warning to us who live today from an unknown civilization built long ago that vanished into the distant reaches of eternity. It says, "We return our arts to the da