I watched all of Animatrix and so I am going to do a review of the Animatrix now. As you all know there are nine clips but only eight stories in the Animatrix. I can't say I like all of them, but some of them I think are worth watching. To tell you the truth, all of the stories in Animatrix seems like fanfictions. ^_^;

Final Flight of the Osiris

Created by the guys who created the Final Fantasy movie. So of course the graphic rocks and it's 3D CG grphics. The clip is animated like The Spirit Within (a very spiffy movie eye candy with horrible plot). They did a great job with the skin textures and the details in the hair, the eye, the clothes make everything look very realistic. I think it is an eye candy everyone should watch at one time or another.

It tells the story about the Osiris (another hovercraft ship like the Nebuchadnezzer). Believe it or not they actually mentioned Osiris in Matrix Reloaded but you will have to pay close attention to the movie to know what I am talking about. Plot wise I think it's not bad. The begining and the ending ties together pretty well.

This clip has one of the most spiffy beginings for animation I have ever ever seen (considering how many anime shows I have seen this is a pretty high compliment). In the beginning you get to see two main character using cool sword weapons and fight each other in the simulator and that resulted in... hehe I am not going to spoil this part for you. It's too good. =P Mwahahahaha!


The Second Renaissance Parts I and II

This story is a two clips story. It tells the story of how the machines dominates the Earth. It's a pretty interesting story. I like the plot very much. It reminds me much of recent history (and that my friend is pretty darn scary). This makes you think how the Matrix can become our reality if none of us learn from mistakes. The animation explains the event pretty well. It doesn't leave any plot holes. After listening to Morpheus talking to Neo about this, I am pretty sure this story would interest any Matrix fans.

This was animated by the people who did Blue Submarine 6 - which was a pretty nicely animated series. Gainax (the company behind Evangelion) also helped this clip, so you know the quality cannot be that bad. Good pacing, good designs and good animation in general. The animation is not the cute Shoujo anime tyle drawing, but since I am not a huge shoujo fan, I would not say that is a huge lost.

Kid's Story

Remember the kid that tags along with Neo in Zion in the Matrix Reloaded movie? Well, this is the same kid as the main character of Kid's story. This clip is about the kid escaping through the Matrix on his own, without any pills and without going through the whole Alice in Wonderland thing. Instead, Neo just walk him his way out of Matrix with a cell phone.

I personally like this clip a lot. I think the way it is animated is pretty cool. I especially like the beginning and the ending. Shinichiro Watanabe, the animatist who animated Cowboy Bebop animated this clip, if you like the Cowboy Bebop style, I think you would like this. It has some Cowboy Bebop feel in it at times.

It's pretty fast paced though so it's not boring by any means even if you don't like the animation style.

Program

From the creator of Ninja Scroll, Yoshiaki Kawajiri, brings you Program. This is animated in traditional 2D anime styel. Very pretty and highly spiffy. Character designs are pretty cool and so is the setting.

This tells the story of Cis in a fighting simulator. The whole clip is in federal shogunate setting, much like the setting of Ninja Scroll. Obviously the two characters in this clip are also very ninja like. Anyway, in the clip, Cis' loyalty was tested by her lover who wants to go back to the matrix bringing her along. Not sure if she actually has a lover, but in the simulator she does.

In conclusion: watch this it's spiffy.

World Record

I have to admit to you, I am not a huge fan of this clip. The animation focus a bit too much on the muscle for my likings. Actually the muscles sort of grossed me out. This is done by Takeshi Koike and I think this is his first famous work.

They way their tell the story in theis clip is pretty interesting. I like how they tell the tstory through flashbacks. Basically this story is about a sprinter trying to beat a current world record he set himself. He wanted to archieve a world record that he knows no one would beat. He actually became conscious of the real world through exceeding his own limits.

I didn't really like the beginning of the story but the ending makes up for everything. I am not going to tell you what the ending is about though, of course.

Beyond

A glitch in the matrix causes a certain abandoned house to become "haunted". That is the story behind this clip. Oh yes and this girl appearantly lost a cat. the cat ws why she found the "haunted" house with a bunch of children. I don't like the story. It's kind of... lame in my opinion. If you like the story line of Wispers in the Wind that you won't mind this I suppose.

The animation sort of makes up for that, but then again, since it's done by Koji Morimoto, the guy behind Akira, you know it won't be too bad. The pacing is a bit slow, but the it's not unbecoming. If you like Serial Experiment Lain, or .Hack//Sign you probably can stand therough teh whole clip.

Detective Story

Almost entirely in black and white. This is an evocation of classic 1940s films. Animated once again by Shinichiro Watanabe, the Cowboy Bebop guy, the animation looks pretty cool. I like the animation style. Spiffy.

The story is about a detective hired to investigate and go after Trinity (yeah, that's right, Trinity from the movies). They end up in the train at the end (joy!). Story... is like a fanfiction. The story is very atmospheric, which is good. The pacing is a bit slow but not slower than Beyond which was really relaly really slow. I like this more than Beyond. And even World Record because this is so... pretty.

Matriculated

From the people who made Aeon Flux, you know that animation they showed on YTV at night a long time ago, comes the story of humans trying to lure machines into their lair in the attempt to make them change their minds about the humans. They want to convince these machines to join the human side in the war against machines. Interesting but again, I thought it was like a fanfic gone bad.

The begining part is not bad... I mean this does not really look like anime... but it's not bad. The chase scene was well done. Then comes the part where they have to convince the machine.... I don't like it. They use these weird colours like in Soul Taker but then these weird colours are used in some weird tunnels instead of a cathedral. Some how, running around in these tunnels filled with weird people giggling and kissing convinces machines to switch allegiances.

Story line has some pretty big plot holes. The ending is pretty cool. I like the ending - everyone dies. Haha. Suckers.

As you can tell this is not one on my top list. I mean the animation I suppose is smooth but I don't like the story line at all.

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