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The Spring 2017 Manga Guide
Appleseed Alpha


What's It About?
 

Appleseed Alpha, penned by Iou Kuroda, takes place in the world originally created by Masamune Shirow in his 1980s manga Appleseed. Though it shares its name with the 2014 CG movie, which also takes place before the events of the original Appleseed manga, the single-volume, hardcover, 448-page Appleseed Alpha manga features an original story. Human soldier Deunan Knute and her cyborg lover/partner Briareos Hecatonchires arrive in a dirty, future dystopian New York run by a sleazy cyborg mayor calling himself “Two Horns.” Always putting cyborgs’ needs before his human constituents’, the mayor finds a PR hero in Briareos after he and Deunan stop an attack by a biodroid that results in a runaway freight train almost destroying the cows needed to make butter, the only rations the mayor allows for his human citizens. While the mayor downplays Deunan's involvement and makes Briaeros a hero in NY, Deunan leaves to explore the human-run farm at the outskirts of the city to try to improve trade and rations for the humans still living inside the city's borders.

Appleseed Alpha (6/20/2017) will be available in hardcover from Kodansha Comics for $24.99. A CG film with the same title is available from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment on DVD and Blu-ray and via digital download.


Is It Worth Reading?

Amy McNulty

Rating: 2

Appleseed Alpha is a gritty, ugly-looking manga set in a gritty, ugly-looking world. In the afterword, Masamune Shirow says Kuroda is a fitting pick to pen a spinoff manga in his universe, as the series as a whole is deeply rooted in 80s and 90s style science fiction anime. An individual reader's level of interest in sci-fi anime classics of that day will inform their level of interest in this particular manga adaptation. Even without previous exposure to the other manga, anime, and films, Appleseed Alpha stands alone for the most part. Although the world at large is undeveloped in this small window into the overarching story, the conflict between cyborgs and humans is clear enough, as is the poor conditions of their lives. Deunan and Briaeros come across as fairly three-dimensional characters, especially in their quiet moments together as a couple. The mayor also makes for a memorable antagonist during his political machinations and scheming, but without having seen the film, it's unclear if he's supposed to be the Two Horns who runs NY featured in the movie—likely, because of the name and the slight similarities in appearance, but Kuroda's art gives him a more mechanical and polished look, so that makes the whole thing more confusing. (Perhaps he upgrades his body later?) The people at the farm, despite being human, make less of an impact, particularly stoic and hardnosed Johnny, who runs the farm and wants nothing to do with NY.

In a world where a completely-robot-looking cyborg can be lovers with a human, more emphasis on the rarity of such a connection might have made the story more compelling. Instead, Deunan and Briaeros spend much of the volume apart. Granted, this is just one part of a larger franchise, but that kind of relationship is an intriguing part of this universe that seems too often disregarded during this volume. In a world where cyborgs aren't always obviously identified (although they usually are), it'd be interesting to explore that type of dynamic more.

Kuroda's art is certainly an acquired taste, as it's rough and relies heavily on thick lines. Panels are often crammed with too much dialogue and human characters are blocky and not very diverse in shape and size. The cyborgs are the most visually arresting parts of the art, but even they are lacking in detail. Because of its original story, Appleseed Alpha will still likely appeal to longtime fans of the franchise, but it's not the best introduction to readers who've never seen or read any of Appleseed before.


Nik Freeman

Rating: 2.5

Appleseed has always struck me as a franchise better known for its ideas rather than how well it executes those ideas. The concepts and designs it introduced are more memorable than its plot. Appleseed Alpha is surprising because it flips that dynamic, with the writing far outshining the artwork. There are a lot of nice character interactions throughout the volume, including some genuinely sweet moments between Deunan and Briareos. But Iou Kuroda's illustrations unfortunately don't shine in Alpha, in fact they're sometimes so difficult to make out that it makes the story hard to follow. Artwork for the series ends up being a real hindrance to the story as a result, and a few times I didn't even realize that a character I was looking at was actually Deunan - the lead character - because her design wasn't distinct enough on the page.

What props up the manga is its surprising sense of humor. There are times when it feels like a parody of cyberpunk dystopian stories more than a genuine attempt at one. To be clear, the series deals with some serious themes like prejudice and tyranny, but the corruptness of the government is so transparently obvious that it's funny. The absolute best moments of the manga are in the recurring news reports shown around the city, which are blatantly edited propaganda videos that make Briareos out to be the city's catchphrase-spouting guardian. Self-proclaimed mayor Two Horns manages to occasionally seem threatening and mad with power, but most of the time he's cartoonish in his displays of corruption and, well, everything else. At one point he literally blows up a bridge leading into New York, then later tries to rush out of the city, only to come across the remains of the same bridge, and says, “Oh yeah.” Two Horns in general is the most memorable part of the series even in his more serious moments, and his clear insanity is a perfect explanation for why the city's government can be so completely backwards in how it operates. He at one point explains his way of thinking to Briareos, and it's so twisted and nonsensical that it's actually kind of frightening.

Appleseed Alpha doesn't offer too many novel ideas with its setting, but it does present some of them in a novel and entertaining way. Unfortunately with the artwork being so distracting it won't be so easy for some people to get into this manga. You might have to already be predisposed to cyberpunk and the franchise itself to be able to enjoy it.


Rebecca Silverman

Rating: 3 

I can't quite decide if Appleseed Alpha is a reboot or a prequel to Masamune Shirow's Appleseed, but what it most certainly is is classic dystopian science fiction in the spirit of the original. Even if you have limited experience with the franchise this is fairly easy to get into and understand, at least from a story perspective – its surface plot is about the battle between cyborgs and humans for what remains of the Earth after WWIII has decimated pretty much everything. Cyborgs are claiming the upper hand in what's left of New York City, and humans are supposed to survive on butter alone, because all other precious resources are needed for the supposedly superior species. Into this mess come Deunan and her cyborg boyfriend, and events quickly place them on opposing sides, if only because of the machinations of a maniac mayor.

What the story's really about, of course, is discrimination and delusions of superiority, and while this is no Company series (Kage Baker's impressive science fiction novels are my favorites in the genre), it still does a good job of pointing out that the differences are ultimately a matter of perception and ego. This is especially well shown at the end, when we learn the original identity of the mayor, but it's a theme that's present throughout, and decently handled. Where things get garbled is in the art, which is incredibly busy and primarily drawn in thick, black lines. There's a fine line between “nicely detailed” and “way too much visual information,” and in quite a few places Appleseed Alpha crosses it. What stops me from taking more points off for it is the fact that I have a sneaking suspicion that it's deliberate. The artwork wants to overwhelm its readers with the sheer disaster that the world has become, and the scenes of a jumbled, junk-strewn NYC just serve as the physical manifestation of the way the characters interact. It definitely goes overboard on the symbolism – scenes of a ruined Statue of Liberty are pretty cliché by this point – but it does make you feel almost claustrophobic while reading. It's also worth noting that when the action moves out of the city and its environs at the end of the (500 page) book, the art also gets a little cleaner.

My main issue with the book is that I feel like the underlying themes overwhelm the surface story for most of it. Nothing is easy to read here, and while not all books need to be, I feel like this was a bit more of a chore than was necessary. That could be because hardcore science fiction isn't really my genre, but I think it's also due to the way that the two plots were handled – a little too messy for its own good, Appleseed Alpha is interesting, but also more difficult than it needs to be.


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