Shinji Aramaki

Aramaki is known primarily for directing the two Appleseed movies which were unique in their time being completely CG and cel-shaded to appear more anime-like instead of being traditionally animated. If you’re considering the Appleseed movies for family viewing you can treat them both as your average action movies in terms of questionable content, but they are otherwise well above average.

Appleseed  (2004)
Appurushīdo (アップルシード)

When it came out in 2004, Appleseed was easily the best-looking CG anime around. Even by today’s standards it still looks great even though it is out-shined by its successor in visual quality.  This beautiful anime takes place in a war-torn post-apocalyptic world where only a couple vestiges of Utopian civilization remain. The main utopia, and apparently the largest in the world, is called Olympus (and it’s no coincidence as there are constant references to Greek mythology throughout the film). Olympus is known for its manufacturing of genetically modified humans called Bioroids, who are supposedly without the capacity for hate or malice, as well as lacking the ability to reproduce. The narrative follows a woman police officer/mercenary named Deunan and her part in saving the world, etc. Olympus isn’t as utopian as it may seem, and those Bioroids may have ulterior motives… Appleseed is suggested to anyone who wants to see something awesome.

Appleseed Ex Machina  (2007)
Ekusumakina (エクスマキナ)

Okay, I know that I thought that Appleseed looked about as good as an anime could back in the day, but I was wrong, Ex Machina looks way better. An achievement of both animation and humanity, Ex Machina is seriously awesome. Bigger, badder, and with higher stakes than the first, Ex Machina outdoes its predecessor in pretty much every way. I want to tell you about its plot, but that would spoil a lot of awesome surprises. I’ll tell you that it involves zombies, cloning, countries aside from Olympus, and awesomeness. I greatly enjoyed this movie, and I think that you would too. It’s available on Blu-ray and HD-DVD (if you can find an HD-DVD player these days), which are highly recommended as this movie sings when you can see the extra details afforded to it by proper High Definition.