520https://cdn.animenewsnetwork.com/thumbnails/crop900x350/video/category/823/10664.jpg My interest in Armitage III: PolyMatrix is a bit strange. I was first exposed to the 1995 OVAturned1996 movie by seeing a post about it on my feed an experience that Im sure is familiar to many people on this site. Whats a bit more out there is how I came to become interested in the dub. For the past few weeks Ive been writing a research paper on the infamous 1995 boxoffice bomb Showgirlshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Showgirls. To conduct my research I looked into the filmography of the central credits. To my surprise lead actor Elizabeth Berkley had the starring role in the dub of anime I was planning to watch. I wanted to know how the actor of Saved by the Bell fame performed when she wasnt directed to overact to hell and back. Seeing as her name was showbiz poison at the time Im sure her new agent as her previous one quit following Showgirls said Hey theres this call for the lead character in some Japanese cartoon. It isnt much but itll help you keep afloat and Berkley accepted before they could even finish the sentence. If that wasnt interesting enough Kiefer Sutherland famous for playing Jack Bauer in 24 a show that me and my mother used to watch a few episodes of years ago stars opposite of Berkley as male lead Ross Sylibus the more geeky viewer may better recognize him as the voice for Big Boss and Venom Snake in Metal Gear Solid V. If that wasnt enough Bryan Cranston of Breaking Bad and Malcolm in the Middle fame plays a supporting role. If youre not as dazzled by the colorful dub cast of C and Blisters then you might at least find Armitage topical due to the recent release of a highprofile cyberpunk workhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyberpunk2077. If you glean interest in anime due to the work in of itself and not through unrelated connections to other works like some weirdo then allow me to provide a synopsis. Armitage III: PolyMatrix that is Armitage the Third and not Armitage Three follows Martian police officers Naomi Armitage and Ross Sylibus in the year 2046 as they investigate the disappearance of country singer Kelly McCanon. As Sylibus disembarks from his flight they discover that McCanon has been killed and is in fact a robot. The duo come across a slew of murdered robots and find themselves embroiled in a plot that will shake both Terran and Martian cultures 500https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/proxy/bhQbYlKUEUrgdp8uthwdZj09nfuCBYocD5na3qBMG3NBBhQ1lwk7xS7rFZe9f9wsq9blLyqypjq8xxKnxmTRrlVz67NF3oGWxluKFQHLXkz8GtIikTrEmvOdA7H6QWR I usually dont talk about voice acting first but seeing as its ultimately the reason I decided to watch the movie over the OVA I felt it made sense to focus on it first. And I have to say for a 1996 dub its not bad. Its decidedly not great either but for all the complaints that even fellow dub watchers lodge at pre 2010dubs this is surprisingly watchable which is a pretty good thing seeing as theres no Japaneselanguage audio of PolyMatrix. Berkley is quite good at playing Armitage excellently giving the character the spunk seriousness and playfulness that the role calls for. If youre familiar with it her Armitage doesnt really sound like her Nomi Malone. PolyMatrix confirms my sneaking suspicion that Berkleys a decent actor who was shot in the foot by Verhoevens cartoony directing ahem Im sorry his expressionist directing. Hilariously enough her performance is more subdued here than in the live action Showgirls. Looking at clips I suppose her voice here is somewhat similar to her role as Jessie Spano but I dont think its really to the movies detriment. She might not have the range of Hamill but she certainly gets by and its not like voice actors such as Lisa Ortiz think Amy Rose vs. Lina Inverse are known for being able to create countless distinct voices. I wish I could give so much as a quarter of as much praise to Keith Sutherlands portrayal of Sylibus who always sounds like hes on the verge of passing the fuck out. Here the man cant emote to save his life and I blame the voice director for not being able to make the distinction between stoic and catatonic. Similar to his phonetic namesake youll be exposed to Sylibus once before never wanting to see him again. Its such a shame too because he really brings down the dub as a whole due to how prevalent he is. Cranstons role isnt terribly big but he is undeniably great as a wisecracking informant and Dan Woren has a lot of fun playing the nuttierthanaSnicker Ren Danclaude and also showcasing his range when he gets to play as the newer softspoken model of Danclaude. The rest of the voices are fine. Even with Sutherland dragging the entire thing down this is a decent dub that gets the job done. If youre not a fan of English dubs at all as per my parenthetical statement you should probably stick with the OVA. The animes aesthetic is what caught my eye and Im pleased to say it delivered with futuristic designs that screamed cool. Just look at those shades 500https://zombiejesuz.files.wordpress.com/2010/06/234326012495983abae4o1.jpg Im very green when it comes to the genre of cyberpunk but it delivered the beautiful sleekness yet sinister grunginess that I expect of the genre. Armitage reminded me a lot of the game Snatcher which is great as I immensely loved that games atmosphere. In addition as per the genre standard Armitage uses its futuristic setting to viewers with compelling questions such as what does it mean to be human? what does it mean to be a minority? and what does it mean to be a woman? Now Im not necessarily saying the anime does a lot with those questions but the framework is certainly there and to some a framework is exciting. I can definitely envision this as the prequel to a much larger story a much larger universe. This is an anime rife for fanfiction and if I was so inclined Id do it myself. The animation is also pretty decent. It didnt blow my socks off but as OVAs and OVA movies were often made on the cheap it could have been much worse. Theres not an offmodel to be seen and the animation is nice and fluid. The fight scenes are cool and easy to comprehend with crazy powers nowhere to be seen. Whether youre young and looking for something different or an older fan longing for the animation of yesterday the handdrawn animation will please you and in this modern age ties to the aesthetic of a rough future. If violence is your thing the anime has it in spades though nothing too gorey seeing as most of the victims are robots. Character designs are decent. You may or may not find Armitages design obnoxious but I suppose thats a testament to how striking it is. I didnt find the music too notable but the techno tracks do a decent enough job of establishing the setting. Armitage III fosters setting and tone remarkably well affirming its status as a cyberpunk in the first few minutes. By the movies end its dabbling with philosophical questions show that the movie isnt content just being pretty.. Now as Ill get into the philosophy is somewhat illdefined but its certainly there. Id argue that Armitage III: PolyMatrix works pretty well as a proofofconcept a mere taste of what this world has to offer. It serves as a decent jumpingoff point for a hypothetical franchise and I could see it as a passable module for a cyberpunk tabletop RPG. 500https://i.pin.com/originals/80/10/ec/8010ec0b5609df6b43f91137f0f13595.jpg Where Armitage III fails is in creating a story in utilizing its setting and themes to create an interesting compelling narrative. To begin I found the characters the central aspect of most stories lacking. Sylibus is as boring as he sounds. The showrunners certainly intended for him to have characterization with him struggling with his prejudice towards robots due to one killing his partner shortly before the series begins. Even so the anime doesnt do a very good job of adequately explaining who he is Whats his story on Earth? What were his feelings about robots prior to them killing his partner? Near the end he talks about his reasoning for why he prefers cities to the country but it comes too little too late for establishing his personality. He has an arc of seeing the humanity in robots but its not as tracked as much as Id like. Really the biggest reasoning for this shift is him working with Armitage who is a robot herself. I suppose thats enough but a part of me wonders if thats only because hes into her. Oh right speaking of which I wasnt really a fan of the fact that the two eventually make the McNasty. While shes an ageless android shes designed to look twelve tops. As far as Armitages character goes shes really only interesting insofar as her status as a robot. Her struggles with prejudice and wondering why she was created if humans hate her kind so much are good on paper but not when theyre attached to a character who doesnt really have a notable personality. Sylibus has an arc as barebones as it may be which is more than I can say for our hotpantswearing heroine. There just isnt that much to her. Much like the movie as a whole theres a good framework for Naomi Armitage but shes barely a character in the product that we got. 500https://cdn.anisearch.com/images/anime/screen/1/1179/full/89025.jpg I wish we got to see more of the Thirds and robots in general. Theyre arguably the most important and salient part of this movie and their history and function are really only explored via unengaging infodumps. We dont get to really know any of the Thirds because their only purpose in the movie is to be brutally executed by Ren Danclaude. I was personally drawn to the novelist Rosalind Horhes Gee wonder why? and I thought her story would be more interesting than Armitages. What inspires her? How is writing as an android different from writing as a human? Most importantly I wanted insight towards her experience of being a Third of having to hide her identity. This is a very posthuman aspect of the work that seems like a nobrainer to include so its absence just feels that much more egregious. As Ill get into besides the Thirds details on other robots are scarce forcing me to rely on external sources to get more information on them. For the life of me I cant figure out why the showrunners would neglect to adequately address one of the main draws of their setting. It feeds into the idea that the would of Armitage III: PolyMatrix as impressive breadth but lackluster depth. Its shallowness can be further seen in how it bungles its political elements. And before the selfproclaimed apolitical user base of this site gets their pitchforks let me just make it clear that Im not dragging politics into this.The genre is known for how entwined it is with politics so overt that it cant really be called subtext. Besides pondering abstract philosophy cyberpunk is a genre that rebels against tangible systems of oppression and power. It is punk after all. So why oh why do we focus on cops in Armitage? Im very aware that discussion and outlook on police is very different in 2020 than it generally was in 1996. Im also aware that views on law enforcement in America differ from views in Japan. That said one of cyberpunks influences is the Americancentric noir genre and whether in 2020 or 1996 America or Japan cyberpunk is rebellion and no matter what your political leaning is Im sure you can agree that being a police officer is one of the least rebellious things you can be. Framing the main characters who are police officers that become dissatisfied with their jobs could be a decent framing to show how rotten the setting is. Armitage and Sylibus do end up defecting but its played in the most typical unsatisfying way. Youve doubtlessly encountered it before. They essentially decide to leave because of the Systems red tape. The faceless goalless System thats easy to hate because youre essentially not saying anything by criticizing it. By putting the onus of wrongdoing on faceless higher ups the police department is essentially given a pass being allowed to shrug and claim that their hands are tied. Im not saying I wanted to see every single officer drown kittens but it kind of takes the wind out of the sail of whatever criticism boat you professed to be on when you dont really have the gumption to portray any actual police officer character badly. 500https://conceptionclearinghouse.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/vlcsnap2013022818h38m05s254.png Instead the group youre supposed to root against is the feminists. No you did not read that wrong.In a move that Im sure will endear many of Anilists users to Armitage III the feminists turn out to be the real antagonists all along. Miraculously I managed to delve into the topic of Showgirls without having to consider if its a profeminist or antifeminist work. As it turns out its very easy to just focus on the fact that the movies hot garbage. Armitage III thanks to its genre trappings is so overt that whatever feminist message that mayormaynot exist in Showgirls is subtle in comparison. So in following Berkleys filmography a bit too closely Ive found myself caught. So join me as I make an ass of myself talking about feminism as it relates to this 1996 cyberpunk anime Let the record show that I acknowledge that I am in no way properly equipped to discuss this topic. I dont consider myself a feminist and Im not a woman. The only reason I find myself discussing feminism is because the topic unexpectedly showed up in the movie and its probably the most intriguing aspect of it. I certainly didnt go into this anime expecting that Id have to clumsily work through feminism Im honestly as baffled as you doubtlessly are. Towards the end of the film its revealed that feminists control the Earths government yes feminism in this world is a monolithic powerful movement enough to control the planet and they plan on trying to reign in the Martian colony as they find that the colonys use of Thirds feminine robots that can give birth as a threat to their existence. My first inclination was utter bafflement wondering why feminists would object to robots that could procreate. I thought that perhaps these were traditionalist feminists ones who conflated being a woman with being able to give birth. I looked into the series online to try and get a better picture. Firsts in the world of Armitage III refer to robots that we could currently have in our world inhuman automatons. Seconds are essentially sexbotshttps://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Sexbot with exaggerated features made to be companions to the mostly male frontiersmen on the newly colonized Red Planet giving them an incentive to leave Earth and work the land. They are smart enough to perform tasks on their own and pantomime human interaction but they seemingly have no wills of their own. Thirds created in secret appear outwardly human and seem to possess souls. Thirds are all women and possess the ability to conceive and birth children. They were apparently created to fix the problem of low Martian birth rates as the populace is overwhelmingly male seeing as Terran women dont want to emigrate and lose the powerful status they have on Earth. Fourths or Alives are plantlike robots that would aid in terraforming mars and free humans from being forced to live in bubbles. Fourths and Thirds used in tandem would free Mars from the shackles of Earth. Lets ignore that the very interesting classification of robots and the fact that Mars is terraformed two vital parts of the setting are explained on TV Tropes better than they are in the actual movie. Instead lets think about how this relates to Armitage IIIs feminists. 500https://conceptionclearinghouse.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/vlcsnap2013022818h35m01s214.png?w=640 The feminists are apparently angry that the use of Seconds and Thirds makes them obsolete. This would imply that to the feminists in Armitage III women are only needed for their ability to have sex with men and birth them children which is obviously a gross thought one that I doubt many real feminists would agree with. On the other hand one could make the argument that the film is painting the Martian men in the wrong. After all they are the ones who created the robots. Kelly Mccanons manager incredulous over being told the singer is an android tearfully states that shes the most human woman I know. Later on we realize that hes referring to the fact that he was able to impregnate her. Her manager is obviously meant to be scuzzy so are we supposed to sympathize with the feminists of Armitage III? Its feasible that theyre not ascribing these reductive qualities of women but the men are believing that the robots meant only for sex are a good enough replacement. You can understandably see why theyre annoyed and could make the counterclaim that the Martian men are the ones who see women nothing more than things to have sex with. Its really hard to make that argument though when the feminists are subtextually written to be unpleasant. For one the character design of their leader is drawn to be ugly/different at least in comparison to typical anime characters in a way that the female robots are not. Second the feminist government is what keeps Mars from being free. In a genre focused on fighting evil systems the powerful government a colony wants free from being a one run by feminists is telling. Ultimately Im not comfortable with how petty and cartoonish feminists are painted seeming to believe that a womans worth is determined by her being able to procreate and also seeming to be hungry for the attention of men. 220https://i.ur.com/f2fBYax.png ...yet I do think that something could be here. With a bit more detail this could be a lot more nuanced more intentional. As is this idea of feminism is illdefined but just defined enough to annoy me. This idea sexbots could have been explored/depicted more. Maybe not to the point of being a fullblown ecchi but actually giving the audience more food for thought than we have currently and painting a fuller picture of life on Mars. As is the feminist aspects are present enough to be eyebrowraising at best uncomfortable at worst but not enough to really say anything definitive about. Undefined describes a lot of the themes. We see protests against the use of robots but these arent given a lot of focus and I question why people rebel against robots when they imported them for companionship in the first place. Even with all its faults its among the better of OVAs Ive seen though it still doesnt hold a candle to the crme de la crme Macross Plushttps://anilist.co/review/7456. Its certainly more competent than Macross IIhttps://anilist.co/review/7384 though that more speaks to how inept Macross II is that this is more competent than it. Unlike Macross II this feels like a complete work. That said much like Macross II it feels strangled by its restrictive format. It utilizes its short runtime fine all things considered establishing a decent setting but I cant help but yearn for more. The questions I have about the world only serve to show me how shallow it really is. It doesnt adequately explore its themes leaving me either dissatisfied or uncomfortable. As I said I can absolutely imagine a Cyberpunk module based on the world of Armitage III. In that regard this is a good enough starting point. As an actual story however it doesnt quite make the cut. 6.2/10 D 500https://cdn.donmai.us/original/87/52/8752f853837904a4ecdfce819479e817.png
62 /100
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