Considered to be a classic cyberpunk anime, it introduced a wave of cyberpunk and anime fans when this movie was released in 1995. However, it got overshadowed by Ghost In The Shell, which in the US became such a well-known anime movie but Armitage III had strong popularity in Japan, so that kinda counts. Armitage III Poly-Matrix is a must-see anime film for all cyberpunk and anime fans who missed this gem a long time ago. Welcome to the year 2046. The Earth became overpopulated and therefore, mankind created a colonization in Mars with the help of first type" androids and built the city of SaintLowell. Seventy years later, the city is inhabited by humans and "Second-type" androids, which are improvements over the first type and this new robots talk and react like real humans. On the space-port, a man named Ross Sylllibus arrives on Mars to meet his new partner, a young woman named Naomi Armitage, which for a partner she does know how to dress up nicely. However, all hell goes down when Armitage stops a man with a briefcase that she shot down and in the case, they find the body of a country singer named Kelly McCannon, which turns out that she's a "third-type" robot, able to act like a human but in a more advanced realistic way. Now humanity loses faith on the robots and now hellbent on destroying every last one of them, Armitage and Ross must now stop the man that's committing these murders and discover the secret of the "third-type" robots.
As you probably know by now, the story is the main selling-point of this movie and why people love it so much. It asks the question of why did mankind create robots when in reality they want them dead cause robots are becoming smarter than their creators. Did we wanted to create robots for our miserable enjoyment, to treat them like slaves, to make us feel better or to have them do our dirty work for them on the city? While it doesn't go too deep, it still talks about the issues with man's relation with machine and the fear that machines will become stronger creatures than man itself, kind like The Terminator. The 2 main characters are charming and to my surprise, they are well developed. Armitage is a woman who is different from the rest of us but doesn't care about it cause she just wants man and machines to live together in the city and will do anything to protect her kind. Ross Syllibus is also a great character. He's a cop who lost trust on robots since his beloved one was murdered by a robot but in the end, he learns that not all robots are programmed to be killers and has faith that both kinds can live in harmony. The side characters are just boring, minus one character that I won't spoil here. They are useless and throughout this movie, they do nothing despite that there are riots in the city and no other cop does a damn thing about it.
The animation by AIC, the animation company that worked on Oh My Goddess and Inspector Gadget, looks phenomenal for a 1995 anime film. The cyberpunk look is impressive, giving it a Blade-Runner inspiration style, and the water color art is beautifully rendered in the background. The English voice acting is good but you have to get used to them in order to appreciate it. Elizabeth Barkley starts off strong as Armitage and she gives a top-notch performance out of her character. Kiefer Sutherland starts weak as Ross cause he sounds bored at times but in the second half of the series, he does improve a bit more than the beginning of the film. The music is fantastic and it gives you chills on your spine on how well the music is composed here.
Armitage III: Poly Matrix is a fantastic anime that should be watched by everyone. The story and themes are excellent, the 2 main characters are well-developed, the action is excellent, the animation is top-notch and the music is phenomenal. It's a great addition to the cyberpunk genre and I do hope that someone remake this film to a new generation of cyberpunks fans... In a good way of course.
Mixed Feelings
Same as the 1995's OVA, but combined into one film which got dubbed with absent-minded actors, making it inferior by default. Armitage III though plays out like a Shōnen (obviously, with such a titular character) to then subverse it right down to explaining why the suspicious engineers are building replicants as child servants, adding a much more cruel undertone to the cliche, so after the 1st half Naomi Armitage won't get half-naked anymore as she restores her sense of identity and what it's like to be a strong independent thinking woman. Mars colony where Armitage III takes place is even radically anti-feminist compared to Earth,it's implied from the opening shots of an objectified naked butt stewardess robot. So this whole cyber-loli trope stemming from the 80s anime also serves as the backdrop for surface-level sci-fi problems. Local replicants being built that way to be ashamed of themselves feels like a subtle mockery of the Bubblegum Crisis audience and such.
I am still icky about Naomi Armitage retaining this child-like body, but being technically older than even her old man engineer to give an excuse for the relationship with her partner - those borderline pedo anime tropes are enough of a concern by themselves, even when it's deconstructed like that: leading to the couple having an actual child in the sequel.
In spite some of those eyebrow-rousing concerns, there's real charm to the characters, somewhat more radiant than Appleseed when it comes to future cops duet: each time Naomi gets a show-off moment when she attacks some scoundrel out of smirky spite is an animation bliss, warranting a watch just for that. I also appreciate the score - seemingly influenced by the 80s EBM and the 90s electro-industrial, having factory sound cues par course. As a conclusion, both Armitage III: Poly Matrix & Armitage III: Dual Matrix still won't break any new ground or dry out some seas.
B2B2Reviews
January 16, 2021
Recommended
Trying not to be biased here, because time has changed my tastes somewhat and other opinions have made me think about it harder than I originally did, so this is tainted. Probably not the right word, but we'll roll with that. On the surface we have a standard cyberpunk cop story set on Mars, with Naomi Armitage meeting her new partner, Ross Syllabus. He's a cyborg with a deep disdain for electronic lifeforms, and it turns out she is secretly the next big step in that direction. And looking back this where it's issues lie. An android capable of human conception?Is it even possible? OR necessary? Add some odd interpretations of feminism and it's not the best write looking back. It was okay even though I never realized it was very flawed.
But it was a gateway title for me. One of the first I'd seen and it stuck in my memory because of that. I like the style, the soundtrack is good, and it was future spacey enough that I paid money for it when I had no way to get money.
So warts and all, it's worth a watch. An icon from the time when a Pioneer label wasn't a historical relic.
