Metropolis

Japanese Title: メトロポリス (Metoroporisu)
Year: 2001
Publisher: TEZUKA Osamu, MADHOUSE
Genre: Science Fiction, Robot, Drama
Duration: ~ 102 minutes
Price: €9.99 (~$12)
Links: Official page, ANN, AnimeNFO, Allcinema, AniDB, Official Trailer (youtube), Stream full (Veoh)

Metropolis is a heavily industrialized futuristic world with giant cloud scrapers rising above the horizon. An huge city with it’s deep secrets. The duke, because of the lost of his daughter secretly build a robot. A super artificial intelligent robot girl who’s supposed to sit the throne. Once she does in a yet shaped Ziggurat a new era will start, so the duke proclaims.

Alike the deceased daughter of the duke, the robot’s name is Tina. No one is supposed to know she’s a robot neither the duke has build her. He probably want to introduce her as his long lost daughter.

The Ziggurat however gets attacked by a giant robot. Luckily this attack is taken down by a boy named Rock. Rock is the right hand of the duke, the favorite adopted son. Honoring his title Rock had taken down this mass robot. Despite his position the duke didn’t told him about Tina. When he finds Tina, the heir to the throne he becomes jealous. He had the right of throne as next in line of the duke’s daughter. Furious and above jealously Rock is drawn into obsession to kill Tina. How could a robot ever be prioritized, prioritized above him! How could she, no it, steal his rightful place.

In meantime a detective have arrived accompanied by his son. They get separated but the son finds and rescues a beautiful girl, which appears to be Tina. Amazing of her beauty the boy cannot believe she’s a robot. Her skin is warm and soft, the voice is gentle, she laughs and cries. You would say she’s a regular human, a person. Yet without any memory before the ‘accident’.

A marvelous and yet sad story. … The anime shows you a great variety of events in yet a moderate time. I think Wikipedia is spoiling the plot. Anidb reviews are less spoiling and gives a broad and good view of what this anime series is about. It’s a great series and you won’t be disappointed. Unless you don’t like the futuristic landscape.

Quality
Above average anime, but within the boundaries of the great Ghibli’s productions. The light is quite stunning as it natural blends on the skin. On a moment Tina really looks like an angel as she almost emits light, reflecting from her body. This is meant and so great!

However, I didn’t really like the animation. Well, the animation is really super smooth, they must have used a PC to generate those movements. Still I think they overdo it. The characters in the movie is moving the whole time in such smooth way I get totally dizzy of.

So animation good, smooth but overdoing and light is great. Blending perhaps too much, but story fixes all these trival details. Yes trivial, ’cause it all remains above average anime (in exception for coloring the characters, probably because of the light).

It would be great if you bought the Bluray. I don’t have a HDTV so I have the DVD, but I now I see, I think I buy the Bluray ever if I get HDTV.

The soundtrack
The Metropolis original soundtrack (OST) is a very gentle soundtrack. It does have a fast note in a track or two, but less beats and more atmosphere. You get the feeling a nice stroll in a slobby district or a huge city in which everyone rolls their daily business.

I didn’t like the soundtrack as stand-alone. Even hearing it on Internet radio didn’t appeal me without the visual arts of the anime. It do support the anime, but if I need to grade it, it will be a sapy 3/5.

Manga
Osamu Tezuka’s Metropolis is rather an old manga. Tezuka have written the manga in 1949, which is inspired by the movie Metropolis in 1927. As you should know, Metropolis is a giant and futuristic city. That movie was a silent science-fiction film by Fritz Lang. However it has no relation with the anime series (neither the manga). Acquiring the manga can be in pain, so be prepared if you do .

Final words
There aren’t much figures around and those aren’t of quality I would buy. As for merchandise I can’t find any.  Well, Metropolis is a well rounded story and so far it’s ends all discusses. The ending is complete, you can discuss for an hour or two but then live on.

Metropolis is worth my €24.95 (DVD). If you can, I really encourage you to buy the bluray instead. Giving this title you will find more natural colors and less pixels. The quality between these two is really big for this anime.