"Armitage The Third: Polymatrix" (Anime)

[pkristen]

Anime Movie. Originally reviewed November 25, 2002.

Summary
On colonized Mars, robots are secretly living as humans, but someone is trying to hunt down and kill them. The matters are escalated among the current social turmoil of prejudice against robots. Caught in the middle is Detective Ross Sylibus, who conveniently happens to hate robots, and his new partner cop Naomi Armitage, who proves to have a very vested interest in this case.

Review
I had bought this one on sale a couple of years ago and didn’t get around to watching it until I was sharing a (double bed) hotel room with my best gay bud Nico while attending this year’s San Diego Comic Con. I think we entertained each other more from commenting on the piece than any entertainment value it was supposed to provide.

Yes, it’s got decent animation and a cyberpunk feel. But that’s very much overshadowed by the storyline that left many plot holes as well as clichéd dialogue and stories. It wasn’t until later until I found out that it was an edited version of the four episode OVA series, which probably would account for why some things didn’t make sense and some storylines seemed unfinished.

Story flaws due to editing was actually a minor annoyance compared to the overwhelming sexism and overwhelming “Lolita-complex” ambience of the Ross and Naomi’s relationship. You cannot tell me that she is not drawn like some barely pubescent teenager, and acts like it. And her outfit and behavior just leaves a lot to be laughed at in terms of any feminist respectability. It also doesn’t help that the lead character of Ross is incredibly boring and uncharismatic.

Lesbian Analysis
Okay, so buried in this trite anime is a very small potential of a pair of lesbian lovers involving the assassinated artist Jessica Manning and Jenny, a woman who’s featured in one of her paintings and is extremely distraught by the former woman’s death. I doubt very much there was more that could have been edited from this storyline that would reveal more about this couple since they’re so minor to the overall anime.

So unless the unedited version shows more about these two, I have no reason to see the full OVA version (at least not if I have to pay for it.)