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Reviews
Gilgamesh (2003)
Dark and beautiful
I read the review for this in Play magazine, and it lived up to ALL expectations. The animation is spectacular and unique among anime, feeling more like a film-noir than a typical Berserk or Hellsing type of show. The voice acting and dialogue are spot-on, and the story features excellent battles without being excessively gory, touching love without being sappy, and a series of twists and turns so beautiful they will leave you pondering and discussing the show well after it's ended. The only words I have to say against it are that you must watch it from the beginning, and not miss a single episode, or you will be hopelessly lost. And, if you are too put-off by dark themes (very dark). Gilgamesh is a true masterpiece, a Neon Genesis Evangelion for the new millennium.
The Animatrix: The Second Rennaissance, Part II (2003)
A weak prelude to a great series
TSR parts 1 and 2 are probably the most important shorts on the Animatrix, being the story of how humanity ended up being slaves to the machines. Despite that, it is over-the-top in it's delivery, but none of the story seems to make sense unless you think humanity is an utterly incomprehensible monster with no common sense, ethics or sense of perspective.
***SPOILERS***
A robot kills his master, precipitating a worldwide destruction of robots, adapting footage from riots and insurrections the world overt, including a particularly disturbing scene of the rape of a robot woman. Throughout this series, humans are depicted as a race of Nazis on steroids.Their mindset seems to be "if you accidentally bumped into me on the street, I will shoot you and kill your entire family". Berserk animals so unrealistic it would almost hurt my love for the Matrix movies if this was the first thing I were to be exposed to. It's as thought the Wachowskis couldn't think of a reason why the war started, or perhaps they wanted to avoid a story too similar to The Terminator, so they settled on an idiotic parody of mankind as being the aggressors. In a series with people flying, turning into ghosts, and stopping bullets with their mind, it is The Second Renaissance that is the most unrealistic.
3/10