This Live-Action Appleseed Promo From 1988 Is Pure Otaku Joy

Masamune Shirow is best known for Ghost in the Shell, but before he created Motoko Kusanagi, Batou, and the rest of Section 9, he chronicled the adventures of Deunan Knute and Briareos Hecatonchires as they protected the utopian city of Olympus from threats foreign and domestic. I am, of course, referring to Appleseed, a sci-fi/cyberpunk manga that was published in the mid-to-late ’80s.

Appleseed spawned several animated adaptations, including some CGI films directed by Shinji Aramaki. The first adaptation, however, was an OVA film directed by Kazuyoshi Katayama and released in 1988. The OVA was animated by Gainax, which had just released their debut feature, Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honnêamise, the year before.

To promote Appleseed, Gainax produced a three-minute live-action short that primarily features Deunan and Briareos driving around in a jeep, striking cool poses, and shooting guns, with an energetic pop single providing the soundtrack. There’s no storyline and the budget was obviously pretty low, but the short’s rather charming and delightfully geeky. Plus, Briareos’ armor actually looks pretty cool, and reminds me of the sort of wild costumes you’d see in a Keita Amemiya (Zeiram, Mechanical Violator Hakaider) film.

For all of the crap that’s on YouTube, I love that it’s also a repository of obscure pop culture nuggets like this Appleseed short. That, and it’s a channel for fellow nerds like Zimmerit’s Sean O’Mara, who created a 13-minute video about Gainax and anime culture in the ’80s that contains lots of information about the short’s production, including some behind-the-scenes footage.