Sowing the seeds of a new genre

Appleseed

Rating: * * * 1/2 (out of 5)
Director: Shinji Aramaki
Running time: 103 minutes
Language: Japanese
Opens April 17

Japanese animation is edging into the mainstream internationally, while insinuating itself into everything from "Kill Bill Vol. 1" to cartoon channels on U.S. cable TV. Unlike makers of Japanese live-action films, whose total annual exports wouldn't underwrite one middling Hollywood movie, Japanese animators can strike it rich abroad -- the millions raked in by the Pokemon franchise being the most obvious example.

Seeing animation as the safest, most profitable film-industry bet, corporate investors have underwritten ambitious new projects that have the potential to break out of the cult ghetto. Malls of America here we come.

Among the most innovative, technically at least, is "Appleseed," a SF animation based on a Shirow Masamune manga that has become a cult classic. Directed by Shinji Aramaki, whose credits include the "Bubble Crisis" TV anime series, and produced by Fumihiko Sori, an SFX whiz who directed the 2002 indie hit "Ping Pong," "Appleseed" is an amalgam of traditional character design and 3-D animation. In other words, 2-D meets 3-D.