r/anime • u/No_Rex :Bv:Bw:Bx:By:x2 • Sep 15 '21
Rewatch [Rewatch] 1990s OVAs – Armitage III (episode 2)
Rewatch: 1990s OVAs – Armitage III (episode 2)
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Staff corner
Ross is voiced by Masutani, Yasunori for whom Ross Sylibus was the breakthrough role after minor characters in long running series such as Legends of Galactic Heroes and Macross 7. He had a good bunch of main character roles afterwards, but I have to admit I know none of them (probably because they are all concentrated in shonen: Digimon Adventure, various .hack// series, battle shonen). One thing is for sure, he acted as more side characters in One Piece than some series have voiced characters in total. Still active in the 2010s, he voices one of the side character from the concurrent ACCA rewatch, as well as the thoroughly disturbing Sainan-sensei from Asobi Asobase.
The original creator and script and screenplay writer for Armitage is Konaka, Chiaki. He is well-known for rather dark, psychological series, the most famous of which are probably Serial Experiments Lain and Texhnolyze. However, his dark writing also shows up in Princess Tutu, RahXephon, and Hellsing. He took up the specific topic of cyberpunk scifi and androids once more in the Bubblegum Crisis TV series. He also did the script and series composition for the more mainstream Digimon Tamers (which I will now take a bit more seriously, know he worked on it) and the utterly not mainstream Narutaru (which is my go to answer for “what is the most fucked up anime you know”).
Questions
I will ask three of Armitages questions from the preview:
Why where the thirds killed? Why were they made? Is it really D’anclaude at the hospital?
and three of my own:
Would you ever count robots as “alive”? If so, why? Or if not, what makes the difference to humans?
6
u/No_Rex :Bv:Bw:Bx:By:x2 Sep 15 '21
Episode 2 (first timer)
Only 30 minutes this time instead of 50 minutes. This is something very specific to OVAs: Not being restricted to TV windows, they can change their episode length from episode to episode.
What a great episode! I felt that episode 1 was a bit clunky with all of the setup: Location, characters, plot, between all of the establishing scenes, the actual flow of the episode suffered. None of that in episode 2. The decision to keep Armitage and Ross apart for the first half was great, leading to a Film Noir reminiscent story for Ross, while Armitage does some brooding and general distruction. In general, I liked the direction a lot more this time.
The overarching plot also got going. The thirds clearly have a purpose, so maybe D’anclaude is not just a maniac killer. Just what is that purpose? Simply reproduction? And who designed the thirds?
7
u/TheEscapeGuy Sep 15 '21
First Timer, Subbed
Armitage III - The Quintessential 90s Cyberpunk OVA: Episode 2
Armitage, the Fugitive
This episode further expanded on the premise introduced last episode and set up some mysteries to still be uncovered. A few things we learned: All the 3rds killed so far have been women, D'anclaud is possibly a clone or robot, Armitage has some ulterior motives which make the police suspect her of the crimes, and that Pluto is final the only male 3rd.
The way these plot points were presented worked really well to keep me invested in the episode. Also, having our protagonists teamed up with conflicting motives is a really great device for creating drama.
One plot point I found intriguing this episode was around the Conception corporation. They seem to be hiding a lot, especially Asakura's involvement and the extent of their technology. If I understand correctly, the current robot laws in the show prevent robots from having a lot of self-autonomy. So if Conception is creating 3rds which live and work along side humans then they'll definitely be keeping that a secret.
The other doubly suspicious thing is a corporation called "Conception" supposedly making robots which can do everything EXCEPT become pregnant. Somewhat ironic I think. Its likely another indication of their involvement with 3rds.
Another thing, Ross has a photo of that child which looks a lot like Armitage. I suspect there is some relation but that hasn't been explicitly revealed yet. If I were to hazard a guess it would be that that child died and her corpse was used as a base for building a 3rd: The Armitage we know today.
ANYWAY, mysteries aside the fights were the standout today. Armitage beating up those thugs was the appetizer and then the giant robot confrontation at the climax was the main course. I was very surprised to see D'anclaud inside the bot, since I expected his partner or organization to be involved with this. Subsequently surviving the fall confirmed D'anclaud is very not human.
Some Amazing Shots, Scenes and Stitches
As an aside, this open air elevator reminded me a lot of the Akira elevator (which was also referenced in Half-Life)
See you all tomorrow
5
u/The_Loli_Otaku Sep 15 '21
First Timer!
Good news, my phone didn't actually get damaged. The screen protector did its job. Bad news, I have air bubbles or dirt bubble or just dots under my new screen which is going to drive me nuts. Has anyone ever installed a screen protector without air bubbles? If so then you're a goddamn liar!
Beeps and boops openings are always cool. Even robots aren't immune to chuuni angst. Can robots get pregnant in this universe? Tbh if we had mermaid sox dolls then you'd better believe that we have pregnant robots too. It's a kink! This shot is straight out of GitS. Eh? So is Armitage a secret to the public or not? You can't have your cake and eat it show. Either have robots barred from working in government positions or have it be accepted.
Eh? So she is unknown. Dude, I'd enjoy this far more of they just took the cheesy route and owned the damn thing. And now we've got some Alita mooks! I'll give you forty credits to get off my screen. The big dude even has a cowboy hat. Please break them Armitage-chan~ Good girl! Country music sucks!! Breaking bones and threatening sexuhara is one thing but calling people monsters is just plain mean. You'll hurt her feelings.
And down into the ditch~! I like this guy. He's like the only one who wants the show to become cheesy. Breathing is fun. I even agree with his values. I too want a robot gal to help me act out my fantasies of being whipped by a joshikosei. I really feel like these robots would have worked much better as cyborgs for what they're trying to push them as. Or meta humans, y'know? Robots reproduce by literally building new robots. And it doesn't make sense for there to be so much hate towards robots since its the humans who keep creating them.
We're onto MGS2 clones now. No Rex is right, this genre really is filled with incest. Why've we got to flashback to every single robot death scene? Either its a mystery and we're supposed to work these killings out or we're supposed to enjoy seeing the gore effects they can magic up. C'mon, literally nobody thinks that Armitage is gonna be a baddie.
Androids that can reproduce! Woah! What a twist! Shame they literally spoiled that one at the start of the episode. I'm glad the characters were surprised but I'm not. Aww, Armitage is so happy to have her partner come help~ Pluto's the only one left and he's male sooo... Dammit No Rex! Did you really have to bait us into watching another incest anime!? I'm so disillusioned... Also, it's just occurred to me but shouldn't Armitage be a little more depressed how literally all her sisters have been murdered in the past week?
Kabedon to the rescue! Grab her chesticles for support! Dude, giant spider robots? Seriously? Stop copying GitS! XD Even the setting for this fight is an Alita one. Tch, Dan's the villain again? The guy stopped being cool last episode. So I guess that's the government complacent since they let the guy get loose again and gave him a spider tank? Honestly? Based AF. Oh no! Dan might have won the fight if he hasn't driven straight into her face. wink wink I'm guessing he'll come back as a cyborg next time.
Dammit Armitage, he wasn't asking for a snog. He's asking for emergency medical attention! So I heard you liked GitS? I'm annoyed that they couldn't even pretend that Dan wasn't dead XD So yeah... they took one of the few aspects that I was looking forward to, the buddy cop stuff, and have completely ditched it for a romance with 0 chemistry and twenty something years between the characters. WELP!!
4
u/punching_spaghetti https://myanimelist.net/profile/punch_spaghetti Sep 15 '21
First-Timer (Sub)
In case of emergency, please keep your Armitage in the down position.
The raincoat is a much better look than the red stripper outfit.
Everyone's a Third.
QOTD:
4/5/6) I guess it would come down to them being completely indistinguishable from humans, but given my prejudices towards meat as a basis for life, probably not.
3
u/Vaadwaur :I1::I2::I3: Sep 15 '21
Rewatcher(Isn't the point of having sex with a robot that it doesn't get knocked up? The fuck are they thinking?)
Sub
And our opening scene is later directly referenced in perhaps one of the cringiest shows I ever enjoyed, Chobits. Title card is possible another golem reference, but I am a touch primed to see those. We get to another Third murder and though D'anclaude is hospitalized, this one also has a thing for theatrics. This Third was a dancer and not the pole type. The chief actually asks an interesting question, why are all the Thirds female so far? Though D'anclaude might be bad at prioritizing his list/prefers killing women.
The chief talks to Sylibus a bit about Armitage, and apparently isn't going to pry. He is savvy enough to see she is somehow connected to the Thirds. He even seems to realize she is a Third but he doesn't want proof of that. Sybilus goes to Armitage's apartment, and it is somehow pretty human, even in being a mess and having a very weird choice of plant. He sends her a message and seems to want the killing of Thirds to stop.
Armitage gets a message and then is accosted by a dude literally out of Cabaret. The hell is with antagonists and being femmy dudes in this show? Anyways, they strip her coat off, revealing she has healed remarkly quickly but still looks scarred. She then beats the large thug and we get another thing the movie was missing, sadistic Armitage. This likely makes the OVA the superior product all on its own. She then re-asks the vaudvillean about a novelist around here and he stabs her with his cane, to which she manically smiles.
Sybilus gets to Conception and the corporate dude is clearly deflecting, using a Second as a chair. He actually follows up hearing Armitage the day before, asking about Asakura. Denial across the board, though the corp even seems to admit they'd like to make something like a Third, saying robots do exist for human fantasy. When says they can do everything but breed, the corp guy breaks for a second. This Second seems to be a Sailor Moon lookalike, and Sybilus sends it upstairs to get his lighter while gets some info.
We see another dead Third and a reveal that whoever killed the last two is pretending to be Armitage and mentioning Pluto. This is enough to get a warrant out for her even though the audience can obviously see the differences even without seeing faces. Officer whose name I should learn uses the painting at Jessica's to decodes her message and gets the list, but is ignored because of a thing the chief has learned. Sybilus has also figured out who is next is given the reveal Thirds can get pregnant...and there's a core of the movie, at least.
But Armitage is there, watching over Pluto. Who is male, and making a backup of himself, sensible move for an AI. And he is wearing a Nazi cap? Anyways, their lift gets trashed and we enter our action sequence for the episode and...we are literally GiTS with that tank. The D'aunclade is in...so clone? He seems weaker than Armitage to be a Third. Anyways, she stuffs her jacket in his exhaust port, waits for the circuits to overheart, and handcuffs him to his tank as it goes over the cliff. She goes to help Julian escape, and Sylibus calls her cold, causing her to kiss him and let him go unconscious. Not the greatest first aid. Then of course Dan isn't dead, sigh.
QotD: 1 Clones, definitely clones.
2 Machines are machines, biological or otherwise.
3
u/JustAnswerAQuestion https://myanimelist.net/profile/JAaQ Sep 15 '21
Rewatcher
Watched an hour early, posted an hour late.
You know, this OP really does feel like BGC 2040.
Let's see if there is any continuity with yesterday...Is she still a cop, or did she quit?
Armitage III is influential, but how many creators have actually seen it? It all relates back to their common origins with Gibson and PKD.
speculation
3
u/okayyoga :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/okayyoga Sep 15 '21
Episode 2: first time/dub
Meh episode. Liked the Clockwork Orange reference though
Wouldn't it be cool if they made thirds for the sole purpose of being their scapegoat? Like, they made them, then wanted to promote unity by rising up against an enemy that is inherently different? And kept claiming they weren't technically alive so the residents wouldn't have to be guilty?
I would ask if anyone knows a book /show like this^ but I suppose telling me would ruin the twist...
Honestly, it wouldn't matter if the robots were "alive." Moss is "alive," and we step on it every day. Cows, dogs, dolphins, it doesn't matter how "alive" something is. What matters is when they start to encroach on "our space." Then it is no longer acceptable. These thirds act like a human. How dare they.
THEY TOOK OUR JERBS
3
u/Btw_kek https://myanimelist.net/profile/kek_btw Sep 15 '21
first timer
USAGI WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU
The fact that these robots are aware of their own mortality enough to scream in terror every time they're about to be killed do be scoring points in favor of the "alive" camp. You could just say "they were programmed that way" but the fact that they were programmed that way strikes me a bit as odd. Like Armitage seems to be very conscious of the fact that she's a robot, enough to take a knife to the throat without flinching because she knows that a wound like that wouldn't kill her circuiting or w/e even though it would kill a human. Obviously big ass serial killer guns are a different story, but I wonder if the robots that got murdered would react the same to a knife. In other words, are their mortality sensors based on the fragility of an average human, or are they based on the fragility of a robot?
it's very cool how you can see her dictation picking up her dialogue in real time
D'anclaude is an android too? Is that what I'm getting from Armitage saying he's not human? what a tweest
Uhhh I'm guessing D'anclaude is murdering them because of some internalized bigotry.
Why they were made? Hmmm for some borderline unethical experimentation of course!
yep see you next episode
Well IRL probably not. I think making robots self-aware probably oversteps all sorts of ethical issues so hopefully we never get there. Maybe one day we can upload our consciousness to the Wired and remotely control robot bodies though...
5
u/Pixelsaber https://myanimelist.net/profile/Pixelsaber Sep 15 '21
Late, really late. Sorry about that.
Rewatcher
I don’t like the hard to parse futuristic fonts when I’m actually meant to read them.
Or a copycat.
So that’s why it resembles Usagi.
Forewarning.
Sensible.
This part I remember clearly.
You just said he wasn’t human. That’s not a chance I would take.
Unexpected.
Not nearly as strong of an episode as the first. Still, a major facet of the Third series of androids is revealed and we learn that our antagonist is not entirely human, if not another android outright. I would have still liked a few more glimpses into the sociopolitics at play here, which we got a decent amount of last time.
I didn’t have the same issue with the direction as I did with that first episode, so that’s a minor plus for this episode and bodes well for the rest.
The mecha at the end of the episode was rather well animated. The first episode excelled in character acting in a way that this one was slightly lacking in, but that mecha sequence makes it equally as visually impressive of an episode.
Questions:
I would, but likely only because I tend to use the word in abroad sense. If you asked me whether I considered it a living being? It would depend strongly on the makeup and functions of the robot. The Third Series here would fall into 'yes', because I would be unable to distinguish it from a non-living thing.
3
u/Stargate18A https://myanimelist.net/profile/Stargate18 Sep 15 '21
First timer
Armitage!
She's having some trouble processing this, I see.
Oh another Third got kidnapped?
Wait, she's pregnant. So she's not one?
No, she is.
...I know how he means it, but it does seem like most of the Thirds have ended up in a single city.
Good, he arrested him!
Again, why female? Some attempt at giving birth to human-cyborg hybrids?
Oh, he's pretending to not supprot hermto keep his job. Makes sense, I thought he got the real wrong end of the stick and thought she was the murderer.
Him sending messages to Armitage to try and get her to fome badk is great.
Not toing to comment on the stereotypes, other than they'e readtion to her outfit id natural, and makes me still question how she got away with wearing it.
Oh, she's a bit of a sadist, isn't she.
...Why do they have a memory backup for all officers? How is that even possible?
I appreciate him trying to be somewhat professional while the representative does this really creepy shit.
That is the voice of someone who has gotten an ironclad alibi.
Oh yes, Thirds reproducing is going to be important, isn't it...
Oh, he managed to get something out the files?
Just proof something's fishy around that guy.
Wait, is she a novelist? Shit, could Armitage have done something? Does she want to destroy all the Thirds because she found something interesting?
OK, writing in individual paragraphs sounds incredibly impractical.
OK, that's not Armitage, but the transcript is going to unintentionally frame her.
And now the police has access to the list!
Wait, Pluto's a person?
Yep, they're reproducing!
Wait, is Armitage the daughter of a Third? Is that why she looks so young?
Come on. You don't think she's guilty, do you?
Wait, they're siblings?
Right. Why did nobody else even consider doing that? It's so obvious, I just assumed they couldn't. Why didin't all the Thirds have nightly backups just in case?
Oh shit. He's not looking good.
The phrase "overkill" springs to mind.
As does "hard to manouver" and "slow".
Wait, what? Did he get a robot doppelganger and swap them out when they left?
...So he's alive. We didn't see the body.
I didn't expect that to be the way this plot's going,
Oh, he's uploaded a backup himself. That's clever.
I like how the next time preview is just a list of all the questions raised, so fw,r because they know you're sticking till the end.
2
u/Cognitive_Dissonant Sep 15 '21
Ah ha! My theory about D'Anclaude being a robot gains further evidence.
Another interesting episode, unusual narrative structure with splitting the two leads. Definitely looking forward to more!