The Animatrix

From The Wachowski’s, the Creators of The Matrix Trilogy, and seven of the greatest storytellers in all of Anime, comes a journey far deeper into the rabbit hole than ever before.  Behold nine stories from across the Matrix Mythology: tales of origins and expansions, of love and betrayal, belief against reality.  From the scorched wastelands of the Real World to digitized, gravity defying landscapes never before seen, this is one journey into the Matrix that will change everything you know about one of the greatest scifi epics of all time, all in Anime form. 

2003 is often thought of as The Year of The Matrix for a reason.  In addition to two sequels (The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions) and a tie in video game (Enter The Matrix), a special Anime Anthology series was put into production.  This endevour, one of the first of its kind, would see The Wachowskis collaborate with some of the best minds and studios and Animes to expand the world of The Matrix.  The end result of this is a pretty amazing feat of storytelling that actually dwarfs anything Reloaded and Revolutions ever could. 

First off, let’s do a quick rundown of the offerings: First up is Final Flight of the Osiris, a direct prequel to The Matrix Reloaded and one of the final projects of the short lived Square Pictures; The Second Renaissance is a two part tale from Mahiro Maeda, the director of Blue Submarine No.6, focusing on the downfall of mankind, the rise of the Machines and the birth of The Matrix itself; Kid’s Story, one of two entries directed by Cowboy Bebop director Shinichiro Watanabe, details the origins of one key player in The Matrix sequels; Program, from Ninja Scroll director Yoshiyaki Kawajiri is basically Ninja Scroll in The Matrix…nuff said; World Record sees a track runner force his way out of The Matrix through sheer will and is directed by Takeshi Koike of Redline fame; Beyond finds a group of kids exploiting a dangerous glitch in The Matrix for fun, a wild mind trip from Koji Morimoto, the director of Magnetic Rose from Katsuhiro Otomo’s Memories; A Detective’s Story, the second offering from Shinichiro Watanabe, finds an old school private eye on the hunt for Trinity; and finally Matriculated, from Aeon Flux creator Peter Chung, finds surface based rebels trying to convert machines to their rebellion.  Of these nine stories, four of them (Osiris, Renaissance and Kid’s Story) are written by Matrix creators The Wachowski’s themselves.

The most immediate thing that stands out about each entry of The Animatrix is that everything is different.  No two stories share the same art style and they’re mostly all done by different Anime studios.  So, in a way, not only is this a good demo for exploring The Matrix universe, it’s also a good way to sample the creative talents of the world of Anime at large as well.  It’s a good partnership if you ask me and I wonder why this kind of experiment wasn’t done more with other film properties (the closest anthology project I can think of to this degree was 2008’s Batman: Gotham Knight, which tied into the then upcoming release of The Dark Knight).  And can you believe some of those directors they recruited to the project?  Watanabe, Kawajiri, Chung, Morimoto are pioneers of the Anime genre, everyone involved in this is.  Best yet, while some stories stand out more than others (more on that in a sec), this doesn’t feel like a simple Matrix cash grab.  Unlike the clearly rushed and unpolished Enter The Matrix video game, each tale from The Animatrix has so much time, effort and heart poured into each frame of its existence.  One can only imagine how good and generally better the sequels would have been if this much care had been given to them as well.

Ok, the shorts themselves.  Of the 9 offerings…I really liked five of them, three were good and one was not my fav due to an opinion of artsytle and time.  That not fav is Matriculated.  I’m not a big fan of the way Peter Chung draws his characters and as the final short it is a bit longer than it needed.  The story has a good premise and the visuals on the digital plane are just as good as everything else in this series.  Like I said, it’s just me on this one.  I know a lot of other people who like Peter Chung and Aeon Flux so this one will please them just fine.  The Second Renaissanse doesn’t hold back detailing how brutal humanitys war with the machines ended up becoming.  Some of the imagery in Part 2 especially is not for the feint of heart and I know I was cringined.  It’s horrific but effective and there’s still plenty of scifi action and cool mecha designs to balance the scales.  Beyond was trippier than I expected but makes sense given the guy who directed also directed an equally trippy and visually amazing Anime short for Katsuhiro Otomo.

My favs are my favs for a number of reasons.  Kid’s Story’s handdrawn artstyle reminds me of “Breaking the Habit” by Linkin Park and the centerpiece skateboard chase is so freaking cool to watch (with a cool tune to match to it…actually the entire Animatrix soundtrack is incredible).  Program is Ninja Scroll meets The Matrix…seriously do you need any more reason to know why it kicks so much ass?  World Record and A Detective’s Story are two of the most unique tales of the bunch for their setups and executions.  To see a human push his body well past the breaking point and enable himself to break into another reality is one of the cooler concepts World Record brings to The Matrix mythology.  Plus the build up to poor Dan Davis’ brief escape is expertly done, as is the ambiguous and kind of hopeful epilogue.  A Detective’s Story adds a huge and welcome dose of Film Noir to The Matrix, complete with Blade Runner esque narrarations, a cool as hell lead character and even a glimpse of some old school repurposed tech from the 20’s and 30’s used to hack like a modern day hacker, it just oozes cool.  And last there’s the one short The Animatrix is most known for.  Final Flight of the Osiris is the swan song of Square Pictures, aka that division of Square responsible for that expensive box office bomb that was Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within.  For a short prequel to a larger tale, Osiris is pretty good, showcasing what Square Pictures could have done if it had been given more of a chance to try other features in the wake of Spirit Withins failure.  Also blind ninja sword fighting in a Matrix simulator with the super sexy Jue is worth the price of admission.

The Animatrix is a rare kind of experience.  Not only is it far superior to either of the Matrix sequels, it’s a perfect sampler plate of what the world of Anime has to offer as a whole: stylish action, pristine and mind bending visuals, exploration of dark and unknown territories and exactly what Neo promised at the end of the first film: worlds where anything is possible.  I know I had my favorites from the bunch and others will have their favs and dislikes as well.  As a whole, The Animatrix is a one of a kind experience that im thankful is just that but am also sad this kind of team up hasn’t been attempted more since it came out.  Sure we’ve had some shody Anime-esque direct to video tie ins to blockbuster films like Van Helsing and The Chronicles of Riddick but neither those or others have come even close to matching The Animatrix experience.  Truly, these are the sequels that The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions should have been.

9/10