Metropolis is an anime film based on the manga of the same name by legendary manga author Osamu Tezuka. In the film, while helping his detective uncle search for a dangerous criminal, Kenichi becomes lost in the plutocratic city of Metropolis with a mysterious girl named Tima, and both are quickly caught up in the political conflict that threatens to destroy not only Metropolis, but the world, as a whole. all.
Metropolis is one of the films on the 2024 Anime Expo Cinema Nights schedule, the first time it has been shown in American theaters since its Western release in 2002. It will be shown in November 4th, November 7th and November 10th. The film is over 20 years old, but between its gorgeous visuals, stellar direction, and appropriately dark narrative, Metropolis It’s an incredible film on all fronts and one of the best adaptations of an Osamu Tezuka story to date. Metropolis It will only be back in theaters for a limited time, so anyone who has never seen it before would be remiss to pass up such an incredible film.
Metropolis’ direction does a perfect job of bringing Tezuka’s world to life
A beautiful film from start to finish
The first thing to stand out Metropolis it’s its gorgeous animation and overall direction. Courtesy of being an anime production by Studio Madhouse, including directed by its co-founder, Rintaro, Metropolis is full of beautiful and creative visuals from start to finishas the brilliant art is perfectly complemented by its clever camera work and scene transitions at every turn. Madhouse has always been known for the cinematic brilliance of its productions and as a real film Metropolis more than lives up to that reputation.
Going along with Metropolis’ direction is its phenomenal score. Film composer Toshiyuki Honda’s soundtrack always does a great job of highlighting the mood of each scene, whether it’s an upbeat jazz track or a somber orchestral piece, and it especially shines in the rare moments of the licensed tracks, particularly in how Metropolis had a breathtaking climax set to Ray Charles’ “I Can’t Stop Loving You,” which perfectly captured the mood with its tonal dissonance. Metropolis was Honda’s first anime project, but his decades of experience before that helped give it a phenomenal score from start to finish.
What sells best MetropolisThe driving force, of course, was the character designs. While anime like Dororo or Naoki Urasawa Pluto updated Tezuka’s work with more realistic or modern designs, Metropolis maintains Tezuka’s signature artistic style and not only works with the retro aesthetic of the setting, but Osamu Tezuka’s artistic style allows everyone and everything to Metropolis move with incredible fluidity in each scene. The cartoonish art style also served as a great contrast to the darker elements of the story, and all in all, it was another great decision for the film’s spectacular direction.
The story of Metropolis is as dark as a Tezuka story could be
The Metropolis’ Scary Narrative Explained
From the beginning, Metropolis has no illusions about how it combines the story of Osamu Tezuka with the themes and aesthetics of Fritz Lang’s iconic film Metropolis film and, as such, Metropolis tells a story of class struggles, humanity and revolution that never hesitates to show how terrible Metropolis society iswith the parties in power very explicitly never caring about the people they govern or having a problem with killing the people who would oppose them. Detective Shunsaku even explicitly calls the Marduk Party fascist at one point, so the seriousness and maturity of his writing is never up for debate.
The dark aspects of Metropolis‘ the writing is brilliantly complemented by the few positive points it offers. As dark as Metropolis‘As the story tends to get there, there is always a certain degree of idealism in Kenichi and Tima’s relationship and the lengths Kenichi is willing to go to help her, and not only does the film end on a hopeful note with Metropolis set to rebuild, but the final shot of Metropolis implies that Kenichi somehow brought Tima back to life and started a life with herSo, despite everything, the film finds a way to end on a well-deserved, bittersweet note.
MetropolisThe writing, of course, is perfectly in line with Osamu Tezuka’s style. Tezuka’s works were never afraid to tackle heavy subjects like politics and poverty, nor did they shy away from violence when it was necessary to prove a point, despite their numerous divergences from the source material, MetropolisThe dark yet hopeful writing is a perfect summary of what made Osamu Tezuka’s work such an iconic part of manga history.. Katsuhiro Otomo’s Akira Fame was the film’s head writer, and overall, he did a near-impeccable job of bringing Tezuka’s writing to life.
The few obstacles that prevent Metropolis from being perfect
What was stopping Metropolis from achieving perfection?
A film as good as Metropolis It could be, however, that some notable elements are holding you back. To begin with, just as the animation held up, countless moments in Metropolis‘runtime features some notably lackluster 3D visualsa scene with an animatronic sign early in the film is a notable example of this type of visual. Moments like this are thankfully rare, but as is often the case, they are very distracting whenever they appear and only serve to bring down an otherwise beautiful film.
A much larger issue arises from the political elements of Metropolisspecifically the narrative involving the robots. Although much of the narrative revolves around the citizens of Metropolis hating and abusing robots for taking their jobs, the film doesn’t show this enough to really sell the conflict, and because of this, Tima voluntarily entering the Ziggurat out of hatred for the abuse of her fellow robots doesn’t have enough development to actually land. The sincerity of the writing helps everything come together in the end, but it still prevents the narrative from being as strong as it should be.
Is Metropolis the best Osamu Tezuka anime to watch?
How good is Metropolis?
With the age of many anime adaptations of Tezuka’s works, Metropolis has an edge over many of them in terms of writing and overall storytelling, but for more modern works, anime like Dororo, Plutoand 2003 Astro Boy do a better job maintaining consistent animations and handling complex themes, especially when robots are used allegorically. They all had the advantage of being TV shows with more time to work with, but still, Metropolis falls short of other modern Osamu Tezuka anime in terms of overall quality.
None of this means Metropolis It’s not worth watching, of course. Between its incredible animation and direction, engaging cast of characters, and thought-provoking narrative about class struggles and humanity, Metropolis does an incredible job of elevating Osamu Tezuka’s original narrative into a beautiful story in its own right that even those unfamiliar with his work can enjoy. There are few films with as much thought and care in their craft as Metropolisand any anime fan should try watching it.