Appleseed: Volume 3

The ideas that Masamune Shirow came up with for Appleseed are very interesting but unfortunately for me its execution so far has been less than superb. You can see the genius behind the the story but poor pacing and clunky panels have stopped it from being great. I had hoped that volume three would be better and I wasn't disappointed!

What a difference. The third book in the Appleseed series is fantastic, the change is so dramatic that it actually felt like I was reading a different manga. Every little gripe I had about the previous volumes is gone and it is simple a joy to read. I am beginning to see why it was such a popular manga.

The plot is on much smaller scale which benefits the story greatly and the balance between action, character development and philosophy is perfect. This book is mainly centred around of issues of race, religion and identity which makes for a nice change from all the politics in the previous books, although there are elements of that still present. Shirow spends alot of time world building and for the first time Olympus becomes part of tangible world which certainly improved my enjoyment of the story.

The devastated scenes of Manhattan are some of the best I've seen and the opening of this volume is equal parts blade runner and Escape from New York. In fact there is even a little Snake Plisskin cameo at one point. The choreography is significantly better than before and while there are still some disjointed sequences it is miles ahead of its predecessors. There was a very impressive action sequence centred around a French mansion that would would not have been out of place in any action movie.

All in all this was a great book, hopefully the last volume will be more like the third.