History Manga / Appleseed

* GztlingGood: ''Very'' good. The giant siege platforms have at least four gatling guns the size of busses in addition to their WaveMotionGun.

* ObviouslyEvil: Poseidon in ''Ex Machina''. They're a MegaCorp and OneNationUnderCopyright, their executive and diplomat is an EeriePaleSkinnedBrunette in a black leather catsuit, and their battle commander has a [[GoodScarsEvilScars scar]] covering one eye. They're also so polite and smooth about cooperating with Athena and Olympus that any GenreSavvy viewer would expect that they're up to something ''seriously'' devious. [[spoiler: [[SubvertedTrope Nope.]] While they did accidentally leave some dangerous experimental AppliedPhlebotinum lying around, they cooperate fully with the protagonists when it comes time to clean everything up, and their offer to surrender control of their weapons to Olympus is entirely genuine.]]

* {{Meganekko}}: Chiffon, the DarkSkinnedBlond who befriended Deunan, was part of the human insurgency and [[BoomHeadshot killed brutally]] by Deunan unknowingly in the manga's first volume.
** Unknowingly? Chiffon flat-out recognized Deunan and called her name, and Deunan knew exactly who she just gunned down. This is, also, after Chiffon and company shot the hell out of Briareos too, so you can kind of forgive Deunan for plugging her "friend" like that.

''Appleseed'' is a four volume CyberPunk/Mecha manga written between 1985 and 1989 by ShirowMasamune, of ''GhostInTheShell'' fame, as well as its OVA and feature film adaptations. Set in [[AfterTheEnd post-apocalyptic]] 22nd century, the story follows the ActionGirl Deunan Knute and her [[BeastAndBeauty cyborg partner and lover]] Briareos Hecatonchires. The two join the special forces of the Olympus city, an enclave of peaceful life on the planet devastated by the WorldWarIII (and recovering from World War ''IV''), whose population consists equally of both normal humans and "bioroids", {{Artificial Human}}s with genetically suppressed aggressiveness who act as emotional buffer for the former.

** Just one with his hands because it's a Landmate sized one. He could theoretically use hundreds of weapon systems wired directly to his "brain".

* LightningBruiser: Briareos uses (or, more accurately, is built into) the Hecatonchires-class full-body cyborg chassis, a towering juggernaut of a military prototype that is amongst the strongest, toughest rigs ever to exist, and boosts his reflexes to superhuman levels as well.

!! The ''Appleseed'' franchise contains examples of the following tropes:

* TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt: Subverted hard; as with Ghost in the Shell (which shared a similar Timeline if not outright happening in the same universe), despite ''two'' world wars, one of which was nuclear, civilization just kept right on chugging along, without even a die back. That said, the world is still a very chaotic place, and you probably wouldn't want to live there.

* ColourCodedForYourConvenience: The eyes of Briareos and other cyborgs changed in colour from red to green between the first and second movies, so that we could see when they were BrainwashedAndCrazy thanks to the ominous red glow.

* LesYay: Although there is little even in terms of {{Subtext}} to back it up, there are scenes both in the OVA and in the first movie hinting at a mutual attraction between Deunan and Hitomi. Not so much in the manga, with Deunan explicitly saying she's "not into that" when Hitomi drunkenly {{Glomp}}s her in the shower.

* {{Narm}}: ''Ex Machina'' has lots of mildy narm scenes and dialog lines. Arguably it applies to the whole plot, as all the problems are really the result of TooDumbToLive by both the main characters and the government.

* HandCannon: Deunan's "Gong" in the manga.

The one-shot OVA was produced in 1988 and has little in common with the original manga except the setting and the characters. The plot concerns a colleague of Deunan and Briareos, who feels that instead of Utopia, Olympus is a cage designed to prevent humans from living a fulfilling life. To destroy this cage, he conspires with a professional terrorist and it's up to Deunan and Briareos to stop them.

** Actually, he has ''eight'' eyes: Four in his face arranged around the big central sensor, two at the bases of his "rabbit ear" sensors, and two at the tips, which allow him to safely look around corners. Oh, and the big central sensor that the other 4 are arranged around? That's actually his ''nose''.

** Technically, that's his *nose*.

* ReallyBigGun: Deunan's "Gong" in the manga.

* WhatMeasureIsANonHuman: A large part of the hatred humans in the army have for the bioroids. The bioroid elders then turn it around and use this excuse to slowly eliminate humans.

* TurnInYourBadge: [[spoiler:General Uranus in the movie does so without being told to after Briareos warns him that he and the Regular Army were really the {{Xanatos Sucker}}s to the Elders.]]

* XanatosSucker: [[spoiler:The Regular Army.]]

* RedemptionEqualsDeath: Possibly; it's been theorized that [[spoiler:the Elders, realizing that Deunan's determination to preserve the future of humanity, had entered the last letter of the Mobile Fortress password with the last of their strength, allowing Deunan to save humanity with the push of a button.]]

* {{Meganekko}}: Chiffon, the DarkSkinnedBlond who befriended Deunan, was part of the human insurgency and [[BoomHeadshot killed brutally]] by Deunan unknowingly in the manga's first volume.

* CelShading: The 2004 movie is entirely in CG with cel shading.

* EndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt: Subverted hard; as with Ghost in the Shell (which shared a similar Timeline if not outright happening in the same universe), despite ''two'' world wars, one of which was nuclear, civilization just kept right on chugging along, without even a die back. That said, the world is still a very chaotic place, and you probably wouldn't want to live there

* FalseReassurance: In the first movie the BigBad (well, one of them) says "no human life would be taken", but that does not mean they won't unleash a virus upon the world that causes sterility.
* FantasticRacism: Humans vs. bioroids, and, to a lesser degree, humans vs. cyborgs. Practically non-existant in the original manga.

** Likewise General Uranus; he was trying a coup ''and'' a genocide, but apparently calling off your attempt at the last minute and saying "sorry" is all that it takes to be forgiven. [[spoiler:On the other hand, it was implied that the Elders were manipulating him into taking action, which might have factored into his rather lenient sentence.]]

* RaceLift: Though it's nearly impossible to tell in the manga due to the lack of a... well, a FACE, Briareos is apparently African-American originally, as seen in some artwork Shirow has done (including a very odd-looking beach-scene). In ''Ex Machina'', Briareos is retconned to be a rather Japanese-looking {{Bishonen}}.

* SpiderTank: Spider Gun Platforms, and smaller Spider Drones.

* HumongousMecha: Partially subverted in volume 4 of the manga. A thirteen foot tall death machine is taken apart by just two veteran landmate pilots.