History Manga / Appleseed

''Appleseed'' is a four volume CyberPunk/Mecha manga written between 1985 and 1989 by Creator/ShirowMasamune, of ''Franchise/GhostInTheShell'' fame. It led to 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 city of Olympus, an enclave of peaceful life on the planet, after its devastation by [[WorldWarWhatever World War V]] [[note]]The English version of the first volume's summary claims that the war that devestated the world was World War III, something that isn't explicitly stated in the manga itself, and which is clarified in [[AllThereInTheManual Appleseed ID]] to be called World War V.[[/note]], 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.

** Also subverted in that Shirow Masamune has said in the official databook that he never thought of making Deunan Japanese or partially Japanese

* ConcealmentEqualsCover: Very, very averted. As is common for Shirow Masamune works, big guns will chew up the scenery. Of particular note is the huge Gatling guns used by the tanks in the intro of the first movie: they're shown punching straight through thick concrete and brick walls like they were made of stale crackers.

* ProductionThrowback: Doctors Matthews and Slade are characters who previously appeared in Shirow's previous manga ''Black Magic'', but who also show up here. There's also a cameo of Sybil from that manga's very loose adaption Manga/BlackMagicM66

*** In the manga, Deunan explains that she was gunned down by some random racists in San Francisco, so her DeathByOriginStory was changed as well. Deunan also said in the manga that she was a "[[ButNotTooBlack Cafe Au Lait]]''.

%%* BattleCouple: Deunan and Briareos.

* FantasticRacism: Humans vs. bioroids, and, to a lesser degree, humans vs. cyborgs, but only in the adaptations: practically non-existent in the original manga.

* TheHighQueen: Athena.

* ImprobableAimingSkills: Briareos. Of course, he's a {{Cyborg}}.

* MeaningfulName: Several, but Briareos has the most obvious - he's named after one of the three Hecatonchires, the hundred-armed giants who overthrew the Titans. He's also a hulking LightningBruiser of a cyborg with sufficiently sophisticated targeting software to wield dozens of weapons at once. In case you missed it the first time, the model name of his chassis spells it out for you.

* RobotAntennae: Briarios' head-mounted antenna appear to be rigidly mounted in both the contemporary film installments, yet in the manga they were flexible, and moved to help convey his emotion, drooping when depressed or confused, and upright when surprised.

* BadassBiker: Deunan.
* BattleButler: Nike.
* BattleCouple: Deunan and Briareos.
* BareYourMidriff: Deunan in Appleseed Alpha.

* ArmorIsUseless: In this universe, cyborgs are surprisingly fragile, with pistol rounds being able to take down even largely metallic ones pretty easily ([[spoiler:Talos is almost completely metal, yet Deunan's M1911 does severe damage to him with just a few shots]]). You'd think becoming a cyborg would make you tougher.

* HotScientist: Deia Cides in ''XIII.''

* BoomHeadshot: Chiffon, the DarkSkinnedBlond who befriended Deunan, was part of the human insurgency and killed via headshot by Deunan in the manga's first volume.

''Appleseed'' is a four volume CyberPunk/Mecha manga written between 1985 and 1989 by Creator/ShirowMasamune, of ''Franchise/GhostInTheShell'' fame. It led to 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 city of Olympus, 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.

* CanonWelding: The original manga ostensibly takes place in the same setting as the original ''Manga/GhostInTheShell'' manga but with a TimeSkip of several decades in between. They share relatively little beyond some background elements like [[DividedStatesOfAmerica the United States having broken up into a few smaller countries]].

** ''Ex Machina'' has a scene very similar to the shooting range scene in ''Film/RoboCop1987'', but takes it UpToEleven by showing Briareos's multitasking capability.

* KnifeNut: Deunan grabs her knife when going for the ubercyborg during the ChurchShootout in ''Ex Machina''... and kicks his ass badly. She takes out three guys with a very large knife (she insists it's a sword) in the manga, too. In the last episode of ''XIII'' she also uses a large folding knife in her Landmate to take out an enemy Landmate. Finally, on foot she also uses a large combat knife to stab a prototype combat robot wrestling with Briareos. Let's just say Deunan really likes her knives.

* MegaCorp: Poseidon in ''Ex Machina.''. They seem to be OneNationUnderCopyright, to boot, in ''XIII.'' They even have national boundaries and territorial waters.

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

* ButNotTooForeign: Averted, Deunan once spells out her ancestry for Hitomi and there is a lot of variety (she's mixed-race African on her mother's side), but no Japanese. Shirow has mentioned that she won the genetic lottery as far as physical skills go, which is why her employers and colleagues put up with her eccentricities.

* DemotedtoExtra: Hitmoi and Yoshi, mostly the former though, play large roles in the plots of Volumes 1 and 2 in the manga. But in Volumes 3 and 4, they only appear for a few scenes and have increasingly little with the plot, with Hitomi's appearance in Volume 4 being only a little better to a cameo.

** As bigoted as he is, General Uranus merely wants to restore a human majority on the Olympus legislature and believes destruction of the D-Tank, which is assumed by many to contain an anti-Bioroid agent, to be a last resort in the event that the Bioroids are about to replace humankind completely. He will tolerate coexistence with Bioroids but genuinely believes he is acting in the best interest of his species.

* WellIntentionedExtremist: Arguably so with the Elders in the first film, who wish to preserve the Earth and rid it of the evils inflicted upon it by mankind; unfortunately, their ultimate means to do this is the ''sterilization of the human race''.

** Despite his racism, General Edward Uranus III conducts himself in a manner becoming an officer and a gentleman, and no matter who he interacts with, he appears genuinely courteous, if a quite bit gruff and professional.

* AffablyEvil: Two Horns in ''Alpha'' is BigFun and loves to joke around and have a good laugh. He also leads the most dangerous criminal gang in New York.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: General Uranus is appalled and horrified when Hades moves in to murder Briareos and Deunan; upon realizing he had been manipulated into instigating the coup, he chooses to surrender peacefully, refusing to be somebody's tool in spite of his hatred of Bioroids. He also genuinely considers the late Carl Knute an old friend of his.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: General Uranus is appalled and horrified when Hades moves in to murder Briareos and Deunan; upon realizing he had been manipulated into instigating the coup, he chooses to surrender peacefully, refusing to be somebody's tool in spite of his hatred of Bioroids.