Metropolis (2001)
8/10
Welcome to Metropolis!
22 October 2007
Warning: Spoilers
''Metropolis'' story is set in the future, in a society where humans and robots live together, but has problems with each other. Shunsaku Ban is an investigator who came to Japan to find a criminal named Dr. Laughton. He came with his nephew named Kenichi. They don't know the Metrpolis well, so they hired a Detective robot to guide them. In Metropolis world, artificial intelligence has advanced a great deal and robots are seen everywhere performing many different tasks. But they do not have any of the rights that are granted to human beings,in order not to infringe upon human rights, they are not allowed to have human names nor to travel in the zones without permission.

Ban and Kenichi discovers that Dr. Laughton was working for Duke Red, one of the main politics of Metropolis city, in a hidden place, creating a super Robot that resembles Duke Red's daughter once lost called Tima.

The place suddenly stays on flames and Tima wakes up during the fire and is saved by Kenichi. Dr. Laughton dies shortly after being rescued by Shunsaku but manages to utter a few words regarding a precious notebook of his, which the detective saves from the flames.

The movie is full of conspiracies, and one of the main characters in this plan is Rock, Duke Red's adopted son, who discovers his father's plans and decides to destroy the Robot and to kill Dr. Laughton. Rock is strongly against giving powers to Robots (to be honest he hates Robots in general) and he stays the entire anime trying to find Tima, the robot, and Kenichi. Rock is responsible for destroying the place where Dr Laughton worked and why it stayed on flames.

Kenichi and Tima become good friends during the movie in a more romantic way.

''Metoroporisu'' is a complex anime that actually shows more then people imagine. Definitely is not a movie for kids(( Even looking a little childish), since they probably will not understand the real message of the movie or the scene where Tima is shot in her heart, a metaphor for losing her humanity. o For instance, we see a theme of class struggle in a society full of riches and full of poor people and also the relationship of robots with humans.

I am very glad that Rintaro and Katsuhiro Otomo united their forces to bring Metropolis to a film, contradicting Osamu's wish. Many of the scenes of this animation were very well done(like the one the ziggurat is connected to Tima) with great special effects, and the mix of a retro animation with futuristic city had a very nice combination in the product of the movie.

I can say for myself that it was a long time since I watched an anime that made me feel touched, and this anime happened to be one of them. The end is very sad, and I don't think that Tima was rebuilt, as many people were speculating, since she was the most complex robot in the world and not easily rebuilt,specially without her creator.
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