I'm not a big fan of sequels, because good sequels are notoriously hard to pull off. Artistic integrity (and dignity) are cast aside in the pursuit of maintaining a franchise with some perceived vestige of commercial viability. Characters who deserve to be left alone are reanimated to act out some half-baked plot. Such is the case with Armitage: Dual Matrix. While it's nice to see that Naomi Armitage and Ross Sylibus are living happy lives with their newborn child, bringing Armitage out of retirement to beat up some more baddies seems... wrong.
I'll start with the good news. The animation in Dual Matrix (2002), a film made seven years after its preceding OVA Armitage III (1995), looks amazing. The animation is clearly influenced by advances in computer technology, especially in choosing to design CG vehicles. Speaking from ten years into the future, of course it's silly of me to say 2002's animation can compare to 2012's insanely vivid colors and shiny characters, but it still ages very well. The quirks originally in Armitage III (which included clothing designs vanishing when characters moved; angular and awkward facial expressions, and even Armitage's peculiar costume choice) have been ironed out into a beautiful production. Dual Matrix is glossy and its environment, while a far cry from the Blade Runner grittiness of the original, has been illustrated in painstaking detail. The biggest visual eyesore involves a CG helicopter crashing into a row of windows, a horrendous but brief display of CG gone awry.
Unfortunately, that's where the good news ends. The cyberpunk themes present in the first film are all but gone: a story about cyborgs does not automatically qualify as a 'cyberpunk' story. The machinations of a shady robot development corporation, run by a Mr. Demetrio Mardini, are simply an awful rehash of the Armitage III struggle. Demitrio is trying to recreate the Thirds experiment and design robots that can procreate. He wants to make a slave workforce for his company, instead of paying robots real wages and allowing them to form unions through the inevitable passing of a Robot Rights bill.
The story is unnecessarily complex and doesn't offer much to be interested about, other than the fact that Naomi Armitage has developed into a godawful mother. The details of a staged robot rebellion orchestrated by Demetrio, referred to as the First Error, are relayed to Armitage through the dying eyes of a Third Series android present during the catastrophe. Armitage decides to abandon her family without any warning and leaves for Earth to further investigate the slaughter. There's also a Martian terraforming project that coincidentally requires Ross to go to Earth and ensure the Robot Rights bill is passed. Naturally Ross brings his daughter Yoko with him. Demetrio kidnaps Yoko as ransom, in order to both delay the passing of the Robot Rights bill and to get the secret information on Third procreation he wants. Naomi and Ross eventually find each other and then go rescue their daughter.
I'd rather not belabor the point: this was a dull sequel that did not need to be made. The funky music from Armitage III has been replaced by a recurring female vocal track accompanied by a sinister synthetic double bass; the song lacks lyrics and does nothing but add an ominous atmosphere to the film. There's a little D&B that plays during one car chase, but that's as 1990's as the film gets. Forty-five minutes into the film, the narrative comes to a standstill and the rest of the movie is one long emergency rescue/escape attempt. After Ross and Naomi get their daughter, they are chased by two mute Armitage clones designed by Demetrio. The fight scenes are impossibly dim, so appreciating the combat isn't possible. Just... I don't know, man. I'm disappointed.
Poor Armitage. There's a reason anime focuses on teenagers: teenagers are fun and unpredictable, untethered by adult responsibilities. When adults try being teenagers, society shuns them because they should know better. Parents just don't make for good action stars. Someone at AIC Studios forgot to give you that memo and for that, I'm truly sorry.
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