Anime: Armitage The Third: Polymatrix

 Content Warning: Nudity, violence, violence towards women, and a badge toting terror in hot pants.

Armitage the Third: Polymatrix is a near future science fiction “movie” with cyberpunk elements. The film starts with the arrival of Ross Sylibus from Earth to Mars and things start moving fast from there. We're quickly introduced to Naomi Armitage (the aforementioned terror in hot pants) who is our main character, and Rene D'anclaude, the villain of the piece. It's quickly discovered that D'anclaude has murdered a Country-Western music sensation, called the last country singer in the galaxy, and that she isn't really a “she” as such. The musician is an android or robot that is composed of organic parts. And, shockingly, able to conceive a child.

From there, the story is a bit of a detective story, finding out who these androids, or Thirds, are, why D'anclaude is killing them, and why they were created. The androids are called Thirds as there's already a very common type of android called Seconds. One thing I found interesting was that almost all of the Seconds depicted are attractive females, some with inhuman traits like odd colored hair, pointed ears, and glowing skin. While the Seconds seem to be rather ubiquitous, there's a lot of hate for them shown mostly in the background. The reason that's stated is... Well, you've heard it before: They took our jobs! I find that rather interesting as you'd think that having robots and androids to the shit work on a colony would be seen positively rather than negatively. It's also interesting that it's men saying this, not women, given what I saw above. 

Very quickly (too quickly in my opinion) we find out that Armitage herself is a Third, but also claims to be the daughter of one of the greatest scientific minds on Mars. This complicates things as Armitage is smitten with Ross, who lost his former partner, and possible lover, to a renegade robot attack on Earth. This causes a bit of “star-crossed lovers” trope to pop up but not for long. Thirds are still dying and it might be Armitage who's doing it, as D'anclaude is in custody. But, wait! More plot twists! D'anclaude is an assassin bot with multiple copies! And the last Third isn't a woman but a teenage boy. This mystery is never really solved. One thing that I noticed about the Third we see is that, except for Armitage and the boy, all of the Thirds are artists in some way; the first to die was a singer, the next one is a novelist, and the last one who dies is a painter. And a lesbian. I point this out, as if the point of the Thirds was to boost the low birth rate of the Martian colonists, why would she be “allowed” to be attracted to her same sex/gender? And, if the birth rate is so low, is the prevalence of so many sex bot Seconds to blame, even a little? This is important, as one of the last things they throw at you at the end of the film is that Earth is a “Feminist Government” or something like that. You'd think that Mars would want to clean up the gynoids first, before the ones that can live like humans. Androids so perfect at being human, you wouldn't have known unless you saw their insides, and they can do the one thing that has long been the exclusive providence of women: the ability to carry and birth child. It doesn't jive with what I understand of feminism, given that so long as they are treated equally (which they are, given that you don't fucking know that they're not “real” people), it shouldn't be such a major issue. Personally, I find the fact that the Seconds seem to have no rights, are used for sex, and that the Martians don't seem to have a problem with that to be much more problamatic.

Of course, there is a reason for all of these plot holes and very rushed feeling of the whole film. It was originally a four part series of OVAs that was chopped up in the Polymatrix movie. So, we're clearly missing a lot (and I mean A LOT) of character development and world building. The romance between Ross and Armitage is just kind of there, with no real build up and explanation. There's a few other cops in the unit they work in that clearly have personality traits but we only get glimpses. I know there's a lot more going on with Mars and its relationship with Earth. And I will bet good money that there's more Thirds that die. It's just a mess of editing, cutting what looks like half of a story out. And since this was only releases with an English dub, there's more problems. They got Kiefer Sutherland to voice Ross but he barely expresses any emotion with his voice. On the other hand, Elizabeth Berkley is fantastic as Armitage and you believe her performance. The difference between the two is night and day. I wish I could track down the original OVAs because I bet the story in there is much better developed.

As much as I've just ranted, I will say that there are some really good things in this movie. The first is the soundtrack (which I'm currently listening to as I write this). It's a great mix of moody, rock, synth, and industrial that you can actually listen to when doing other things. There's one vocal track, well, really two but it's just an English version and Japanese version of the same song. In addition to the stand out music, there's some fantastic visuals going on. The design of the characters and Mars is outstanding, making you really believe the setting. Each character is unique, visually, so you don't have to worry about getting them confused when they only turn up for their tiny bit parts. Of course, Armitage herself is the best. Her look is iconic and is why I picked up a figurine of her, as I rarely buy merchandise like that. She's got a look that you can instantly recognize, which I think is great. Yes, she's wearing something that would better fit a hooker than a cop but she wears it well. You don't feel like it's forced, it's just who she is and... Yeah. She's a stand out in the halls of cyberpunk characters.

Rating: 3 out of 5

Suggestion: Watch it if you really like cyberpunk stuff