[Anime] Altered Carbon: Resleeved

Haha lol it was bad. Let's talk about it and dissect.

    Altered Carbon: Resleeved should be put in time prior to the first season of the TV show, timewise. But if you accept it as part of the universe it doesn't really work as things don't go hand in hand well due to inconsistency with the TV show.

    Storyline: The movie opens with a chase of a young girl (but as we know a person whose consciousness been digitilized can be resleeved into a younger body, but let's go with the young girl) by several big guys in costumes. From details and later revelation they indeed are part fo a yakuza sydicate. During the chase the girl finally reaches her destination, a night club, surprisingly in this club there is a sleeves terminal and Takeshi Kovacs wakes up (conveniently) in this club. This sounds weird, but let it slide. As it happens the girl isn't chased only by a bunch of yakuza, but unknown men in red clothes who kill without a second thought. The place for Takeshi was chosen with precision, his target to find and protect is exactly this little girl.

    We switch to the VR where Takeshi talks with his customer, somone named Tanaseda Hideki, who wants to investigate the strange death of his brother, saying that with his character it was impossible for him to sacrifice himself for the clan. Holly had a deal with him, as she wanted to leave the syndicate and seeked help from Hideki, but basically he did the opposite.

    Note: It is really strange the Japanese dubbing and Takeshi calling Hideki "senpai", because what kind of senpai is he? Doesn't really follow the Takeshi script.

    The timeline is revealed by Hideki, it's been a year since Envoy is no more and Reileen with Quell were dead (but of course before Takeshi was stored). Price for investigation: Hideki will help to deal with Harlan's World matter. And to get into Mizumoto syndicate Takeshi will use alias Ken and go inside with the use of this young girl - Holly. Holly is a tattoois for the syndicate (more about why her later).

    Exiting VR Holly manages to escape, but is stopped by a woman who claims to be one of UN's CTAC called "Gena" and their aim is Mizumoto syndicate.

    The trio along with a small unit of CTAC members is ambushed by people in red, who Takeshi calls 'ninja', but their fighting and aggressiveness is indeed similar.

    Takeshi with Gena manage to defeat them and agree with the following, returning back to Mizumoto syndicate with Takeshi and Gena as bodyguards. Anyway Holly confesses that Shinji, who is in line of successing the syndicate is planning a coup and it is connected with the ceremony of succession.

Note: I have no idea why someone bought this story, because it sounds weird how a girl runs around the city, but then comes back as if nothing big happened. Not to mention no one investigated the people in red, as if it was not a big deal that your tattooist your need for your ritual is targeted.

    Back in the syndicate, which resides in a huge effing hotel/headquarters "Wild Geese". A.I. running the hotel is called Ogai. 

    And here come the stereotypes, since when Takeshi is greeted with the incoming yakuza, one of them acts just the typical yakuza with all the attitude and "you showed disrespect so pay for it" that kind of thing. Which is pretty annoying to me. So here we have Shinji placing people in one of the best rooms.

But here comes the story of the ceremony everyone is talking about and which made the successing person want to coup the whole thing. Sounds weird don't you think? No worries, The ceremony is even weirder.

    Every head of the syndicate has a tattoo done on his body, this tattoo is same as a special program that will be activated during succession and will completely kill the stack of the previous head, that means "real death". The only one who holds the technology is the tattooist (the dragon head tattoo on Holly's hand).

    Note: No one finds it weird how they show a seemingly young girl tattoing adult men? Just me? Just look they have like entire bodies almost covered, front too.

    When this ceremony was described I already had my opinion plumetted. But anyway, the background of it is that heads of the syndicate and people of the syndicate treat honor above all, they laid death as foundation and the ceremony was created not to make one person hold onto power forever. It is unknown who created this ceremony. Like.. yeah. Of course it didn't help. You created an entire ceremony just for that, wow you like rituals. Just blasting the stack with the gun is too crude. Anyway when Takeshi talks with Hideki, Hideki is doubtful of this fact, since he knew his father and that scum was too wicked to die for a code. It is obvious that Hideki left early (and created his own clan), since he has no idea what role the girl plays in all this. I'm amazed no one investigated it, it's not like it is a big secret, after all the succession is held among the whole syndicate virtually present and you could have just asked, as it happened later and revealed that Holly wasn't holding her first ceremony.

    Anyway we switch to VR reliving the moment, it has the death of Holly's parents whose stacks she's looking for with Mizumoto's help. It is obvious that her dad might have been previous tattooist. It's not a theory, it was pretty obvious he was a threat to the mystery of the ceremony. And knowing Holly worked only to get parents' stacks, it is obvious why she herself stayed silent (yet, doesn't really fit well her stormy wish to get away and being resolute at the beginning, claiming she leaves).

    Switching to Shinji he reprimands people in red. Wow, such a surprise that he is the one behind ppl in red. As if it wasn't obvious from before, since he is the one who wins most with Holly's death. But does he?

    Note: I find his plan stupid. Holly is the only holder of the technology of that tattoo, means if she is dead then technology will be lost. Okay, what if you manage to kill Gonzo, but I doubt ppl of syndicate will calmly let you usurp power and spit on the code they honor so much.

    It's funny how "Gena" walks around with the pass she got after killing a guy, but honestly not a single person or anyone is really concerned that a guy was killed. She gets info about Holly's parents. And here I must say. I feel weird how she acts like Mother Theresa towards Holly. I can understand her hate for yakuza for using children, Reileen had a past of her own, but her love and feelings were solely for Takeshi only, she is supposed to be dead for him right now, but they accidentally meet (she realizes it's him thanks to a nursery rhyme he sings, which sounds more like summoning a demon). Shouldn't her feelings be strong? Why would she care about anyone else? Anyway.

    Again an assassination attempt by red guys. It's funny how Shinji uses red guys to kill his own men. This scene looked so sucked out of nowhere, the whole big group walks down the corridor, just because Holly will go see Genzo. One thing is for sure, which I haven't mentioned yet. The action is good. The only good thing about this animation are action scenes, they're jampacked, they're bloody, they're beautiful.

    I laughed like mad when seeing that Takeshi was like - you either tell me about ceremony otherwise bye. So this is the moment when Holly talks about the secret behind tattoo. Conclusion they got from it: Shinji kills Holly and gets eternal power over syndicate... is this a fairy tale or what? CTAC with their unknown purpose tell Gena to return, kill Holly and that's it, they have enough on Mizumoto or Shinji and they don't care about the outcome.

    So, this is the moment when Gena aka Reileen finds out that in front of her is her brother due to nursery rhyme he sings. And she decides not to kill Holly, but tell her the truth. 

    In VR while Takeshi talks with Hideki he mentions one detail about Genzo that triggers Hideki into frenzy and it becomes evident that the first Head (Hideki's father) didn't die. Takeshi finds prove to that since he finds the equipment for the transfer.

    Shinji plans another ambush, but is outsmarted by Genzo with Holly helping him.

    Here comes the ceremony, with the trio and Ogai on stage and countless people of syndicate vritually present as their public and witnesses. With Genzo dying, and Shinji being a successor. The ceremony is interrupted by Hideki in the audience who reveals that before them is no other but the first Head of the syndicate. Shinji's consciousness been long dead and he only transferred himself to a new sleeve. It is pretty obvious for the viewer due to the eyes of our villain. Shinji asks Ogai to disconnect everyone and proceed with the ceremony. he makes Holly complete the tattoo, but she wants to use this moment to kill Shinji but fails. Holly says that she is tired of killing.

    Note: Now I wonder, there were only 3 heads in total, meaning she could have killed only two people in total, it feels obvious that Holly wasn't there for the first murder (it's assumption that her father was the one who witnessed and was killed for it). So her victims are obviously the previous head (Hideki's brother) and now Shinji.

    Shinji makes her proceed and finish the ceremony, though I don't see the point number one. This follows the most "I conveniently carry around" scene. Holly confesses that Gena told her about her parents' death, which makes understandable why she helped Genzo to obtain Shinji's body and wanted to kill him next. Two stacks of Holly's parents were in the seem on katana he was holding. I howled WHY into universe at this point. Shinji smashes them both, which is a real death to stacks. Shinji is confronted by subordinates, whom he kills while wearing an armor. AGAIN. CONVENIENCE. Why armor is right behind the scenes. I wish I new.

    Although he kills almost everyone, but he is actually stopped by Ogai, the one who received data on obvous soul transfer of the first Head, basically cheating and later of course Takeshi saves the day and manages to wound Shinji and later leave him with broken limbs. This part was also very unlike Takeshi, since he was like a cock who asked for a fist fight as "real men". The first Head with broken limbs asks for help and cries, Holly uses her power to activate the tattoo and slowly kill, but Hideki is the one who delivers the final bullet and delivers real death.

    Gena aka Reileen sends fake report of Holly's death. Takeshi is taken by Hideki to work on other cases to which he agrees. And this is a very anime finale with Hideki basically cheating Takeshi it was not the only job he had for him. Basically going back on his word.

    NOW. What was the point of this fuckery? Just to expand the universe? nah girl, it expands nothing. It basically has no story value, it's like going through a side quest. The story feels written on someone's knee, nto well thought through, the world is plain, motivation is bad, characters don't act like themselves etc. Now what I consider good points and bad points of it.

    GOOD POINTS

• The action is really good. It's fluid, there is a lot of it, it's bloody, it has aesthetic.
• Although I'm no fan of CGI animation when it comes to anime, but this wild mix that looks like real movie, cgi and animation looked stylish. The only bad part were male bodies, so exaggerated.

    BAD POINTS

• Story sucks. It's flat. Backstory is underdeveloped that it sounds silly. It has many loopholes.
• They take the TV show as the base (since TV show and the book are different in some key personalities), but don't really follow it and characters are quite OOC. Not to mention that everyone around acted not like ppl.
• If you think that Holly, who obviously knew about the killings, would have shared this info outside...Yeah, then this anime wouldn't have happened, I understand.

Anyway, I don't consider this goo, action was good, but the rest is a poor excuse for a cash grab or something. Take example from Blade Runner Black Out 2022. This is an example like an insert animation should look like. But here it is a disaster and a poor addition to the existing universe. People who could have easily explored the info didn't do it, but knew about the girl. Everyon acted like blind people when attacks were inside the hotel. Like there is no suveillance at all as it seems. It was strange like Gonzo let Shinji to play for some time, though who knew if Shinji one day would just kill him. Takeshi was fooled at the end, but didn't do anything Tkeshi would do but agreed to play. Reileen didn't act herself. And so on and so forth. So many question.

RATE: 5/10. All stars are for action, story sucked too much to bother.