Anime Review: Animatrix, The

Review the Animatrix

The world of the matrix is a large one and there are many more stories than what you see in the movie trilogy (which unless you live in a cave, I have assumed that you have seen). Contained in the animatrix are nine separate short stories. With one exception each story stands alone but has the matrix and an overall theme.

For a collection of stories that run about ten minutes a piece these are suprisingly good and interesting stories. It has a bit of everything including a couple of matrix style fight scenes, a couple of stories about people that try to leave the matrix and even a historical piece on how the whole situation came to be (that was written by the Wachowski brothers so you can consider it to be cannon). The strength of the animatrix is it's variety. It never dwells too long on anything to become boring even in the more sedate pieces and yet each story is given enough time for it to feel complete.

The animation for the Animatrix is as rich and diverse as the stories. There is everything from computer animation as realistic as Final fantasy the spirits within, to a very expressive pencil design, there is much to see. It is a grab bag of visual wonders.

The Animatrix is a good watch for a more artistic diversion to some the more mundane anime shows. Overall it was much better than I expected it to be and is a good change of pace to normal anime viewing. I give the Animatrix a rating of very good/ excellent.