I don’t like anime, and I didn’t watch the video, but as a non-anime person, I really enjoyed that movie. Definitely watch it
I think the original Metropolis from the 20s talks about similar themes of industrial capital and the proletariat
Huh, I thought these two films might be related, but hadn’t looked it up yet. I haven’t seen the original Metropolis, either.
I watched it and it’s basically the anime version of the 1920s movie, mixed with things from the 1940s manga and some things that Katsuhiro Otomo himself created.
As it is part of Osamu Tezuka’s universe, it reuses several characters, such as Atlas (who is human and leader of a revolutionary group instead of a teenage robot who hates humans), Rock (who is a normal human who leads an authoritarian anti-robot party and is practically the secondary villain of the film) and Kenichi and his uncle Higeoyaji remain the same as in Astroboy and other Tezuka manga.
I thought the movie was good, with some nice visual effects. In the end, it’s a very innocent romance story, with a bit of drama and political issues.
spoiler
Towards the end of the movie, the workers are fed up with the Red Duke, who is the main villain, Rock’s adoptive father and the real father of Tima, the robot girl, who is based on his daughter. The workers organize a revolution, while the puppet president Boone decides to use this as an excuse to seize power and arrest the Red Duke. In the end, the military betray the president and side with Red Duke and his Marduk party. Executing the president, crushing the revolutionaries and capturing Tima. Ironically, Tima is just a weapon, to be used by her own father to threaten other nations. She realizes that this is it and goes mad at the end of the film, all the robots in the film also go mad and attack humans. The entire Ziggurat is destroyed.