After World War 3 the very few remaining humans live together with cyborgs and bioriods in a city called Olympus. The city is designed to be a utopian society for all but some of the few remaining humans believe the city to be a cage. A small band of humans use terrorism to free them from the control of the city. Only two members of the Olympus City Police can stop the terrorist plot to destroy the utopian society.
Appleseed is based on the Manga of the same name published in 1985. The anime was released 1988 and is not to be confused with the Appleseed released in 2004 that shares the same characters and is also based on the same Manga.
The story is set in a post apocalyptic future just after the events of World War 3, the last survivors band together in an experimental city name Olympus. The city is run and controlled by bioriods who are genetically engineered to serve and protect Olympus. Olympus was meant to be a utopian society but is considered a cage by several humans that survived the last war. They are part of a terrorist organisation trying to destroy Olympus and what they considered control over humans by bioriods that were meant to serve mankind.
The anime begins with a voiceover of woman who is thinking out her thoughts of been trapped. When her partner comes into the room she jumps from the building to her death. The scene is actually part of a dream that took place before, the woman who jumped was the lover of Calon Mautholos an Olympus city police officer.
The main setting starts during a hostage situation were a school is held by several terrorists and one in particular A. J. Sebastian. At this time the Olympus SWAT team is arriving by helicopter and we are introduced to the main protagonists Deunan Knute and Briareos Hecatonchires.
Deunan is a female human survivor from the war and her close friend Briareos is a cyborg who also fought during the war. Unlike Deunan, Briareos body is almost completely artificial but still has human emotions. The friendship between the two is often shown as something more and in the Manga they were lovers before the outbreak of war.
The terrorist begin to discuss the plan to repel any assault from the police. Sebastian who has an ability to foresee the inevitable annihilation of the terrorist group leaves the party and purposely gets arrested to avoid be killed by the SWAT team who are about to attack.
Deunan ,Briareos and the SWAT team breach the room held by the terrorist and kill the entire group and save the hostages. During that time Sebastian has escaped and killed his guard. They later discover Sebastian is an established well known human terrorist who has on several occasions tried to attack the administration of Olympus. His injuries were the result of trying to attack Gaia the super computer that controls all functions of the city.
Sebastian now meets another of his fellow supporters in his apartment, Calon who has been aiding the terrorists secretly since the suicide of his wife helps Sebastian with weapons and armoured mecha suits.
Sebastian attacks one of the institutions that is used to develop the bioriods. With the aid of Calon working as an informant and helping the terrorists, Sebastian gets information regarding one bioriod Hitomi who has the ability to shutdown Gaia built into her genetic code. This is terrorist intentions for Hitomi is not realised until later by the administration. Hitomi’s character is actually a good natured bioriod who goes on frequent trips outside the city to rescue humans who are living in the wasteland to bring them and rehabilitate them into Olympian society. Deunan, Briareos and Calon were all rescued by Hitomi and brought to Olympus.
One person in particular who has an interest in capturing Sebastian is Athena a bioriod who is Prime Minister of Olympus. She has a dislike of most humans and considers them dangerous and a contamination of Olympian society. She hires Deunan and Briareos hoping they would be able to capture and kill Sebastian, she is also suspicious of them as she is aware of a leak in the police force but is oblivious of whom that person is.
Unfortunately Deunan and Briareos are unable to find Sebastian but information from one of Briareos old tip offs gives them information on the terrorists and notifies them of a police officer involved. Meanwhile the terrorist plan to shutdown Gaia and take control of the multiped canon that is supposed to be used a defence against the terrorist. To do this Calon must kidnap Hitomi and use her to shutdown Gaia.
Both Deunan and Briareos discover that Hitomi is going to be kidnapped and play along with the plan. Calon gases the apartment to knock all three unconscious. He takes Hitomi wearing his bio-mechanical suit but is stopped by Deunan and Briareos who are still unaware it is Calon.
The two of them are unable to stop the kidnapping as they are arrested and taken to Athena who tells them about the leak in the police force and accuses them of been involved. They explain the informant who provided the information on the leak can clear their names and help stop the terrorist movement. Unfortunately they discover their informant dead and the terrorist planning their final attack.
To counter the terrorist Athena destroys several Gaia access stations apart from one hoping the terrorists would risk using it and face the police ambush. Calon convinces Hitomi to help their cause and prior to that a flashback shows the reason to why Calon is fighting against society. After the suicide of his wife the administration took him against his will and subjected his mind to tests to see if he was risk. This led him to believe the city was treating humans unfairly and was the cause of his wife’s death.
En route with Hitomi to the last remaining access station Calon is discovered to be the leak in the force by Briareos. While carrying Hitomi with his new mobile mechanical suit he is chased Briareos and Deunan towards the ambush that awaits him. Against the odds Calon completes his mission but is fatally wounded and killed.
Hitomi shuts down Gaia and the Multiped canon comes online with Sebastian in control who wreaks havoc on the city. Deunan, Briareos and Athena race to Gaia to re-enable control so they can stop Sebastian. On their way they have to overcome the computers self defence systems which leaves Briareos injured but with his aid Briareos and Athena circumvent the system and re-enable Gaia which stops Sebastian and enables Special Forces to kill him ending the threat to the city.
