Armitage III: Poly Matrix
Tags: violence, sci-fi

Plot synopsis:
=== Armitage III: Poly-Matrix ===
In 2046, the overpopulation of Earth has led to the colonization of Mars—with the aid of the "first type" androids, men were able to begin terraforming the unfriendly environment of Mars and build the city Saint Lowell. Seventy years after the start of colonization, the city is completed and inhabited by great numbers of people and "Second type" robots, much improved versions of the "First types". Ross Syllibus, a middle-aged policeman from Chicago, flies to Saint Lowell using a space shuttle. Syllibus asked to be transferred to the Martian Police Department to escape from his past and haunting memories of his previous partner being killed by a robot. At the Saint Lowell's space port he is to meet his new partner—a young woman named Naomi Armitage.
On the same shuttle as Syllibus travels Kelly McCannon—"the last country singer in the Universe". As the shuttle nears the terminal, a mysterious man is seen entering the cargo section; soon after this, the intruder is noticed and the alarms go off.
Later, as Ross gets off the shuttle, he witnesses a disturbing scene at the airport. He bumps into the mysterious man with a big suitcase and two guards. Soon after that, Armitage orders the men to stop and get their hands up. Puzzled, Ross notices a few drops of blood spilling from the mysterious man's suitcase. The two robot guards are killed by Armitage and the mysterious man is wounded, but flees. However, he leaves his suitcase behind—inside of which is the dead body of Kelly McCannon. To everybody's surprise and horror, McCannon turns out to be a robot: a new, never-seen-before "Third type" android that is superficially identical to humans.
Later, the mysterious man hacks into the public television system and replays the security camera footage. The tape shows the man killing Kelly McCannon and reveals the fact of her being a robot to the entire city. The mysterious man, René D'anclaude, reveals that the Third types have been among the regular people for a long time and nobody can tell them apart from humans. He also reveals a list of Thirds—and it turns out that a lot of well-known people are actually robots. Riots begin in the city as people start to capture and burn all the Thirds they can find. Meanwhile, René D'anclaude proceeds with his extermination of the Thirds. The two main characters start their investigation and eventually find out, that the victims are women.
One of the dying victims sends out a message with the list of Thirds to save them from being slaughtered. Armitage receives it and pursues D'anclaude. Armitage is eventually revealed to be a third and goes into hiding as the police hunt for her. Ross seeks her out as she enlists the help of a male third named Julian Moore. D'anclaude then attacks them and is revealed to be a second.
While the police drop the case with D'anclaude's supposed capture, Armitage and Julian search a databank for information on her origins. Armitage eventually defeats D'anclaude, but is too late to stop Julian from being killed. She and Ross break into the hospital D'anclaude was recovering in, branding themselves as criminals after the rescue.
Armitage and Ross later go off in search of her "father", Dr. Asakura, only to learn he had lost his mind, as explained by a gentler, reprogrammed version of D'anclaude, living with delusions of creating "Fourths". They learn that the Thirds were originally "assassinroids" - deadly robots with organic components, capable of infiltrating secure facilities by masquerading as humans. This project was re-purposed to bolster the low Martian birth rate, itself a result of Earth's strongly feminist society encouraging the immigration of males and discouraging the immigration of females. However, Earth's discovery of the Thirds incensed its leadership, forcing Mars to reverse its plans; Earth demanded that the Thirds be annihilated, offering female immigrants as a reward - and threatening war if not obeyed. The assassinroid program was thus re-activated to hunt and destroy the Thirds, which had vanished into the Martian population after their creation.
These revelations shock and dismay Armitage, leading her to seek comfort in Ross, who affirms her value as a living being before consummating their relationship. The next day, after Asakura deactivates Armitage so he can install angelical wings and particle cannons on her chassis, the military kills Asakura and Armitage and Ross eventually finish off the military. Months later, Ross returns to Mars, using false IDs, however Armitage throws hers away after Ross Sylibus' arrival. Armitage tells Ross that she is pregnant with their child.
=== Armitage: Dual-Matrix ===
It had been several years since the events of the previous OVA. Naomi Armitage and Ross Sylibus, now living under assumed identities, are living in St. Lowell on Mars, along with their daughter Yoko. Ross now works for a company seeking to restore oceans to Mars by using ice asteroids. However, a new effort to restore the Third project prompts Naomi to travel to Earth to figure out what is happening. Meanwhile, Ross saves a facility from a group of terrorists and is declared a Martian hero.
When Armitage arrives on Earth, she confronts Colonel Strings, hero of the First Error, which was a suppression of a robot uprising, which in reality, was to cover up the existence of the Thirds. But then he is shot by agents of an Earth Robotronics Corporation. Its vice president, Demetrio Mardini, asks Armitage to give the data on how Thirds can conceive so humanity can create a race of beings who exist to serve. She refuses so he resorts to force and unleashes a robot that scrambles her eyes. She manages to use her telepresence abilities to hack into its system and overload it. She then escapes but is damaged and is found by a repairer third named Mouse, who prides himself on his skill and frequently brags that he's a "genius". However, Mouse is also an informant to Demetrio and presents the data he found on Armitage; but he only got the recent data and Demetrio wants the conception data. Mouse claims that he did not know about the conception data, and also that if it existed it would be with what he gave him; but Demetrio refuses to believe either of these and tries to brutally force it with two clones of Armitage, who severely injure Mouse. He does not get anything and throws Mouse in the trash. Mouse swears revenge.
Back on Mars, prime minister Fredrick O'Hara sends Ross to Earth to represent the planet in the support of robot rights, promising amnesty from the charges against them. However, Demetrio's agents captured Yoko while Ross was away from the hotel, and is threatened that he will not see Yoko again if he votes for the Rights Bill. With a little reluctance, Ross remains neutral on the bill. Demetrio's agents, however, reveal that they were planning on killing Ross from the start, contrary to their deal. After a car chase, Armitage is able to save him at the very last moment. Together, they vow to rescue their daughter.
They storm Demetrio's compound; Armitage deals with Demetrio while Ross saves Yoko. The same robot Armitage encountered earlier had been upgraded to withstand her telepresence attack. Meanwhile, Ross manages to locate Yoko in a freezer. Elsewhere, Demetrio demands the secret in exchange for forgetting the damages they committed against him and his company. Armitage lures him closer, presumably to tell him what he wants to know; but she ends up kicking him in the crotch and telling him that Third conception is not simply data, it is about true love. With that she escapes again, forcing Demetrio to unleash the clones on her. She manages to evade the two and meets up with Ross and Yoko. Yoko is overjoyed to see her mother but recoils when she sees Armitage's metal shoulder that was scraped off by the clones. Just then, they attack. While Armitage holds them off, Ross and Yoko make their way to an unused space elevator. It is here that Yoko shows that she has a photographic memory, leading them to the space elevator whose location she determined from a map she saw minutes beforehand (Ross comments that she is "quite the little genius"). Soon, Armitage flees to Mouse, who repairs the damage and gives her a program that will allow her to go beyond her limited fighting abilities. He tells her that the password is "Heaven's Door"; but that if she exceeds more than her internal battery can handle, she will "be knocking at the Pearly Gates for real". She also has him do her one more favor: broadcast the footage of the Third massacre attempts all over Earth and Mars (upon seeing it himself, Mouse comments, "I think it's inhuman, and I'm a robot!"). This compels Demetrio to command the clones to prevent the family from leaving. After both clones are beaten, Demetrio tries having the elevator's defenses fired on their shuttle only to be killed by the last remaining clone, who is at the time controlled by what was left of Poly-Matrix's Julian Moore. Without Demetrio's authorization, the turrets do nothing. A hologram of Julian Moore then appears, wishing the family goodbye. The movie ends with the family enjoying a day at the beach on Mars, on Naomi's birthday.
In a post-credits scene, Mouse salvages one of the Armitage clones for himself.

Review: Having seen both the 4-episode OAV version of Armitage III and the Armitage III Polymatrix DVD, I note some interesting differences between the versions.
Particularly interesting is the fact that the Polymatrix cinematic movie version was done _only_ in English, and subsequently subtitled for Japanese viewing--that's how the Japanese wanted it.
There is no corresponding subtitled version of Polymatrix; it's an English-only film.Polymatrix alters the storyline of the OAV series slightly, cutting a few scenes and adding a bit of new animation.
It also adds two new voice actors, replacing the OAV dub cast: Kiefer Sutherland and Elizabeth Berkley as the two leads.
For the most part, these cuts are acceptable; they improve the pacing of the movie at the cost of some additional story and characterization.
(For those who are concerned with seeing the whole story, the four OAV episodes should be viewed, preferably in the subtitled versions.)  The ending is also changed slightly, and seems to me to make more sense in this version.The storyline of Armitage III is set on a colonized Mars, and concerns itself with a new third generation of robots ("Thirds") that can actually think and create.
What is less clear, and somewhat confusing even when it is explained late in the movie, is _why_.
It took repeated viewings of the OAVs, then finally the movie itself, for me to figure out the full political motivations behind the murders--and why it was that the Thirds stood in the way of an important political treaty between Earth and Mars.Although Armitage III becomes somewhat confusing in the last twenty minutes, it nonetheless is an interesting and thought-provoking movie that should not be missed..
Martian murders + cyber-organic femme fatale = good film!.
Great artistry, good plot, and one heck of a cool battle sequence at the end.I loved the way that the plot gradually developed from a simple murder into a plot for ....well, you'll have to see the movie to know.
Armitage III is the best anime movie I have seen in a while..
This movie is one of the coolest I have seen and is much better then the average american show or movie, (which isn't hard nowadays) and has an awesome storyline and plot.
Look for the movie Fatal Fury also.
I am a relative newcomer to Anime having only seen about 9 or so feature length films and episodes from about 6 different TV shows.
Someone recommended Armitage I'm glad I saw it.
Although not as popular as Ghost in the Shell or Akira it is the best I've seen after those two.
Like most anime Armitage is set in the near future.
In this case probably about 2050, on Mars.Armitage suffers from a few minor plots holes and some visual problems but not too much worse then any movie.
Armitage herself sometimes has some inhuman facial expressions (like most anime, think Dragonball Z but not ass exagerated as Slayers) This movie has a great plot and although, yes, it is a similar plot to Blade Runner, by definition so does any cop and androids movie.
Besides Blade Runner wasn?t even the first with that plot?
No one says Under Siege ripped off Die Hard just ?cause they are both about the good guy being in the right place to beat on some terrorists.
(Sorry I just hate when people think that anything with a simlar plot HAD to have ripped it off) Anyway...The plot is a little more developed then some anime but again, not as good as Ghost in the Shell although that may come from being put together from a miniseries with some scenes removed.
Armitage has a great sound track that goes well with the animation and plot.
Visually it is average, not as nice as Ghost, or Akira but better than Dragonball Z or Titan AE..
Armitage has long been one of my favorite animes.
It's hard to describe much of the story without giving away at least small bits of the plot, I'll be rather brief.
The basics of the story is about a cop, Ross, who travels to Mars and meets a female officer named Naomi Armitage.
Many questions are raised and debated as the story progresses, it's very well written and thought out.Ross himself is pretty much a normal Earth cop.
Ross pretty much gets dragged into the whole mess and keeps things well grounded.
If you make it through this movie without a soft spot for Naomi, you need to watch it again.As the story progresses, clues appear and we dig deeper into the backgrounds of Ross and Naomi.
It will keep you guessing all the way through.All in all, It's a very interesting anime that has managed to stay one of my absolute favorites for many years.
Do yourself a favor, and watch the 4 tape OVA version.
I hate to make a comment on this movie, as I just watched the obviously butchered movie version.
I have not seen the original version, and I can see some signs of greatness in the chopped to pieces version I saw, but over all it was a huge mess.
no pacing, no plot cohesiveness, bad dubbing.
Do yourself a favor, and watch the original 4 tape version, it has to be better than this crap.
Short n Sweet.I've seen both, watch the OVA series back when my video store had them on tape, recently saw the re-release in the cut to crap movie version PolyMatrix.I don't mind anime being converted to subs and dubs and whatever, its just when they decide to either do a cheap job on it OR more importantly, decide they need to edit the show and dumb it down!As someone else mentioned, character holes make them shallow and don't let you get to know them in the short time.
Kiefer Sutherland does a crap job playing Ross Sylibus as he comes across as if hes just reading lines from a script instead of conveying emotion into his words, which just makes it worse to get to know the character.I was so disappointed with PolyMatrix, I returned the DVD, and went on a witch hunt till i found the OVA episodes on DVD.I'm so glad they didn't use kiefer in Dual Matrix..
Here's why: Armitage is awesome!!She's soo totally in-your-face Ross is kinda good looking for a cartoon character.
It keeps you thinking & questioning things all the way through.
It's got everything a great show needs: corruption, murder, romance, mystery, suspense,Great fight scenes,Cool outfits.....need I go on??
The four episodes where better then the full length feature..
Alright a full length feature of Armitage III, all the episodes on one tape and in wide screen.
Wide screen is a good thing, and the voice actors for Ross and Armitage were alright, I've seen the actors do better though.
Although this movie was watchable and still somewhat entertaining the original 4 episodes were much much better.
The problem with the full-length feature was that it was cut down around 30 to 40 minutes shorter then what it would have been if all the episodes where put together.
I don't even understand why this was done its not like the movie would have been unduly long, just around two hours.
This creates problems and big plot holes.
The characters get shallow due to cutting as well, In the movie version it doesn't get into the big reason why Ross hates robots, or why Armitage gets so mad when she's called a monster.
If you get any chance to rent or buy Armitage III get the 4 episodes and not the movie.My rating on the episodes 8..
Hella good movie.
This is a really cool movie.
The animation is spectacular and the story is enough to keep you interested.
It's a good length too, compared to most anime movies.
Too bad I couldn't find a subtitled version out there.
This anime starts rather good, but finishes kind of weak..
I watched this a couple of times on the Science Fiction channel, before they became Syfy and now only seem to show the worst movies ever.
This was during the day when they used to show lots of animes, granted I realize that anime movies just are not as popular as they were back in the late 90's early 2000's, but they are still better than giant snake monster vs deadly armadillo or some of their rip off movies like "The Day the Earth Stopped".
This one had a bit of mystery to it at first and that what was so good about it.
It sort of has a Ghost in the Shell feel to it, but sadly the end of the movie is a strange shoot up action scene that kind of does not fit into the rest of the plot as well.
Still, it was entertaining, one of those films that I would prefer to watch in its entirety without commercial interruption and in the original Japanese language rather than the English Dub, though I liked that Kiefer Sutherland did the voice of the dude (was not so wild about Berkely though).
I remember this movie in bits and pieces, I sort of remember like a cyborg or robot killer, some strange fight scene involving this giant thing and a scientist.
Perhaps I can find this one on DVD and buy it and when I watch it again I can edit this review and be more helpful on the plot.
However, I do know that I liked it enough to watch it twice and that the first hour or more of the film is grand while the last bit, while not bad just does not compete with the first part of the film..
Blade-Runnerish average anime..
I've often heard comments about how much anime "rips-off" other sources, usually blatantly.
...but then I saw Armitage III and understood.Granted, I saw (1) the compiled "movie" version, and (2) the English dub version (neither qualities that I enjoy in my anime), but Armitage is just a rip-off of Blade Runner, and not a very good one at that.I wasn't that thrilled with the animation- it reminded me of American "serious" animation, rather than anime; the voice-acting is bad, too; Elizabeth Berkeley is the saving grace (!) of the whole thing, providing a nice distraction from Kiefer Sutherland's wooden dialogue.
As Armitage, she is tough, vulnerable, sexy, and naive at the same time.
Kief is like one of the voice actors for the English-dialogue version of Megazone 23 part II...
emotionless, and sounds like an automatic reading machine.
Anime the way it was meant to be..
Armitage is, dare I might say, one of the best anime ever.
It covers a number of well-tred themes that anime seems to thrive on such as technical advancement, robots that seem human, humanity spread beyond the grasp of its home planet, and more.
Armitage has one of the best -plots- in an anime, people behave like people, not like one dimensional characters (a problem rampant in anime).
Naomi Armitage, who first appears to be yet another scantly clad lead female character, instead proves herself to be a truly deep and meaningful character.
It is this aspect (the extraordinary plot) which makes the movie such an experience to watch, the animation isn't as great as say, Ghost in the Shell, but this anime the way it was meant to be, a cohesive body of beautiful music, plot, and animation aimed towards a singular goal.
As a friend told me once, "Anime should be an experience, it shouldn't go where you can go with simple live-action." Armitage III is an experience..
Ghost in the Shell is so much better than this.
Maybe it's the translation, but I just thought there were way too many plot holes, with action abruptly starting or stopping or jumping from one scene to another without transition.
The animation is okay, but a pale shadow compared to the standard set by Ghost in the Shell..
Excellent action with an emotional story line..
The other Armitage movies I watched are also excellent, and this one did not let me down.
This is a good mix of story, human emotion, animation, and action.
It is always a good thing to see an emotional story that's not overshadowed by the animation or the action.
This movie has just the right mix, in my opinion.
All of the characters from the good guys and the little girl, to those characters "on the side lines", and even the bad guy(s), seem very believable to the point of realistic...
Those who do not like this movie are perhaps over-analyzing, rather than enjoying the ride..
Great actions, awesome soundtrack, all around very fun!.
Armitage the Third (the re-edited/re-released version of the original 4 part series) is overall extremely entertaining.
The action is typical of many Japanimation films are but this one differs because it has a plot.
So much fun to look at.The story starts off with a lot of action and at the same time introduces you to the history.
It's almost like most films say   "ok, the world has been taken over by evil, and for some reason our 3 lovely main characters are all sexy women (who have developed super natural powers where no on else has) and who for some reason cannot wear any clothing that covers anything."Armitage's story, though futuristic, is not entirely outlandish.
It has a "Blade Runner" sorta theme with a new story.
And once you have become a fan you'll watch the original series just to see the missing footage..
It's hard to summarize the aspects of this film, but if you've seen Ghost in the Shell and Battle Angel Alita try to imagine the theme of former and the characters of the latter.
The film unsuccessfully brings in love (now think Battle Angel Alita) because the first hour was too packed with mystery and action.
Until perhaps the last 10 minutes of the film I think it lacked the emotional impact I expect from Syllabus and Armitage's first meeting.
The fact that it is about an interplanetary conspiracy and the resulting murders of course makes it more of an action based film than anything else.
And the melodrama can be corny at times (or maybe its just because of the voiceovers?) However, the animation is quality, and Armitage III may be worth a look just for the last sequence..
Classic Pioneer Anime.
SPOILERSArmitage III was one of my first animes I saw in the 90's on Sci-fi channel.
It was also one of the first anime series I purchased, together with the other 2 Pioneer/AIC classics Pretty Samy and Moldiver, on Japanese DVD.
The Japanese DVD release of the OVA series by the way only features the dubbed version and the Japanse audio version, there is no subtitled version.Armitage III is an anime set on a Total Recall like megalithic city on Mars.
The plot is very deep, it includes issues of self identity, faith, hope, longing and every other possible emotion in the book, likewise the lead character - Naomi Armitage goes through each of these human states.
Naomi herself is a Battle Angel Alita like heroine, a bit too Lolita like for me perhaps, yet she is a beautiful babe, with a conscience who packs a mean punch and is able to dispose off both psychopath driven giant robots and street thugs.
If you're looking for lovable characters worth caring about, stop searching.The plot of the film has to be summarised by Naomi's memorable words, "If Humans did not want me, why did they create me?" You can hardly ignore the previous church scenes before this cathartic moment, which no doubt also serve as a metaphor for peoples' religious struggles with faith and purpose.There are two other particularly touching moments for me in this brilliant series.
One is the battle in the desert between Ross (her partner) and Armitage and a droid army.
It features Armitage with wings and Ross in an armoured robot suit blasting away at the military robots and helicopters while sleepy electronic music plays in the background.The images of the battle are superimposed on a news report of the merger between the Earth and Martian governments and are being viewed by female robots in the Martian city.
For once we see these beautiful anime robot girls stop being babysitters, waitresses or personal secretaries and we see them staring mesmerised at video monitors as the battle is played out before them.
Another touching scene had to be that featuring parental rejection, where Naomi's creator - a person she always though was her father, who disappeared a few years before finally stands before her, yet he fails to acknowledge her humanity and simply ridicules her - even to the point of pity.
If this won't move you than I don't know what will.Armitage III (4 part OVA series) is one of the best anime series out there, I highly recommend you see it, see it with other greats like Serial Experiments Lain, Battle Angel Alita and Ghost in the Shell.
You will care for Naomi as you cared for Alita and Lain and the story is just as thrilling and through provoking.
Beyond that, it is also a good detective murder story..
Great Anime Movie.
4th movie in my Kiefer Sutherland movie marathon.This is the first Anime movie i have seen and it is so great and i am going to go out to my local DVD/video shop and hire heaps of them and have an Anime movie marathon.Kiefer Sutherland from the great TV show 24 stars in this movie playing a man called Ross Sylibus.There are heaps of great scenes in this movie like the end scene when Ross (Kiefer) and Naomi Armitage (Elizabeth Berkley) start to fight all the bad buys and Kiefer is in a really cool Armour suit and he is shooting every thing.Over all this movie is really great and my rating is 7 out of 10.