アップルシード(AppleSeed) is the other work by the author of Ghost in the Shell, Masamune Shirow.
Generally, it’s set in a utopia which was built following a massive war which…somehow…is still going on in some parts of the world.

The fearsome ‘gus’ grenade.

I’m assuming this OVA assumes the audience had read the manga, because it felt like a side-story (1) and it also seemed like it assumed the audience was familiar with the subject-matter.

However, there is something I noticed that I find notable: the antagonist is right and…I don’t think it’s intentional? It doesn’t feel intentional because he’s portrayed as the bad guy, but he’s clearly correct.
His observation is that living in Olympus is kinda suffocating for humans. Bioroids are, like, 60% of the population and, consequently, the city is designed in such a way as to assume people are acting like Bioroids. And, I mean…yeah? The entire administration is Bioroid too. So the city does actually just come off as a sorta Zoo for humans. Though the fact it’s being said so openly suggests it is intentional? Masamune Shirow doesn’t exactly have the best track record when it comes to making a story with a theme that isn’t discordant with the story being told…but this is still kinda weird.

Also, there are a lot of spelling mistakes in this one.

I think this film is good, though I don’t know what I could really say about it. By modern standards, the animation isn’t great…but I think the action holds up. The story is a bit meh.

Ex Machina is the sequel to the 2004 movie and…well, I thought it was better than the first one. Basically just a straight upgrade.
Except that the second part of the film just turns into a zombie apocalypse, which is kinda lame.

Interestingly, you could interpret the apocalypse as being a direct result of Olympus’ hubris. If so, that’s very Greek Mythology.

Also, one of the characters (the representative of Poseidon) is pretty hot. She is single-handedly one of the reasons you may want to watch this film. Unfortunately, she only appears like 3 times in the whole film.

• 1988 OVA
• 2004 Movie