This anime has an unusual genesis, being directly based on an old manga that was itself inspired on the 1927 film by Fritz Lang. Yet this anime version seems to draw more heavily from the silent film than the original manga. It was directed by Rintaro who is well-known for being involved in many science-fiction anime, including the grand-daddy of them all, Astro Boy.
A private detective and his young nephew Kenichi arrive in the titular city to arrest a mad scientist who is wanted for organ trafficking. At the same time, Duke Red who leads a political faction in the city known as the Marduks has completed construction of a massive skyscraper called the Ziggurat. It turns out that Duke Red has hired the same scientist to create an advanced robot modelled after his deceased daughter with which he plans to control the Ziggurat and use its weapons to conquer the world. At the same time, Duke Red’s own adopted son Rock mercilessly hunts down robots and all who would shelter them.
The parallels with Fritz Lang’s version is obvious and this one suffers in comparison by bringing to the table little that is new except some mixed messaging. Confusingly, this version has a robot underclass who toils deep beneath the city where humans are unable to survive for long. It’s interesting to note that all of the robots depicted in this film are essentially benevolent and friendly to humans. There are many scenes of angry humans wrecking robots who never respond even in self-defense. Yet there is also an underclass of disenfranchised and jobless human workers who hate the robots and are stirred to start a revolution. A consequence of this is that I’m not even sure if the Marduk Party is actually anti-robot or pro-robot.
The main story of the robot Tima who falls in love with the human Kenichi is trite and proceeds along boringly predictable lines. Seen with modern eyes, it’s also a bit of a cheat. A robot who is visually and functionally indistinguishable from a real human isn’t really a robot that is narratively interesting. More recent films Wall-E have demonstrated how to create robotic characters with real emotions despite their complete lack of a humanoid body. Worst of all, this part of the plot doesn’t even make any sense. If Duke Red needed some kind of artificial intelligence to control the Ziggurat, why would he need it to be housed inside a robot? If he instead wanted to recreate his daughter, why would he sacrifice the robot to the vast machinery of the tower and wipe its memory? The most interesting character to me was actually Rock who is strangely loyal to his adopted father despite his multiple betrayals. I kept hoping that he would confront his father over his inconsistent objectives.
The quality of the animation is at least excellent with the dynamic chase scenes being especially enjoyable. However I disliked the affectation of drawing all of the characters below middle-age as if they were children. I originally thought that they really were meant to be children which made the scenes of the trigger-happy Rock mercilessly gunning down everyone in his way and spraying blood everywhere very shocking to me.
Given that there is wealth of other films, animated or otherwise, about robots who feel emotions and that Metropolis is arguably worse than just about all of them, there’s just not much reason to watch this one.