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009ReC

009 Re:Cyborg is a 2012 CGI animated film produced by Production I.G., and directed by Kenji Kamiyama with character designs by Gato Asou.

Overview[]

In re-imagining Cyborg 009 for the year 2012, "RE:" was included in the title, indicating the movie as a sequel to the original manga (taking place 27 years after Ishinomori's last arc in 1986) as well as symbolizing a "restart" for the franchise.

Originally, Mamoru Oshii was assigned to the project in 2009, and would later create a short CGI demo film that was screened in September 2010, titled "Cyborg 009: The REopening". In Oshii's first vision of RE: (prior to the demo film), all the 00 cyborgs except 009, 003, and 001 had passed away in the ensuing years, and 009 was holed up in an apartment in retirement while 003 and 001 had taken to traveling the world. 001 was said to be in the form of a dog, rather than a baby, and 003 had aged to her fifties while 009 remained physically in his teens [1] [2]. Oshii's plot was to also take cues from an unproduced 1985 Lupin III film he had planned out, where a giant "Tower of Babel" would be present in Tokyo, which would house the fossil of an angel. Kenji Kamiyama had related this story as an anecdote in the book "Anime Style 002" in 2012, after the release of the film. [3]

After Kamiyama had joined the project as screenwriter, the above setting was thrown out and tweaked to 009 living as a high school student with amnesia, while 003 would have to re-awaken his memories. 002 was also depicted as alive in the finalized concept film, although the fates of the others were not mentioned. Oshii stepped down from the full film project, leaving Kamiyama to take over as the director, and to also throw out Oshii's initial setting of 003 being 58 years old in the year 2013.

The character designs underwent revision for the new century, as well as to make them more realistic. Kamiyama produced the film with the intent of doing a follow-up in the form of either a TV series or second film set in the same continuity, however, these did not come to pass. As of June 2015, when asked on whether or not the plans for a sequel were scrapped in light of Cyborg 009 vs. Devilman, Kamiyama answered that the sequel was "still a secret"[4]

Plot[]

The year is 2013. Skyscraper bombings are happening all over the world, by the direction of a force called "His Voice". 27 years after the 00 Cyborg team disbanded, 007 now works for the SIS and 002 now works for the NSA after a falling out with the team and Joe. The two agents meet at a bar in New York City to exchange intel about "His Voice" and Pyunma's findings of a fossil which resembles an angel's skeleton possibly being related to it. The intelligence agencies of the world are all whispering about the incidents being related to His Voice, the unknown entity that is controlling operatives of the bombings.

Joe Shimamura, who had his memories blocked and reset every 3 years by Professor Gilmore, is now a typical high school student, falsely believing that he has an unseen family and friends due to the "Augmented Reality" implanted in his brain. He also has a girlfriend named Tomoe, who seems familiar to him in some way. However, Joe is hearing His Voice due to his cybernetic brain. We learn that he was about to plant a bomb at the Roppongi Hills Tower, until 005 and 003 came to reactivate his memories. Dr. Isaac Gilmore suspects that these were orchestrated by the United States government's National Security Agency, in a bid to regain dominance as a global superpower.

In Dubai, a B-2 bomber flown by an US Air Force pilot under the control of His Voice launches missiles at the city, with 002 in pursuit to intercept. 009 appears and uses his Acceleration mode to destroy the missiles. After 009 gets knocked off the plane by 002 in a fight, the pilot fires a nuclear bomb which destroys the entire city and kills the population of Dubai. 009 uses his Acceleration Mode to outrun the blast, but is left unconscious and lying on the beach. In his mind, he pictures himself in the burned out city, despondent over his failure. Tomoe appears to comfort him, and remind him of his purpose. Due to the EMP effects of the nuclear blast, communications are down and the team thinks Joe is dead.

Nuclear missiles are fired and 003 fires interceptors and disables all of them except for one. With no time to lose, Joe requests 001 to teleport him into space to disarm the missile. 001 agrees but states he will be unable to return him to Earth at that distance, as Ivan would exhaust his power doing so.

002 flies up to try and help 009 but ends up burning out his rockets and damaging his stabilizers, causing him to plummet towards Earth. Joe then speaks to God and says that while humanity is foolish and causes suffering towards each other, he believes in them because they have such great potential to go beyond those vices and make their dreams become reality. He then pleads to him that the earth be spared, only for the bomb to detonate in space with Joe on top of it, the light of the explosion forming a cross. Francoise watches two falling stars, and silently prays upon both.

After some indeterminate point of time, Joe finds himself waking up in an apartment in a place that appears to be Venice, and sees Francoise walking across a canal. She explains that he's in her "safe house". Jet, Great Britain, and Pyunma also find themselves in the mysterious city, which Dr. Gilmore explains is the world created by His Voice. Back in the safe house, Joe and Fran talk about God for a bit and then the camera pans behind them to reveal that one of the angel skeletons is in her living room as a decoration.

The movie's final shot after the credits roll ends with the image of an angel skeleton on the surface of the Moon.

Characters[]

The 00 Cyborgs[]

00 Cyborgs ('12)

Allies[]

Enemies[]

Production Staff[]

  • Director, Screenplay: Kenji Kamiyama
  • Producer: Tomohiko Ishii
  • Executive Producer: Mitsuhisa Ishikawa
  • 3D Modeling and Animation Director: Daisuke Suzuki
  • Character Design: Gato Asou
  • Art Director: Yusuke Takeda
  • Color Design: Yumiko Katayama
  • Storyboards: Yasuhiro Aoki, Yuichiro Hayashi
  • Music: Kenji Kawai
  • Production: Production I.G., Sanzigen
  • Distribution: Production I.G., T-Joy
  • Production and Copyright: 009 RE: Cyborg Production Committee (Production I.G., T-Joy, AMAZON LATERNA, VAP, Nippon Television Network, IshimoriPro)

English Dub Staff[]

  • Voice Direction: Michael Sinterniklaas, Anthony Tortorici
  • ADR Scriptwriter: Adam Modiano
  • Sound Mixing: David Raymer
  • ADR Studio: NYAV Post (Los Angeles, New York City)

Voice Cast (Japanese)[]

  • 009: Mamoru Miyano
  • 001: Sakiko Tamagawa
  • 002: Daisuke Ono
  • 003, Tomoe: Chiwa Saito
  • 004: Toru Okawa
  • 005: Teruyuki Tanzawa
  • 006: Tarou Masuoka
  • 007: Hiroyuki Yoshino
  • 008: Noriaki Sugiyama
  • Dr. Gilmore: Nobuyuki Katsube

Voice Cast (English)[]

  • 009: Jason Griffith
  • 001: Stephanie Sheh
  • 002: Marc Diraison
  • 003, Tomoe: Erin Fitzgerald
  • 004: Dave B. Mitchell
  • 005: Patrick Seitz
  • 006: Michael Sorich
  • 007: J.B. Blanc (credited as "John White")
  • 008: Ogie Banks (credited as "Marcus Griffin")
  • Dr. Gilmore: Paul St. Peter (credited as "George C. Cole")

DVD Release[]

At Anime Expo 2013, FUNimation announced that they had acquired the license to the film. It was released July 28th, 2015. Its USA release had been preceded by R4 and R2 (UK) versions of the Blu-Ray, by Madman Entertainment and Anime Limited.

The dub that FUNimation acquired was a pre-existing production that had been commissioned in 2013 by the UK-based Anime Limited, who was the first to license the film. It was produced through NYAV Post's two studios in Los Angeles and New York City. This meant that FUNimation would only act as US distributor for the film, and was not involved in the production.

Due to unspecified issues that Production I.G. had with the dub, Anime Limited's release had been held back while retakes were done, which caused FUNimation and Madman Entertainment's releases to also be delayed.

Manga[]

A manga adaptation of the film ran in Square Enix's Monthly Big GanGan, illustrated by Gato Asou. It strays a bit from Kamiyama's plot, with the removal of the Tomoe Hayasaka character, as well as having additions of extra scenes to explain the storyline better. The manga has been collected into six tankobon, ending its serialization in September 2015.

003's character design is given blonde hair, as in her classic appearance (and as she appeared in early RE: concept art), as opposed to the red hair she sports in the actual film. All the team members also wear the same color uniforms, instead of the men wearing darker maroon and 003 wearing bright red.

Light Novel[]

A light novel adaptation of the film was serialized in Newtype Magazine and later released in book format by Kadokawa Shoten, on November 9, 2012.

CR 009 Re: Cyborg (Pachinko)[]

A pachinko game based on the film was released in fall 2014, recycling several scenes from the film as in-game cutscenes for attacks, but also including new CGI attack animation for some characters such as 008, 005, 002, and 007.

It also included elements of the 2001 Cyborg 009: The Cyborg Soldier anime adaptation, such as "chibi" versions of the 2001 characters depicted in the RE: uniforms, a redesign for Skull, and GLOBE's soundtrack. Somewhat controversially, a "003 Chance" mini-game was included, where Gato Asou's version of 003 was depicted in several fanservice-laden or sexual situations.

Notes[]

  • This film was the first ever entry in the franchise to be a critical and commercial failure. Critics hated it for its confusing plot and as a result of the poor reviews, it later bombed at the box office despite strong earnings of 70 million yen in its first week. [5] [6] [7]
  • The first scene with Francoise has her with blonde hair as in early concept art, but her hair inexplicably switches to red afterwards. This may be due to the animators not wanting to re-render the first scene for time constraints, or not noticing the discontinuity.
  • Joe Onodera, author of the GOD'S WAR light novels, noted that despite the differences in his and Kamiyama's ideas at adapting Ishinomori's final arc, the ending to 009 Re: Cyborg coincidentally wound up resembling the ending in his novels.
    • This in turn had caused debate among fans if the final sequence is simply another dream of Joe's, if the Francoise he sees is even real, if the sequence with the other cyborgs in Venice actually happened (or is taking place in his mind as a vision), or if all the characters be considered alive or dead in that they've surpassed humanity. Adding to the debates are the question of if the world they're seen in is the same Earth, or if the idyllic "Venice" is in a different dimension than the world that's said to still have war going on.
    • Going by Kamiyama's own cryptic statements on the ending [8], the final sequence is meant to symbolize the world that Francoise had wished for, with the implication that she was the one who resurrected Joe and the others[9]. Her secretive nature around Joe would also hint at there being something more to her than what he sees. Kamiyama also described Jet's plummet from space as a "near-death experience", hinting that he had in fact been brought back to life afterwards, and that his and Joe's sacrifices had played a part in the world being reset [10].
  • In Kamiyama's statements, GB and Pyunma's disappearances were meant to symbolize them being killed by "His Voice", with GB being hit by the truck and Kamiyama musing that Pyunma was perhaps lured into the water by the vision of the angel [11]. The mysterious "Angel" that's seen by GB, Pyunma, and Jet is also meant to be symbolic of a religious experience, and is not really an actual entity but what their minds make of the experience.
  • In the final sequence, a pair of wedding rings can be briefly seen on the dresser in Francoise's apartment, indicating that along with the world she'd wished for, that she intends to marry Joe. The angel fossil in her apartment, as hinted by her words, is meant to symbolize the sacrifice of the team members that had died over the course of the film.
  • Coincidentally, both Mamoru Miyano and Jason Griffith, 009's respective Japanese and English voice actors in the film, also played Cilan in Pokémon: Black & White.
  • This is the first time an English dub has accurately portrayed the 00 Cyborgs nationalities through their speech patterns and accents, as the 2001 anime dub used American accents for all the characters and the 1980 film changed some of their nationalities (particularly 007 becoming an Irishman).

References[]

External links[]

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