Several things need to be cleared up in regard to Armitage III: Poly-Matrix right from the start. Firstly, despite the title, this is not the third film in a series. In fact it’s the first film in a two-movie series. It’s called Armitage III because the heroine, Armitage, is a Third. I’ll explain that later.

Secondly, it started life as an OVA (original animation video) with a total running time of 120 minutes. In 1996 it was edited down to 90 minutes as a feature film. The editing required some dialogue changes which made it impossible to use the Japanese language track from the OVA. As a result there is no Japanese language version of the Armitage III: Poly-Matrix feature film. Since the feature film was clearly aimed at English-speaking markets such as the United States and Australia that was no problem. And while so many 1980s/1990s animes were given truly atrocious English dubs by American and British distributors this one has a perfectly acceptable English dub. Armitage is voiced by Elizabeth Berkeley and her partner Ross Sylibus is voiced by Kiefer Sutherland. They’re both fine, and Berkeley is actually rather good – she sounds like an anime heroine.

It also seems likely that the OVA was shot in the 1.37:1 aspect ratio and cropped to 1.85:1 for the feature film release. Some shots certainly look like they might be cropped.

Armitage III: Poly-Matrix is very much in the cyberpunk mode. The setting is Mars at some future date. Mars now has huge cities and a large population. A significant segment of the population comprises robots. These are mostly Seconds (second-generation robots). They’re quite suitable for undemanding routine work and there’s a lot of tension as a result – the humans on Mars resent the robots for taking jobs away from them.

There are also Thirds (third-generation robots). They are almost indistinguishable from humans and are regarded with enormous suspicion.

Chicago cop Ross Sylibus has just arrived on Mars to join the Martian PD. He has personal reasons for not liking robots.

He is partnered with Naomi Armitage, a tiny but formidable female described by one of the other cops as a terror in hot pants. Armitage doesn’t wear too much in the way of clothing. Too much clothing cramps her style.

On arrival on Mars Ross finds himself in the middle of a pitched gun battle. Left behind is the corpse of a famous female country singer, except that it’s not a corpse but the remains of a robot.

Someone seems to be trying to destroy all the Thirds. That’s a crime problem that needs to be solved but there are other puzzles as well. Why are all Thirds female? And Why exactly were they created? The Seconds were quite adequate when it came to performing most of the functions required of robots. There was no obvious need for robots that were indistinguishable from humans.

The audience will be pretty aware from the start that Armitage is in fact a Third. Ross however does not know this and when he finds out it comes as something of a shock. He has to figure out exactly how he feels about the fact that he has been partnered with a non-human.

Armitage has always known that she was a machine but she has never quite come to terms with it. She feels like a woman. She has emotions. She has a woman’s emotions. She wants to be accepted as a cop but she’d like Ross to accept her as a woman as well. That’s not to say that she fell instantly in love with him or had an overwhelming urge to sleep with him but being female is important to her. It becomes more important to her. Ross becomes more important to her.

The plot is quite complex. There are all kinds of secrets and conspiracies and there are important things that Armitage needs to discover about herself. She needs to know these things for her own sake, and for the sake of Mars.

One of the things Armitage doesn’t know is why she even has emotions. A robot doesn’t need emotions. A cop doesn’t need emotions. This seems like a design flaw. She is definitely a robot but she is definitely a woman as well, and she was deliberately designed that way.

This is anime so you won’t be surprised to find out that Armitage’s learning experiences involve a huge amount of mayhem and a lot of explosions. The Japanese have no problems whatsoever with the idea of combining mayhem with intelligent provocative themes. Armitage III is typical cyberpunk anime in the sense that it combines rollercoaster action sequences, extreme violence and sexiness with big ideas and complex emotions.

Japanese cyberpunk was heavily influenced by Blade Runner both aesthetically and thematically. Blade Runner, Ghost in the Shell and Armitage III all deal with similar questions – what makes us human? And all three movies deal with female characters having to grapple with the question of whether they are women or machines, and having to grapple with what this means in terms of their emotional lives. All three movies tackle these questions in slightly different ways. Armitage III has never attracted the same degree of critical adulation as those other two films and that may perhaps be a little unfair.

All three movies also deal to some extent with the Uncanny Valley phenomenon – the idea of a robot that is almost totally physically indistinguishable from a human is inherently disturbing and if the resemblance is total it becomes even more disturbing. Anyone who has encountered AI-generated art knows just how disturbing the Uncanny Valley effect can be.

The great thing about this movie is that it’s Japanese. An American movie would have handled the subject matter in a much more predictable and safe way.

Oddly enough the makers of this film claimed to have been influenced by Lovecraft and there are a couple of Lovecraft references that are fun to spot.

Having been made as an OVA this production did not have a feature film budget but on the whole the visuals are quite satisfactory.

Armitage III: Poly-Matrix is a pretty good cyberpunk anime that does not deserve to languish in obscurity. Highly recommended.

The Madman Australian DVD release dates back a few years. It’s letterboxed but the transfer is fine.