This movie is visually beautiful, the character design catching the atmosphere of the first manga's of Osama Tezuka-san (they remind me of early Disney animations as well...) The backgrounds are done in CGI. Still, they fit in nicely with the characters. The music is jazzy/ dixieland-ish as should be for the era that this film is supposed to honor. OK, so much for the good stuff. I'm thoroughly disappointed on the absence of any character development besides the obvious difference between evil/ good. The only one who get's some development is the detective. The rest stays as flat as the paper that pulp is written on, not the paper of a decent manga, mind you. The story does not convince me. I cannot relate emotionally to any of the characters.<br /><br />If you want some good anime on comparison between robots and humans, go see: Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence (Romaji: Inosensu: Kôkaku kidôtai) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0347246/