Finally I find some anime dserving a review here. Well, actually I saw this one some time ago and am only writing a review of it now. And no, I have not stolen any trademarks from other boards (any who post on the Scifilm message board should be aware of who I am now)
I honestly cannot give a storyline. There is no coherent storyline to speak of. Let me try summing it up anyhow...in the future, the world is ruled over by a huge corporation ruled over by the faceless Persona. All that Persona has yet to purchase is a segment in the Himalayas (or some other mountain range: I forget exactly where) and that, of course, is where a group of freedom fighters are based.
This movie takes place in a burrough in Tokyo, where a few freedom fighters are meeting. Into this unrest comes Darkside, a telepath who has no discernible purpose in the story--he cures lives ruined by nightmares.
The animation is rather good, but that's about the only good thing I can really speak of in this abomination of a movie.
The biggest problem I have with this movie is the fact that it ends too abruptly. At the screening I attended, I had to go to the toilet towards the end, so I went thinking I wouldn't miss a thing. I came out, and everyone was being let out of the lecture theatre that was being used. And when I asked about it on a message board, they said that the good guys still ran when they were in a favourable position against Persona. Uh....come again?
My appraisal was confirmed when I read a review on
Anime on DVD where the reviewer was confused by quotes in favour from sources such as Animerica. Actually, I think they were the ones who said that the nonexistent appeal of this movie was impossible to describe (sounds more like they couldn't figure it out either).
I suggest bypassing this movie and reading the original novel (if you can understand Japanese--and I can't) or just going for Ghost in the Shell or Akira (heck, even Appleseed) if you want films with revolutionaries.