English Dub Review: Altered Carbon: Resleeved

Overview (Spoilers Below):

A girl named Holly Togram is being pursued by assassins as Takeshi Kovacs is being transferred into a new sleeve. In the world of Altered Carbon, human consciousness is eternally stored in a chip that can be implanted in new bodies in order to live on after a sleeves death. Takeshi makes a deal with Hideki Tanaseda, a Yakuza boss, that involves protecting Holly. She’s a tattooist working for the Mizumoto clan. As the two of them evade the assassins, they run into Gena, an officer of CTAC who is trying to infiltrate the Mizumoto clan to find out what’s going on inside the group.

Takeshi and Gena go undercover as Holly’s bodyguards in order to complete both their assigned missions. But things don’t go very smoothly for them as they eventually discover that the head of the Mizumoto clan himself is trying to have Holly killed. Together, they take on tech ninja assassin after tech ninja assassin, and Gena finds out that he’s her brother maybe? Another big reveal happens near the end when it’s discovered that the Mizumoto clan’s ceremony of succession is nothing but a lie. Shinji has been secretly transferring his mind into every new leader unbeknownst to the other members of the clan. Once his plan is unveiled, he puts on a crazy robot suit and battles with Takeshi. Eventually, he’s overcome and Holly avenges the loss of her parents by completing the tattoo ceremony to take his life.

Our Take:

The world of Altered Carbon is an interesting one for sure. The idea of living forever in different bodies holds a lot of possibilities to explore. And maybe the show itself gets into these, but Resleeved is pretty much a straight up action flick, complete with plenty of violence and gory fights to the death as Takeshi tries to keep Holly safe while uncovering the secrets of the Mizumoto clan. There’s a few other subplots that make brief appearances, like his relation to Gena and the death of Holly’s parents, but they’re so slight that they don’t really add anything substantive at all. But if all you’re looking for is a collection of fast-paced, well-executed fight scenes, then Altered Carbon: Resleeved might be just what you’ve been waiting for.

The basic premise of the animated special is pretty bland. It’s pretty much The Last of Us but set in the world of Altered Carbon. Takeshi is a buff tough guy without room in his life for feelings. Gena is the hot sidekick, who’s super good at fighting until the plot calls for her not to be. Holly is the naive child who possesses a secret that endangers her life. To be fair, she’s not actually a child. The ending revelation that she’s been onboard with the scheme from the start is kind of neat, and I would’ve liked to get more insight into what motivated her all these years. Surely, it couldn’t just be her parents stacks. If Shinji hadn’t delivered on his promise to find them after all this time, then why would she keep believing him? The more you think about it, the more unresolved questions there are, like why do Takeshi and Gena keep staying at the Mizumoto hotel even after finding out that the head of the clan is the one trying to kill Holly? Why do the Mizumoto clan members turn on Shinji so fast after just a speech from Takeshi when they value loyalty so much?

Undoubtedly, the best parts of Resleeved are the fight sequences. The animation allows for some really cool shots, and the fast-paced intensity rarely lets up. Yakuza goons get split in half, mechanical arrows drill into bodies, and Takeshi gets beat up so many times yet keeps being healthy enough to keep on fighting. The ending battle against Shinji is so insane that you really have to be fully invested in the scene to keep a straight face. I was not that viewer. I started cracking up when Takeshi proceeded to smash his head into Shinji’s five or six times in a row. Headbutting is not an effective battle strategy no matter what movies try to tell you!

The English dub stars Ray Chase as Takeshi, Kaiji Tang as Shinji, Elizabeth Maxwell as Gena, and Brittany Cox as Holly. Everyone turns in good performances for the most part, although Cox’s crying doesn’t come across as the most natural acting in the world. Where the dub suffers is in the writing itself, when it tries to pull of lines as dumb as: “It hurts my fist communicating with you.” and “Why is your hand glowing red right now? It should be glowing blue!”. In the end, I found Altered Carbon: Resleeved to be a violent spectacle that has some fun moments, but adds up to something that’s ultimately pretty forgettable.