Animatrix: A Detective Story

Written by: Manjiro Ooshio, Shinichirô Watanabe and Ellen Moore
Directed by: Shinichirô Watanabe

• Animatrix: A Detective Story

In this Animatrix story, grainy photographic backgrounds are blended with traditional animation, producing a unique animation style. It is produced in a film noir style, which is a film style and mood primarily associated with crime films, portraying its principal characters in a cynical and unsympathetic world.

Plot Summary

Detective Ash, down on his luck, receives an anonymous phone call to search for a hacker that goes by the alias "Trinity." After seeing that the caller has already deposited $800,000 into his account, he decides to take the case. One of the first things he discovers is that several detectives have already tried to do the same thing and failed. Several detectives were killed, and one went insane.

After deducing that Trinity's "code" for communication is to use phrases and facts from Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Ash figures out when and where to meet Trinity. When they meet, Trinity removes a bug from Ash's eye that he only remembers being planted in a dream. Shortly after this, agents show up and try to get Trinity. An agent also tries to take over Ash's body, which forces Trinity to shoot Ash. This stops the agent from taking him over. Trinity and Ash say goodbye with no hard feelings, and Trinity escapes. Agents show up, and the story ends with Ash pointing his gun at the agents while lighting a cigarette.

Notes

This serves as an example of how agents are given certain limitations within the Matrix system. Agents are not able to monitor the sensory perceptions of Detective Ash - otherwise they wouldn't have needed to put a bug in his eye. It is also interesting to note that shooting an agent as he tries to take over a human prevents the agent from completing the transformation, even if the shot doesn't completely kill the person.

Back to Animatrix

The Animatrix: Beyond

The Animatrix: Matriculated