Appleseed is a step up from Masamune's previous work, Black Magic, but still suffers from many of the same exposition/dialogue heavy philosophy that doesn't really serve any purpose in the building of the world. A lot of it is a very dramatized version of what you might be accustomed to from some of the GitS franchise, without the critical philosophical edge that you've come to know from GitS. Deunan is far less fleshed out than Motoko, but a significant step up from Black Magic. However, very little of that traditional "Cyberpunk" in present in Appleseed, and it reads more like a space epic, with elements ofa romance drama, and detective show during the later volumes. Barrios is in many ways the precursor to Batou, and much of the same "police force/special forces" themes are present. They are just poorly explored and often do not lead anywhere other than a grand exposition on a characters particular perspective on nature, but never really providing any defined stance on a subject in the broader grand narrative.

What Appleseed offers is a look into the progression of Masamune's artistic mind, the way in which the GitS world was founded, and a piece of Cyberpunk history. Do not go into this expecting more than you will get out of it, and you will appreciate the work.