A Li Ce is the first ever full-length CGI anime film. It is also a nearly incomprehensible wreck and full of such incredible, bizarre directorial decisions that it's nearly impossible to fault for its dated CGI. More than its constant clipping and uncanny valley character design, the things that stood out to me while watching it were almost all related to the film's direction and story; there was never a single second of this movie where I was bored. It's got everything- Schrodinger's genocide (are they dead or not? why are they disappeared? what is going on?), tragic schoolgirl lesbians, time travel, a milfy combatandroid waitress, a longhaired prettyboy with a mommy complex, bad cgi robots, and an exploding murderous supercomputer. I cannot stress enough that it's the definition of Friday night watch party jank. This is a perfect piece of anime history to watch with your friends while mildly drunk.
The art, while dated, is actually somewhat charming due to its age, and there is a degree of emotional connection and sympathy for the characters that I didn't get from other early CGI anime I've watched. I got the strong sense that this movie was not made with its technical limitations in mind, but rather that they forced their CGI to suit what they already had on paper.
Sound design is nothing special, I suppose it could be considered about as competent as the rest of the production.
I say all this and I suppose it may come off as effusive praise, but I do genuinely think that as a story and piece of art... it's not good. It doesn't accomplish anything it sets out to do. The moral is muddled. The story is, as I mentioned earlier, literally fully incomprehensible and incredibly frustrating. It's a movie I think is probably impossible to watch on your own or take seriously. Which is a shame, because I do think there's workable themes in there; the manga is probably leagues better, but I have yet to read it, so who knows.
At the end of the day, it's a weird little cultural oddity but also unforgettable in its own way.