Officer Ross Sylibus deplanes in New Lowell, a glittering high tech city on Mars, and walks into a gunfight. Two minutes later a terrorist escapes. Officer Armitage of the Martian Police Department is irate and a beloved country singer lies dead amidst a gathering crowd. Then Sylibus' life gets complicated- the country singer isn't a corpse, she's an android.

The city is already in crisis as humans protest the increasing presence of human-like robots in society. Adding fuel to this fire, terrorist Rene D'anclaude is tracking down and murdering all the "Threes"- robots realistic enough pass as human which have therefore been declared illegal. The MPD assigns Sylibus to track down D'AnClaude and saddles him with a new partner; naturally it's Armitage.

Our heroine Armitage, a mercurial, flirtatious and spunky cop, prowls her beat wearing a red leather miniskirt, garters, wraparound shades, a choker, chains and a big gun. She is sympathetic to the plight of the type "Threes," and doesn't hit it off with Sylibus, the terse and stoic loner who still has nightmares about his previous partner's murder at the hands of a cyborg. They initially investigate on their own, but eventually work together when the time comes to throw down with the maniacal D'AnClaude himself.

"Electro Blood" is set in a bright, clean city, but the storytelling techniques are pure film noir. Director Hiroyuki Ochi hints at the place and time, giving suggestive fragments of overheard conversations before plunging detective Sybilus into the action. Only after bloodshed and mayhem does the pace slow down long enough to fill in the back story. Unfortunately when it slows down it also bogs down, as Armitage and Sylibus rehash the familiar "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" questions, disagreeing about whether androids are alive or have feelings. The question of whether the dead robot country singer truly felt when she sang, though poignant, strays too far from the drama of the hunt for D'AnClaude to capture a great deal of interest.

Throughout "Electro Blood" details like a billboard in the background or a photo of a dissected cyborg or the cityscape at night are striking enough to leap out. Otherwise the art is functional and well designed, but not dazzling. Elegantly composed still shots, used early on to capture mood and character, are effective and attractive, but in the climactic fight scenes the characters' movements are stilted and the animation slightly jumpy.

Though not wildly original, "Electro Blood" is dressed up with all the finest whistles and bells of the cyberpunk oeuvre. The charismatic D'AnClaude wears fur coats, has fangs, cackles maniacally and admits to getting a sexual charge from the act of murder. A personal techno theme track kicks in whenever Armitage becomes violent. And she and D'AnClaude confront each other in a gothic cathedral. None of these elements are relevant to the story (neither is her wardrobe), but it all contributes greatly to the film's aesthetic pleasure.