Battle Angel Alita

This was simply an amazing piece of artwork. This movie had the potential to be right up there next to Akira and Ghost in the Shell. Unfortunately there's just way too much left out, leaving you with a feeling that you've been conned out of a great movie. Gally (the main chick / hero) is the most beautiful anime babe out there. Overall, it's a movie an anime fan will like, but will long for more.... Find the comic books for more.

You can really tell by watching this film that the source material it is based on is really excellent. The story is a fine and compelling one, that is filled with fantasy elements and is set in a sort of future post-apocalyptic world. Because of this fact, I'm also positive of it that the James Cameron version of this movie called "Battle Angel" is going to be absolutely great.

This animated movie version is also a good one but unfortunately also heavily flawed.

The biggest problem with the movie is that it's very short, with as a result things get rushed. Also every sequence feels incredibly short. Every time you think you're going to get to see a big long fight sequence, it's already over again. It also makes the storytelling disjointed at times. Villains are keep getting introduced throughout the movie, until you finally start to loose interested at who is actually supposed to be the biggest and main villain of the movie. Some characters really made a redundant impression and they did not got the treatment they obviously deserved. The movie is also over before you know it, with a sort of an incomplete ending that will also give you an unsatisfied feeling.

The storytelling and build-up really isn't the greatest within this movie, although that isn't anything too uncommon for a Japanese anime, it still is a bit worse than acceptable in this case. The movie really gave me the feeling it had so much more potential, if it only had a better budget and production time span. It now unfortunately never reaches the level of true excellence and certainly is not among the top Japanse anime's.

Nevertheless the movie has plenty of qualities that make this a watchable one. The story is one of them, even though it's potential isn't fully used. The imaginary futuristic world and concepts within this movie are just so fine. It also has a fine love-story, that however also gets very rushed in the movie. The short action within the movie was also fine, which was mainly thanks to those awesome looking cyborgs with each their own special fighting powers and weapons. The movie is also filled with plenty of gore.

It's a certainly good watchable movie but still I would wait for the James Cameron movie version if I were you.

7/10

http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

After watching the terrific movie Alita: Battle Angel, which I felt fell apart towards the end, I decided to watch this to see if the story was the same. It is, and it's also an hour long which means it runs through that story like lightning. There's very little in the way of character development; just lots of plot.

Turns out it's a pretty similar story, and from what I've read the anime and the movie are both fairly true to the original manga but make some changes. Unlike the movie, the anime holds together because it doesn't start throwing in a bunch of stuff that seems crammed in. But it also lacks emotional punch because you're not given a chance to really get to know the characters.

It's not as good as the live-action movie, but it is entertaining enough.

I had the opportunity to sit down and watch the 1993 Anime mini-series "Gunnm" (aka "Battle Angel") again here in 2023, and since I really enjoyed it on VHS tape back in my youth, of course there was no doubt about me sitting down to watch "Gunnm" digitally this time around.

The storyline in "Gunnm" is pretty straight forward, but even with just two episodes, the writers did manage to put together something unique, enjoyable and timeless. "Gunnm" is an Anime that you can watch again and again, which is a testimony to the writing skills of the writers.

And not only was the storyline good, but the art and animation in "Gunnm" is good, and very much still holds up today, 30 years down the line.

If you enjoy Anime, and get a chance to watch, then you most certainly should do so. It is without a doubt a timeless classic.

The only downside there is to "Gunnm", is that the mini-series only had two episodes, and thus felt a little bit rushed. I think there was much more to delve into here, if the writers had opted for more episodes.

My rating of "Gunnm" lands on a seven out of ten stars.

Any serious anime fan will have a special place in his heart for Gally. She is *the* textbook example of the innocent anime girl. Where this work shines is in Gally's character development through her experiences where she discovers a personality of her own after being reanimated. Her gradual acquisition of her defensive affection with the Doctor and her innocent but deep attachment with Yugo are impressive. No fan of good film acting can criticize this "cartoon" as inferior to live action.

All this applies to the Japanese version with subtitles. The English dubbing is awful.