Battle Angel Alita

This feature deals with the possibility of full cybernetic replacement of the frail human body and the effects this may have on society and the individual. What kind of value would be placed on human life? What capabilities do you build into a machine body? Can a human brain thus sustained, have a soul? There is plenty of action and even a love interest. It's an anime' classic that should be required viewing for any anime' fan. And a great starter for anyone wishing to try anime'. Be advised, though an animated feature, "Gunnm" is graphicly violent. It is NOT a cartoon. No cute bunnys. "Gunnm" (Battle Angel) is an incredibly well animated adaptation of a popular Manga (Japanese Comic Book Style). The only drawback is that their is only one and apparently no plans to continue the work in Anime'. The Manga however... continues.

Can't help but think that the English title "Battle Angel Alita" is probably just a wimp out for "Lolita". Remind me, eyeballs should be *smaller* than fists, right? That said, Battle Angel is thankfully free of teeny sex, although the ubiquitous brief glimpse of nekkid adult lady is pubic hair free, which I always find quite disturbing.

The animation is fine, although the scale of characters varies wildly, with Alita shrinking to almost Tinkerbelle proportions in some shots. Also, gravity seems to have a particularly tenuous hold on our little protagonist (even for anime!) and she does spend a fair bit of time just staring wide eyed.

Voice talent in the English dub is par for the course for anime, i.e. pretty dire. Alita at least has a distinctive cutesy mock-English timbre. The baddies are all instantly identifiable by their voices, which is frankly insulting and doesn't help to convince sceptics (or me, to be honest) that anime is more than a kiddie cartoon gone rabid.

There's some attempt at characterisation among the protagonists, but a fifty something minute runtime isn't enough time to expand on one fall/redemption story, let alone three or four. In fact, the whole thing is wrapped up and ended very abruptly in the last few minutes. It feels forced and unfinished, and smacks of series pilot.

Still, it was clearly a classy bit of animation before the translators got their hands on it. As usual, I'm left with the feeling that it's an opportunity wasted, and that a subtitled version would probably be much more enjoyable - as is definitely the case with Akira.

This is the one that taught me not to judge an anime by its cover. I expected an hour of mindless violence along with a weak story line. Instead, I found myself in a very deep and well developed world for the short time spent in it. It was all story, and an incredibly imaginative place perfect for the story.

It was definately too short. It could have had a great and long lasting series life if they had chosen one. But it was none the less, an enjoying ride, and not a moment of wasted time.

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.