Battle Angel Alita was featured often in magazines in the 90s so even if I never watched it I knew it existed and it always looked so good. The live action movie seemed to have been in development for decades and I never thought it would happen and one day it just did. So for the first time I got to see what this franchise was all about and both of them adapt the beginning of the saga mostly as the manga has never been completely covered in any other media. So while we don’t have the whole story at the very least we have two adaptations that seem to get the feeling of what the manga is about.
Battle Angel Alita
The anime surprised me int hat it was only two OVA only. I’m not sure why it was never continued or why it had so much attention to it if it was never finished. It’s not an action packed tell as much story as it can kind of OVA either as it takes its time to tell its story. I can’t say I dislike they took this route as it gives us a good story even if it doesn’t end. The dog scene is just too hard for me to watch but I understand it’s an important scene and gives the blood paint the significance it needs.
The style of the anime is definitely from a different era and that’s really nice to see, there’s just something about this era that makes anime have a very distinct look. It’s aa very depressing anime but I love it. Overall despite taking its time it’s still a really fast movie. It also gives us plenty of violence and a grim outlook. The animation is beautiful and it’s worth watching even to this day. Too bad we never got the entire manga as an anime as a new adaptation would just not come close to this vintage style
Battle Angel Alita
The CG look was a really nice way of adapting an anime design, I really like the look they went with it and it did a fantastic job in recreating what looks anime style. We have an origin story here and a well done introduction, the cyberpunk feel is done nicely as well. This is the correct way to do an introduction into a world, something many movies and adaptations get so wrong. The movie does slow down a bit int he middle but overall the pace is not bad. Unlike the OVAs it feels more like a real movie telling a story since instead of adapting the manga it had the benefit of trying to adapt as much as it could to make one story.
I’m glad they didn’t have the guts to do the dog scene in live action, I thin they knew the outcry would be too much and yet the subtle way they did it still gets to you and has almost as much of an impact as it’s supposed to but I’m ok with that compromise. It does feel like a CG fest of the 2010s with tons of stuff happening as they evade sharp blades but at least it has style. And it should because this movie always felt like a passion project that was handled with much love of the source material.
Who knows if we’ll ever get a full adaptation of the manga somehow, I’m willing to be it’ll happen one day even if it isn’t as good as these two interpretations, but at the very least we have two great interpretations that tell us the origin of the character. I have to admit I don’t love the story in general, but the emotion, style, and characters make up for that and make me want to get to know more of this world.