Alita: Battle Angel

I’m going to begin this review with a bit of autobiography. Like many kids who grew up in the late 70s-early 80s, I got a taste of Japanese animation (i.e. anime) through Star Blazers, Battle of the Planets, and Robotech. In college, I was reintroduced to it and was shown in no uncertain terms that anime could and did address some very mature and thought-provoking subject matter, all while still being very fun and entertaining. One of the animes that showed that potential was a 1993 direct-to-video release (OVA, in anime fan parlance) called “Battle Angel.”

 Battle Angel was based on Gunmm, a manga series drawn and written by Yukito Kushiro that he began publishing in 1990. An English translation of the manga was released around the same time as the Battle Angel anime and I immediately began buying the volumes. Kushiro has continued the story and is still publishing Gunmm (or Battle Angel Alita, here in the states) manga and I am still collecting.

 Sometime around the year 2000 or so, I began to hear rumors that there was another, far more famous, fan of the Battle Angel series; that being James Cameron, who after the overwhelming success of Titanic was the hottest director in Hollywood. When asked at some point what he wanted to do next after Titanic, he told the interviewer: “Battle Angel.” I was beyond stoked.

 Of course, life doesn’t always work out the way even big shot Hollywood directors want it to go, and as the years passed Cameron had to alter his dream of bringing Kushiro’s vision to the big screen. Avatar cemented his place as that “hottest director” yet again, but it was almost too successful. The studios wanted more of that and a lot less of his dream project. So he passed the director’s chair to Robert Rodriguez and the project finally started moving forward.

 And I got to see it this past weekend.



 So what did I think?

It was pretty much everything I had hoped it would be. The plot of the film adheres closely to the plot of the 1993 anime, which is also the plot of the first two volumes of the manga. Dr. Ido, a skilled cybernetic doctor, finds a partially destroyed cyborg in a scrap pile, rebuilds her, and names her Alita. Alita has no memory of who she is and she sets out to uncover her identity. She begins to learn, makes some enemies, falls in love, and begins to challenge the corrupt social order of her world.

 The film is filled to the brim with homages and references to the anime and manga series. Rodriguez was inspired choice as director, since his experience adapting the Sin City comic to the screen comes through here. Some shots are direct out of the manga, as if he used Kushiro’s art as his storyboard. Fans of the anime and the manga will appreciate that, and it clearly shows that both Cameron (who stayed on as producer) and Rodriguez have real love for the source material.

 Another place that shows is through some of the deeper themes of the film. On one level, Alita Battle Angel is a boilerplate sci-fi blockbuster. But Kishiro’s work asks some deep questions, questions that may become more pertinent as our technology in the real world continues to advance. Questions about transhumanism, identity, cybernetics, and what all that means to the human condition. How do cyborgs fall in love? Is a person a person if their body is entirely mechanical? What if their brain is a machine as well? What does it all mean?

The movie doesn’t get too bogged down in these philosophical questions, but neither does it ignore them. In fact, my favorite line from the film is when Hugo, Alita’s fully organic love interest, says to her, “You are the most human person I’ve ever known.” That line is pure Kishiro.

 If you’re a fan of the anime and/or the manga series, absolutely go see this movie. If you’re just a general anime fan and have had no experience with Kushiro’s work, I still recommend it, if only to see what a big budget adaptation of an anime property can be if people who truly love that property are behind the wheel. We’ve been burned a few too many times over recent years (Dragonball: Evolution, Ghost in the Shell, and Avatar: The Last Airbender to name just a few.)

 If you’re not a fan of anime, I’d still recommend it. The story not so dense that the uninitiated will get lost. The action scenes and effect shots are really well done. The cast is top notch with several Academy award winners: Christoph Waltz, Mahershala Ali, and Jennifer Connely. Newcomer Roza Salazar owns her role as the title character, especially considering it’s a mostly motion-capture performance. Alita really comes to life, in her performance; her curiosity, her innocence, her strength, and her anger are all there.

I look forward to seeing if the movie can be successful enough to greenlight a sequel. I want more Battle Angel. I want to see what these actors, producers, and directors can do with the later volumes of the manga, where some of those deeper questions I mentioned above take more central stage. But I am satisfied with what I’ve gotten. This is the Alita I’ve wanted for these nearly 20 years. Go and check it out.
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Rev. Allen Schwarz is an ELCA pastor in central Pennsylvania. He’s been a nerd pretty much all his life, dabbling mostly in role-playing games and anime. In the past, he’s worked staff at several large anime conventions, written fan fiction, built models, and amassed a collection of games, comics, and videos that is too big for his house. He lives in York, PA with his wife Sarah and their daughter Emily.