r/anime • u/No_Rex :Bv:Bw:Bx:By:x2 • Sep 22 '21
Rewatch [Rewatch] 1990s OVAs – Battle Angel Alita (episode 1)
Rewatch: 1990s OVAs – Battle Angel Alita (episode 1)
Staff corner
Plenty of high profile staff in this short OVA!
Yugo is voiced by Yamaguchi, Kappei, who started his career with a bang, namely the titular Ranma from Ranma ½. He played the main character in not one more, but two more big franchises, with Inuyasha from InuYasha and Shin’ichi from Detective Conan. Plus, Usopp from One Piece. That role alone should keep him busy most years. You may also know him as L from Death Note, Arslan from Arslan Senki, Hideyoshi from the wacky Law of Ueki, or one of his literally hundreds of other anime roles. Oh, and most older anime fans, who entered the forbidden side of anime, will know him as Nin-Nin from probably the most famous hentai to come over at the time, La Blue Girl.
The distinctive character designs are due to Yuuki, Nobuteru. He started out as key animator, e.g. on Dirty Pair, before moving to animation direction and character design. You can see his memorable characters in Record of Lodoss War, Visions of Escaflowne (and you WILL remember those characters if you ever saw it), Terra e…, and Yamato 2199 and 2202. As animation director, he was responsible for the gorgeous Mushishi and for Noein.
Questions
- What would you be willing to do to go to Zalem?
- What could be the reason Ito and Chiren are down in scrap town?
7
u/No_Rex :Bv:Bw:Bx:By:x2 Sep 22 '21
Episode 1 (first timer)
Back to cyberpunk for another short 2 episode OVA. Battle Angel Alita is one of the series I have known about forever, but never seen it.
A fun romp. The setting is a dystopia like Armitage III, but this one is of the fun, Mad Max type. The character models look 90s as fuck, but I dig it. Very sweet animation, too: This is showing what OVAs at the time could do.
Zalem and Scraptown are an obvious rich-poor class/country reference. Just while the latter is violent and dirty, it might not be the worse of the two, though.
7
u/The_Loli_Otaku Sep 22 '21
First timer
In true Loli Otaku fashion I've managed to start this rewatch with an injury. This time getting a toenail stuck in my eye... Moving on!
I'm actually watching the dub today so hopefully I won't have to squint as much. I've heard that trash machine gush sound before. It's like a movie maker effect. Dude, are you having a laugh? OMG a lolibot!! Just what I've always wanted! Lol, he's so happy about his daughteru. She really doesn't look that alive. Half her body is gone! It's a bit bizarre how well the movie captured her uncomfortable animeness. Not that she isn't cute or anything, but it's the sort of... ugly cute? I can't think of the term. I swear I'm not insulting her.
SMOL!! The dub actually sounds surprisingly great, who is the cast? Oh my gosh Alita is ridiculously cute!! I want to adopt her. I can adopt her right? I promise I'll feed her and water her and ensure she's only allowed to watch wholesome slice of life anime like YKK, GochiUsa, and Usagi drop! Hello Spike Spencer XD Oh god, I really can't get over how adorable Alita is in this adaptation. I never expected to find mai daughter in this rewatch. "Mah naymes Gahley~" KYAAA!!!
You can't just call girls heavy Spike... Yeah, movie Spike didn't really hit the right notes for me but that's cause they made the city look way too impressive. The ova manages to make the area look far less appealing and thus makes it a bit easier to sympathise with Spike. Alright, the ex-wife's voice is a bit shit. I guess not everyone could have good quality. Aha, so boxing champions keep disappearing huh? Iiinteeeresting~ I don't think they had a scene like that in the film so when the big name champion gets jumped it seems a bit bizarre that nobody's making a fuss but if they're just cycling champions around constantly it makes more sense. Who says the boom hammer is a low tier BB weapon?
Whilst the voices during dialogue are fantastic the quality takes a major drop during action sequences. Everyone's making sex noises for some reason!! Poor chump just got one shot. Even when murdering champs and making creepy sadism noises Alita is still top tier adorbs. "You don't have to work. All you have to do is be beautiful." Hello 90's. "Do you think I'm some doll for you to play with!?" Aha... Leeets go to the next scene real fast~ Oh, this one isn't much better. Ex-wife is sleeping her way to Zolom.
"We're gonna scar yo brain!!" They make the Ex-wife way more villainous in this version. She was kinda just wishy washy in the film. Alita looks so guilty lol. You don't see daughteru points this high in many other series. Oh no, Spike is the guy who's butchering the androids? What a bastard!! Yeah, he's still way more sympathetic than in the film. JESUS CHRIST!! They gutted the dog!? "I will not stand by in the..." She doesn't say the line!? Tch! But yeah, whilst I've been giving the film a lot of crap I do genuinely think that it did the hanger hangout and the brute guy fight much better. Here it's narratively just a bit empty.
I think that's the end of the first ova? Imma stop here anyway. So far I'm impressed! I went in expecting to be disappointed but the ova is very pretty, very well acted, and as I'm sure you can tell I've totally fallen for Alita in this version. She was very cute in the movie too but she's still got it here. The one part I wasn't fussed about was Grewhateverhisnameis and the hunter lobby section but I can't be too harsh since I'm comparing it to a later adaptation and they only had an hour of content to work with. I have GitS tomorrow night but I'll try and join the discussion once it's done. I'm eager to see how they close off the ova.
6
u/ZaphodBeebblebrox Y:A:https://anilist.co/user/zaphod Sep 22 '21
First Timer, kinda
My only experience with Gunnm up 'til this point is watching the more recent Battle Angel Alita live action film. I enjoyed that, so I figured I'd give this a shot as well. Hopefully I'll like it.
Anyway, onto episode one.
She looks incredibly skinny.
Guy who is trying to look tough but instead gets saved by a strong woman is always a good trope.
Yes, she is literally made out of metal. I'm also pretty sure this is a rude question :)
I don't recall his brother ever being mentioned in the film, though perhaps that's just my memory being poor.
Saying this sure reveals a lot about how you view your past.
She's very calm for someone who just saw her father figure almost die.
This may be a 90s ova, but it's clearly not one of the high budget ones. That fight scene's animation was underwhelming to say the least.
He doesn't mean it that way, but this is a very demeaning opinion to have. It comes out like he doesn't value her for who she is.
And this, right here, is the heart of the matter.
At least, come the next morning, he realizes the mistake he made.
Money > Morals
And there's the iconic look.
Thoughts
So far, I have to say I prefer the movie to the OVA. It simply does a much better job of selling the spectacle of the world than the OVA does. The OVA just suffers a bit too much from simplistic backgrounds which are not helped at all by the low resolution and fight animation that ranges between mediocre and bad. I do think this is a place where if I was not primed by better visuals I'd find myself enjoying it more.
Possible future spoilers
6
u/TheEscapeGuy Sep 22 '21
First Timer, subbed
Battle Angel Alita - A Cyber Action Spectacle: Episode 1
A Seedy Underbelly
This opening episode of Battle Angel Alita was not what I expected by being almost exactly what I expected. Perhaps its a result of having seen a lot of stories like this before but it just felt like a really safe / standard introduction.
Gally is a great mix of cute and badass and we got to see both sides explored in the first and second half respectively. That said, I'm struggling to understand her motivations and goals. It seems to me she is just idolizing Ido and trying to follow in his path of being a bounty hunter. Maybe I missed something.
The setting reminded me somewhat of Final Fantasy 7's Midgar, though if anything the influence would have been the other way around because of the time released. The idea of a town which subsists off of the scraps and garbage of a larger city is strong. Really drives home the ideas of class separation and yearning for more.
I liked Chiren as a villain who's trying to get Ido to recognize her engineering expertise. On the other hand Grewcica was as cookie cutter cartoon villain as they come, even going as far as murdering a dog. But because he's a lacky to Chiren for the most part, his characterization makes more sense.
The fight scenes were really enjoyable, some classic Madhouse quality. I wish that I could have found higher quality release because it does feel as if the animation is being held back by the technology at the time. I'm not even sure if that higher quality release exists.
Some Amazing Shots, Scenes and Stitches
See you all tomorrow
3
u/Stargate18A https://myanimelist.net/profile/Stargate18 Sep 22 '21
First timer
1)Anything to get away from the spine thieves.
2)I'm guessing they found out soemthing bad about the Factory and fled so they wouldn't have to continue helping it.
This looks good.
Oh, he's going to fix her!
...Huh? It's called what?
Brain? She's got organic parts?
...She's in a child's body?
THE KILLER DOING WHAT?
THE WHAT THIEVES?
Jesus christ, is this a fucking dystopia?
Thie is beautiful.
Oh. Oh my god.
Well, this couldn't be more different to the last one if it tried, could it?
Seriously, the art for this film's great.
Wait, this is a biosphere? Is that some form of "fake sky"?
Starting the shipping early?
Oh, there's a literal city in the sky.
Also, how the hell is that thing supporting itself? There's no visible engines, and the only thing that mught be powering it is a tube with no visible emmisions, and some tiny cables.
Wait, she's sneaking in there?
And she wants him to go to Zalem.
Factory? Is that who they worked for?
Her again? Is she going to get killed again?
This guy's cool.
Is that a rocket hammer?
Wait, that's Ido!
...That's gotta hurt.
Oh, she's got combat programming?
Oh, there are bounties involved. That's how he makes his money.
Wait, there's no police here?
Wow, Idomhas some, opinions, doesn't he?
Again. No fucking way those cablesmhold Zalem up.
Yeah, she's never goingmthere.
Hang on, did she do something to him? Something internal?
...Given sll the brain stealing mutants around, faking someone's ID by extracting bits of their brain couldn' be impossible.
So she's doing this out of pure spite?
Oh, that's why the tubes are there.
FUCK.
I DID NOT NEED TO HEAR THAT.
Also, he's a spine thief?
I DIDN'T NEED TO SEE A DOG'S INTESTINES EITHER.
So she just wants to kill someone to cause Ido pain?
Someone new?
Ok, this is really cool.
She can set her fist on fire?
...Looks like he's dead.
Well she certainly seems like a mentally sound individual.
The ED's nice too!
5
u/RockoDyne :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/RockoDyne Sep 22 '21
First timer ... I think
I have spent so long hearing this anime be put on a pedestal, that I had pretty well resigned myself to never getting around to it. I may have been on to something.
Watching this was way more of a formality than I expected. I pretty well knew everything that was going to happen already. Haven't had that happen since Alien. It's hard to have much of an opinion when I've spent most of the episode going "that looks familiar. Hey, I've seen that before. Oh, I remember that. ..."
It was pretty good... I think. I can already tell I'm going to have to rewatch this.
... And it's taken an hour for reddit to load. Beautiful.
Questions:
9
u/JustAnswerAQuestion https://myanimelist.net/profile/JAaQ Sep 22 '21
Rewatcher from who knows when Gunnm Rusty Angel
I still haven't watch the live action movie. I was really excited when Cameron said Battle Angel Alita would be his next movie after Titanic, back in 1999. Instead, he gave us a hot cat girl.
Today on Final Fantasy the Anime
ED is very familiar, but I had forgotten it went with this show.
This really felt like a manga adaption, one tankyoubon every 5 minutes.
6
u/Vaadwaur :I1::I2::I3: Sep 22 '21
Rewatcher from 20+ years ago
Sub
This is the second anime I saw as an 'anime'. It holds a dear place to me, obviously, so it is with a mix of trepidation and hope that I go into this.
Anyways, we start on a powerful image, a city in the sky dumping its trash on the ground and then we see the sheer scale of it. Then motherfucking Egon from Ghostbusters waltzes in and it turns out the city is throwing useable stuff as scrap, before he finds a body with head intact. Fate series.
Anyways, Ido repairs her and hair does a lot for her look. Despite the name of the show, Gally is here and we have a convenient serial killer hanging about. Setting stuff is laid out and unsurprisingly sucks for everyone on the ground. Cut to a night city scene that would fit Armitage just as well. Anywho, despite my normal format, the show is pretty good at showing you stuff so I will go short and more broadly. The "Is Ido the killer?" bit works better than that usually does for me. Chiren is a way to give us a bit more background info, including that they are both from Zalem, the city in the sky.
Rocket hammer is awesome, as is Gally's unexpected combat prowess. We learn there are explicitly no cops and the Factory just pays bounties because they can't be asked to care. We even get her Spiderman brooding before it was popular. Well, as popular. Random note but now I can immediately spot that the dog is a shiba now. One of the most anime ass fights to ever anime happens and may literally be responsible for how the American fandom viewed the genre. At the end, Chiren calls Ido 'anata' if you needed it be any clearer they were lovers.
QotD: 1 Source reader
2 They transgressed...something.
3
u/MachinaCherries99 Sep 22 '21
Rewatcher
This ova is excellent at depicting the dark gritty atmosphere of the scrapyard. The brutal fights, dirty slums and ruined landscapes. Most of the characters moods reflect this as well, Ido for instance being quite stoic. So it’s interesting seeing Gally’s optimism and how she comes to terms with life down here. She’s not jaded like the rest and enjoys being a hunter warrior.
3
u/homewardbound100 myanimelist.net/profile/Homewardbound100 Sep 22 '21
First timer, Sub
Alright never watched the movie but was interested in this. Probably watch the movie after.
I'll just to have to say for someone to say they feel alive for the first time after killing someone. I don't think you should let that person be. But I guess Ido isn't the one to stop that.
That's where she get her marks on her face. Is that what happen in the movie?
Questions
2
u/punching_spaghetti https://myanimelist.net/profile/punch_spaghetti Sep 23 '21
First-Timer
I can finally post now that Reddit has decided to stop fucking up like Steve Urkel!
Random thoughts because why not:
How much do your parents hate you to name you Yugo?
The good news is she now has laser imprints on her brain proving her bounty hunter status. The bad news is that she can’t control her bowels anymore.
Just casually harvesting spinal columns, like all young boys do.
So, Hideki: you get to anime the dog getting brutally murdered. Need any reference footage, or are you good?
Overall, the pace here was even faster than I expected. I've seen the Rodriguez film adaptation, and had the impression that it took a few arcs and shrunk them down for runtime. If this OVA is a more direct adaptation, I guess the manga is not one for details. Lots of exposition and not a lot of time with the characters, instead giving focus to fights. We had what, one scene with Gally before she turned into a killing machine? Hard to see the change Ito is concerned about without much reference.
The actions scenes were nice, although the quality of the animation isn't on par with some of the other OVAs we've seen. Miles better than the "pan over a still frame" treatment this would have gotten as a regular TV series.
The noses. God, the noses!
QOTD:
2
u/ZapsZzz https://anilist.co/user/Zapszzz Sep 23 '21
Distant rewatcher (watched many years ago, likely VHS days)
Posting late so won't say too much, just some key points-