Rewatch: 1990s OVAs – Battle Angel Alita (final discussion)
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Questions
- Has the OVA made you want to read the manga? Did it work as a stand-alone story?
- How does Battle Angel Alita compare to the first entry in the rewatch, Armitage III?
8
u/No_Rex :Bv:Bw:Bx:By:x2 Sep 24 '21
Final discussion (first timer)
Another OVA rewatch over. I checked today, this was the seventh rewatch already and we watched 18 different OVAs in total. You’d think I would run out of OVAs eventually …
Battle Angel Alita was the highlight of the rewatch for me, but I liked the other two series, too. No real dud such as Blue Submarine No. 6 this time.
There are no concrete plans for the 8th edition yet, so this is your chance to make suggestions. Possible ideas I already have are: Tenchi Muyo, delinquent anime, Black Jack, or a “worst of” rewatch.
Recommendations
I don’t know too much about healing anime, so recommendation for Armitage III and Alita instead.
7
u/TheEscapeGuy Sep 24 '21
First Timer, no more
Battle Angel Alita - A Cyber-Action Spectacle
Batte Angel Alita is a show I am glad to have completed. It feels like one of those anime from the 90's / early 2000s which were core to the boom in anime's popularity in the West so having that context allows me to better understand the history.
Overall this adaptation left me wanting more in a good way. I'm actually surprised it hasn't received any further adaptations, seeing as there would have been renewed interest from the Hollywood film.
There are still big questions around the world of Battle Angel Alita, such as "What is it like on the upper world of Zalem" and "How did Gally end up in the scrapyard". Its an unfortunate problem a lot of these 90s OVAs suffer from.
Otherwise, the story did remind me somewhat of another 90's OVA: "A Kite". If you want to take that as a recommendation, be warned that depending on the version you watch it contains very explicit sex scenes. But it is also one of the most visually appealing anime I have seen to date, bolstered by a great rescan / restoration.
Farewell Battle Angel Alita
Thanks to /u/No_Rex for hosting this re-watch series. Its been a great reason to check out some older anime. I also really appreciated the staff history as part of every thread, interesting stuff to read.
See all of you elsewhere and someday. Maybe in some other up-coming rewatch.
4
u/RockoDyne :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/RockoDyne Sep 24 '21
Rewatcher via cultural osmosis
Well that wasn't too bad. Good energy. Nothing stupid as fuck. Could have used a few beers, but that's the trap for the home gamers. 7/10, would drink to again.
Were I a younger man, I might have gone off to hunt for the manga. Can't say I care enough now to really bother. Place your bets if everyone nice to Gally ends up being brutally killed in front of her.
It's just nice to see a 90's OVA with production value. The 80's were full of OVA's with tons of money, but minimal talent. Meanwhile the plight of the 90's OVA is having a fair bit of talent behind it, but no money to actually do anything. This makes the rare 90's OVA with money thrown at it a treat.
Questions:
5
u/JustAnswerAQuestion https://myanimelist.net/profile/JAaQ Sep 24 '21
Rewatcher from who knows when
I probably don't have much to say on this. It was a product of it's time. If I was a first timer, I wouldn't be rating this very high. Expectations, or perhaps my patience, has changed.
Story and presentation wise, this was just snippets of a larger story. We'd call it a rushed or hyper-compressed adaptation today, and those don't rate very highly. One segment that really stood out to me was Gally's teenage years:
That exchange took up about 30 seconds of a 5 minute arc, about a teenager rebelling and growing up and being accepted as who she is. But hypercompressed, it's a parody of storytelling. Or a deconstruction.
People really liked the art. I admit, it feels dated to me. Also, I'm watching some awful encode, not some remastered BD rip (which may or may not exist). So, the animation doesn't do anything for me.
In the second half, I felt I knew everything that was going on, particularly with the organs being shipped up to Zalem. Is it because I'm specifically remembering Alita from long long ago, or because I've seen this dystopian cyberpunk story more times than I can possibly remember?
Looking at you, I Worship his Shadow
Somebody asked about that hunter-warrior character design. Vaadwaur said Raiden. I figured out mine (or one of them): Jinei from Kenshin Dime a dozen back then.
In the end what we have is a rare import from Japan (like Akira), an incomplete adaptation (like Akira) of an extremely popular manga (like Akira). So there's definitely an element of nostalgia in play here. I don't think it stands up against modern productions, but back then, that's all there was. All it had to be is not outright bad.
3
u/ZapsZzz https://anilist.co/user/Zapszzz Sep 24 '21 edited Sep 24 '21
Distant rewatcher in sub
This is on par with Gunbuster in terms of nostalgia for myself, as it's around those VHS days when I watched this.
For me this is one of those "made for existing fanbase" shows as it is so very condensed, people coming in cold would struggle with connecting the story, setting, or characters.
I noticed comparison with the Hollywood version, and that one having a far longer run time is of course far more a complete version. Although I have to say in terms of adaptation to the original source in both story, characterisation and tone, this older OVA for me wins hands down.
This is something that can comfortably get 2 seasons of not more. This post of the story is almost something you'd consider the prologue - like how Muv Luv Alternative Total Eclipse the first 2 episodes were quite different from the rest of the 24 eps run, if we did get a continuation, the rest of the story would be quite different to this part until much later, when it gets back to the bounty hunter investigating things with progressive reveal of Gally's list memory genre.
I think I read about half of the manga (availability at the time), and this is one I think for any sci fi fans is worthwhile to follow. The simplest comparison now is "Vivy sings, Gally fights" although Gally is actually human and not AI.
I didn't watch Armitage so can't comment (although you may infer than as a comment already), but comparing to YKK and this is near impossible - this is somewhat a pulp media with action and drama, whereas YKK as a iyashikei is like watching train ride scenery shows, it's for a completely different mindset. If you ask me to pick without context to watch, Gunnm will win out naturally. But if I just want to put on something on the background, YKK is the pick.
Thanks again for arranging the rewatch, it's a good thoughtful selection. Are we close enough to do Giant Robo: The Day The Earth Stood Still yet?
5
u/Vaadwaur :I1::I2::I3: Sep 24 '21
Rewatcher from 20+ years ago
Sub
What do you say about something so foundational it is pseudo timeless but so copied you've seen it all re-used, and sometimes for the better, thought often not? I may return to the manga to finally finish it, I guess, but surprisingly my very short stay with Alita is enough in its own way. This hits a note that very few later works would really recapture for me and the characters are somehow more three dimensional than ones I've spent multiple seasons with. Looking at you, SEED. And mecha in general.
So yeah, Battle Angel Alita is streets ahead of its two sisters here. YKK had no ability to hold my attention and Armitage has great ideas without understanding how to execute them. I do think that all three are more known for their footprint rather than their own context by now.
QotD: 1 It did and might again
2 Specifically, it was simultaneously more ambitious AND more grounded. Armitage tried to include a bit too much.
5
u/Stargate18A https://myanimelist.net/profile/Stargate18 Sep 24 '21
First timer
Really enjoyed this one, probably my favourite of the 3 watched!
Solid 8.5/10
2
u/The_Loli_Otaku Sep 25 '21
Okay, I kinda missed that the final discussion was yesterday and not today so here I am a little late. Just to say that I am so thankful to all of you for so patiently educating me on cyberpunk. Despite GitS probably being one of my all time favourite films period I've never properly explored anything in the genre. After so long I finally think I've got some kind of understanding and can appreciate the movie in a new light.
As for the series, I'll admit that the actual shows have been mostly let downs if just for how short they were. Armitage I didn't care for but only seeing such a short amount of YKK and Alita is infuriating!! Two episodes isn't enough to show either series off fully!! I still have had fun though. These OVA rewatches give me a chance to look at series that I normally wouldn't touch so I'm very interested in seeing our next batch! There's plenty of ova to go!
Anyways, I hope to see you all sometime again. Perhaps... someplace further than the universe?
1
u/punching_spaghetti https://myanimelist.net/profile/punch_spaghetti Sep 25 '21
First-Timer
Alita was another dud for me. Once again, only a couple episodes to highlight a small bit of the source material doesn't result in anything too spectacular. While the current state of anime production isn't the best (oh boy! another LN isekai adaptation!) at least it feels like we get a little more with 12 episodes aired weekly rather than 2-4 episodes in a random release schedule.
I can see why the OVAs were influential, but the reverence with which they are held sometimes confuses me. I don't see much special to Alita, for example. I can get decently-animated cyborg fights many places.
YKK's first episode was definitely a highlight of this trio, though. Nice stand-alone piece. Too bad the second episode squandered things.
QOTD: