Gunnm

YUKITOPIA!!

Welcome to the stupendous and imaginary world of Kishiro Yukito-sensei!

GUNNM (Battle Angel Alita) proves to be a deep and breath-taking work, brimming with charming and intrinsic characters, a powerful and driving story, and a cosmogony as beautiful as it is gloomy, being, after a fashion, a dystopia of a fallen world, once one has delved into it. In Gally (or Alita) we found the drive and valour of a cyborg girl searching for her lost memories, the gore and goose bumps across the skin amongst extraordinary battles as she becomes a Hunter Warrior. Moreover, the nascent, ambiguous and poetic love between man and machine; ... the inhabitants and life, much blight, of Scrap Iron City; the reverie to attain a higher order of living above the floating, looming and cryptic Zalum; a parent’s care and affection; vendetta, lasciviousness and betrayal; the labyrinthine path of blood and fortitude, and the shadowing scam hidden in the characters that rain life into this perplexing journey.

Though left unfinished, this OVA is a stellar constellation of beauteous, bleak light piercing through the darkness of a post-apocalyptic future. An electrifying romance and an aspiring, floating dream. A very unique cosmogony; a mysterious and beautifully grotesque relic of the 90’s.

The only existing animated adaptation of the Battle Angel Alita manga, Gunnm is a 2-episode OVA from the early 90s. It covers pretty much the same ground as the Hollywood movie, minus some future arcs that the movie rushed in earlier. It's not terribly interesting, but it's also not a significant time investment. To fans of the genre or the manga, this will be time well spent.

For what it's worth, as opposed to the movie, the city (Iron City, I think it's called?) can clearly be seen for the post-apocalyptic desiccated hellhole that it is, not the relatively poor, but vibrant and bustling hipster paradise ... from the Hollywood production.

In keeping with the ethic of being appropriately dark, the dog death scene is way more explicit here, as well. Be warned.

Also, just as I recently found him in Genocyber, Ryuuzaburou Ootomo, the voice actor of Crocodile from One Piece, is here, as well. He seems to be part of an old guard of voice actors more likely to be found in old school shows.

Imo it wasn't that good. I know it came before but Alita is just a robot Sailor Saturn. I also didn't like the romance in this show since Hugo's a criminal but that doesn't seem to bother Gally at all. That makes me think she's a bitch. I don't have any sympathy for her. Hugo also seemed like a dick when he kissed Gally and said they're partners in crime now. Imo it's really tone deaf since he's a guy who rips peoples spines out to sell.

And I was really disappointed with the world. I thought it would be darker and more sci-fi but the ... world of BAA is more like Samurai Jack. It's very cartoony and the robot stuff is just a mish-mash.

I thought I'd read the manga but I doubt it. It's not my kind of story. I prefer a more serious one. Was interesting to see though how this inspired Texhnolyze with the privileged city above the dark one made of junk.

If Hugo was the OVA original character I probably would've read the manga but since Chiren was, who I thought was actually decent/compelling, there's no way I'd like the manga if the author can come up with a guy like Hugo. I'm surprised this is seinen. It's probably just another one of those shounen with x-rated violence and gore kind of seinen, like Tokyo Ghoul. I hate that type.