Gally may look like a charming young girl. But the truth within her is far more
deadly. Rescued from a trash heap by a
kind scientist, Gally slowly discovers her fighting potential, driving her to
become a force for justice in the downtrodden city of Scrap Iron City. As she struggles with the warrior within, Gally
will soon come face to face with the draw of the skyward city, Zalem, and those
who will risk their souls to get there, including what’s left of their
humanity.
First off, Gally.
Yeah I never knew “Alita” was a localization name for the character and
honestly, it sounds better. If you’re
only familiar with the Battle Angel IP because of the Manga and Live Action
Film title, this might come off as a bit jarring. But nope, Gally is the name of our main
character both in the original Japanese and the Dub I was watching. Gally does start off innocent and naïve with
a wide eye smile and bright personality but it quickly darkens as the violence
around her becomes more apparent. Why
Gally can do the things she can do is never really explained but worse yet is
the extra hint that there’s more to her than meets the eye. Probably her best moment for me in the OVA is
after her first fight when she sounds blood thirsty lamenting about how she
could have killed an opponent with an extra second of time.
In doing some research I learned that original author Yukito
Kishiro didn’t really want to do an Anime adaptation of the Battle Angel manga
because he was too busy working on said Manga and there have been zero plans
about continuing the Anime to this day.
This factoid alone helps explain why the Battle Angel OVA feels rushed,
incomplete and just kind of stops after the end of its second episode. We speed run through Gally’s discovery,
proper intro, first few fights all in the span of thirty minutes in Episode 1
and then dedicate all of Episode 2 to the tragedy of Yugo. It gives off the impression that these are
little more than Compilation Episodes than an actual two part feature. Character motivations are barely explained
while certain characters themselves appear briefly with no dialogue in Episode
1 only to get a larger role for no reason in Episode 2 before getting
dispatched. I get that Kishiro’s heart
maybe wasn’t fully into this endevor but what would have been the problem with
splitting these into four episodes instead of two? It’d allow character and story beats to
breathe a bit more and give a better sense of cohesion to the project.
Episode 2 tries to narrow the focus to the quickly rushed
romance between Gally and Yugo. It’s
kind of a footnote in Episode 1 so it’s jarring that the second half of this
short overall feature goes all in full speed on how much we’re supposed to care
about whether Gally and Yugo get their happy ending. Problem is, there isnt much to care about
with these two. Yugo is stubborn to the
point where his fate is sealed from the moment he opens his mouth about
Zalem. As for Gally, she’s a girl with a
very powerful robot body and more often throws mini tantrums to get Yugo’s
attention off of his impossible dream to focus on her. It comes off less dramatic and more comedic,
especially during one moment where things look dire but I couldn’t help but
laugh as a seemingly important character just drops to ash right next to the
crying couple.
Then there’s the action.
It’s probably the one thing you’re really looking forward to, especially
in an OVA from the mid 90s, when OVAs were really popping off with violent
visual spectacle. It’s there in Battle
Angel but it’s all too brief. Big showdowns
between teased opponents are over in less than a couple of minutes and while
there’s plenty of destruction, it never feels like Battle Angel’s heart is full
in it either. There’s blood but the
bloodiest and most graphic death isnt even a Cyborg or Human character. It also does that annoying thing where you
see Gally go in for a kill then cut to someones reaction and then the head of her
hapless foe on the ground. The concept
of Battle Angel from an action standpoint could be a nice fusion of Ninja
Scroll meets Ghost in the Shell. There’s
glimpses of this sure but it never goes the extra step to make good on its
potential. Besides, we have the
pointless and non fleshed out characters to be annoyed by, that’s more
important. (Side note: I could not stand
Gally’s acting in the English Dub. She sounds
like she’s throwing a temper tantrum whenever she’s in battle, not exactly befitting
her Battle Angel title.)
I know I’m gonna catch a lot of flack for this…but I like
the Battle Angel Alita movie much more than the OVA. The movie expands the world of Scrap Iron
City, has a lot more action and does a better job building the central romance
over the course of two hours than the OVA does in 2 short episodes. The OVA is a two part sneak preview of what’s
likely far superior material that isnt without some highlights like the
animation and brief bits of action. But
rushing character growth and throwing most of the emotional effort into the
second half shows that the Battle Angel OVA wasn’t properly planned and if the
author didn’t want to really work on it, it maybe should not have happened at
all, or instead should have waited til the Manga was done so a proper adaptation
could have been attempted. It’s funny,
the long gestating live action adaptation may have surpassed the Anime source
it was trying to adapt for years. Do
yourself a favor: If you want to get into Battle Angel Alita, read the Manga or
check out the Movie. The OVA, this one
goes in the scrap heap.
2/10
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