Forum - View topicREVIEW: Battle Angel Alita: Last Order GN 12
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Generic #757858
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Sad, but so very true. I caved and read the scanlations, and unfortunately the next few volumes promise to be even less interesting, since Kishiro apparently decided to milk the Karatekas VS Venus -match for all it's worth (spoiler[before making it all completely pointless with a last minute super move]). I'm still going to read it all, on the hopes that once this goddamned tournament arc is finally over (vol. 18, maybe?) things might get more interesting again. And it is gorgeus to look at.
Alita was trying to save Lou's brain, not brain chip (which was already destroyed ages ago). Besides, she already accomplished that. Remember the end of vol. 10, when she swapped the contents of the mystery F-box for Lou's brain? Alita still has that box, now she just needs to get around to actually resurrecting her friend. |
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vashfanatic
 Posts: 3495 Location: Back stateside |
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Oh dear. I've been steadily catching up on this series, and having just finished volume 10, I could sort of sense this coming, and am distressed to hear it. I'll keep reading (I'm getting them through the library, so it's no loss to my wallet) and just hope that the story gets back on track. |
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russ869
Posts: 435 |
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I think this reviewer needs to re-read volumes 10-11 before starting this like I did, because he seems to have forgotten a few important plot points like I had. The series hasn't lost sight of its goal. It just acquired a new one. (Although it is wasting time getting there with karate tournaments and such...)
spoiler[Actually, the brain chip of the Lou that Alita knew died. She went into space to get back Lou's actual brain. But, as soon as she finally got it she realized that it would all be for naught if the Ladder council decided to wipe out Tiphares and the entire surface world. Meaning now Alita's entire purpose is to force the ZOTT to continue so she can win it and demonstrate enough of her incredible power in the process that she can force Ladder to honor its promise to recognize the people on Earth's surface as an independant sovreign nation with the same rights as the immortal space dwellers.] That seems to me like a better motivation than just bringing back-to-life another version of a dead friend. I know what you mean about Alita getting a serious Dragon Ball Z-style powerup. She even says herself that if feels like she's falling at a faster and faster rate. In other words as her powers keep increasing exponentially she feels herself moving further away and becoming more detached from other people. Although, this isn't the first time that's happened. Looks like it's time for Kishiro to introduce another character who can make Alita start caring about human connections again (i.e.Ido, Hugo, Figure, Koyomi, Lou) and who can bring her human-side back down to earth. |
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vashfanatic
Posts: 3495 Location: Back stateside |
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Why introduce a new one? One of the things that's driven me nuts about Last Order so far is that most of the great characters from the first series are M.I.A. Let's bring some of them back! |
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Monumension
 Posts: 268 Location: Norway |
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No tail, no glory!
Venus vs. Space Karate Allies takes up just one volume; namely # 13. The tournament is entering its final phase now, but I doubt we’ll have to wait as long as until book 18 to see the end of it, unless Kishiro goes Bleach upon us. This is just my opinion, but I think the supposed “horrors” of the tournament arch have been grossly exaggerated. I would have agreed with much of the harsh words if GLO really had been constructed as an endless contestant vs. contestant-form of entertainment manga, the way it has been used in more traditional tournament series, but the way the narrative is presented just doesn’t make this criticism seem right to me. I see the tournament more as a catalyst for an explanation of various aspects of the Gunnm-iverse - the flashbacks in vol. 8 & 9, the introduction the freaky sociopolitical hierarchical structures of the Solar system etc., and not just as an excuse of showing endless battles upon battles. I can agree that the tournament is starting to drag, but I still think it’s ridiculous to draw parallels to DBZ because of this. There was something similar going on in the original Gunnm, during the motorball-arch, which was heftily criticized for straying away from the “main” focus of the story, but in retroperspective I think it was benefitting for the overall look of the series and I have similar hopes for GLO. We won’t know until the very end. As for Alita’s character progress, I’m a little torn on that right now. She’s definitely changed from the beginning of vol. 12, but I can’t say for sure in what direction she’s going. BTW. Judging from later chapters it looks like the upcoming story will shift into more uncontroversial territory after the tournament is over. Without giving too much away, it looks like spoiler[the focus of the series will soon shift towards Alita’s roots on Mars and her relationship with the blonde girl from her childhood (Erica?).] Oh, and judging by the C+ the story got in this review I suspect vol. 13 gets an F-. |
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Generic #757858
Posts: 1354 |
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Well, it was a just rough estimate, but given what I know of the upcoming chapters and the series' current pacing, I think it's pretty safe to say that the final match won't start before vol. 15 and it will last at least two volumes. Add to that the aftermath, and vol. 18 doesn't seem that unplausible...
True, there's plenty of plot development too, but I fail to see how the tournament was necessary for that. Most of the fights bear little to no relation to the main story and the fact that Kishiro was continually finding excuses to push Alita aside in favor of generic cocky shonen hero Sechs make me pretty convinced that he (or his editors) just wanted to do a tournament.
Yeah, but you have to remember that the Motorball arc only lasted two volumes. I'd be a lot more forgiving if ZOTT had been handled as quickly.
Yeah, that's what I meant when I said I was hoping things would get more interesting after the tournament. Alita going to Mars is something I've been waiting for since vol. 3.
Can't say it would be too harsh. spoiler[The second semifinals match is almost completely pointless, since absolutely everyone knows how who would win, and yet Kishiro went out of his way to drag it out by introducing new members for the karate team and giving the Venusians plenty of backstory and drama. It's particularly painful considering how absolutely ludicrous/awesome the ending was.] At least the Space Angel VS Jupiter -match was over quickly enough. Last edited by Generic #757858 on Sat Nov 07, 2009 1:21 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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vashfanatic
Posts: 3495 Location: Back stateside |
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Monumension:
The parallel I would draw to shounen fighting series like Dragonball, Naruto, Bleach, etc. is the preposterous powers, where the author seems to be grasping at straws to come up with innovative ideas. I'm halfway through volume 11 right now, which features an spoiler[alien with a penis gun], and spoiler[karate that breaks down time and space]. At some point the suspension on my disbelief snaps and I just want a normal punch-down, drag-out, hand-to-hand fight, one without new moves and power-ups and physics-defying nonsense. Mind you, it takes a while for me to get to that point (I've loved a lot of the action stunts this series has pulled), but I'm edging there by now. Especially with spoiler[the penis gun]. Being a little juvenile, aren't we, Kishiro? I mean, seriously, a spoiler[penis gun]? I can't tell whether he meant this to be taken as a joke or not. I'm hoping it was, but the whole spoiler[new lifeform trying to communicate with us!] shtick made it seem he was at least halfway serious. |
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Monumension
Posts: 268 Location: Norway |
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Indeed, the final has started and the chapter is going to be the first one of vol. 15.
While it’s pointless to argue about it now, I do wonder what other devices that could have worked as a background for the story had he not decided to go through with the tournament. Either he was thinking of the most effective way of tying the various plotlines together or he wanted to make the manga as grand as possible, and such an event is undeniably suited for those purposes. Cliché? Probably, but I try to see the positive aspects of this way of telling the story. There’s been much discussion about the use of a tournament in a manga like Gunnm, something I have no problems with at all. What bother me are those who start bitching because of the simple fact there’s a tournament there. A manga with a tournament doesn’t necessarily have to be a tournament manga and there are several parts in GLO that exceeds these boundaries.
I partially agree about its pointlessness. spoiler[Kishiro probably attempted to make a commentary on the differences between the cybernetic Zekka and the organic Homme-du-feu - created from Zekka’s DNA. To me it seemed like a somewhat wasted opportunity, mostly because the two characters hardly ever interacted. However, I still appreciated its relevance to Gunnm’s interest in the definition of life and identity. The biggest offence to me was the use of karateka Taraba who’s introduced in vol. 12. He was practically used as canon-fodder without contributing much to the overall story (Of couse, Kishiro could elaborate on these things in upcoming chapters). ] And yet… while I agree the conclusion made it all seem rather pointless, I still enjoyed it immensely. Pointlessness exists in every manga, but to me it would have been almost criminal if Kishiro had made it pointless and, at the same time not entertaining. spoiler[The freaky antics of the Genome Kingdom made it all worthwhile to me, even though the volume had less substance than what many expected. Maybe Kishiro only wanted to show who’s the boss when it comes to future arena-combat. ]I’ll be back when volume 13 is released to protest on its rating and claim it deserves an A+. 
Ah, apart from Alita’s tail the most controversial thing about Last Order seems to be Anomaly (it makes me chuckle every time someone refer to it as the “penis monster”). In this case I guess it comes down to our personal definition of "failed attempt at innovative ideas" contra "serious discussion about inorganic life forms with a hint of black humor". There’s always been a grisly humoristic element throughout the series ever since Makaku started slurping down brains like they were cheeseburgers in the very first volume. Anomaly never bothered me in the slightest, even though it definitely was a surprise to see in a manga with very little focus on sexual elements. I thought it was mostly a terrifying creation – a beast constructed over human base desires, made to destroy. |
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vashfanatic
Posts: 3495 Location: Back stateside |
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See, I don't know how I feel about it. On the one hand, it's totally the sort of design a middle school boy would come up with - "hyuk hyuk, its penis shoots lightning!" - and it is played for laughs with the announcers, but then the author tries to get all Freudian about how it represents our dangerous instinctive desires and its their attempt at communication and blah blah and I dump it in a pile of "ideas that may have sounded good but didn't work when they got actually used." |
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Generic #757858
Posts: 1354 |
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This is propably the key difference between our points of view. I don't think it's a bad tournament as such (indeed, there are plenty worse out there), I just think that it's almost completely unnecessary. One of the things I appreciated most about the original series was the brisk pacing and focus on the main character, and unfortunately those seem mostly lost by now. I'm much more interested to see Alita do something that moves the plot forward than to see Sechs fight some random guy, no matter how entertaining it would be. Though I must admit, I'm always a sucker for overly awesome characters like Zekka.
Those were definetily huge wasted opportunities. spoiler[If there had at least been some character development for Toji and Zekka, then it could have been justified. But no, and now we're just left with Rakan, who is just a completely unsymphatetic asshole.] |
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