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This Week in Anime - How Does Alita: Battle Angel Compare to its Source Material?




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tygerchickchibi



Joined: 29 Sep 2006
Posts: 1481
PostPosted: Fri Mar 01, 2019 2:24 pm Reply with quote
I'm glad that you showed the photo of Alita in the music room because I went to the Alita event in NYC and there was a huge replica of that room!

I totally forgot about it until it was posted now! It makes sense because that wasn't even in the movie, hahaha. They did a great job on it! I wish I had photos now, though. I didn't take any :/
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R. Kasahara



Joined: 19 Feb 2013
Posts: 709
PostPosted: Fri Mar 01, 2019 3:04 pm Reply with quote
Wait, so it was Grewishka who had the worm form? I had remembered it as Zapan for some reason. Clearly, it's been too long since I last read the manga, but since my copies are packed for a move, I can't reread it for awhile yet.

Also, I was unreasonably happy to see that a Deckman made it into the movie, cylinder head and all. Surely I'm not the only one? Anime smallmouth + sweatdrop

Finally, +1 for the wish to see Retro Idol Alita in a sequel!
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Key
Moderator


Joined: 03 Nov 2003
Posts: 18467
Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley)
PostPosted: Fri Mar 01, 2019 3:26 pm Reply with quote
Nah, Zapan was always humanoid in form.

He's one case where I definitely prefer his movie design, as the decorations on his back were cool as hell.
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GeassedbyLelouch



Joined: 12 Jul 2018
Posts: 13
PostPosted: Fri Mar 01, 2019 7:00 pm Reply with quote
Very happy with the movie we've been given.
It's amazing how faithful the movie was to the source material, the manga and the OVA.
Of course, some things had to be changed because they had to merge the Makaku arc and the Yugo arc into one, and they moved the introduction of motorball forward because that's TOO iconic to not have in your movie.
There's so many things, big and small, scenes and lines, which come from the source material, frame by frame or line by line.
It's clear this was a passion project, the movie shows so much love and respect for its source. It's the biggest love letter an anime/manga has ever received from Hollywood.

The movie itself is amazing too, a true MUST SEE!
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Cryten



Joined: 19 Jan 2019
Posts: 1145
PostPosted: Sat Mar 02, 2019 2:11 am Reply with quote
In a film I thoroughly enjoyed I only really complained about 1 thing, maybe 2. The boyfriend appeared to be far less desperate, just a man comfortable with doing some bad things to earn a living. I missed that hypocrisy of his way of life coming back to drive him crazy when he rejects his android body in the OVA. Oh and was the world of alita so nice outside of the main city in the OVA? with how it looked in the movie I would expect large groups of people to leave and flourish in that wonderful looking green world.
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trilaan



Joined: 17 Jan 2009
Posts: 1081
Location: Texas
PostPosted: Sat Mar 02, 2019 3:46 am Reply with quote
I saw the movie 3 times so far, once with a friend who knew nothing about Alita, once with one who loves the manga and once with my 70+-year old father, all of whom enjoyed it. I'm not full of dislike for Avatar and actually am looking forward to more, but right now I am more filled with wishes for Alita doing well enough for a sequel or franchise because, yes, I would like for it to go as far as getting through Last Order.

Anyway, it's a very good movie, the best manga/anime adaptation yet but you don't need to see it just for that as it's also a darn fine cyberpunk/sci-fi/drama/romance(?) film.
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jdnation



Joined: 15 May 2007
Posts: 2121
PostPosted: Sat Mar 02, 2019 3:14 pm Reply with quote
The overseas market might be able to salvage Alita.
https://www.cbr.com/alita-battle-angel-sequel-hopes-china/

So it's possible the film might make its money back just barely. That's not a success in the eyes of the studio...

But...

It might be possible to negotiate a sequel on a smaller budget with more care put into it that could capitalize off this one's now built-in audience base.

Certainly, if the Japanese are smart, they'll be wanting to green-light an anime adaptation mixing both the original manga and stuff the movie did.

Maybe Cameron and Landau will take a page out of the Matrix and Blade Runner and put out some animated shorts as part of world building for another Alita.
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Cardcaptor Takato



Joined: 27 Jan 2018
Posts: 5218
PostPosted: Sat Mar 02, 2019 3:18 pm Reply with quote
Even if a sequel gets greenlit, would it be as successful without Cameron's involvement? I doubt Cameron would return to write the script for a sequel with him devoted solely to Avatar for the next decade.
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prime_pm



Joined: 06 Feb 2004
Posts: 2372
Location: Your Mother's Bedroom
PostPosted: Sat Mar 02, 2019 4:35 pm Reply with quote
Finally got around to watching the movie today. It was aiight. Worth the 3D matinee.

Tbh, the romance between Alita and Hugo was pretty hokey and artificial. But then again I remember it being just as stupid in the anime as well, so...good adaptation?
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jdnation



Joined: 15 May 2007
Posts: 2121
PostPosted: Sat Mar 02, 2019 5:16 pm Reply with quote
Cardcaptor Takato wrote:
Even if a sequel gets greenlit, would it be as successful without Cameron's involvement? I doubt Cameron would return to write the script for a sequel with him devoted solely to Avatar for the next decade.


I think a sequel being greenlit if Cameron personally comes back to take the reigns and give Alita 2 the Terminator 2 treatment, would be more incentive for the studio to greenlight a sequel. And the studio can push his name more prominently. I think Rodriguez won't feel miffed about it.

Pretty much Avatar 2,3 & 4 are largely in post production, as I believe principle photography is done and everything was shot simultaneously. So Cameron will essentially just be checking things over with the FX departments.

So 2 years from now it's entirely possible for Cameron to clear up his schedule to tackle directing Alita 2.

He can feature Motorball more extensively in the sequel as he always planned with the Jashugan arc that leads more properly to Nova's introduction and Zapan getting a berserker body as the final villain, with a lot of it being Alita learning more about pushing her body's limitations. This could give Cameron a chance to build more properly on the ideas present in the first film in a better way and elevate the material.

This should cover up the the end of volume 5 of the manga, leaving a third final film doing the more epic portions of 6-9 (presuming they end it how 9 ends and don't plan on adapting Last Order). Though considering that the first film already revealed Nova and some flashbacks of Alita's past, some parts of later volumes will probably have to be brought forward sooner as a consequence.
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AmpersandsUnited



Joined: 22 Mar 2012
Posts: 633
PostPosted: Sat Mar 02, 2019 10:07 pm Reply with quote
jdnation wrote:
Certainly, if the Japanese are smart, they'll be wanting to green-light an anime adaptation mixing both the original manga and stuff the movie did.


This movie is not doing great in Japan so I don't see why they would do either of those. I would also have to imagine anime fans would much rather Hollywood adaptions have zero influence on the original medium like comic books have been doing. If there ever is a new anime based on the franchise, I'd hope it'd follow the manga and not acknowledge the movie at all.
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jdnation



Joined: 15 May 2007
Posts: 2121
PostPosted: Sun Mar 03, 2019 4:50 pm Reply with quote
AmpersandsUnited wrote:
This movie is not doing great in Japan so I don't see why they would do either of those.


Because of the international market - most notably when there are services like Netflix looking to bag anime that has cross-cultural appeal outside of Japan.

Quote:
I would also have to imagine anime fans would much rather Hollywood adaptions have zero influence on the original medium like comic books have been doing. If there ever is a new anime based on the franchise, I'd hope it'd follow the manga and not acknowledge the movie at all.


This is odd to say, considering a lot of sci-fi anime, and also Alita, takes a lot of inspiration from Hollywood and other western sci-fi concepts. Alita, is particularly full of this.

I too expect that they would adapt the source material and not the film's condensed version, though some of it ought to be updated as there's a bunch of things in there that are very closely stylized to the late 80's and 1990's aesthetics on terms of hairstyles, costume, and other cultural things (mostly western) that could do with some changes, like the movie did. And if they want to capitalize on the film, they could look to lifting certain visual design changes, or even change up and modify the character designs to resemble the movie cast etc.
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