recently watched the anime and it’s astounding how faithful but at the same time arguably much better the live action movie was.
the movie wasn’t amazing or anything, but neither was the anime
The live action movie is pure fun. Everyone is acting their heart out and the action scenes are just 😘👌.
The way it brings to life motorball, Alita herself, and her combat skills is just clean cinematic catharsis.
And for those same reasons, the movie simply doesn’t work for everyone.
I guess I’m being overly critical, I just think it could have been so much more. But then it wouldn’t have been so faithful to the source material. Since the anime was too short, I think the movie could have been a multi season full length series that went deeper into aspects that were underexplored in both. More about the daily life in the Scrapyard, more about being a Hunter-Warrior. Less shallow romance, I felt like the two didn’t even really like each other beyond a misguided first crush. It all felt a bit rushed to me in both.
Not sure how much more material there is in the manga, but the movie felt like a 1:1 reimagining of the OVA.
Both the OVA and movie do about as much as there was to do with the content that’s there in the beginning of the series.
Her motorball career is a lot more in-depth in the manga, and has nothing to do with getting into Tiphares. But it’s mostly just a rivalry between her and the top motorballer. Action.
Alita has several lovers throughout the series, some of whom she knows for longer periods of time. The series gets deeper into the universe the further you get along.
The movie is a perfectly faithful equivalent to the beginning of the story, and actually does a lot to set up later events. The reveal of Nova at the end is big, for one.
James Cameron has expressed interest in making it a series, but is currently busy with Avatar.
Yeah, more detailed arcs like this motorball rivalry would have been nice. Would have loved one or two “down to earth” seasons, similar to most of Gangsta or No Guns No Life, just expanding on the worldbuilding. I’m looking forward to the sequel, hope it lives up to the standard of the first one.
