I think it is time to come to terms with a heartbreaking reality. Much as I’d like to deny it, the truth is unavoidable: Battle Angel Alita Last Order is not very good.
Wait, scrub that. Last Order is really, really bad.
Guys, if I ever write a story that degenerates into a fighting tournament — aka the Chapter 11-iest form of creative bankruptcy ever — please find me and kill me. It’ll be deemed a justfiable mercy killing in any court.
26 thoughts on “Angel of Heartbreak”
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I don’t know I rather like Last Order. It’s not as good as the first series but it’s still good fun.
But then I actually like Fighting Tournament manga so what the hell do I know.
But your namesake doesn’t even have a part in Last Order! The tournament thing totally screws the pacing — Alita’s tale is still pretty interesting, but 2/3 of Volume 7 was given over to clones 6, 11 and 12 blundering through DragonBall tropes. ZZZZZZZ
I thought the first Battle Angel series was pretty dumb too. Especially after I read the part about the guy who liked to eat people’s brains in order to get high on their endorphins.
From what i remember, wasn’t most of Last Order based on the alternate ending RPG they came out with a few years back? the Mangaka got sick of doing Alita, ended it abruptly, and then after a string of failures decided he liked food more than he hated Gally.
Battle Tourneys are usually a good way to pad out a manga until you can get to your really good ideas, but hey, i’m the one person who liked Aqua Knight. I’m not one for an objective opinion on the subject.
Kishiro didn’t get sick of the series, he just got sick… period. He had a health crisis and the final volume of the series was published sporadically and brought to an abrupt finale so he wouldn’t die and stuff. He oversaw the PS1 game’s story himself, giving it the ending he had intended for the manga. Last Order expands on that… and by expand I mean EXPAND, since it’s taken 7 volumes to present what could have been covered in 2 or 3 books of the first series.
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P.S. CAITHNESS: >:( TO YOU! BATTLE ANGEL ALITA IS SO GOOD YOU MONSTER OF HATRED YOU!!
I think this is quite possibly the most passionate I’ve ever seen you get about anything.
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Would it be bad if I said I spotted Alita in stores and overlooked it (at the time) for Hunter x Hunter? (Which is also really good. Although now I’m considering getting a volume or two of Alita when I have cash.)
It’s worth mentioning that, yes, the tournament was a part of Martian Memory. But it was over relatively quickly. Hopefully we can get past this damned Shounen Jump staple soon enough and get onto the Martian training, Berserker bears, wacky four armed karaoke death machines, and the shocking revelation that Alita is actually [NO SPOILERS FOR YOU] from the [LOL NO SPOILERS].
.. seriously, Martian Memory kind of went off the deep end. But I’d love all that insanity a lot more than dragging on the ZOT tournament any longer.
“Kishiro didn’t get sick of the series, he just got sick… period.”
Ah, must’ve been a mistranslation of the interview i read then. Still wish he could’ve continued Aqua Knight, though.
Hm… does fake passion still count as passionate?
You guys heard James Cameron was making a Battle Angel movie, right? I’ve never much of a BA fan, but I figured you guys would appreciate the news.
The best thing about the Cameron movie deal is that there’s been no news about it for years so we can safely assume it’s dead.
Like Matroid. I hope the Castlevania movie turns out that way, too.
Metroid, I mean.
It doesn’t help that Viz releases volumes of Last Order every 6 months, so this tournament stuff is dragging on a lot longer than it needs to.
I… was actually hoping for a Metroid flick. The Metroid hatchling would be like Pikachu or something. Except, like a deadly, vicious Pikachu.
Its with a heavy heart that I agree with you, the sad fact is that Last Order makes little damn sense for most of the time.
i love battle angel. it’s probably my all time favorite manga series. Last Order just didnt do it for me, though. And i also wish that Aqua Knight continued. aside from the unfortunate scatology, it was a really clever story and a pleasant romp through a fun world.
but man, i wish anime/manga would go back to the awesome dystopia of the mid-90s.
Fletch: HxH is alright, but not nearly as good as Yu Yu Hakusho.
jp: “the best thing about the Cameron movie deal is that there’s been no news about it for years so we can safely assume it’s dead.”
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0437086/
Anyway, just be glad Alba’s not in it.
Guy: “Like Matroid. I hope the Castlevania movie turns out that way, too.”
I’d like to see the Onimusha movie get off the ground. Gans did a damn good job on Silent Hill. But sadly, it looks like the next videogame movie adaptation we’ll have to contend with is Spy Hunter.
Greliz: “It doesn’t help that Viz releases volumes of Last Order every 6 months, so this tournament stuff is dragging on a lot longer than it needs to.”
Viz publishes it as soon as it heads to graphic novel form in Japan, which is usually every 6-12 months. That’s one of the negatives of on-going series there. On the other hand, it’s better than the American business model of, “Change the entire canon of a comic and use anime-inspired art to sell more copies.”
Omake. http://www.animenewsservice.com/archives/yukito.htm
Jeremy: Hey, it’s more passion than you usually fake. I’m willing to count it.
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That sounds so wrong.
Parish is a Battle Angel fan!? Why haven’t I ever heard about this before!? Really, it’s my opinion that the original Battle Angel only got better and better, aside from that horrid bit of the last manga, which was undone by Last Order (and, btw, I felt that way PRIOR to knowing Last Order existed). But, imho, while Last Order volumes 1 and 2 were some of the bets stuff for the series, the quality quickly fell into being something I’d rather not waste my time on. As I’ve stuck with it this long, I’m too far lost, and will continue to mindlessly buy them, praying they will improve, and that I won’t have to endure DBZ mangas of a single fight taking up the manga. In the original, years sometimes passed between mangas! In Last Order, 6 mangas in, not even a month has passed. Also, Alita herself has become a snivelling pile, and Sechs needs to take over as the violent ingenue!
So very sad. I mean, I can still deal with Last Order as a sort of guilty pleasure, but… but… I want Battle Angel *story*, dammit. Alas.
Well, Jeremy’s old copies of the first run of original Battle Angel still hold a cherished place on my bookshelf. Hooray for e-bay.
Can’t comment on Battle Angel, but I love Hunter X Hunter,(well except for the York Shin arc). Good choice man.
What’s a Battle Angel?
About a hundred and thirty pounds
How did i miss this entry?
Really, only the recent volume of Last Order seemed like a dip in quality to me, and it still had the crazy characters that drive it. But yeah, the whole tournament thing has been dragged out farther than it needs to go. Maybe it’ll end in the NEXT volume. (that’s what i said last time too)
Personally? I love Sechs. So I’m forgiving of Last Order. And I like the basic idea of one, single large BAA story instead of a bunch of short ones seperated by years.
The first few volumes were great. The tournament… eh, it’s Motor-ball all over again, Alita re-finding her warrior self. But we get Sechs, and some stuff about Alita’s martian history and the history of what’s been going on in space. Hmm… might the tournament just be a way the creator can insert foreshadowing in a properly spread-out way? Just an idea.
Anyway, it’ll end, we’ll have our protanganists deal with Trinidad, go to Mars, etc..