Battle Angel (1993)

In a distant future, a the young cyborg Gally is found on a scrapheap by the Cyberdoctor Daisuke Ido, who rebuilds her and becomes her surrogate father.

Director:

Hiroshi Fukutomi

Writers:

Yukito Kishiro (comic), Akinori Endô

Stars:

Miki Itô, Shunsuke Kariya, Kappei Yamaguchi

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Miki Itô	...	Gally (voice)
Shunsuke Kariya	...	Ido (voice)
Kappei Yamaguchi	...	Yugo (voice)
Edward Glen	...	Yugo (1994) (voice) (as Edward Wakefield)
Mami Koyama	...	Chiren (voice)
Shigeru Chiba	...	Vector (voice)
Ryûzaburô Ôtomo	...	Grewcica (voice)
Kazuhiko Kishino	...	Gonz (voice)
Kôji Totani	...	Zavan (voice)
Takumi Yamazaki	...	Tanji (voice)
Kazuyuki Sogabe	...	Gime (voice)
Rick Peeples	...	Gonz (ADV Films dub) (voice)
Michitaka Kobayashi	...	Rasha (as Sanshiro Nitta)
Naoki Makishima	...	Additional Voices (voice)
Tomoko Maruo	...	Additional Voices (voice)

Storyline

This movie takes place in a distant future, and is the story of a the young cyborg Gally, who is found on a scrapheap by the Cyberdoctor Daisuke Ido, who rebuilds her and becomes her surrogate father. Gally has no memory of her past, but soon displays remarkable fighting skills. She starts working as a bounty hunter and meets a young boy Yugo, who has the impossible dream of going to Zalem. A giant satellite floating above the city. Not realising that Yugo's dream can only end in misery Gally sets out to help him.

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Plot Keywords:

cyborg | dystopia | cyberpunk | robot | poverty | 

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Taglines:

Hunter Warrior

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Genres:

Animation | Action | Crime | Drama | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Did You Know?

Trivia

Become known as Alita Battle Angel in America and eventually a live-action movie.

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Connections

Referenced in Nostalgia Critic: Alita: Battle Angel (2020)

User Reviews

Half a decent film, half ruined

Can't help but think that the English title "Battle Angel Alita" is probably just a wimp out for "Lolita". Remind me, eyeballs should be *smaller* than fists, right? That said, Battle Angel is thankfully free of teeny sex, although the ubiquitous brief glimpse of nekkid adult lady is pubic hair free, which I always find quite disturbing.

The animation is fine, although the scale of characters varies wildly, with Alita shrinking to almost Tinkerbelle proportions in some shots. Also, gravity seems to have a particularly tenuous hold on our little protagonist (even for anime!) and she does spend a fair bit of time just staring wide eyed.

Voice talent in the English dub is par for the course for anime, i.e. pretty dire. Alita at least has a distinctive cutesy mock-English timbre. The baddies are all instantly identifiable by their voices, which is frankly insulting and doesn't help to convince sceptics (or me, to be honest) that anime is more than a kiddie cartoon gone rabid.

There's some attempt at characterisation among the protagonists, but a fifty something minute runtime isn't enough time to expand on one fall/redemption story, let alone three or four. In fact, the whole thing is wrapped up and ended very abruptly in the last few minutes. It feels forced and unfinished, and smacks of series pilot.

Still, it was clearly a classy bit of animation before the translators got their hands on it. As usual, I'm left with the feeling that it's an opportunity wasted, and that a subtitled version would probably be much more enjoyable - as is definitely the case with Akira.

Details

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

21 June 1993 (Japan)

Also Known As:

Battle Angel

Company Credits

Production Co:

Madhouse, Animate Film, KSS

Technical Specs

Runtime:

54 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color