Gunnm

(Check out my profile for a link to my site containing more up-to-date reviews and bonus media!) It's an OVA. It's cyberpunk. If this doesn't make you want to watch Gunnm then you're a lost cause. The adaptation of this legendary manga only covers a part of the series, but manages to be the best execution of that limitation in that it tells a complete story arc that doesn't end on too much of a cliffhanger. Gunnm centers around Gally, an amnesiac android recovered by the benevolent mechanical engineer Ido. The two live in Scrap Iron City, a run-down wasteland where robots and humans alike struggle simply to survive and make the best out of their meager means. Amidst the dangers of the city Gally discovers she has innate incredible combat ability and power, and joins Ido in becoming a bounty hunter. Her human friend, a young boy named Yugo, gets involved with a manipulative businessman named Vector who promises to take Yugo to Zalem for an exorbitant amount of money. Zalem is a city that hangs above Scrap Iron City, and supposedly offers a better life to the elite class permitted to live there. The story progresses around people who risk their livelihood and lives for a chance to get to Zalem. Science fiction that deals with the separation between the elite class and lower class that are forced to live in a post-apocalyptic sort of area is an extremely worn trope, but Gunnm's setting still oozes with enough atmosphere to make it a success beyond simply being derivative. The appeal of this OVA is that it truly feels like a broad portrait of what life in this cyberpunk city is like, and you come for the sights rather than the storyline or character depth. Both of which are limited due to the extremely quick pace the OVA moves between events. There's little to no transitional downtime, just a skipping string of the important things in the plot and nothing else, while you soak up the background available. It's an absorbing OVA but the reward basically stops there, climaxing in an inexplicably quick and weightless romantic plot and an obvious conclusion. Gally's background is never explained which is the only thing blatantly missing, and the looming abuse of Zalem is never actually shown or dealt with, but it doesn't thematically need to be. Zalem is important for what it symbolizes to the Scrap Iron City residents, not what's actually there. The art and animation quality are both respectable and the action is smooth if movements are poorly choreographed at times. The damp tone and dark coloring of the OVA along with the fact this sort of genre is underrepresented in anime reminds anyone affectionate towards the bygone OVA scene exactly what's so refreshing about it. Worth a look for OVA and cyberpunk enthusiasts, although it's a modest achievement.

Studio Madhouse’s style is very much present here in this post-apocalyptic crazy cyber-punk setting. Taking place in a run-down city, which is basically a slum located directly below a floating city called Tiphares. Of course, Tiphares is the utopia in which all the people in the slums strive and dream to go one day. In this terrible world, cyborgs are where mankind is mostly. One day, a doctor/mechanic named Ido finds a preserved female cyborg and decided to rebuild and revive her. This cyborg is Gally and slowly learns the harsh realities of the world she now lives in. A world where underground fighting, human spines are precious, and overall survival is most important. The cyber-punk setting is depicted with the slums being mostly a giant metal trash heap for the utopian city above. All art and sound throughout the anime represents it very well. It truly captivates the environment and atmosphere given off. There are two main characters Battle Angel focuses in on, Gally and Yugo. Yugo is a young kid who dreams big of going to Tiphares and will take any means necessary in order to get there. This is where Battle Angel is the most interesting. To show the advancement, strength, and development of Gally going from a timid girl to a total bounty hunter is done quite well. Furthermore, to show Yugo going from a hard working kid to his obsession taking over causing a decomposition of his being is wonderful. With the characters and a great setting, it is a shame that this only takes place with a couple 25 minute episodes. Battle Angel Alita is an anime with an enthralling setting, environment, and characters, but was cut short on truly becoming something wonderful.

This OVA makes the case for the sheer extent that good direction matters when adapting a work. Robert Rodriguez's live-action movie contains a good 75% of the same story beats and all of the same characters as this movie here, but thanks to Rodriguez's keen eye for visuals and his ability to elicit strong performances from his actors, that version stands strong. In comparison, this OVA here is a far inferior version of the same story, coasting by on the strength of the source material and that's it. The animation is fairly poor, the art direction isn't as impressive, and the bizarre choice was made to feature almost no soundtrack whatsoever--sometimes a really neat choice, but here it didn't help things at all because the pacing was so janky. It's certainly not the worst movie in the world, but I'm really glad I didn't watch this OVA before I saw the live-action movie, because it would have killed most of my excitement at the time.

Wow, this anime was great! Definitely an underrated OVA, "Battle Angel Alita" has me pumped to both read the manga and check out the live action movie coming out this month. It's such a shame that this long-running manga has (so far) only received this 2-episode anime adaptation, because you can tell there's so much more to this world and these characters left to explore! Sadly this anime is mostly just an ad for the manga, and as such many story elements and character arcs are left undeveloped. For example, we never actually see the floating, rich city of Zalem, which is a shame. I can only assume we go there later in the manga. Alita never regains her memories, so we never learn what her previous life was like before Dr. Ido found her. Speaking of "Alita," one of the most confusing aspects of this OVA is that Ido names her "Gally" and we never reach the point in the manga where she discovers her true name, so literally the name in the title "Alita" is never spoken once in this OVA! "Alita," remains "Gally," the entire time. Still, for what it is, this anime accomplished a lot in just 2 episodes. I really liked the characters of Yugo and Alita---I mean Gally! I really respected Yugo's drive to get to Zalem, like in the scene where he's desperately climbing up a pipe trying to reach the floating city after his feet are cut off. Alita is now one of my favorite female anime characters. She's very pretty and feminine, yet tough and ferocious when she needs to be. One of my favorite moments is a small character moment where Alita uses her reflection in a puddle to fix her hair before meeting Yugo. Alita clearly loves Yugo and would do anything to protect him, and I thought this aspect was a bit rushed (you've known him how long?), but I'm sure it was paced better in the manga. Another rushed element from the manga was how Alita begins this friendship with a stray dog, only for the dog to soon be murdered brutally by a cyborg. We barely got to see her interact with the dog, and as an animal person I really dislike it when animal death is used just to shock and motivate the hero to beat the villain. Still, I have to give credit that the moment when Alita smears the dog's blood on herself as war paint was VERY epic! The artwork here is very detailed, especially concerning Alita's eyes. The action scenes are very well animated and hypnotic to watch. The soundtrack is used very effectively, coming in loud when it needs to. This OVA only adapts the first 2 volumes of the manga, and I hope they continue with it at some point, or give it a "Brotherhood" style remake. Hopefully the new movie will be successful and will renew interest in this anime. 8/10

I watched this when I was a teenager. I loved it then, but now I can see why it didn't continue as far as making more episodes. However, the characters are great with a cool story. Perhaps this story is more a love attraction between a cyborg and a human surrounded in a world that is not what it use to be. Now I am looking forward to the movie that is coming out February 14th. With James Cameron producing and Robert Rodriguez directing, the movie can't go wrong. It's destined to change cinema forever. If you haven't read the graphic novel on BattleAngel Alita, it's worth the read.

Everyone has at least one anime that defined and dictated there journey into the realm of anime.For some its Evangelion,Astro Boy or Akira.For me it was battle angel.From the begining this anime grips you and dont let go. This anime uses a cyborg girl to portray a message of survival and ask the viewers how far they would go to gain success in life.The story shows a world of hardship in which everyday is a new challenge for survival as a young girl tries to find her place in the world. The action is fast pace and intense.The drawing style is deep and vivid in its design and carries a level of realism that you just cannot get with CG.The character design is excellent with each character carrying a unique yet practical design. The music scores are well done and the closeing theme really went well with the love aspect of this anime. What i love about this anime was its realistic portrayal of human and human interaction.Each character is realistic and act like everyday people with all there strengths and flaws.The main character called Gally is sweet and kind yet at the same time being strong and fierce, without carrying the element of fan-service that characterise most female characters today.The story is very short though but hopefully it will get a series.

First show back to the good old days of OVA action. Thankfully, my expectations are rather low for 90s OVAs as in the main, the best you can expect is just above average. I guess this is a good thing as Gunnm really did meet my expectations. The animation to good for the time. It's definitely nothing special but it does a gold enough job. The pallete is nice, varied for the time. It doesn't stick to the low saturation, pastel colours that linger in the space between grey and beige. Again, same with the animation itself, the colour is still average, not bad, not brilliant. Finally, the character design also doesn't stray beyond average in either direction. It's like the creators opened a box labeled 'Standard 90s Anime Assets' and drew them. Again though, this isn't a bad thing, but also isn't exciting enough to elevate the show beyond average. This story was really disappointing for me. I can imagine the manga for this was much more exciting. The show is more romance than anything else, with very very limited action sequences that due to its episode run of two 30 min episodes, fail to excite or deliver any form of intensity. Essentially, a fight happens, lasts seconds, lacks excitement then back to some half baked romance. Speaking of the romance, again due to its run time, you have no investment in it. There is little to care about. This is something the manga does well I imagine. Sadly, the choice of doing this over 2 episodes has hindered any chance this anime had to be exciting. All in all, it's perfectly average. If you are a fan of 90s anime, you will likely enjoy it. However, it won't be for it's story or it's characters. It will simply be just because the 90s had a way of captivating the viewer, despite the shows quality.

With the dawn and soon to be released live action James Cameron and Robert Rodriguez movie on the way, LA thought to invest some time in looking at the anime series it is based off of. Battle Angel Alita or Gunnm looks at a rather intriguing underdog story of Gally voiced by Miki Ito an android rebuilt by Daisuke Ido voiced by Shunsuke Kariya and Yugo voiced by Kappei Yamaguchi wanting to go the fabled upper city of Zalem. The two episodes given to us gives the majority of focus onto Gally and Yugo for the most part with some of the minor characters like Daisuke Ido, Chiren, Gime and Vector some sort of resolution to their little subplots along the way. Gally's story is one of identity, considering she's was a scrapped android rebuilt by the Geppetto-figure Daisuke Ido, the Pinocchio syndrome is in effect only not, more like Daisuke freely gives Gally the freedom she wants to have and that freedom is what Daisuke Ido does...being a hunter warrior. The thing is this plot point of Gally wanting to do her own thing her way is brought upon but becomes intertwined with Yugo later on making "Gally rebelling against Daisuke" tame and an almost non-conflict. Yugo on the other hand has some development to him and probably the major focus of the story elements that connects most of the characters in the first place. His story is really of being the underdog surviving and wanting to have his dream accomplished, Gally has something similar as well but it's Yugo that spurs this on. See Yugo being an android part stealer makes him be in the shady side of business but it shows he'll do ANYTHING to fulfill his dream and getting away from the literal scrap heap of a city he and the rest of the cast are situated in. Revelations with the little subplotline are shown from Yugo's motivations in the first place to why Chiren has it out for Daisuke to the entire vague reasoning of Zalem and the android bounty hunter business. Let's just say that it ends not in a rushed manner but more like the pieces fit in a short amount of time it took to do it. For animation done by Madhouse was pretty decent for when it was released (1993), with ultra-violence shown in all it's uncensored gory schizotech bloodiness to brazen nudity though rare and some pretty distinct character designs and intentional baron scum of the world wasteland settings of Scrap Iron City to the high in the sky, heaven-like Zalem. Does the animation hold up even now?...LA says YES quite honestly, all the little details and knowing it's atmospheric moments and the interesting schizotech is quite the appeal even for an almost 25 year old (by the time LA wrote this review) anime. Voice acting, well this might be Miki Ito's oldest work LA has seen from her and she does voicing Gally pretty well, from a naive girl to BADASS in a moments notice. Kappei Yamaguchi did ok and Shunsuke Kariya did pretty well as Daisuke. Overall, although LA doesn't know the majority of the voice cast, the voice work done was pretty decent. Gunnm is by in large at least in LA's eyes, a pretty decent anime about being that underdog and wanting to fulfill your dreams and to that end....yeah LA can see why James Cameron would be soo attached to this anime to the point of trying to make a live action version of it, for what it's worth, we'll see how the live action movie pans out by it's final product but nonetheless Gunnm for as short of an anime OVA it is, does get you invested in this world and maybe seeing an underdog obtain his or her dreams. Simple platitudes but still...

Battle Angel Alita, despite only being a 2-episode OVA, stakes its claim as a foundational piece of cyberpunk media, and is a well-known entry of the genre in anime form for a reason. On the surface, it just seems like a particularly impressive sci-fi OVA, but just under the surface is a poignant tale about poverty, meaning, and the destructive nature of ambition, told in a way which is utterly timeless. While it does feel stiff at times, and could use a little more polish, it still deserves its measure of notoriety, and honestly deserves a little more credit than I think it gets. Beginning with the story, as I said earlier, it is a powerful and well-constructed tale built around a clear moral lesson that doesn't feel contrived or preachy, and it is for this that the story is this anime's strongest aspect. It plays out in a potent, Shakespearean fashion, heavily character-focused in a fantastical and intriguing world that feels dark, bizarre, and somehow grounded all at the same time. The worldbuilding is so strong that it bleeds into every aspect of the story, from the secret profession of the kindly doctor Ido, to the struggle with identity that's at the heart of the mysterious cyborg Gally, and even the all-consuming obsession with the floating city of Zalem that defines Yugo's entire life. In this way, while you're witnessing each story unfold carefully and beautifully, you are totally immersed in a setting that is totally unique. Its brevity does rob it of some of its impact, but still. even at a mere 2 episodes it manages to deliver one hell of a narrative payload. The art is just as ambitious as the story, though it doesn't manage to maintain the same quality throughout. It's got this unique, gritty 90s style that pairs so well with the cyberpunk genre, and a harsh use of color that makes everything feel all the more real and deep, be it the neon lighting of a public bounty or the dingy yellows of a busy alleyway, dingy and stalked by the lowest criminal scum. It even manages to soar to some really impressive heights in particular moments, namely scenes dealing with combat and mechanical destruction, displaying in these moments an absolute command of physics and speculative engineering. However, it is clear that they saved room in the budget for these scenes by cutting corners elsewhere, leading to some stiffly animated or awkwardly framed shots. The sound is great, with minutely detailed sounds of life that makes the setting feel real and immersive, from the ubiquitous hum of a mechanized city to the quiet wet pattering of footsteps through the wet grime of a dark back alley. Adding to this general atmosphere, the voice work is vivid and emotional- a perfect fit for such a dramatic tale. The characters are quite good, and rise to the occasion as perfect fits for the story they're in, feeling as though they have agency within it to drive the story forward. Of them, my favorites are Ido and Gally, Ido for his selfless yet badass moral code that dictates how he lives his life, and Gally for her defiantly optimistic outlook in a world of filth and crime, and of course her aptitude for combat, which can be summed up in a single word- bitchin'. Overall, Battle Angel Alita, while not perfect, is deserving of praise as an ambitious work of cyberpunk fiction, with a general appeal and deeper meaning that gives it the staying power of a true genre staple. As such, it is easy to recommend, even if you don't typically enjoy cyberpunk as a genre, as it has only all the best parts of it on display, and takes roughly an hour to finish. When something is so short and so good, there's almost no excuse not to watch it.

Who is this for? This is the first question that seems to pop up while watching something that one could keep up with, only because of previous contact with the manga it was based on. But let’s start at a beginning. It’s an early 90s OVA that comes with all the characteristics of its counterparts: action, blood, a little convoluted plot, sharp style and animated a little better than a standard tv series. What makes GUNNM special is definitely the source material that elevated and at the same time hindered this particular production. And while the first instinct is to judge something on its own merits, it feels impossible to divorce the two, in this case. Saying the pace is going at a speed of light is no exaggeration. Awkward edits and cuts are happening almost every minute and a first-timer will definitely find themselves lost and confused. It makes it impossible not to see how the story got cut, minced and put together again, into some sort of Frankenstein’s monster. On top of that, new elements and characters were added to help keep some sort of coherency, at least from the storytelling standpoint, to a varying degree of success. New faces were introduced and then immediately dropped. Seeds of plot points and ideas planted but never allowed to grow. It’s all remnants of something bigger and the audience only sees the ghosts that are trying to portray the atmosphere and feel the adaptation was trying to convey. On the more positive note, the animation and action scenes are hype, though a little floaty. From Madhouse, I expected a little more but it’s good enough to have fun. Whatever music there is, it’s atmospheric. Reminding me even of “Kaneda” from Akira movie with a heavier beat. Also, there is a compelling story hidden in-between the snapshots of a full plot. Coming back to the question “Who is this for?”. People not acquainted with the manga, will find this at most an ok hour of their life or at worst a confusing mess. Though, maybe the charming lead and concept will make them curious about the source material. Fans will be reminded all the time that they could be reading a better version of this story instead. It feels like a demo or a proof of concept. Which may be not far from the truth since the live action movie was made. It kept even the weird, new additions original to the OVA. With a heavy heart, I can’t really recommend watching it. Maybe if one is extremely curious or doesn’t have anything else to do for an hour. But in any other case? Please, read the manga, you won’t regret it. Or even watch the movie. It’s definitely a better version of this particular version of the story. Average, not bad enough to make fun of it and not good enough to sing praises. (5/10)

I absolutely love anime from the 90s due to the art, the themes and the sound. So I am a bit biased here. I can just watch anime from this era and enjoy it, even if the story is poor. I feel the same about Gunnm. I read the manga which I thought was a masterpiece and I enjoyed the complex worldbuilding, the characters and the story so I was very eager to watch the OVA. I like how they portrayed Gally, but the story feels rushed. It feels like it was a single episode, rather than an OVA that has a beginning and an end. I got a bit bored and distracted, which isn't a good sign either. Overall, I loved seeing characters from the anime come to life on the screen and am happy that I watched it, but it didn't blow me away emotionally or anything. It was just 60 minutes of random screentime.