Battle Angel Alita
(
GUNNM) a
manga and an
anime created by
Yukito Kishiro in 1991 and ended in 1995. Only two OVAs were produced, though more were planned, as they did not sell well in Japan. Part of the reason was the
Asian economic crisis, and part of the reason was that fans said the animated version of Gally wasn't "cute" enough. Although the OVAs were well made, they didn't manage to reproduce the intricacies of the
manga.
The manga series was originally entitled "Gunnm" (Gun Dream), but Viz Communications used the title "Battle Angel Alita" when they imported the manga to North America When ADV Films went to release the OVAs, they chose to go with the name "Battle Angel" so that fans would tie it in with the manga version, but dropped the "Alita," as they would have had to redub the original Japanese to make it work.
Yukito Kishiro wasn't happy with the end of the series, as he was forced to end it prematurely due to external and personal reasons. But a few years later, he got the chance to publish Last Order, which skips the end of the last Graphic Novel (nr. 9), and tells the story the way he intended it. Last Order is also being translated to English and the 3rd part is expected in early 2004.
Related Works
- GUNNM Gaiden, a collection of sides stories of Gunnm;
- Haisha, a prequel set a decade before the beginning of Gunnm;
- GUNNM: Last Order, a sequel published monthly on Ultra Jump.
- GUNNM: Memories of Mars, a rpg videogame by Banpresto.
Links
- Gunnm: Broken Angel www.reimeika.ca/marco
- Gunnm_blaise_Alita gunnm.studenti.eu.org
- Ultra Jump ultra.shueisha.co.jp
- Yukito Kishiro about Gunnm (pre-Last Order) Kishiro's homepage