Alita: Battle Angel - yay or nay?

[Brother Oni]

If the former, I'd agree that her characterization was... eh... Not exactly bad but not really anything special either. If the latter... yeah, that's an awful way for anyone to go. Damn, Battle Angel is a brutal series.

I think her characterisation was all right and her motivations understandable (it was kinda obvious in her 'lie back and think of Tipares' scene), it's just that there wasn't enough time in the OAVs to flesh out another character; Ido, Alita, Hugo and the other bounty hunter made it busy enough already.

But yes, definitely the latter:

Spoiler: Chiren's fate

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If anything it's worse - she was harvested so that the bad guy could meet his monthly quota of organs to send up to Tipares. It's the banal, matter of fact monotony that gets me - she's nothing special, just another piece of meat (although more literally than usual).

[Lacuna Caster]

Oh sure. That's what I mean by there being similarities between the two, but they're superficial ones. Once you scratch the surface, you really start to notice the differences between the two series. Indeed, there's quite a few differences that Nova and Rick have as well. The biggest among them is that Rick is a severely dysfunctional person, while Nova is a monster.

I'll grant that Nova is more consistently detached and amoral, and there doesn't appear to be much obvious rhyme or reason to his experiments. But to be fair, I don't remember he ever doomed billions out of, say, momentary pique or sheer laziness.

Spoiler

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I mean, jeez, that episode where everyone on earth goes Cronenberg? Has Rick never heard of things like 'controlled testing' or 'quarantine protocol'?

"Experimental controls are for *******, Morty. Hold this centrifuge."

If the former, I'd agree that her characterization was... eh... Not exactly bad but not really anything special either. If the latter... yeah, that's an awful way for anyone to go. Damn, Battle Angel is a brutal series.

Agreed.

[The Fury]

I think her characterisation was all right and her motivations understandable (it was kinda obvious in her 'lie back and think of Tipares' scene), it's just that there wasn't enough time in the OAVs to flesh out another character; Ido, Alita, Hugo and the other bounty hunter made it busy enough already.

But yes, definitely the latter:

Spoiler: Chiren's fate

Show

If anything it's worse - she was harvested so that the bad guy could meet his monthly quota of organs to send up to Tipares. It's the banal, matter of fact monotony that gets me - she's nothing special, just another piece of meat (although more literally than usual).

I admit that she's a character that I'm sort of on the fence about. Her addition to the OVA didn't add much, but it didn't really take anything away either. By the way, which other bounty hunter do you mean?

Spoiler

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The one that nearly killed Hugo and got hit by lightning?

He didn't have a very solid characterization. Though I guess Zapan made a couple appearances, he was mostly a cameo though.

I'll grant that Nova is more consistently detached and amoral, and there doesn't appear to be much obvious rhyme or reason to his experiments. But to be fair, I don't remember he ever doomed billions out of, say, momentary pique or sheer laziness.

Spoiler

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I mean, jeez, that episode where everyone on earth goes Cronenberg? Has Rick never heard of things like 'controlled testing' or 'quarantine protocol'?

"Experimental controls are for *******, Morty. Hold this centrifuge."

I would argue that the only reason Nova hasn't done anything like that is because he's not able. If Nova could invent something that would inflict body-horror on a world-wide scale and could jump to an alternate dimension afterward, I'm fairly certain he would. Even if his victims don't number in the billions, it would still be a pretty high number.

Spoiler

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There's the people he experimented on in the Scrapyard, the POWs The Barjack turned over to him, and then there's the time in Last Order he spread mass hysteria in Tiphares with a really gross live TV stunt. If you count him as indirectly responsible for what Makaku, Zapan and Den did, he's even worse.

Just because of the science fiction parody nature of his show, Rick is working with a lot more dangerous stuff. While drunk. Seriously, I'm pretty sure Rick's got stuff more dangerous than the Berserker Body in his junk drawer.

[Lacuna Caster]

I would argue that the only reason Nova hasn't done anything like that is because he's not able. If Nova could invent something that would inflict body-horror on a world-wide scale and could jump to an alternate dimension afterward, I'm fairly certain he would. Even if his victims don't number in the billions, it would still be a pretty high number.

Spoiler

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There's the people he experimented on in the Scrapyard, the POWs The Barjack turned over to him, and then there's the time in Last Order he spread mass hysteria in Tiphares with a really gross live TV stunt. If you count him as indirectly responsible for what Makaku, Zapan and Den did, he's even worse.

Just because of the science fiction parody nature of his show, Rick is working with a lot more dangerous stuff. While drunk. Seriously, I'm pretty sure Rick's got stuff more dangerous than the Berserker Body in his junk drawer.

I'm gonna have to reread Alita from the beginning- my memory of a lot of this is fuzzy. (I do recall the stunts he got up to in Tiphares were pretty bad, though, especially given that clone seemed like a relatively benign version at first.)

I suppose if you gauge him relative to the scope of the setting, Rick is less destructive, but only because the scope of the setting is basically infinite. People have this weird habit of looking at his occasionally less-than-maximally-abusive treatment of immediate relatives and somehow concluding this makes up for, e.g, literally destroying an entire universe.

[Demica Fatali]

I'm super excited, because it was one of the first animes I fell in love with... and yet I'm not sure I can watch it in live action.

Spoiler: show

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It's just the dog scene, even if its super CG, not sure I can watch what _looks_ like a real dog get shredded. But its such an important character point in the story that I can't see how they'd possibly avoid it either.

[Lacuna Caster]

I'm super excited, because it was one of the first animes I fell in love with... and yet I'm not sure I can watch it in live action.

Spoiler: show

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It's just the dog scene, even if its super CG, not sure I can watch what _looks_ like a real dog get shredded. But its such an important character point in the story that I can't see how they'd possibly avoid it either.

When does that happen again? Gods, my memory is terrible.

As a minor update, it appears that they're sticking with the western title and names for the Japanese release, which seems a little presumptuous. I guess the creator seems happy so far, though?

[SpiderSilkWings]

Oh, wow. This wasn't the first manga I read, but it was close, and now I want to go back and read it. I don't know what to expect, but from the trailer, I'm willing to be optimistic.

[The Fury]

When does that happen again? Gods, my memory is terrible.

As a minor update, it appears that they're sticking with the western title and names for the Japanese release, which seems a little presumptuous. I guess the creator seems happy so far, though?

That happens in the anime.

Spoiler: DON'T HURT THE PUPPY!

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Makaku Greweichka uses his Grind Cutters to kill the dog, (one that looks like Duke Fang from the manga but isn't explicitly named.) In the manga the dog isn't shredded and only dies off-panel some years later.