Week 10: Manga and the Japanese Comics Tradition

This week I read the manga Battle Angel Alita by Yukito Kishiro. I actually already watched the movie adaptation before this manga was even assigned as reading, so it is interesting to see how much the movie changed the original story. In the movie, her "creator" acted as a caring father figure, but in the manga he seems kind of crazy. It was also shocking to see that Alita killed him; very different from the movie. After reading through Battle Angel Alita and seeing these differences among many others, I have come to the conclusion that I prefer the manga more than the movie. The manga's story is more compelling to me, and surprisingly, I feel more invested in the action that the manga displays. I would of never expected to prefer reading action from still images than something animated.

I have read a lot of manga in the past, but never action genres because I always thought it would be better animated. Battle Angel Alita completely changed my opinion. It is very easy to be wrapped into the action, fighting, and plight of Alita through simple comic panels.

Battle Angel Alita features many thin lines in order to mimic movement. The concept of value is also utilized in order to make things seem like they are coming out at us, like in the bottom right panel pictured above. Reading this manga makes me feel like I don't need to see it animated, as it is overall really well done.