From: VIZ Media LLC Publisher: VIZ Media LLC Average Rating: Binding: Paperback Label: VIZ Media LLC Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 216 Publication Date: June 30, 2004
Book Description: Alita must choose a challenge team to defeat Jashugan, the proud, invincible Motorball champion. Who will give their all-their very life-for the lovely Battle Angel? In the intense heat of battle during her final one-on-one showdown with Jashugan, Alita slips into a trance that provides an incredible revelation about her mysterious past.
One big long rollerblade race The plot: Alita has risen to the top in a sport called . Basically it consists of racing through an obstical course with wheels for feet (all characters are cyborgs, so they just pop the foot off and pop wheels on) until the motorball, a bowling ball sized goal carried by the contestants, has done a certain number of laps. Whoever has the ball at the finish line wins. To make things more interesting racers are armed and try to knock other contestants out of the race to improve their odds of winning. Most of the contestants get killed in the course of each race. The bottom line: we see lots of Alita fighting as usual.
The racing and fighting has another plus for Alita. Some of the techniques she uses to battle other contestants revive memories of her distant past and her origins. This is very important to her since they are the only clues she has, and important for people who are reading through the entire series.
Meanwhile little subplots are playing out: Alita's trainer is having flashbacks to his former motorball glory days and is living way too vicariously through Alita. Because she will soon face the champion motorballer who defeated him, he goes to extreme lengths to get her the best gear - an extremely sharp knife that can cut through diamonds. Meanwhile the champion is having brain trouble (every so often his brain just shuts off) as the result of an old motorball injury. Alita's friend Doctor Ito is treating him, but both know that it is only a matter of time.
The problem that I had with this book is that it mostly follows two motorball races, and so much of it just shows different contestants skating around. Whenever it leaves the motorball court it gets interesting. Alita's flashbacks contribute to the series overall and the sideplots are great. Still so many pages of the book cover just racing - heavy on graphics and low on plot.
I preferred other books in the series Alita to this one. Probably I am biased against the book for being so much about a make believe sporting event. If the movie Death Race 2000 spoke to your inner soul you will enjoy this. Likewise if that movie didn't appeal to you this book probably won't either.
I'll admit that I did pick this up in the middle but... Yeah, I was kinda confused because this is the first volume I read... but, on the other hand, I don't think that picking up the story from the beginning would have saved my opinion of it. Kishiro Yukito is a talented artist, yes, but I found this story to be really trite and [weak], and kinda gratuitous. If thats your thing, go for it but, I'm assuming that everyone wants to read quality, right? If so stay away from this and pick up something better.
"To the man become God" This is the fourth Alita collection, although it is officially the last of part three of the series. As such, it marks the culmination of Alita's identity quest into the world the motorball. What Alita has discovered is that use of her special cyborg battle training skills can trigger sudden flashbacks to the days before Doc Ido reassembled her as Alita. These come as peak experiences when the doughty fighter must push her body to withstand what no biological body could.
We get to see to of these battles. The first Alita uses to test both herself and the cyborgs with whom she is considering teaming. This is an opportunity for both melee battles and some fine humorous moments when things do not quite happen as planned. The second struggle is the final confrontation with Jashugan. This we know will end up in a one-on-one confrontation between titans. The reader is entitled to, and gets, all the action art and surprises of which Yukito Kushiro is capable. Who wins isn't important at the transcendent moment, only that both have used up all that they had.
I'm probably going to go on and on about the art for this series until I run out of manga to review. Yukita Kishiro has the kind of graphic style that makes the frames magnetic. The story, the diversity of characters and the introspective twists are an important part of this manga, and keep it from ever being a simpleminded hack and disassemble story. Something deeper is going on, and we see it evolve one small piece at a time.
Hmmmmmmmm.... perfect, but what's going on? This was the first Battle Angel Alita book I ever read, borrowing it from the library. But, since I read 1,2, and 3 AFTER this, I've liked the motorballs better. I think this is a kewl book, I wish I'd happened to read #1 first, tho, but this all works out. I loved it! Simply, Alita is finishing what she started with motorball, what with racing and winning, winning, losing, whataver. Her showdown with Jashugan kinda leaves u, uh... confused (at least it did me V_V) and it never says more. THE REASON I GAVE THIS A 4-STAR RATING IS BECAUSE... the index page (copyright, idex, etc.) is the one of TEARS OF AN ANGEL! what's up with that?? i just realized that one day, looking to see what part it was. and that {is odd.}
Better than "Killing Angel", but not the best in the series. After giving us the excellent volumes 1 and 2, "Battle Angel Alita" and "Tears of an Angel", Yukito Kishiro gave us what many consider the worst volume in the series, "Killing Angel". Volume 3 dealt with Alita's new life after the tragic events of volume 2, and while it wasn't a complete blashemy against the series, the storytelling quality didn't live up to the first two volumes. With volume 4, "Angel of Victory", Kishiro improves upon "Killing Angel", but considering what he worked with, the storytelling quality still wasn't where it should've been.
"Angel of Victory" is actually a continuation of "Killing Angel", a continuation meaing that the two volumes can be seen as parts of each other. The story deals with Alita trying to prove herself the best motorball champion while coming to terms with the sudden changes in her life. By now, her character is very well fleshed out and we really do care for her in many ways. However, the story in "Angel of Victory" still deals with motorball, something that doesn't have anything to do with Alita trying to discover her lost past, the reason we fell in love with her in the first place. The story in "Angel of Victory" is far better than the one in "Killing Angel", as it has several well-planned events and even a brief glimpse of Alita's past. But as a whole, the story isn't want we expected from the "Battle Angel Alita" series. If volumes 3 and 4 had been placed together into one volume, they might've been seen in a better light, but as it stands the two volumes are nothing compared to the first two volumes.
Graphically, Yukito Kishiro's artwork is amazing. There is so much detail that some artwork appears like it's come straight from a photo. If it had to be compared to something, Kishiro's artwork would resembled a polished version of Hayao Miyazaki's "Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind" series, and even then the comparison is unfair.
All in all, "Angel of Victory" is far better than "Killing Angel", but it's not the best in the series. Still, "Angel of Victory" does set up some small plot details later on in the series, so it's not completely useless. If read with the entire series on hand, "Angel of Victory" (and "Killing Angel", for that matter) will be more appreciated. But alone, volume 4 doesn't live up to the first to excellent volumes in Kishiro's wonderful series.
Anything Goes Trivia
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