A cute android girl becomes a bounty hunter in a post-apocoliptic city.
This movie reminded me of Final Fantasy Seven. People in a dirty city on the ground live off the scraps and garbabe from a paradise city in the sky. Bad androids lurk in dark streets waiting to find people whose brains they will eat, and the bounty hunters go after them. The animation is very smooth and life like.
The story centers around Alta (the battle angel) as she becomes a bounty hunter, falls in love, and then the tragic end. The only really negative thing about the anime is how short it is.
The opening and ending sequences are not very moving, but the music in the show is great and sets the atmosphere up wonderfully.
Objectionable Material:
Lots of fighting, blood, and other horrible ways to die. Some sex too.
Recommended Age Group:
Not for kids! Late teens and up.
Second Opinion:
Battle Angel is my all-time favorite anime. It is the story of a beautiful young cyborg girl. A cybernetics doctor named Ido rescued her from a scrap heap and rebuilt her with an amazingly powerful berzerker body. She has no memory, except for her panzer kunst fighting technique, which is the most powerful cyborg martial art ever known.
The movie is a combination of the first two graphic novels in the Gunnm or Battle Angel Alita series by Yukito Kishiro. It is set in the scrapyard, which is a city built in and from the garbage tossed down to earth from a floating city called zalem, or tiphares in the novels. In the story, Galley finds out that her savior, Ido, is a bounty hunting Hunter-Warrior and she miraculously rescues him from a bounty that almost kills him. The thrill of the fight and of the kill appeals to her so much that she becomes a hunter-warrior herself, against Ido’s wishes. She ends up having to fight a huge and nasty brain eating junkie named Grewicica who was made by Chiren, Ido’s ex-partner from when they lived up in zalem. Chiren didn’t exist in the novels, but she was necessary for a more interesting movie. Galley also falls in love with a boy named Yugo, who is so maniacally obsessed with his dream of getting to zalem that he goes into the business of spine theft to pay for a nonexistent pass to get there. It is all a scam created by the factory’s owner (he’s the main authority figure), Mr. Vector.
This is an amazing story of love, life, and loss. The art and character design are incredible. Galley’s cybernetic body is obviously mechanical, but very beautiful nonetheless. The animation is amazing, and the fight sequences are unforgettable. Once you see the movie, you can’t help but get into the nine-part graphic novel series, which is incredible. Honestly, as amazing as the movie is, the graphic novels make it look pathetic. Take my advice and get into it! Yukito Kishiro is a genius!