Battle Angel Alita Deluxe Edition

Read this with the explicit purpose of collecting background research for a project that relates to the 2019 movie. And while I really enjoyed reading it in the context of the research I'm doing, I'm not sure I can say as much for the actual reading experience. 

First, the art is great- it's a very unique style and I thought the pen work and frame composition was fantastic. Let's get that out of the way.

But the story itself was pretty thin. The characters would often say things that had the appearance of being deep, but there was never any follow through or exploration of those ideas. The characters were either one-dimensional (Ido, Vector) or inconsistent. (Alita, Yugo) And of course, because it's early 90's Japanese Manga, there's a healthy dose of misogyny, even with the “kick-ass” female lead, and at times because of it. (I found the nothing comments about Makaku's infatuation/love of Alita to be particularly repellent, and the attempt at giving Makaku a sympathetic backstory a miss.)

And I'm adding nothing new to the conversation by bringing up that Alita's love of Yugo is so unfounded as to face plant head first into the “She loves him because she's a girl, and girls are supposed to be in love.” This compounds with the revelation of Yugo's actual doings and intentions and Alita's willingness to forgo all her morals and life choices to stay with him.

I'm going to read the second volume to continue my research, but I'm not really looking forward to it.  

I'll admit I picked this up to read because of the trailer for the new movie coming out. It looked really good and I wanted to see what the original was all about before going to the movie later this year and I am thoroughly impressed! I'm not sure how this ran under my radar until now, but I'm glad to finally be delving into it.
To be honest a was a HUGE Astroboy fan as a kid and this really had a similar feel in a lot of ways - although WAY more adult - and I had in part a nostalgia thing going, but also the surprise of it being a really good story as well. I enjoy Alita's character and the world as a whole, even though there are many mysteries to uncover still, even after this hefty volume. The artwork is fantastic and this Deluxe Edition is a beautiful rendition.
Well worth checking out if you enjoy sci fi, cyberpunk and a good story!