Cyborgs I Hate?

I know. It's been a long time since I made a post. One whole season, in fact. I was busy, what can I say? But, what are you gonna do it? Form an angry mob at my house? Haha! Good luck to the both of you! SOME of us have to watch Samurai Jack and Daria.

Ain't gonna watch itself.

But let's discuss the usual; a manga. This one is called Battle Angel Alita. It's about an amnesiac female cyborg named Alita, who was found in a junkheap by a kind doctor and repaired by him. The story follows her quest in a dystopian future to find out who she is, whether she's a bounty hunter or a player for a lethal sport. Also, she knows cyborg martial arts.

Yeah, this happened to me.

The artwork is really good in the series; it's detailed but not in a distracting way, all the characters have a distinct and memorable appearance, the action scenes are well-drawn, the anatomy is stylish, but structured and the architecture is creative. Many of the characters are really fleshed out and well-written and the plots are engaging. On top of that, I really LOVE cyborgs and the series has no shortage of them.

But... I fucking hate the series. That statement really kills me to say that. Now, after all I gushed about it, you're probably wondering what made me say it; jealousy, perhaps? No, it's for one reason; the titular character, Alita, is SO unlikeable. Yes, it suffers the same problem as Burst Angel (as mentioned in a previous poster). However, while Burst Angel had five characters destroy an okay story, Battle Angel Alita took only one character to ruin a series that was, otherwise, really good.

Gah, I'd kill you if you were real!

First off, she's a bully. In the first volume of the series, she wanted to catch a criminal who was a massive cyborg that took a liking to eating brains and asked some bounty-hunting patrons at a bar for assistance. Being afraid of the criminal, they declined. She did the mature thing and splashed a drink in one of their faces and gave a speech about doing the right thing. When the patrons retaliated, she beat all of them up. So, basically, when people aren't helping you, the best thing to do is to bully them :) Off to a lovely start!

And second, she's a hypocrite. Despite giving self-righteous speeches to all the criminals she hunts, she has no qualms about sheltering a criminal if she's attracted to him (as seen in volume one) or even kill bounty hunters who are after the love interest. Well, non-beautiful people deserve to die anyways. She's also incredibly callous, willing to kill anyone with no qualms whatsoever, threatening people when she doesn't get her way and having no gratitude for the people who try to be nice to her (like the Doctor, who she abandons in the second volume, despite finding her, rebuilding her and sheltering her).

And HONESTLY, I could forgive all of that if it was just treated realistically! I mean, if she were just called out on her bullshit once in awhile or referred to as a schoolyard bully in cyborg form, I could put up with her. The story is aimed at little kids, so we don't need the morals spelled out for us. But no! She's still meant to be the person we cheer for. The man who got a drink splashed in his face at the bar wanted revenge and we're supposed to see him as a jackass, as seen when the Doctor asks "How could you want revenge on an innocent little girl?" Yeah, see the innocent way she murders people. I mean, I found myself cheering for the villains most of the time. It sucks, because in the first few chapters, she's likable. But I guess the writer fell under the belief that strong woman and quick-killing psycho go hand-in-hand.

She's so strong and independent!

It's sad. The man who wrote this obviously knows how to write. The Doctor was a pretty interesting character (kind, polite, but became a bounty hunter because he enjoys killing). And as stated before, everything else was great. But it just fell apart with one key aspect... I hope I can read some more of his work and like it one day. *sniffle* Ah well! Time to get drunk!