After I saw
Avatar, the big rumor I kept hearing was that James Cameron was going to make sequels, but not until he released his film adaptation of the popular Manga
Battle Angel Alita by Yukito Kishiro. When I finally started reading the Manga I was bombarded by powerful images and dynamic characters.
Battle Angel Alita is above all a story about how the poor and downtrodden react to difficult times. It is occasionally philosophical, playing around with the whole mind/body distinction, but it is often very real, like
Dawson's Creek real. Characters have feelings for one another, but they don't know what form those feelings are supposed to take - Do I love this woman as my daughter or as a possible wife? Perhaps we are just comrades or good friends... The story is pretty brilliant and the art is magnificent. At least one of my Manga reading friends is somewhat up in arms about James Cameron adapting this expansive story to the big screen, explaining that Manga is a valid art form that doesn't need to bow to cinema. As for me, I would love to see some of these amazing images rendered by James Cameron in Imax 3D, and I think that if anyone has the ego and the money to do the
Battle Angel Alita movie(s) right, it is James Cameron. Of course, Cameron said he was going to do this project in 2003 and continues to put it off. In the case that it doesn't happen, I think we can be just as happy knowing that this brilliant Manga will still be there for us.
