Alita: Battle Angel is just days away from its U.S. release, and Japan is getting ready for the adaptation as well. The film will bring manga creator Yukito Kishiro’s beloved series to life, and the artist is finally owning up his review of the live-action take.
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As it turns out, Kishiro is plenty pleased how the movie turned out.
Recently, Alita: Battle Angel shared Kishiro’s reaction to the manga through Twitter. The film’s official Japanese page not only release the artist’s statement on the adaptation but shared a poster Kishiro drew for the movie as well.
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“The core part of the manga was brilliantly passed on to the film,” the artist said (via Crunchyroll). “Including the characters’ emotion and raison d’etre, they were perfectly reflected in the film, so I was very happy.”
As you can see above, Kishiro also penned a poster for Alita: Battle Angel. The drawing mirrors the look of Alita developed by director Robert Rodriguez more so than the Gally which Kishiro drew decades ago. Still, the artist’s take on Alita makes the heroine look plenty official, and her Berserker form looks wholly intimidating. This poster will be printed in Japan for fans wanting to collect it, but they will have to pay up. Kishiro’s drawing will be used as cover art for the next issue of Kodansha’s Evening magazine which goes on sale February 12.
Will you be checking this movie out in theaters? Let me know in the comments or hit me up on Twitter @MeganPetersCB to talk all things comics and anime!
If you’re unfamiliar with Battle Angel Alita (GUNNM in Japan), the series was originally created by Yukito Kishiro. The series is set in a post-apocalyptic future and follows Alita, a cyborg who is found in a garbage heap by a doctor and rebuilt. Completely devoid of her memory, all she has to cling to is a legendary cyborg martial art known as Panzer Kunst. With this knowledge, Alita decides to become a bounty hunter. Originally published in Shueisha’s Weekly Business Jump in 1990, the manga was collected into nine volumes and licensed for an English language release by Viz Media.
Alita: Battle Angel opens in theaters on February 14, 2019.
