‘Alita: Battle Angel’ Reveals New Look at Alita at SDCC

Alita: Battle Angel is one of the more interesting upcoming live-action anime films since it will finally be released after years of being stuck in development, and what’s been most divisive so far is the design for the titular Alita.

With the film’s big presence at San Diego Comic-Con this year, fans were also treated to a new and closer look at the new Alita on the show floor.

As spotted by Comicbook.com’s Megan Peters, this closer look at Alita does alleviate one of the film’s major problems. Fans have been having mixed reactions to Alita’s eyes in the first trailer. James Cameron and Robert Rodriguez confirmed that they decided to depict Alita’s eyes as “anime like” to further push her into uncanny territory, which is also most likely to highlight how different she is to the rest of the world.

The eyes may have seem unnatural in the trailer, but the proportions seem a lot better fitting here in this full look at the character. The eyes honestly don’t draw much attention as soon as you see the amount of detail in the rest of her body. Portrayed in the film by Rosa Salazar, Alita just might be better off in live-action than fans would expect.

But while fans have had mixed reactions to Alita: Battle Angel, its original creator Yukito Kishiro is optimistic about its future noting that a Hollywood adaptation is like a “dream come true” for him. Alita: Battle Angel had been struck with production delays for several years before finally debuting its first trailer. Alita: Battle Angel will be directed by Robert Rodriguez, produced by James Cameron and Jon Landau, stars Rosa Salazar (as the titular Alita), Christoph Waltz, Jennifer Connelly, Mahershala Ali, Ed Skrein, Jackie Earle Haley, and will hit theaters December 21.

For those 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, it was collected into nine volumes and licensed for an English language release by Viz Media.