Alita: Battle Angel may not have torn up the charts when it came to box office profits, but the action packed anime adaptation carved its way into the hearts of many fans across the world. As the film ended with something of a cliffhanger, hinting at the identity of a big time villain from the anime, fans are still clamoring for the world of Alita to return in some form or fashion to the big screens. While no sequel news has been confirmed, Alita still makes its way into the headlines with it just being announced that the film is nominated for “Outstanding Visual Effects” for the Visual Effects Society:
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The Hollywood Reporter shared the news that the anime adaptation was receiving this nomination for “Outstanding Visual Effects in a Photorealistic Feature”, with other films and series such as the Lion King, The Mandalorian, Avengers: Endgame, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, and Gemini Man acting as Alita’s competition!
Alita: Battle Angel’s visuals are simply astounding, bringing to life the futuristic, robotic world of our main character, as well as adapting the cyborg to look like her original appearance in both the manga and the anime themselves. With scenes such as her drag down fights with other killer androids and her high speed competitions in the roller ball themed sport of the film, it’s clear that blood, sweat, and tears was poured into making the film look like nothing else that was currently in theaters at the time.
The special effects team behind Alita’s world was WETA Digital who, ironically enough, contributed to other movies on the list of nominees such as Avengers: Endgame and Gemini Man. Not just tied to movies, WETA has also recently worked on the digital scenes of HBO’s Game Of Thrones and Netflix’s superhero series, Umbrella Academy!
Do you think Alita: Battle Angel will take home the victory for the upcoming Visual Effects Society awards? Feel free to let us know in the comments or hit me up directly on Twitter @EVComedy to talk all things comics, anime, and Alita!
Battle Angel Alita (known as GUNNM in Japan) was originally created by Yukito Kishiro for Shueisha’s Weekly Business Jump in 1990. 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. The series has since been licensed for an English language release by Viz Media, and collected into nine volumes.
