Battle Angel Alita | T-Shirt Design Contest

My relationship with Battle Angel is an odd one. When I was young I saw the anime (which I definitely shouldn’t have had access to that young). Despite the violence and other… unsavory content, I really enjoyed the characters and the world that they inhabited. I found it cool, but strangely more relatable as I have gotten older, and had to deal with past mistakes and how face a future that was in part created from those mistakes.

For those who don’t know anything about Battle Angel Alita. In a nutshell, a young cyborg woman is brought back to life, with no memory of her past life. As she takes in the future post apocalyptic cyberpunk world around her, she slowly takes her place and questions her place in that world. Yes, it’s basis is the amnesia trope, and yes, it fits the fascination pop culture had with post apocalyptic and cyberpunk themes.

The way the original creator approaches these tropes is unique and causes the reader to question and face their past, and how that past influences our place in the spheres of influence that reside in throughout life. Most importantly it forces us to question the power we have and how we use that to help or hurt those around us.

Back to my story. When James Cameron started talking about doing a Hollywood adaptation back in the early 2000’s, you can an imagine the teenager version of me being excited about this. Keep in mind this is long before Ghost In The Shell, Dragon Ball Z, Speed Racer, etc… Basically, before any of the half baked or awful adaptations we have been given over the past 2 decades. So, any news of a Hollywood adapted anime was pretty incredible for the time.

It only took about 20 years, but the movie is just a few weeks away now. Seeing something like Battle Angel getting this kind of a treatment is still a bit unbelievable, considering how far off the beaten path this franchise is. And I am glad to contribute a small part to celebrating something that had a stronger impact on my life than I realized.