Creative Staff
Story and Art: Yukito Kishiro
Translation/Adaptation: Fred Burke
What They Say
When Doc Ido, a talented cyber-physician, finds Alita’s head in a junk heap, she has lost all memory of her past life. But when he reconstructs her, she discovers her body still instinctively remembers the Panzer Kunst, the most powerful cyborg fighting technique ever known. In the postapocalyptic world of the Scrapyard, as the secrets of Alita’s past unfold, each day is a struggle for survival.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The tournament finals continue, with Alita, Sechs, and Zazie firmly in control. There is still a long way to go in this battle, though. Alita is tearing away at Toji’s defense, and seemingly all he can do is sit there and watch it whittle away. However, Toji is able to dig deep and unleash a legendary counter attack, one that completely vaporizes Alita. With her death, Sechs and Zazie are distracted enough that Zekka and Rakan are able to begin their own counter maneuvers. But they won’t go down too easily, and if they can just hold out until Alita’s subconsciousness finishes reconstructing her body, then maybe they can win out.
Over a year after Viz released volume 15 of Battle Angel: Last Order, American publication finally continues with Kodansha (the Japanese publisher) taking over where Viz left off. I’m admittedly not the biggest fan of shonen fighters, and I’m still saddened that it’s what Battle Angel has devolved into. I enjoyed the dystopian conflict that occupied the earlier manga series and OVA from the early 90s, so to see Last Order as a tournament fighter seems like the path of least resistance. Like I’ve seen it all before.
But I have to admit that, for a tournament fighter, there is pretty good action in here, and Alita continues to be a strong protagonist. She’s no longer the unsure symbol of an unsettled lower class, but is now in full command of her own abilities, even if she doesn’t fully understand what they all are. And the way this volume proceeds, it seems that she is destined for even greater things. Alita has always been one of my favorite female protagonists, and that continues on through to this point of Last Order. If anything, her confidence makes her all the more interesting. She’s not just powerful, but she knows that she is as well.
In Summary
Not being a fan of tournament fighters, I’m not going to pretend that I am particularly interested in seeing how things play out from here in Last Order. But I will say that I am still enjoying Alita’s progression as a character, and I’d have to has that it’s a pretty good (if under-looked) fighter. Even though I can’t say I’m a fan, it’s good to see publication of it finally continue as I hate seeing manga series get cut off like that. If you like these sorts of stories, then I’d say that it’s probably worth a look.
Content Grade: B
Art Grade: A
Packaging Grade: A
Text/Translation Grade: A
Age Rating: 16+
Released By: Kodansha Comics
Release Date: December 4th, 2012
MSRP: $10.99
