I know this movie will probably not please die hard Manga and Anime fans, as with Ghost In The Shell, which realised their anger, but to put it bluntly- I really don’t give a toss for their opinions! I am not a fan of either genre, I like the storylines, but the animation style is an acquired taste, and not one I personally like, so the movie adaptations are just the thing for me! As for the cries of ‘Whitewashing, with SJ in GITS and no doubt Rosa Salazar, Christoph Waltz etc in Alita- Get real! The characters they are playing are Animations and comic book characters for heavens sake! Ink on paper and graphics on film, no more Japanese than I am! (And given that a lot of them are drawn or animated with Alita’s huge eyes, they are not particularly Japanese in appearance anyway!) I suppose Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen, et al, were whitewashing when they made “The Magnificent Seven” ( If you know your movie history) One of the best Westerns ever.
Furthermore, I heard no cries of “yellow-washing” when the Japanese remake of Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven was made (Yurusarezaru Mono) ior “Throne of Blood” a Japanese adaptation of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, to name but two. (There have been numerous Japanese adaptations/re-makes of western film and literature) I know people can get very protective about things they hold dear, but really- some people are just not happy unless they have something to be offended by, annoyed at, or pissed off at in general these days, it seems....
Entertainment is created to entertain, and if it does that, it’s served its purpose, be it Manga, Anime, Live action film, Ballet, Opera, Poetry, a Novel or a Stage Play. They have been adapted, re-made, re-imagined and re-booted countless times for centuries, should you bother to look into the subject. So... Alita entertained me immensely, and for that I am profoundly grateful, whatever it’s origins and source material. I look forward to the sequel- I couldn’t believe it ended when it did! 9/10 ( it would have been 10/10 if it had lasted another hour, and concluded the story!)
