Week 10

This week’s topic was on Japanese comics and manga. I actually grew up reading manga and watching anime in my childhood and adolescence, so I thoroughly enjoyed this week’s reading. I chose to read Battle Angel Alita for the reading for a pretty transparent reason. I had recently seen the film adaptation for Battle Angel Alita and absolutely loved it. The visuals were amazing, the story was fun, and it really just sold me to another epic world. I wanted to see the original content it was adapted from, and maybe compare to see how true to the source it stayed. This was the first thought I had seeing the manga, as I’ve seen many anime to film adaptations that, although might have been a decent project had it been a standalone original idea, flopped because the fans felt betrayed when they strayed from the original source.  That was the case with Ghost in the Shell, Death Note, and many other adaptations of manga with an almost cult following. After reading the first chapter of the manga, I found many similarities and connections between the comic and film, enough to say I feel the film did justice for the comic. My only concern there is the fact that I watched the film first before the comic, as it may have influenced my decision.