Alita: Battle Angel
Alita: Battle Angel
When Alita awakens with no memory of who she is in a future world she does not recognize, she is taken in by Ido, a compassionate doctor who realizes that somewhere in this abandoned cyborg shell is the heart and soul of a young woman with an extraordinary past.
RichyE reviewedOctober 5, 2025
The movie dazzled me in 4K, but my first encounter with Alita was on a worn VHS tape and that memory still holds weight.
The 2019 film is a visual juggernaut and it is like stepping into a cyberpunk theme park.
But the original 1993 anime OVA? That was raw, compact and emotionally piercing in a different way.
I remember the grain of the VHS, the slightly warped audio, and the way the story hit harder because it didn’t over explain.
The animation was gritty, the violence unflinching and the tone far darker.
The movie covers roughly the same arc as the OVA, Ido finding Alita, her bounty hunter awakening, the doomed romance, but it adds layers from the manga and modernizes the pacing.
It’s more accessible, more emotionally rounded, but also more Hollywood.
So yes, the film is impressive.
But that VHS tape? That was my gateway.
It didn’t have Dolby Atmos or a million dollar budget, but it had soul, grit and the kind of storytelling that sticks with you long after the credits roll.