Battle Angel Alita by Yukito Kishiro

Battle Angel Alita is a manga that I really enjoyed reading. I feel that in the 6 volumes that I read, the world was established in a beautiful way, where the author almost effortlessly explains what is happening in this world and who this character we are following is both visually and with text. The story deals with huge concepts in a world that is almost surreal in nature, straying so far form reality and skewing traditional structures of society. Within a few hundred pages the author has us thinking about the place of machines in society in addition to the nature of humans after a disaster. A graphic novel like this is definitely my kind of story, because it is both hyper serious and touching on very real and interesting issues, while at the same time takes the time when it can to inject some humor and softness. For example, during the epic fight scene where Alita is fighting one of the machines modeled after her the tension is high and I was on the edge of my seat as the fight scene got more and more dynamic, but immediately after the fight we are treated with a sort of comedown in the form of a funny little dialogue between Alita and a servant robot. Another reason why I really liked this book was it's writing of a respectable main character that is a well developed female protagonist without pandering to anyone. The story is in no way a girl's story because the protagonist is female. I think the decision to make the main character a woman adds an interesting softness to the very cold and harsh world we are entering, without just saying "oh look she's a girl, lets make a joke about how girls have periods cuz girls have periods lol aren't we great?" like the great women artists we got the pleasure of reading about a few weeks later. This author knows what message they want to relay to the audience and seems to never falter in that deliberate treatment of the story. Battle Angel Alita, is just a solid story that makes the viewer think about some very interesting concepts and I think the world building in this novel was the most exemplary part of a great read.