Customer Reviews

Battle Angel Alita: Last Order, Vol. 4 - Angel of Protest

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This review is for the just released English version of "Angel of Protest". The whole "Last Order" series so far has been very well done, with a slicker, cleaner look than the first series. This latest release builds upon the last book with more new characters and lots more fighting and action scenes. I love Alitas new jacket and leggings, they remind me of Nausicaa or even one of CardCaptor Sakura's costumes. Also, we finally get some adversaries worthy of the "Imaginos" body.

"Angel of Protest" takes the storyline on kind of a tangent, with "Alita" geting into fights for moralistic reasons again. This sets up some great fighting however, and we get to see "Zazie" in action. Most everything that was unclear at the end of "Angel Eternal" is still not resolved. This is not a criticism because, hey, we get some great battle sequences! I just hope the overall plot does not get sidetracked for the sake of great fights and then be forced into some slap-togther cheesy resolution like the end of the first series.

"Angel of Protest" is a page-turner if you follow "Battle Angel" and my only complaint is it was too short. I love the artwork and ideas in this series. The campiness of the plot and the philosophical inner dialog of the characters never fails to amuse.

My wife still won't even look at these books because of the gore, and my sister just laughs at the silly Germanized names of the fighting techniques. (I still can't get her to stop laughing at "Panzer Kunst") But I read this series over and over again and always come away with a respect for the depth of imagination, the detail of the artwork and the sheer entertainment on so many different levels.

This volume is packed with action! It's more than half the volume in this manga of pure action against the Space Karate Team (who later appear at the ZOTT). Alita discovers an awesome new ability, and Zazie is really friggin' cool!

One of the most fun/fast-paced in the series!

This is definitely a collectors item, but is it worth collecting? If you want Alita to last forever (which I do), then sort of. The print quality is great, like the paperbacks, but without the covers being uniform, it's almost pointless to collect them.

To clarify this, I just want to let everyone know this is not about the story, art, etc, just the binding/printing.

The book is the same size as the trade paperbacks are. It is in hardcover, but the pages were trimmed without the actual art being trimmed; which means some of the art gets cut off at the edges. The artwork/words also seem to sink into the middle of the book's spine (the bleed) if they get to close.

In this volume, again, the print quality is fine, but the cover is terrible!!! The actual lettering on the cover is a garish bright yellow, totally lacking uniform with the delicate gold/multicolored lettering of the other volumes. THe volume number is totally off-center, and they didn't even try to trim the image! the actual picture on the cover is decent, but the uniformity of the Last Order hardcover series is RUINED with this volume!