Director Rodriguez Gives an Explanation to the Big Eyes in Alita: Battle Angel

During the previous week an official trailer had been released for the live-action adaptation of Yukito Kishiro’s sci-fi action manga Alita: Battle Angel. Much reaction was prompted from the video, mainly on Alita’s design and now an explanation over it is given by director Robert Rodriguez via a talk with Empire Magazine.

He stated that, "It was always Jim’s intention to create a photo-realistic version of the manga eyes that we’re so accustomed to seeing…” They had apparently wanted to honour the tradition and see the design next to any human character as well as work on the emoting of the characters. Given that the film takes on Alita’s origins, there is a certain sense to the character’s design. Rodriguez stated that, “If the eyes are the windows to the soul, we have some pretty big windows…” and because of this audiences will get a more striking look when it comes to more emotional scenes.

Outside of the director’s talk with the magazine, there is also a Twitter thread by translator/scholar Rachel Matt Thorn on the subject and all related commentary. Also included in the thread is a talk on the origin of Alita’s name and how the character Gally in the original Japanese and the series is Gunm – as in Gun Dream.

“Alita: Battle Angel” is set to be released in July 2018 with Robert Rodriguez as the director and James Cameron and Jon Landau as producers. Starring in the film is Canadian actress Rosa Salazar as Alita. With her are actors Christoph Waltz, Mahershala Ali, and Ed Skrein.

Set in a post-apocalyptic future, the original story tells of Alita, a cyborg with no memories who was found in a garbage heap by a cybernetics doctor. In the aftermath of her rebuilding and care under the doctor, Alita discovers that she has one memory. And that is of legendary cyborg martial artist Panzer Kunst. From this memory, she becomes a Hunter Warrior or bounty hunter and for the rest of the story it follows her journey as she attempts to rediscover her past and the characters whose lives she impacts on her journey.

The film will be adapting the “spine” of the story while also having a specific focus on the first four books and will be including the fictional sport “Motorball” from the third and fourth volume.

In regards to the manga, it was originally titled, “Battle Angel Alita” by Yukito Kishiro and was serialized by Shueisha’s Business Jump magazine from 1990 to 1995 with a total of 9 volumes. Over time the series has gained two original video animation (OVA) adaptations based off on two of the nine volumes in 1993 and were titled “Rusty Angel” and “Tears Sign.”

Source: Crunchyroll News