This is one of the most beautifully drawn graphic novels I ever had pleasure to read. Presented in large format, with clean black-and-white [and occasional color] pages it is truly a gem.

Named Alita by a cyborg engineer that found her in the scrapyard under floating city of Zalem our protagonist tries to recall her past and soon finds out that she is a very experienced fighter with quick and deadly reflexes that help her find her way into bounty hunter guild. Although she looks very young, her chassis (for a lack of better word) is couple a hundred years old. She is remnant of long lost past and technology that was once available to humanity.

Volume #1 follows Alita as she fights maniacal cyborg murderers (Makaku is very, very disturbing) and falls in love with a very shady character Yugo. It ends with a cliffhanger that gives more insight into true nature of Zalem and in general social divide between those above (in the floating city) and those below (on ground).

Cannot wait for the volume #2.

Highly recommended to all fans of manga, cyberpunk and action SF in general. ( )

For anyone looking for a great introduction to manga, look no further. This deluxe volume is it: high quality paper stock and printing, readable print size, a hard binding, judicious use of color, and even excellent annotations.

Yukito Kishiro has written a fantastic story, and backed it up with amazing visual illustrations. It opens with scientist Ido finding the remains of a combat cyborg while scavenging among debris, and battling criminals. He lovingly rebuilds her, and develops paternal feelings for her in a relatively lawless society. Alita is angelic, a sweet and gentle creature, trying to reconstruct her life, remember her past and find her humanity along with her place on the world. This serialized graphic is about the battle between her compassion and her immense power, her fight for justice and her feelings for Ido and Yugo, with real depth and complexity. Great villain in Makuku too. ( )

Became the basis for a live-action feature film/From Japan
I genuinely enjoyed reading this. I did find it to be a bit too violent for me at times, but that was more towards the beginning and it got less graphic as it went on. It's a fantastic concept, and I would like to read on to see how Alita develops as a character.
(Fun fact. I did some extra work in college, and I was an extra for the Alita: Battle Angel movie. It was a pretty neat experience.) ( )

I found the recent Alita: Battle Angel movie reasonably enjoyable in a mindless popcorn flick sort of way, so I thought I'd try the manga. I was surprised at how faithful the movie was to the source material aside from adding rollerskating and shuffling around the sequence of events of the first two volumes of the manga, collected here under one cover. Like the movie, this is a fun bit of action as long as you don't think about it too much. ( )