When the Alita: Battle Angel trailer hit last Saturday, it was impossible not to notice the character Alita’s anime-style eyes.
[GIF via 20th Century Fox]
While talking to IGN Brazil, Sin City director Robert Rodriguez explained the decision to give the character these peepers, saying, “The manga anime eyes that we’ve seen since the ’30s and Astro Boy has never been done photorealistically. So, usually when we see an anime translated, it doesn’t feel like that.”
Continuing, he adds, “The early artwork I saw that Jim [Cameron] had, before it was even technically possible, had that in her [Alita]. It was so striking and so arresting, I thought, ‘My god, we have to do that. We have to be the first to bring a true manga and anime character to life.’”
You can see the full response below:
Here is how people have been reacting to the trailer on Reddit.
[Via Reddit]
[Via Reddit]
[Via Reddit]
[Via Reddit]
[Via Reddit]
[Via Reddit]
And the response on Twitter:
The Alita: Battle Angel IRL anime eyes are truly horrifying. Some styles only work when drawn. pic.twitter.com/esrguGBshR
— Joshua Wittenkeller (@TheJWittz) December 8, 2017
As a long time fan, I get that Alita from Battle Angel Alita has huge eyes, but this (from the upcoming live action movie) is a bit much pic.twitter.com/y2kuhT8HNH
— Zen (@ZenAndCyrrene) December 8, 2017
They really gave #Alita anime eyes ????#AlitaBattleAngel pic.twitter.com/3k2jl9no0B
— FANDOM (@getFANDOM) December 8, 2017
I really love the eyes of Alita in the upcoming movie. The character is a cyborg and in the comics everybody can tell. By messing with Rosa Salazar’s eyes in this way I feel the filmmakers have created a sense of otherness that the audience can’t escape. It is a bold choice. pic.twitter.com/5VAgKzBtUo
— Ian Slutz (@panzerHut) December 12, 2017
I’ve never read the manga, but I find it hard to believe that Alita is the only character with large eyes because it’s *manga.* As far as big animu eyes goes, hers aren’t even that large. See reference. pic.twitter.com/k8xe5Si0zs
— Katie-senpai (@katiecosplays) December 12, 2017
For those not familiar with the source, this is what I mean. Alita does have really big moe moe eyes.. but Ido and many other characters also have exaggerated features.
Considering she is supposed to have a flesh & blood head, this seriously breaks immersion for me @_@ pic.twitter.com/qM40fRtMPc
— Shattered-Earth (@Shattered_Earth) December 8, 2017
DAMN! I don’t know how I feel about those eyes – I kinda’ live & hate them. But this is looking like a DIRECT adaptation of the manga & anime! https://t.co/WalJICgr0w @nerdist #AlitaBattleAngel
— Jessica Porg-bot (@JessicaChobot) December 8, 2017
She already fits Alita’s innocent look already just by looking herself, they didn’t need to change her eyes up at all pic.twitter.com/LdKtpAeoxz
— QOTSA (@mujabes) December 8, 2017
Uk the more I watch the Alita Battle Angel trailer, the less the eyes really bother me. Instead I just notice how cool the rest of it looks, and it’s hard to deny stuff like this gif is what works about anime. :3 pic.twitter.com/p2iCupnQPY
— Stephen Shin (@stephenweirdy8) December 12, 2017
I’m not finding Alita’s eyes as disturbing as many here seem to find…
— FrancescoFrancavilla (@f_francavilla) December 9, 2017
“Give Alita a chance! the eyes represent blah blah blah”
I see this the same as I would the idea of watching an entire film where the main character is CGI face Leia or Tarkin. Sometimes it just doesn’t work.
— Kate ☕️ (@KateVsTheWorld) December 10, 2017
What makes me angry about Alita having big eyes is the fact that they decided to give her those eyes INSTEAD of having her actual most defining feature that people IN the Alita universe comment about which is her having big puckered lips, noone talks abt her eyes in universe cont pic.twitter.com/iCDPB9guFE
— DEBIRUMAN DAAAAA (@smugtallguy) December 9, 2017
Lots of dumb takes going round about Battle Angel Alita. I think James Cameron knows the history, thin & superficial as it is, of ‘anime eyes.’ It’s just an aesthetic choice to give one particular character a particular weird ‘doll look’. Whether it works, now, that’s debatable
— Jason Thompson (@mockman) December 10, 2017
Big Eyes (2014) dir. Tim Burton
Alita: Battle Angel (2018) dir. Robert Rodriguez pic.twitter.com/lOCrnaVqvm— Martin Kessler (@MovieKessler) December 9, 2017
Looking at the trailer for Alita again, and I’ve got to wondering just how much that particular stylistic choice was based on a misunderstanding of the nature and function of why eyes are often exaggerated in anime?
Pictured: Ghost in the Shell 1995. pic.twitter.com/YyVAGfn9xG
— Christmas Sloth (@CaseyExplosion) December 11, 2017
Fake woke Twitter is still trying to argue Battle Angel Alita’s big eyes as some form of white washing. Even though it’s a choice ripped from the pages and the typical look of an anime character. pic.twitter.com/86AJk87Y34
— Prodigy (@maskedProdigy) December 10, 2017
you: “Gally/Alita’s eyes are too big in the 2018 movie trailer, ugh!”
me: *see image* #BattleAngelAlita pic.twitter.com/jUpo33AhCV
— Lynn Hamilton (Spooky Pixel) (@spookypixels) December 8, 2017
Fox heard your complaints about Alita’s eyes in the trailer for #AlitaBattleAngel and they’ve already replaced them with Christopher Plummer. Definitely an improvement. pic.twitter.com/bHROCQbZOq
— Jordan Ross (@TheJordanRoss) December 8, 2017
I’m so excited for this movie and I really don’t want people to try and make something out of nothing with this. They aren’t making fun of “Westerner’s or Europeans” I promise you.
— ????Momokun @ Fate Hell ???? (@OMariahMallad) December 11, 2017
Everyone’s worried about Battle Angel Alita’s giant eyes. Meanwhile my brother and I are like “there better be a fucking rocket hammer.”
— Scott Kurtz (@pvponline) December 8, 2017
Alita: Battle Angel opens on 19 July 2018, big eyes and all.
Comments
18 responses to “Why Alita Has Big Anime Eyes And How The Internet Is Reacting”
I didn’t have any problems with her eyes and thought it was quite fitting given that Alita has distinctly large eyes in the manga compared to most other characters. It’s kind of one of her defining traits. What I didn’t see were her face markings, though they may just not have included any scenes from when she got them because spoilers.
WRT Scott Kurtz’s tweet, I was looking for the hammer too and it does appear in one of the scenes. That was when I breathed a sigh of relief.
I honestly never through this movie would see the light of day. So much so, I had forgotten it was even a thing! Seriously though, I found the eyes off-putting in the trailer. It might be something you stop noticing after a few minutes; but for now, it looks wrong for the wrong reasons.
Everyone is talking about the eyes rather than the actual film..
It wasn’t the smartest decision.
There’s no such thing as bad publicity. 😉
Unless you’re Harvey Weinstein…
The eyes debate really undercuts my problem with the trailer.
Rather than a cyberpunk wasteland bereft of hope, the Scrapyard setting feels like a lame dystopian young adult novel.
The whole thing doesn’t seem like it has the right tone at all, you’re right.
Looks a bit uncanny in the stills, but in motion I have zero issues with it.
I feel like this specific genre of “cyborg Pinocchio” story had been done to death already, Astro-boy, short circuit, Stephen Spielberg’s AI, wall-E, chappie, terminator 2 (technically), Bicentennial Man, Iron giant, to a certain extent blade runner as well, and this is all I can remember from memory, there are a lot more other examples.
Unless this movie really is an exceptional masterpiece, it won’t leave any memorable impression behind.
You clearly haven’t read or even heard about the source material. The main character is not a “Pinocchio, as she’s actually human to begin with, if only by the barest of definitions. The story constantly edges on full body horror in a disturbing interpretation of the classic dilemma of Theseus ship. Ghost in the Shell threaded similar ground but its angle is much more psychological while Alita’s is fully visceral.
She is a machine, why does she have to have normal human proportions? For a straight humans, I get it, but all the human in the trailer have normal eyes. Zero issues here.
To me, it just makes her out of place in the movies Universe. All other characters, both human and android, have normal looking eye proportions. Alita is the ONLY one in the movie with eyes that huge in the movie from what we can see. It just doesn’t fit with the rest of the world.
(Side note to mods: My account has been under moderation for every post for 2 weeks. Can you remove that or let me know if I should just not bother posting anymore)
Sorry, I can’t remove it. Looks like your past comments have landed you in trouble with the automod and I don’t see a way around it.
But, she is unique in that world.
I’ve seen bigger.
I’m guessing these people haven’t seen the eyes on Lord Monckton.
Hopefully they end up showing the eyes as cybernetic in the movie and we aren’t all left to assume the eyes are real eyeballs. I mean all other characters in the movie so far appear to have normal eyes, so yeah…
I feel like they’ve done this because of a fundamental misunderstanding about why eyes are drawn / animated larger in anime to begin with. It makes the characters more expressive within the limitations of 2D artwork. You don’t need exaggerated eyes for a live-action character, human faces are vastly more expressive than a drawing is. Instead of making the character more appealing, they’ve thrown her right into the Uncanny Valley – our brains are screaming at us that it looks human but this one feature isn’t and so is wrong and dangerous and creeps us out, which is not how you’re meant to feel about the character at all.
I’m still stunned that Cameron is hung up on making the movie as well. Gunnm / Alita made sense as something to look at adapting in the late 90s, but it’s been largely forgotten now.
Sometimes I just wish the Internet would burn down so I didn’t feel the need to read articles about stupid shit like this.