Battle Angel Alita - Last Order, Vol. 17

銃夢Last Order [GUNNM Last Order] #17

by Yukito Kishiro

KARMIC JUSTICE!
 
Caught in each other’s traps, the Martian markswoman Zazie and the despicable murderer Rakan begin to tear themselves apart, piece by piece! Meanwhile, Zekka’s distracted by the reappearance (or is that reincarnation?) of an old rival, whose presence may provoke the fiery death of millions in an antimatter explosion! Freedom, hubris, enlightenment and destruction as Alita’s saga reaches its climax!

Genres: Manga, Comics, Science Fiction, Cyberpunk, Seinen, Comics Manga, Graphic Novels

208 pages, Paperback

First published February 19, 2013

About the author

Yukito Kishiro (Japanese: 木城ゆきと) is a Japanese manga artist born in Tokyo in 1967 and raised in Chiba. As a teenager he was influenced by the mecha anime Armored Trooper Votoms and Mobile Suit Gundam, in particular the designs of Yoshikazu Yasuhiko, as well as the works of manga artist Rumiko Takahashi. He began his career at age 17, with his debut manga, Space Oddity, in the Weekly Shonen Sunday. He is best known for the cyberpunk series Battle Angel Alita.

Reviews

[osoi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Если выкинуть из книги разборки двух каратистов, то это чуть ли не лучший том за всю серию Last Order. Мне очень импонирует появившийся в последних главах персонаж, что не машет кулаками без причины и трансцендентен донельзя. И герои в кои-то веки совершают поступки вне турнирных рамок – в конце концов, между делом можно и мир спасти, правда? :D
Главный антагонист вызывает раздражение своей глупостью. Подбородок оказался простым тираном, что купается во всесилии и хочет любым способом сохранить свою власть над миром. Наконец с него слетела позолоченная пыльца под названием «я хочу спасти человечество (поэтому сделал из людей овец и посадил себя любимого на трон)», и его стоический фасад рухнул. Плюсом появление Вильмы – центрального персонажа единственной захватывающей арки.

(у нее столько интересных имен
カエルラ・サングウィス = Caerula Sanguis
ヴィルマ・ファキーリ = Vilma Fachiri
и даже Qing-long Wei-ji = Blue Dragon Princess
теперь я знаю, как назвать своего следующего сильвари)

Наконец-то выстрелили развешанные по стенам (10 книг назад) ружья, развернулась обещанная трагедия (пускай и под другим углом), и сюжет на всех парах мчится к логичному звершению. Ура.

hisashiburi

[Justin · Rating 4 out of 5]

And just like that, it's as if Kishiro somehow heard the complaints from my review of the last volume, through some kind of rift in time and space, and decided to get on with things. The ZOTT finally ends in this volume, in a somewhat sudden (and decidedly weird) fashion. In its wake, after...nine? ten volumes of this tournament arc (it's hard to keep track), suddenly everything is happening at once. A few story elements were set up in advance, but a lot of what happens, post-ZOTT feels rather abrupt. I can't help but wish that a few of the volumes devoted to the tournament arc had instead been used to establish these developments, instead of doing it in text boxes full of exposition.

Still, we're finally out of the ZOTT tunnel, and the light on the other side holds at least a glimmer of the philosophizing and plot development that made Battle Angel great in the first place. I do worry about the pacing, but with two volumes left, I'm still hoping Last Order can reach a satisfying conclusion.

[Justin Abdallah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Resurrected yet again

Alitas powers at this stage of the manga are impressive. During LO Alita is resurrected 3 times. The third time she acquires wings. She doesn’t keep them long however in this volume. I’m going to assume Yukito didn’t want to draw wings all that much. I’m actually glad she lost them because this Alita not only acts different than the Alita we all grew up with, but physically she’s a different thing now. Wings, a tail and a brain bio chip.

At least the ZOTT is finally over and we can get back to some narrative storytelling.

[Sabrina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wooooooo!!!!!! A lot of stuff happening in this volume!!

[Alex E · Rating 4 out of 5]

..and finally, the Zott concludes!

So after so many volumes of the Zott tournament, we get the conclusion and winner in this book. And don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the tournament and thought it had some fun moments, but it was definitely dragging on and on and good thing that Yukito Kishiro decided to finally resolve it, and in good fashion.

So we get the final battles of the space angels vs the karate masters, and as you may have guessed, Alita wins... well, her and her team but the main villain behind the scenes, Mbadi, wants to lay waste to all contenders and take power for himself. He wants to use a super weapon called the Sword of Damocles, but using this weapon will cause too much harm and destruction - so other parties get involved by making sure Alita is there to stop him, and stop the weapon from reaching its full destructive potential.

Kishiro gives us plenty of action along with some existential ponderings, but really - I think we were all just ready and happy for the conclusion of Zott. Hopefully next volume will give us some more sotry on Alita herself, as we have been moving away from that for some time now.

[ダンカン · Rating 4 out of 5]

Karmic Justice! Mbadi tries to destroy the Onion Frame after The Space Angels won Z.O.T.T. The plot unfolds the true nature of Mbadi and Tunpo appears! All these plus a new mission for Alita. The direction of Last Order has turn into a different direction as this may lead to Alita's death. Ping Wu leave a lasting twist that will change the world forever. Another great volume from Yukito Kishiro.

[Sean Boyer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Finally the ZOTT is over and we get a more plot-driven narrative in the second half of this volume. That said, the conclusion to the ZOTT was well done, in no small part because the fighting seemed to have a more logical sense instead of the constantly shifting "maximum" attacks of most of the previous fights that just dragged things out for waaay too many pages.

I hope the final two volumes of this series continue the momentum (and plot) that this volume has.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Alita is reborn (this is like her fourth or fifth body?) as a winged catgirl. The Z.O.T.T. battles are almost over. And Mbedi (the villain of the series, who's been orchestrating everything and tried to unleash a doomsday weapon on the winners of the Z.O.T.T.) triggers a rebellion against his power. Most of this volume is still just more fighting, but the long (long, long) Z.O.T.T. arc is finally wrapping up and perhaps we are headed towards.... a conclusion?

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

Glad the ZOTT is over (or at least ends about 2/3 of the way through this volume) so more of the philosophical and sociopolitical aspects are back in play. More perversion with Rakan at the beginning. His death ends up being like that of Edward II. The ending felt a bit too deus ex machina.

[Fraser Simons · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very cool battle, no weird, rapey guys; it’s much better than the previous volume.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Sword of Damocles is used. The ZOTT is finished. Mbadi is reduced. Filled with epic scenes.

[Kurtis Burkhardt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good Sci fi manga series, really good awesome art and action scenes but the overall story wasn’t that great 😁✌️❤️❤️

[Juho Pohjalainen · Rating 3 out of 5]

At last, it's over! The tournament is done and finished! The winners have been brought up, and finally, I think, the story can move on!

Plus, Tunpó was a fun character to have around.

[Ivan · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's about time!

The frick-frackin' ZOTT went on for volumes and volumes, dragging everything to a screamingly frustrating halt, but author Yukito Kishiro must have finally had enough of it, because with this volume, the damned ZOTT concludes at long last!

This volume could, arguably, be called the climax of the Last Order series as a whole, though it's clear there's still more to come. The story isn't over, but at least it's actually MOVING AGAIN, and during the second half especially, it moves at a breakneck pace this series hasn't seen in far too long. That's why I give this volume such a high rating: it's satisfying! Stuff is actually HAPPENING again! We're not just sitting around watching repetitious battles anymore; the story has thankfully resumed!

I for one could not be happier. This is more like it! This far more closely resembles the Battle Angel series that pulled me in so effectively all those years ago. It's a shame it took this long to finally get to this point, but at least we got there! Now, if only this trend continues throughout however many volumes are still to come, we'll be in for a treat indeed. I think the series deserves it, and I certainly feel the fans do, too!

If you've been waiting for Last Order to finally get moving again, this is the volume you want to pick up, because it sure got moving again, all right!

[Josh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow... It is hard t believe that after years and years of reading and waiting, the story is finally coming to a close.

This is a bittersweet feeling. I imagine it is a taste if what I will feel like, reading the final book of The Wheel of Time in January. Because if the Wheel of Time is the pinnacle of modern epic fantasy, Battle Angel is the pinnacle of modern action sci fi manga.

The last couple of books have had the most epic fights I've ever seen depicted. Yet it is still unreal to see things ending, characters dying whom I have followed and waited to see their demise fr so long. Naturally, it is hard to meet all of one's expectations. There was too much deus ex machina in the climactic fight, for sure. But for such an epic behemoth that has gone on for so long, it would be nigh impossible to pull off every promised payoff. Still, I can be satisfied at a long journey nearly over, and many fond memories along the way.

If James Cameron finally makes the movie about this, this manga is going to see a huge surge of popularity around the world, which I believe it fully and rightly deserves. For those new fans who will have the chance to read the completed series from beginning to end without waiting... You're in for a treat.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's all mega science fiction craziness again as the Z.O.T.T. comes to a massive black hole powered end. However, I'm beginning to suffer from consciousness raising battle fatigue. Elements that are truly mind blowing simply come off as ho-hum because we've seen it all before in previous volumes. Thus, a pattern begins to emerge where the story has successfully written itself into a corner and in order to get out this corner, it promptly obliterates all immediate barriers and hurries to the next corner. The problem with repeatedly doing this, is that it sucks all the tension out of the story; and volume 17 has no tension in it all. Sound and Fury plenty, drama zip.

So, as Alita continues to become even more invincible, what's the point to all this fighting? There's gotta be a smarter way to overcome one's obstacles.

[Tarot · Rating 3 out of 5]

3/5 stars for this volume and the series ~

Last Order pales in comparison to the original Battle Angel Alita (Gun Dream / Gunnm) series, which was so deep in its art, darkness, emotion, and hope in half as many volumes. This unnecessarily long series has very little coherent story even though it tries to invent an interplanetary community, and focuses way too much on endless fighting with bizarre creatures and none of the depth and character development that made the fights mean something in Gunnm. Reading both series is like watching an adult who fought so hard to discover him/herself reverting back into a violent, hormone-driven teenager. Don't bother, stick to Gunnm.

[morbidflight · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finally...ZOTT is over. The part of me that's in love with all of these characters is happy with how it ended, and I'm glad Mbadi got shown to be a total ass. Alita just keeps getting more and more OP though, not sure how that'll work out. Where is this story going?

[Caoimhin · Rating 5 out of 5]

More please!