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銃夢Last Order [GUNNM Last Order] #13
Battle Angel Alita - Last Order, Vol. 13: Sans Angel
Reads R to L (Japanese Style). A sophisticated science fiction tale packed with action, black humor, and philosophical, historical, and cultural references! Sans Prof. Nova move over, there's a new evil genius in town! Pissaro makes Nova's biological experiments look tame when his living weapons deploy at the barbaric Z.O.T. Tournament!
208 pages, Paperback
First published June 8, 2010
170 people want to read
About the author
Yukito Kishiro
342 books377 followersYukito 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.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
June 9, 2010
After the not-so-good volume 11 and the really strange (but slightly better) volume 12, I was seriously beginning to think author Yukito Kishiro had completely lost his mind. I'm still not entirely sure he hasn't, but volume 13 is a reassuringly better entry in the Last Order series and almost makes up for some of the bizarre, ill-fitting detours the series has taken.
I was worried enough when Kishiro began taking submissions for new character designs from readers. This is never a good indicator, and if I, for one, were so hard up for ideas, I would personally take a breather or move on to something else. Some of the previous volumes were so filled with padding that they didn't merely slow the story down, they brought it to a grinding halt. Much of what was presented was out of place and didn't fit the tone and atmosphere created by the earlier volumes and the original Battle Angel Alita series. The history of Tiphares and the Scrapyard was interesting if overlong, but a lot of the other craziness surrounding the Z.O.T.T. and the rather inconsequential secondary characters really added nothing to the story and made it drag. Volume 11 derailed things to the point that I was almost starting to wish Kishiro would just wrap things up; it had a couple of good but ultimately wasted ideas amidst a whole onslaught of nonsense. Volume 12, as I said, was slightly better, and contained a couple of really good moments for Alita that gave me some renewed hope for the series.
Volume 13 is more-or-less on the same level, though as the subtitle Sans Angel suggests, Alita is largely absent (though thankfully not completely absent like she was a few volumes back) and plays no direct role in the events depicted. Instead, we follow the stories of yet more secondary characters, though at least this time we get characters whose stories are actually interesting on both a dramatic level and a philosophical one. This volume also has a more interesting cliffhanger, and it's going to be a very long wait for volume 14.
Last Order as a series started out strongly, but got weaker as it progressed due to the consistent detours, odd concepts and uncharacteristic shifts in tone, but volumes like 13 show that Kishiro still has some interesting things to say, and of course that he is still an amazing artist. One hopes, though, that future volumes will bring the series completely back on track and get back the original point since, after all, that's why we started reading it in the first place. We still have some things to look forward to, but let's hope it doesn't take us forever and a day to get there.
I was worried enough when Kishiro began taking submissions for new character designs from readers. This is never a good indicator, and if I, for one, were so hard up for ideas, I would personally take a breather or move on to something else. Some of the previous volumes were so filled with padding that they didn't merely slow the story down, they brought it to a grinding halt. Much of what was presented was out of place and didn't fit the tone and atmosphere created by the earlier volumes and the original Battle Angel Alita series. The history of Tiphares and the Scrapyard was interesting if overlong, but a lot of the other craziness surrounding the Z.O.T.T. and the rather inconsequential secondary characters really added nothing to the story and made it drag. Volume 11 derailed things to the point that I was almost starting to wish Kishiro would just wrap things up; it had a couple of good but ultimately wasted ideas amidst a whole onslaught of nonsense. Volume 12, as I said, was slightly better, and contained a couple of really good moments for Alita that gave me some renewed hope for the series.
Volume 13 is more-or-less on the same level, though as the subtitle Sans Angel suggests, Alita is largely absent (though thankfully not completely absent like she was a few volumes back) and plays no direct role in the events depicted. Instead, we follow the stories of yet more secondary characters, though at least this time we get characters whose stories are actually interesting on both a dramatic level and a philosophical one. This volume also has a more interesting cliffhanger, and it's going to be a very long wait for volume 14.
Last Order as a series started out strongly, but got weaker as it progressed due to the consistent detours, odd concepts and uncharacteristic shifts in tone, but volumes like 13 show that Kishiro still has some interesting things to say, and of course that he is still an amazing artist. One hopes, though, that future volumes will bring the series completely back on track and get back the original point since, after all, that's why we started reading it in the first place. We still have some things to look forward to, but let's hope it doesn't take us forever and a day to get there.
April 17, 2018
Sans Angel is right! The only glimpse we get of her is sitting on a high perch eating one of those fish shaped ice cream sandwiches they sell at the Asian groceries here in the New York area (I had a free sample of one in a supermarket--it was really good). This volume has perhaps the most uncanny valley factor of the entire series (someone recently said, commenting on a preview of James Cameron's newly retitled "Alita: Battle Angel" film, that Cmaeron no longer has an uncanny valley). Instead of Gari/Alita, our cute protagonist with similar morals and values to navigate us through the gruesomeness, we get a bunch of psychopaths who define manhood through combat. The closest we get to a moral center in this one is Olympe, an android we're told was programmed for sex, although her appearance doesn't suggest that--she is in a pantsuit decorated with Victorian-style frills with a short neck tie. She is the only one who has shown Homme de Feu, whom she knows as Ygrec (the Zekka clone introduced in the previous volume), any sort of love, and that as a tutor and caregiver. Ygrec had an overwhelming desire to eat her in spite of his love, and that's when he discovered she was an android. Her tragic story concludes the volume as she defeats the particularly disturbing Pissaro, whom we finally see in his true form, although he doesn't last long that way.
This volume seems heavier on fighting and lighter on philosophy than previous volumes. The back has profiles of two monsters from Venus featured in the story, Bigorne and Chiche-Vache, who are named for French creatures that eat only faithful men and women, respectively. A note indicates "from carrot-crabs to the Ymir" that Venus has been a breeding gound for monsters in science fiction. I'm not sure what the carrot crabs are. The Ymir is referring to the Ray Harryhuasen-designed creature in 20 Million Miles to Earth.
This volume seems heavier on fighting and lighter on philosophy than previous volumes. The back has profiles of two monsters from Venus featured in the story, Bigorne and Chiche-Vache, who are named for French creatures that eat only faithful men and women, respectively. A note indicates "from carrot-crabs to the Ymir" that Venus has been a breeding gound for monsters in science fiction. I'm not sure what the carrot crabs are. The Ymir is referring to the Ray Harryhuasen-designed creature in 20 Million Miles to Earth.
July 17, 2014
Bonkers heavy metal cyborg kung fu action. This would make a great read as a stand alone story - don't worry about what's going on, just enjoy the artist's warped imagination!
August 10, 2019
Этот том отдаленно напоминает тему с красавицей и чудовищем, только с андроидами и генетическими мутантами в главных ролях. История любви и трагедия в одном флаконе – все это должно вызывать как минимум сопереживание. Но после провальных последних томов, сюжет которых напоминает серию игр мортал комбат, в это «стерильное» представление не веришь. Словно кто-то толкнул автор под бок и сказал «вставь что-нибудь драматичное и про любовь». Автор смог, но получилась дешевая имитация. Я до сих пор с трепетом вспоминаю историю чувств из оригинального Gunnm (второй или третий том, если не ошибаюсь), и попытки нового цикла продать наспех сварганенную поделку без души разочаровывают. Эту серию можно спасти только сюжетным развитием (постоянные драки под прикрытием турнира в счет не идут), и интересными героями, которые меньше напоминают кукол, а больше – людей. Возможно, Кисиро таким образом описывает будущее человечества, демонстрирует последствия развития технологий… но что-то мне подсказывает, что дело в плохо прописанных персонажах, которых кидают в котел и поджаривают просто для пущей зрелищности.
hisashiburi
hisashiburi
August 23, 2023
Another volume where Alita takes a sideline seat.
But while other volumes that lacked Alita were a bit hampered by her absence, this one isn't as bad. The storylines that Yukito Kishiro writes about are actually pretty interesting and handled well. First we have the story of the werewolf guy that is obsessed with the android girl, and they have to fight the characters that we know already. Their love story is pretty tragic (not to mention weird) that it oddly pulls your heartstrings and you kind of end up rooting for them. Even though the Karate masters (or whatever they are called) are kind of the "good guys" at this point in time.
Come to think of it, the Zott contest has really blurred the lines between good guys and bad guys. Kishiro has kind of setup a series of stories that give you reason to think about both contestants and their reasoning for being there. Of course there are characters who are just completely cannon fodder, but the ones he focusses in on, you see more than the one dimensional character as far as motivation.
Looking forward to the next volume.
But while other volumes that lacked Alita were a bit hampered by her absence, this one isn't as bad. The storylines that Yukito Kishiro writes about are actually pretty interesting and handled well. First we have the story of the werewolf guy that is obsessed with the android girl, and they have to fight the characters that we know already. Their love story is pretty tragic (not to mention weird) that it oddly pulls your heartstrings and you kind of end up rooting for them. Even though the Karate masters (or whatever they are called) are kind of the "good guys" at this point in time.
Come to think of it, the Zott contest has really blurred the lines between good guys and bad guys. Kishiro has kind of setup a series of stories that give you reason to think about both contestants and their reasoning for being there. Of course there are characters who are just completely cannon fodder, but the ones he focusses in on, you see more than the one dimensional character as far as motivation.
Looking forward to the next volume.
July 30, 2019
No Alita in this one. The Karate guys win the day but it's very messy.
March 26, 2020
Pretty good Sci fi manga series, really good awesome art and action scenes but the overall story wasn’t that great 😁✌️❤️❤️
September 10, 2022
I'm starting to feel like we're headed down the shonen slippery slope with all this power creep. Not a big fan. Didn't like Venus much, either.
October 21, 2025
I was wondering why they're putting on a metal show on the cover when this is about a death battle and after reading I found out that it's because DUDES ROCK.
February 25, 2011
Un peu ras le bol des combats qui n'en finissent pas et n'apportent rien à l'histoire.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews