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The rambling story arc of the last series, with its ridiculous ending and dropped characters, was not without its flaws, but it was entertaining and well illustrated enough to hold my interest.

THE HYPE around this series is that it cleans up the mess the last one ended on- Which early on, it seems to, even if in a clunky, much less fun and much more violent and gory way than we might hope for. One has to admit- Kishiro is still a great visual artist and his gore hits as hard as ever, his line work and shading more sleek and evocative than the ... first series. Shame about the story, though. A big warning sign comes up with interplanetary travel being brought into the series- That setting from the first one we all came to love, its cyberpunk shantytown slum- Nope. The settings here are a desert on Mars and (worse) a space station battle arena.

Yes, what no one tells you about this series is that it is decidedly not about the titular Battle Angel, but a fighting contest between a bunch of random cyborgs in an arena floating through space. I dropped out after reading the majority of the series and seeing that this is clearly where Kishiro's head was at- Even giving elaborate and sometimes interesting backstories to one off side characters. The post apocalyptic vampire story line was actually interesting and would have made for a cool series in its own right- But it isn't Battle Angel, and ultimately inconsequential. There's nothing really Battle Angel about this, not even Gally, whose self-discovery story line takes a backseat to filler between endless chapters about karate cyborgs fighting each other. I'll give the art its due, some of these characters are interesting looking- But random cyborgs rambling for pages about their fighting techniques does not a compelling story make.

Overall, a real disappointment for fans of the first series hoping for a definitive ending, and ultimately so disconnected from the original series in theme, story and setting that I am choosing not to see it as cannon. Perhaps the biggest letdown is the waste of Kishiro's great artwork.