Battle Angel Alita
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| GUNNM: Hyper Future Vision | |
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| 銃夢 (GUNNM) |
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| Genre | Cyberpunk |
| Manga | |
| Authored by | Yukito Kishiro |
| Publisher |  Shueisha 天下出版社 Punainen jättiläinen Glénat Planet Manga Planeta DeAgostini  VIZ Media Editora JBC |
| Serialized in | Business Jump |
| Original run | November 1991 – March 1995 |
| No. of volumes | 9 |
| OVA | |
| Directed by | Hiroshi Fukutomi |
| Studio | Madhouse |
| No. of episodes | 2 |
| Released | June 21, 1993 |
| Runtime | 35 minutes |
Battle Angel Alita, called GUNNM (銃夢 lit. juu (gun) mu (dream), creatively read as ガンム ganmu) in Japan and Europe is a manga series created by Yukito Kishiro in 1991 and published in Shueisha's Business Jump magazine. The title translates to "Gun Dream", and the nine-volume comics were adapted into two anime original video animation episodes titled "Battle Angel Alita" for the North American release by Viz Media. The manga series is continued in Battle Angel Alita: Last Order.
Contents |
[edit] Story
Battle Angel Alita tells the story of Alita ("Gally" in the original version), an amnesiac female cyborg. This cyborg's intact head and upper torso are found in a state of suspended animation by the cybermedic expert Daisuke Ido while he's out searching for useful scrap. Amazed by his discovery, Ido quickly returns home and works to revive her. Upon finding that the girl has lost her memory, Ido names her Alita, the name of his recently deceased cat.
The rebuilt Alita soon discovers that she possesses instinctive knowledge of the legendary Martian martial art Panzer Kunst, although she has no other memories of her previous life. Alita must learn to navigate, exist, and fight in the Scrapyard, whose inhabitants themselves live in the rubbish of the tantalizingly close floating city, Tiphares.
Ido builds Alita a new cyborg body, but she begins to suspect that the parts have been obtained from a series of murder victims. She follows him one night, hoping to discover the true nature of his midnight activities. She watches him lie in wait for what appears to be an approaching woman, and intervenes. The woman turns out to be a berserk mutant woman with a bounty on her head. She attacks Alita and Ido.
Alita fights the woman, and suddenly delivers a killing blow. Ido recognizes the technique as an ancient Martian martial art known as Panzer Kunst ("armored arts"). Ido reveals that he is a hunter-warrior, or bounty hunter, and Alita decides to become one as well. This begins Alita's quest to discover her true identity. Her journeys take her across the Scrapyard and surrounding areas, as she tries to recall more of her past.
[edit] Manga
The manga was first published in Shueisha's Business Jump magazine. It was then serialized from 1990 to 1995 in 9 tankoubons. In the US, Viz originally released the story in a 25 page comic book, it then followed the same volume format as its Japanese counterpart.
| Num | Japanese Name | English Name |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gunnm: Rusty Angel | Battle Angel Alita |
| 2 | Gunnm: Iron Maiden | Tears of an Angel |
| 3 | Gunnm: Killing Angel | Killing Angel |
| 4 | Gunnm: Ars Magna | Angel of Victory |
| 5 | Gunnm: Lost Sheep | Angel of Redemption |
| 6 | Gunnm: Rainmaker | Angel of Death |
| 7 | Gunnm: Panzer Bride | Angel of Chaos |
| 8 | Gunnm: War Chronicle | Fallen Angel |
| 9 | Gunnm: Conquest | Angel's Ascension |
- On April 4, 1997 Gunnm the novel was released by "JUMP jBOOKS".
- On December, 23 1998 "Gunnm the Complete Collection" a Japanese special edition was released in B5 paper format (182×257 mm) in 6 volumes. New materials were added making it more than just a reprint of the original.
[edit] OVA
The US and Japanese OVA version of the anime, directed by Hiroshi Fukutomi, is comprised of two episodes (Rusty Angel and Tear Sign) as a compressed preview for the manga. The episodes also spawned a memorable soundtrack including the theme song and "Cyborg Mermaid". Despite critics held Battle Angel as one of the best anime to be translated and brought over to the US in the 1990s. The anime received lukewarm reception in Japan. The UK version is just a single movie.
[edit] Major characters
Gally / Alita (ガリィ garī) - Battle Angel Alita's protagonist. A female cyborg found in a junk pile, she has no memory of who she was before, except for her instinctual knowledge of Panzer Kunst, a legendary art created specifically for humanoid cyborgs, and considered the most deadly of all. Extremely powerful, yet emotionally fragile, Alita's quest to reclaim her identity takes her through a great deal of both pain and joy.
Daisuke Ido (イド・ダイスケ Ido Daisuke) - Ido is a doctor of the Scrapyard who finds and restores Alita. He is also a bounty hunter, and is particularly proud of his success despite a human body and being armed with only a rocket hammer. It is revealed that the symbol on his forehead signifies a citizen of Tiphares. Upon learning that another man in the Scrapyard possesses the symbol, he is surprised that he is not the only one exiled from Tiphares, and that another former citizen could and would choose to survive there. This former citizen, Desty Nova, reveals to him the secret of Tiphares. This causes Ido intense psychological strain, and he chooses to erase his memory rather than having to come to terms with it.
Desty Nova (ディスティ・ノヴァ disuti nova) - A former citizen of Tiphares who has used his extensive scientific knowledge to save Makaku and Jashugan, as well as resurrect Ido and Alita from states that would normally be classified as 'dead,' even in this world where cyborgs are commonplace. He has fled Tiphares to obtain the freedom necessary to experiment with live humans, a component he deems necessary in his research of karma and psychological capacity. Although he is generally villainous in Battle Angel Alita, he exists as much more of a neutral, ambiguous figure in Last Order. A dream sequence shows that had his situation been different, he could have easily been a loving, protective father figure for Alita. He has injected himself with nanomachines that can repair dismemberment and give him pseudo-immortality. He possesses knowledge of the secret of Tiphares, one that could drive its citizens mad if released.
Kaos (ケイオス keiosu) - Desty Nova's son and a popular late-night radio host. He is extremely fragile. He only sees at infrared wavelengths and hears and speaks at radio wavelengths. Those that see him in person must use special transceivers for communication. Kaos is an expert of psychometry, a unique talent to read the memories of inanimate objects. He can channel the memories of a katana to learn sword skills and the memories of a computer to hack it. He and his team of molemen dig up artifacts from the bygone era, and he uses the memories contained in these artifacts as the basis for his radio show.
[edit] Film
James Cameron is directing and producing Battle Angel, a live-action adaption of the first three volumes of the manga series. Cameron has plans to make a trilogy if the first film is successful. Alita will be a CG character performed by an actress. Filming will be made with the new digital 3D system Cameron has develop for Avatar.
Battle Angel is currently in pre-production and is set for a 2009 release. [1]
[edit] Setting
Battle Angel Alita takes place in a highly futuristic dystopian world, reflected in its full Japanese title GUNNM: Hyper Future Vision. Besides renaming Gally to Alita, the North American version of the manga also changed the city of Salem to Tiphares. Since Kishiro also used the name Jeru for the facility atop Salem, Jeru was renamed Ketheres in the translation. To further develop the Biblical theme in the original series, Salem's main computer was named Melchizedek, "the king of Salem" and "priest to the Most High God" ([2]).
Triphares (Zalem or Salem) is a floating city, suspended from space on a pillar construct and anchored to the ground by huge cables, which also serve as supply tubes. These tubes are extremely durable, able to withstand even Den's sword. Tiphares was a city meant to house individuals specially conditioned for the rigors of space travel. However, after the Terraforming Wars, centered around the Levathan class ships, Tiphares' connection to the surface was severed. When LADDER was established, Tiphares and its citizens were used as part of a genetic experiment, and as a source of human brains.
The Scrapyard is a sprawling expanse of buildings and other structures centered around a massive scrap heap directly below Tiphares. The mountain of garbage was once the tower that connected to Tiphares. Now, the heap consists of garbage ejected from the floating city of Tiphares. The only law is Factory Law: rules contrived to protect Tipharean interests in food and basic resources that are supplied from the factories below. For example, air travel within close proximity to Tiphares (this includes both man made objects and animal life) is prohibited. Anything that breaches this particular law is shot down by the city's defense system. For this reason, there are no birds in the Scrapyard.
The Scrapyard reflects the cyberpunk ethos, as well as Kishiro's portrayal of a society without values. Many inhabitants became cyborgs working for the factories, some are victims of involuntary street surgery, while others use cybernetics to enhance their physical abilities. Firearms are outlawed; non-projectile weapons are permitted, and exist in great variety. Fights erupt spontaneously on the streets. Violent criminals lurk in shadowy alleyways and through the tremendous extent of the sewers. Public entertainment is of a violent nature; Motorball's fusion of racing gladiatorial combat is a prime example. These are condoned by the factory to pacify and distract the denizens of the Scrapyard. Interestingly, these are broadcast to Tiphares as well suggesting a darker nature to the Tiphareans. This becomes more evident in Last Order during the violence that follows Nova's public announcement of the secret of the Tiphareans. At that point, Casey Roscoe's men even talk of killing children for sport.
Bounty hunters called "Hunter-warriors" are the enforcers of Factory Law in the Scrapyard, since there is no actual police force. These mercenaries respond to "wanted" notices posted by the Factory via netmen. Hunter-Warriors are required to register with the Factory, and are uniquely identified by a barcode burned into the glial tissues of their brain; this is necessary because natural cell patterns (fingerprints, retinal patterns, etc) can be easily stolen and/or counterfeited with existing technology, and many cyborgs no longer have any at all. Factory forces will sometimes assist Hunter-Warriors, although this only when a class A offense has been committed. Outside the Scrapyard is desert, with some oasis-like locations called Farm Factories for resource production.
The setting of the series appears to take place in the United States. In the map presented in the eighth volume, the locations and geological formations closely correlate to particular cities. According to this map, the site of the Scrapyard/Tiphares is at Kansas City, Missouri, and the Necropolis is Colorado Springs, Colorado. The surrounding Farm Factories that support Tiphares also correspond to real cities; Farm 21 and Farm 22 are Sweetwater, Texas and Garden City, Kansas respectively. Radio KAOS is at the site of Dallas/Fort Worth. Figure's coastal hometown, Alhambra, is a real place in Southern California, and Desty Nova's Granite Inn is said to have been built out of a military base--assumedly the NORAD main technical facility at Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado.
Although for the longest time the exact time period of when Battle Angel Alita takes place was a total mystery, it was later revealed that the latest events take place 591 years after the launch of Sputnik 1, which was in 1957. In fact, that is the dating convention used by the characters in the story; years are given as ES (Era Sputnik). Now since it has been about fourteen years since Daisuke Ido discovered Alita in the first graphic novel, that means the entire Battle Angel Alita manga takes place mostly between ES 577 and ES 591, or 2533 and 2547.
[edit] Related works
- GUNNM: Last Order, also known as Battle Angel Alita: Last Order, a continuation published monthly in Ultra Jump.
- GUNNM Gaiden, a collection of side stories of GUNNM;
- Haisha, also known as Ashen Victor in the United States, a prequel set a decade before the beginning of Gunnm. It primarily tells the story of a Motorball player and it sets the evolution of the game into what it becomes in the main story.
[edit] Video games
- GUNNM: Martian Memory, an Action RPG videogame for the PlayStation by Banpresto.
[edit] Trivia
- There are a few references to Judas Priest to be found in Battle Angel Alita and Last Order.
- Some of the original volume names of the Gunnm series appear to have been influenced by the Album Angel of Retribution. Any connection has not been confirmed, however.
- The support character Sechs has the words "Blood Red Skies" and "You won't break me" written on the undersides of his new boots during the ZOTT tournament. This appears to be a clear reference to the song "Blood Red Skies", which seems to mirror themes of struggle in a torn world.
- There are also several references to another rock band, Blue Öyster Cult, scattered throughout the series.
- The character Zapan has the Blue Öyster Cult logo on his forehead.
- The name Desty Nova is quite similar to "Desdinova", a character from Blue Öyster Cult songs.
- The new body presented to Alita in issue 8-6 is called the Imaginos, which is also the title track of a Blue Öyster Cult concept album.
- In volume 1, you cal also spot a bottle of liquor labeled after heavy metal band Heaven's Gate, same logo and all.
- Iron Maiden's mascot Eddie appears in the first volume among the cyborgs seats in the Kansas Bar in the original series.
- "Running Wild", a German heavy metal band, is spray painted in the wall in the Rugball arc of the original series.
- The character Kaos seems to have been inspired by the protagonist of the concept album Radio K.A.O.S., by Roger Waters. Both are sickly young men with the ability to communicate via radio waves.
- In the 4th Volume, Angel of Victory, the band logos for the Scorpions and Megadeth can be seen on billboards at the beginning of the race in the chapter titled Headbangers Ball.
- A 3 minute 3D-CGI Gunnm rendered movie clip comes with the Gunnm: Complete Edition #6 book. The clip shows Alita playing motorball.
[edit] Notes and references
- ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0437086/
- ^ Genesis 14:18); Melchizedek was renamed "David" in the first North American release of Battle Angel Alita. Subsequent releases retain the original name.
[edit] External links
- Official sites
- Fan sites
- Miscellaneous
- Marco's Gunnm FAQ
- The Kudos! List, a collection of pop-culture references within Battle Angel Alita.
- Yahoo! Battle Angel Alita Group
- Battle Angel Alita: Last Order preview at Mangareviewer.com
- Battle Angel Alita review at Mangareviewer.com
- The Battle Angel (GUNNM) anime on IMDB
