Battle Angel Alita: Last Order
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| GUNNM: Last Order | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 |
|||
| 銃夢 (GUNNM) |
|||
| Genre | Cyberpunk (vol. 1-8) / Post-Apocalyptic (vol. 8-9) | ||
| Manga | |||
| Authored by | Yukito Kishiro | ||
| Publisher |  Shueisha |
||
|
|||
| Serialized in | Ultra Jump | ||
| Original run | 2001-07-19 – ongoing | ||
| No. of volumes | 9 ongoing | ||
Battle Angel Alita: Last Order, originally called GUNNM: Last Order in Japan, is the continuation of the manga series Battle Angel Alita. It is created by Yukito Kishiro and tells the story of Alita (Gally originally) continuing her quest to uncover her mysterious past.
Contents |
[edit] Sequel or alternative story?
Last Order continues the story of Battle Angel Alita's ninth volume, but diverges from the original ending. It ignores the transformation of Ketheres into a nanotechnological space flower, Alita's subsequent transformation into a flesh-and-blood human girl and her reunion with Figure. Instead it takes place after Alita is killed by a doll bomb in the final volume of Battle Angel Alita.
Yukito Kishiro was sick at the time of making Battle Angel Alita and was forced to cut it short with an ending he wasn't satisfied with. After working on other projects and the manga Aqua Knight, he decided to go back to Alita's story in 2000. Originally, the story was planned to follow that of the PlayStation game GUNNM: Memories of Mars, but its story is only used partially and sparingly, as Yukito Kishiro expanded and changed the story.[1]
[edit] Story
Last Order begins when Alita is resurrected by Desty Nova's nanotechnology in the floating city of Tiphares. The city's dark secrets are brutally exposed, but it turns out to be a small part of a complex world. Going into space with new and old companions alike, to look for her lost friend and to find out more about her forgotten past, Alita is caught up in an interplanetary struggle between the major powers of the colonized solar system.
Volumes 1-2 cover the civil war that erupts in Tiphares after the "secret of Tiphares" (that all Tipharean adults have had their organic brains replaced with inorganic computer chips, as part of some unknown directive by the quantum computer Melchizedek that oversees the well-being of all Tiphareans and Kethereans) is publically revealed. The revelation leads to widespread chaos and a war between surviving adults and children.
Alita wakes up in the middle of this and ends up helping the survivors while figuring out what has happened to her friend Lou Collins. It turns out her brain chip was destroyed, but Desty Nova discovers that the original brains of Tiphareans are transported via the orbital elevator to Ketheres. Alita leaves her friends and loved ones on Earth to go into space to rescue Lou.
Volumes 3-4 details Alita's journey to Ketheres, capture by Mbadi, and encounter with the hacker Ping Wu. Accepting as payment Desty Nova's brain chips, Wu agrees to help Alita retrieve Lou's original organic brain from the brain matrix it is a part of, deep inside Ketheres. In the aftermath of an interplanetary summit meeting, they stow away on a diplomatic ship belonging to the Mars Kingdom Parliament, one of the factions fighting for control of Mars. They meet Queen Limeira of Mars and her bodyguard, Zazie, who attacks Alita and her friends. But Alita is able to defeat Zazie. They eventually end up on the spaceship-turned-space-station Leviathan 1 (which is at the L2 Lagrangian point of the Earth-Moon system).
There Alita learns that children are sent to die in a series of war games. She convinces Zazie to participate with her in the war game to save children. After a tough battle, they end up collecting all the flags and winning the game.
Volumes 5-7 describe the entry of the Space Angels (Alita, Sechs, Elf, and Zwölf) into the ZOT Tournament, where Alita meets Caerula Sanguis, a mysterious woman who appears to be even better than Alita in terms of skill. As Alita defeats her, Caerula gives Alita a crystal that contains Fata Morgana, a lost algorithmic module of Melchizedek. Although the prize for winning the tournament is accepted sovereignity among the major interplanetary powers, Alita's goal in entering the tournament is actually a diversionary tactic to cover a mission to enter the core of Melchizedek and retrieve Lou's brain.
In this secret mission, Alita regains Yoko's memories and knowledge of her past -- that she was sent to upload a virus into Melchizedek. The virus disrupted the navigational systems of the Leviathan ships, killing 450,000 civilians, which would be later known as the Cam Ranh Tragedy. Yoko was supposed to self-destruct after the mission, so that the virus would have created a schism between Earth and Venus. Instead, Yoko was captured shortly afterwards by Caerula Sanguis, Mars was correctly blamed for the attack and fell into civil war, while Yoko was sentenced to "death by atmospheric reentry" -- only to have her amnesiac brain discovered by Daisuke Ido 200 years later.
Volumes 8-9 jump back 500 years, and tell the post-apocalyptic story of Vilma Fachiri (who would later go by Caerula Sanguis), who is caught between a world of humans in underground shelters attempting to rebuild society, and a small group of "cognates" or "vampires," actually humans with a "V-type virus" that gives them vampire-like powers led by her lover and husband Victor Byron.
It is at the end of volume 9 that the meaning of the series' title ("Last Order") is explained: Melchizedek (called Merlin originally) has no inherent sense of morals or human values, but instead is influenced based on those of its human operators. The main architect, Arthur Farrell, gives a "last order" to Vilma: when Merlin's operators become so corrupt as to have Merlin threaten the future of humanity, Vilma is to insert the Fata Morgana module into Merlin, which will cause Merlin to self-destruct.
[edit] Characters
[edit] Gally/Alita
[edit] Desty Nova
See also: Desty Nova.
A prodigal scientist who goes beyond the seemingly mad, amoral man in Battle Angel Alita and becomes a more complex ally and advisor. He appears in several incarnations, due to his clonable biochip brain and ability to restore himself through nanotechnology.
[edit] Sechs/Xechs
See also: AR-6/Sechs.
[edit] Elf & Zwölf
See also: AR-11/Elf and AR-12/Zwölf
[edit] Trinidad/Aga Mbadi
Officially the assistant chairman of LADDER and a celebrated hero, Trinidad is so-called because he has the brain chips of three Tipharean geniuses inside his own head. Trinidad has more power and hidden agendas than most realize. He directs the development of the transhuman world and the cooperation between the powers of the solar system. Part of his rise to power appears to have been because of a mission to Pluto in which he appeared to be the sole survivor. He also takes a personal interest in Alita and her companions. Trinidad can hack into cyborg bodies by just being in the same room as his targets, but in Alita's case, he requires direct contact. He is a master of yoga and the ancient martial art of Kalarippayattu.
[edit] Ping Wu/The Weasel
A hacker extraordinaire, refugee from the outside world and justice, Ping saves Alita and company after Mbadi expels them from Ketheres to burn up in atmospheric reentry. He offers to assist Alita rescue Lou's brain from the Ketheres brain matrix. Although Alita distrusts him, she has no recourse, giving Ping one of Nova's brain chips as partial payment. Ping turns out to have a history with Trinidad and Ketheres, as it was he who stole the secret of nanotechnological longevity and spread it to the masses. He attempted to hack into the first Zenith of Things Tournament, but failed. Barely escaping with his life, Ping lost his left arm, which is now a robot named Kale who assists him. He spent 100 years in hiding in Robo-Asyl. He is officially listed as a member of the Space Angels' pit crew, and provides Alita with technical support when she invades Melchizedek.
[edit] Colonel Payne
The Colonel was originally a heartless owner of a juvenile infantry school, providing children to fight wars for entertainment on the space colony Leviathan 1. He owned Giraud's platoon and Zazie was a former member of his school. After being dispatched by Alita for using innocent children as cannon fodder, Colonel Payne stays in her psyche as a Jungian shadow, embodying her dark side and ironically, exerting more influence on her in death than in life.
[edit] Caerula Sanguis
A woman who is a "V-type mutant" — infected by a mutagenic virus which has given her vampiric powers such as immortality. After 700 years she is a martial artist whose only peers seem to be Alita and Trinidad. She fights with dual jian. Although she is introduced as the manager of the Stellar Nursery Society (a small faction that operates within the main asteroid belt), she appears to have a much older history, including being on Mbadi's ill-fated mission to Pluto. Her taken name, Caerula Sanguis, is Latin for "blue blood," as in royal blood.
More of Caerula's history is revealed in volumes 8-9, in which she is the main protagonist under her original name of Vilma Fachiri. The story there takes place in the post-apocalyptic winter caused by a asteroid striking Central Japan in ES 55 (2011 AD).
[edit] Victor Byron
Another "V-type mutant" and Vilma's husband, Victor plays a major role in volumes 8-9. He was a knight during the Crusades and has been alive for 1,000 years, becoming a Cognate after he was hanged as a human for an unspecified crime. Victor is the leader of a group of five remaining Cognates or "vampires" roaming the snow-covered post-apocalyptic world. He is a skilled swordsman, but his real abilities lie in being able to withstand massive amounts of damage that would kill any other Cognate many times over. After having gone through numerous states of "Altered Shock" due to his prolonged age as a Cognate, Victor can transform his skin into a near impenetrable armored surface.
[edit] Setting
Earth is a wasteland after a cataclysmic solar flare and asteroid impact, which created a long impact winter and nearly made humans extinct. Some managed to survive, and with the help of a mysterious quantum computer rebuild civilization to what it is in Last Order. The colonization of the solar system and complex politics between the now independent colonies has left the Earth surface cut off and underdeveloped. The Scrapyard and Tiphares are found in what was once the USA. Tiphares is now a big laboratory for its much more glorious sister city in space - Ketheres.
Ketheres is the Tiphares' sister city in space, attached to the other end of the orbital elevator connecting them. It is also connected to an orbital ring, which is balanced by a similar orbital elevator and space city on the opposite side. Ketheres is home to a seemingly utopian human society, but where the people are secretly controlled by cybernetic brain implants.
Leviathan 1 was once one of five interstellar colony ships, but is the only one remaining after the Cam Ranh calamity caused by Alita. It's now docked in Earth's second Lagrange point, serving as a space colony. The central hub with artificial gravity houses a whole city and vast war game areas, where people made immortal by nanotechnology pay to fight for fun.
Mars is currently under a four way civil war with almost each side secretly backed by one of the major powers of the Solar System.
Venus is being terraformed with the help of a gigantic mirror in orbit, blocking most of the sun and cooling the boiling surface. A number of orbital cities form the République Vénus (Venus Republic) and provide homes for a race of transhuman people with grotesque physiques and a liking of vile debauchery like cannibalism.
Jupiter is now almost completely covered by a Dyson Sphere. It is in this sphere where the Jovians, who have given up their human bodies exchange for robotic box-like bodies, now live. The materials needed for the completion of the sphere come from Saturn's moons — the same moons where Venus gets materials for its own terraforming projects which leads to tension between Jupiter and Venus.
[edit] Manga
The Japanese version of the manga did not have named volumes.
| Num | English Name |
|---|---|
| 1 | Angel Reborn |
| 2 | Angel of the Innocents |
| 3 | Angel Eternal |
| 4 | Angel of Protest |
| 5 | Haunted Angel |
| 6 | The Angel & The Vampire |
| 7 | Guilty Angel |
| 8 | Angel's Vision |
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- Official sites
| Battle Angel Alita | |
|---|---|
| Manga: | Battle Angel Alita | Battle Angel Alita: Last Order | GUNNM: Gaiden | Ashen Victor |
| Anime: | Battle Angel OVA |
| Characters: | Alita | Daisuke Ido | Desty Nova | Kaos | Hunter-Warriors | Scrapyard residents Criminals | Motorball-affiliated | Barjack | Tiphareans | TUNED AR Series Other characters | Animals | GUNNM: Gaiden characters |
| Other: | Barjack | Hunter-warrior (Battle Angel Alita) | Motorball | Panzer Kunst |
