Koyomi K.
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| Koyomi K. | |
|---|---|
| Battle Angel Alita/Battle Angel Alita: Last Order character | |
 Koyomi in Battle Angel Alita, age 13 |
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| First appearance | Battle Angel Alita |
| Created by | Yukito Kishiro |
| Profile | |
| Age | 18 at the end of Battle Angel Alita 14 at the beginning of Battle Angel Alita: Last Order |
| Date of birth | ES 576 |
| Occupation | Barjack soldier, freelance photographer |
| Known relatives | Bar Kansas barkeep, adoptive father |
| Degree of cyberization | Fully human |
Koyomi K. is a fictional character in the Battle Angel Alita manga and its sequel, Battle Angel Alita: Last Order by Yukito Kishiro. Koyomi is an orphan, who was adopted as a baby by the Bar Kansas barkeep. Her family history is not known, and what Koyomi’s surname is has not been revealed. The course of the Battle Angel Alita manga takes place from when Koyomi is a baby up through when she is 18. The different ages at which she appears thus serve as a chronological benchmark for events that occur in the manga.
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[edit] Ages and story chronology
The GUNNM: Gaiden side stories use a chronology based on the year of Koyomi's birth (treated as Year 0) in order to relate how they fit within the overall Battle Angel Alita story. Events taking place before the year of Koyomi's birth are given the prefix "B.K.", while events taking place after are given the prefix "A.K.," (Anno Koyomi) with the corresponding number of years before or after. This reveals that Ido's discovery of Alita in the Tiphares junkyard and Koyomi's birth took place in the same year. Within the context of the ES (Era Sputnik) dating convention used by Last Order, wherein the launch of Sputnik 1 in 1957 is treated as Year 0, this would be in ES 576 or 2532.[1]
The setting of Last Order, which ignores the ending of Battle Angel Alita and starts after Alita is brought to Tiphares and resurrected by Desty Nova with a new Imaginos Body, deals with Koyomi when she is 14.
[edit] Battle Angel Alita
Koyomi first makes her appearance as a baby when Daisuke Ido and Alita in her new Bersker Body visit Bar Kansas. Makaku kidnaps her in order to lure Alita after him and tries to use Koyomi as a means of handicapping Alita in order to prevent her from moving at supersonic speeds. Duke Fang, her father's dog however, who jumps in after Makaku, is able to take her to the surface and safety. Two years later, Koyomi is seen as a toddler who calls all dogs “Doo Fan” after Duke Fang, who has died. She forms a bond with the hunter-warrior Murdock the Dog Master's dog Fury and in turn softens Murdock himself. Koyomi along with her father, Shumira, and Fury, survives Zapan’s attack on Bar New Kansas in his incarnation of the Berserker Body.
When Alita is working as a TUNED agent, 13 year old Koyomi runs away from home with Fury, hitching a ride with a caravan on its way to barter with Kaos. She humiliates a group of bandits who hold up the caravan with her gambling skills, and is almost killed, but is saved by Alita. Alita recognizes her, even though she has not seen Koyomi in 11 years. Koyomi reveals that problems with her foster father and her desire to meet her idol Kaos in person made her run away. When the caravan is close to Barjack territory, it hits a sinkhole, into which Alita and Koyomi fall in. Falling into an underground river, Alita is able to keep Koyomi alive but overloads her lungs in the process. Stumbling onto the underground ruins of a city from the previous era with an unconscious Alita, Koyomi encounters Kaos’ team of molemen and Kaos himself. Although Kaos is initially reluctant to save Alita after he finds out that she is a Tipharean agent, Koyomi convinces him to do so. She also has Jasmine read Alita's fortune, which predicts separation, failure in a mission, or possibly death.
Shortly afterwards, Kaos' radio truck runs into the Barjack and Den, who demands that Kaos hand Alita over. Worried about Alita when she stays behind to hold off the Barjack and give the others time to escape, Koyomi abandons Kaos and scrambles to the scene of Den and Alita's fight. When Alita duels Den, Koyomi becomes convinced by what Den says about Tiphares’ evils. As Alita is about to finish him off with the Soleonid quench gun, Koyomi leaps out of hiding to stand in front of Den and prevent Alita from firing. Proclaiming her conversion to Den's cause, she offers to join the Barjack, daring Alita to fire. Alita backs down, but promises that the next time she encounters Koyomi, she will shoot without hesitation.
Koyomi subsequently participates in the following Barjack campaigns over the next two weeks as they expand their area of control closer and closer to the Scrapyard. She saves Vector from being killed by the Barjack so that he can warn the Scrapyard and the residents can evacuate. This however turns out to be in vain, as the Factory has Vector keep silent. Koyomi is with the Barjack's railway gun Heng when it fires on Tiphares. Surviving its destruction by the Abaddon, she is targeted by the TUNED AR-10, but is rescued by Fury, after which B.B. Buick gives her his camera just before he dies. After Den disbands the Barjack, she offers to join him in his suicide run into the Scrapyard. When Kaos confronts Den in telepathic form while he is in the midst of the Scrapyard, Den encounters Koyomi’s father, who begs him to spare her. Den drops Koyomi to show Kaos that he is not a figment of his psyche as Kaos claims. Koyomi's father catches her, but the impact breaks both his legs. Den then charges on to his death. Although it appears that he attempted to kill her, this leaves Koyomi alive so that she can tell the Barjack’s story. A year later, Koyomi compiles Buick’s photos into a book titled Barjack War Chronicle that becomes the Scrapyard’s greatest bestseller on record.
Three years later, when she is 18, Koyomi is working as a freelance photographer, with a book on the way titled Tower to the Heavens, about the construction of the "Tower of Tiphares," a pillar connecting Tiphares to the Scrapyard, and another on Alita planned. She visits Ketheres Elyion, the former headquarters of the Tipharean Ladder, following a lead that Desty Nova might be there. Here, she unexpectedly runs into Figure and then Nova himself, whose mind has regressed. However, Nova has the presence of mind at the mention of Alita's name to lead them to where Alita has been regenerated as a human by the Life-Tree.
[edit] Battle Angel Alita: Last Order
In the Scrapyard, 14 year old Koyomi is boarding with her father in one of Vector’s business, an antiques shop. On her way home one day, she sees a man get hit by a taxi, who turns out to be Kaos. Kaos has his left arm in a large metal cuff that is connected to his neck, rendering it useless. The cuff was put on him by Vector almost a year ago, and Vector’s engraving on it scares off help. After some debate, Koyomi takes Kaos home, where she learns the circumstances surrounding Kaos’ situation from the shopkeeper. Koyomi reveals to Kaos that she would have been sold to pay for her father’s operation on his legs, but Vector intervened because she had saved his life from the Barjack. She gives Kaos his blueprints and sword, which had made their way from Vector to the antiques dealer. Koyomi arranges for Kaos to be transported to a farm outside the Scrapyard, but he changes his mind and heads to Vector’s to fulfill his end of the deal they made a year ago. There, Koyomi witnesses the transformation Kaos goes through when he receives the paper airplane that Alita had thrown from Tiphares and Vector’s subsequent agreement to fund the Tower of Tiphares.
Koyomi is the focus of the side story "Another Story: Bashaku Ando", in which she acts on a tip that a resurrected Den has been ambushing Scrapyard supply convoys. As a result of her dealings with the eccentric Geriperi and the ambitious manager of Farm 3, Eakins, she eventually discovers a purpose in life.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Van Lieu, Philippe, http://www.nick15.com/kudos.html, The Kudos! List, accessed March 9, 2007
[edit] References
- Kishiro, Yukito (October 2000). Battle Angel Alita, 11th ed., San Francisco: Viz Communications. ISBN 1-56931-003-3.
- Kishiro, Yukito (March 1996). Battle Angel Alita: Angel of Redemption, 1st ed., San Francisco: Viz Communications. ISBN 1-56931-053-X.
- Kishiro, Yukito (May 2000). Battle Angel Alita: Angel of Chaos, 5th ed., San Francisco: Viz Communications. ISBN 1-56931-178-1.
- Kishiro, Yukito (November 1997). Battle Angel Alita: Fallen Angel, 1st ed., San Francisco: Viz Communications. ISBN 1-56931-243-5.
- Kishiro, Yukito (June 2001). Battle Angel Alita: Angel’s Ascension, 4th ed., San Francisco: Viz Communications. ISBN 1-56931-293-1.
- Kishiro, Yukito (January 10, 2001). Gunnm. 3, Nouv. éd., Glénat. ISBN-13 978-2723434775.
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