List of Battle Angel Alita characters
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The following is a list of characters from the Battle Angel Alita manga and the Battle Angel anime. Discussion of characters or their equivalents who appear in the anime will use the names employed in the anime first, with the manga equivalents in parentheses.
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[edit] Main characters
[edit] Gally/Alita
[edit] Daisuke Ido
[edit] Desty Nova
- (ディスティ・ノヴァ Disuti Nova)
A former citizen of Tiphares who has used his extensive scientific knowledge and expertise in nanotechnology 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 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 (though it would be more precise to call him insane), 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. Nova possesses knowledge of the secret of Tiphares, one that could drive its citizens mad if released.
He has a perk for the dessert dish flan, and can often be seen eating it, boasting that he thinks better while enjoying it.
His name might be a reference to Blue Öyster Cult, as its pronunciation resembles "Desdenova", a name mentioned in the BOC song "Astronomy".
[edit] Kaos
- (ケイオス Keiosu)
Desty Nova's son and a popular late-night radio host. He is extremely fragile. Kaos only sees in 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. For example, 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. Kaos also has a dark side in the form of Den, a manifestation of uncontrollable rage that has been with him since he was a child. Although Den exists in a physical form, he and Kaos are linked by an EPR transmitter Nova installed in Kaos' chest.
[edit] Hunter-Warriors
[edit] Scrapyard residents
[edit] Gonzu
A former cyber veterinarian who now runs a Japanese food shack, Gonzu is the closest friend that Ido has in the Scrapyard and is shown visiting Ido at his clinic. He saves Ido after the latter is almost killed by Makaku, and under Ido’s direction, transfers Alita from her first cyborg body into the Berserker Body. Gonzu also helps Ido transplant Hugo’s head onto a cyborg body. A regular at Bar Kansas, Gonzu is the first person killed by Zapan when he goes to Bar New Kansas in the Berserker Body in search of Alita. The side story “The Holy Night” reveals that six years before Ido found Alita, he saved Gonzu’s life when he found him near death in the street. At this time, Gonzu’s food shack was a cart that he pulled. Gonzu aids Ido, who has been rendered homeless, by hosting him and Carol and getting him in touch with the cyberphysician Gauss. Gonzu makes a brief appearance in the OVA, in which he is known as Gonz.
[edit] Hugo
An orphaned teenager who was raised by his much older brother and his wife Nana. He ran away from home after Nana betrayed his brother to the hunter-warrior Clive Lee for building an illegal airship to attempt to fly to Tiphares. Since then he has inherited a burning desire to go to the floating city himself. He first encountered Vector three years before the start of the main story, when he recognized his brother's hand being sold by one of the latter's dealers, and impressed Vector by voluntarily trading his hand for his brother's. Believing that Vector could access Tiphares because of his pull in the Scrapyard, he fell for Vector's offer to get him there if he could bring him 10 million chips. Hugo ostensibly performs odd maintenance jobs for Scrapyard residents such as Ido, but has taken to illegally supplementing his income by posing along with his accomplices Tanji and Van, as a lubrication crew for cyborgs. They then paralyze their victims and steal their spinal columns, as these fetch the highest prices on the black market for body parts.
Alita meets Hugo during her hunt for Megil the Pharmacist, and is impressed by his willingness to protect her even though he is grossly outmatched. The two then strike up a friendship which Alita makes clear she would like to take further, and she embarks on a bounty-hunting spree to help Hugo reach his 10 million chip mark. However Hugo is blinded by his obsession with Tiphares and does not realize that Alita is romantically interested in him. After his run in with Zapan, Hugo becomes a marked bounty. Despite learning the truth about him, Alita is still willing to go with him to Tiphares. He is nearly killed by Clive Lee, and is only saved by Alita linking her life support to his brain. Transplanted into a cyborg body by Ido, Hugo learns the reality that a surface dweller such as himself has no hope of reaching Tiphares. After confronting Vector with this, who also confirms it, he attempts to climb one of the Factory tubes that connects Tiphares to the Scrapyard. He makes it up further than any previous person, but is crippled by a massive spiked ring dropped down the tube. Alita is able to reach him just before a second one is dropped, but cannot save him, as his torso is shredded. Hugo is able to share his last words with Alita before falling to his death. This subsequently leads Alita to quit being a hunter-warrior and turn to motorball.
Hugo is a main character in the OVA, where he is known as Yugo.
[edit] The Bar Kansas barkeep
The Bar Kansas barkeep is also its owner and Koyomi’s foster father. In the Battle Angel OVA soundtrack he is called Joh but is never named in the manga. At the start of Battle Angel Alita, he is partially cyberized, but largely human. After Makaku damages the bar and creates a large hole in the floor that leads to the sewers, he opens Bar New Kansas with help from the hunter-warriors. Alita and Shumira both work here, the former as a fighting instructor and singer, and the latter as a waitress. The barkeep is almost killed by Zapan when he visits the bar in the Berserker Body, but is saved by Murdock. He manages to escape the destruction of Bar New Kansas along with Koyomi, Shumira, and Fury, winding up in a refugee camp on the outskirts of the Scrapyard. The barkeep attempts to start the third incarnation of Bar Kansas by going into debt, but this appears to have been a failure, as he became an alcoholic and would hit Koyomi whenever something went wrong, causing her to run away. When Den charges into the Scrapyard, the barkeep appears, begging him to give Koyomi back. Den, testing Kaos’ assertion that he is a figment of his psyche, but also sparing Koyomi from death, drops her. Her father catches her, but the impact breaks both his legs. He is eventually equipped with a caterpillar tracked lower body, and with the proceeds from the bestseller Barjack War Chronicle, successfully opens the fourth incarnation of Bar Kansas, Kansas 4.
In Last Order, it is implied that the barkeep had surgery on his broken legs, which nearly resulted in Koyomi being sold to pay the bill. Vector’s intervention however prevented this, and the barkeep now boards with his daughter at one of Vector’s antiques shops. He is an alcoholic and does not appear to leave the shop much.
[edit] Vector
[edit] Myra
Myra is a doctor who works for Vector out of a mobile clinic. She replaces Hugo’s left hand with his brother’s. Myra apparently believes that Vector himself has been to Tiphares, a notion that he does not try to deny. This leads Hugo to think that he has a chance to go there.
[edit] Shumira
Shumira is Jashugan's somewhat naïve, but warm-hearted younger sister. She is saved from being raped by two thugs by Ido while he is searching for Alita a month after she ran away following Hugo’s death. When he shows her a holographic image of Alita, Shumira recognizes her as a motorball player, taking Ido to a circuit where Alita is racing and introducing him to the sport. She hosts Ido at her apartment for a week, after which they watch Jashugan at a race where he suffers a flatline attack. Ido has to use her brainwaves in order to successfully resuscitate Jashugan. Shumira meets Alita in person when she, Jashugan and Ido come across Alita and Ed at a Scrapyard open air restaurant. She covets Kimji, and asks if she can have him if Alita loses to Jashugan in arm wrestling. As a precaution for the next flatline attack, Ido creates a direct interface that will allow him to transmit Shumira’s brainwaves via radio to Jashugan’s brain. Prior to his challenge race with Alita, Jashugan receives a good luck necklace from Shumira and tells her to marry Ido. He then sedates her, nullifying any effect to resuscitate him should he have another flatline attack. Shumira thus does not see her brother’s final race and subsequent death.
Two years after Alita quits motorball, Shumira is working as a waitress at Bar New Kansas. She narrowly misses being killed by Zapan when he arrives in search of Alita, and survives the destruction of the bar. Along with the Bar New Kansas barkeep and Koyomi, she winds up at a refugee camp on the outskirts of the Scrapyard, where she meets her future husband. Shumira stays with the volunteer group and eventually she and her husband have eight children.
[edit] Lam Dao
A master blacksmith, Lam Dao specializes in the crafting of blades. After Alita’s Challenge Team is formed, Ed has him forge the pair of Damascus Blades that Alita used into a single blade that is almost as hard as diamond. He asks Ed for Alita's body should she lose the challenge race with Jashugan to make a blade out of it. It is implied that Ed knows Lam Dao from his motorball days.
[edit] Jashugan's master
Jashugan's unnamed master is an old cyborg who resides in an automobile junkyard. Jashugan visits him before his challenge race with Alita, and faces his master in a test of his ability to manipulate chi. The old cyborg succumbs to Jashugan's mastery of reflective resonance, an ability to match an opponent's chi and inflict a destructive vibratory feedback upon them, that leaves him mortally wounded. He views cyborgs as more machines than human, believing that they do not need love, nor should they fear death, advising Jashugan to kill Shumira as she is the cause of his self-doubt.
[edit] Koyomi K.
[edit] Criminals
[edit] Makaku
Originally born as a human, Makaku spent his entire life in the sewers of the Scrapyard, captivated by the life he could see outside. Three years before the beginning of the main story, Makaku was burned with a flamethrower by a pair of Scrapyarders while looking at the goings on through a sewer grate. He survived the attack, but his body began to rot and he nearly died. Desty Nova found Makaku and offered to give him a new, personalized body reflecting his innermost desires.
Makaku’s new cyborg body consisted of a large head attached to a long, maggot-like body, which allowed him a great deal of mobility. He was also characterized by his long tongue and tendency to slobber. A large spike on top of his head could be fired as a single use projectile weapon. However, Makaku’s deadliest ability was being able to take over the bodies of other cyborgs by using his body to jack into their spinal columns and then remove their heads with his newly-won control. He would take over powerful cyborg bodies and use their strength to acquire brains (preferably human, but even dog) in order to eat them to satisfy his endorphin addiction. Makaku justified his existence in destruction, and despite a bounty being placed on him, was so formidable that no hunter-warrior dared go after him for years.
Makaku is the first major adversary that Alita faces. In their first fight she succeeds in crippling the body he is then possessing as well as blinding him in his left eye by impaling it with one of her arms. However, her first cyborg body is destroyed in the process. Makaku survives the fight and almost kills Ido by impaling him with his head spike, swearing vengeance on both him and Alita before escaping. He seeks out the reigning champion of the coliseum, Kinuba, to take over his custom-built Power Body. Makaku then goes up against Alita in her new Berserker Body in the Scrapyard sewers. After a long fight, the Power Body is destroyed and Makaku nearly kills Alita in a plasma explosion that he triggers. However, she creates an electromagnetic barrier to shield them both, enabling her to talk with him. Makaku tells her his life story, revealing that she is the first person who seriously took notice of him by trying to stop him. For the first time in his life he is at peace as he is consumed by the plasma.
[edit] Grewcica
Grewcica appears in the OVA as an amalgamation of the Makaku and Kinuba characters from the manga, being the former coliseum champion who has become a bounty because of his brain eating habit. The cyborg body that he first appears in is similar to that in which Makaku also first appears. Damaged in a fight with Ido and Gally (Alita) that he barely manages to escape, he seeks out Chiren, whom he knows. Chiren rebuilds Grewcica’s body, equipping him with extendable fingertip cutters in his right hand that can move at supersonic speeds and cut through almost anything, similar to the primary weapons that Kinuba wielded in the manga. Interestingly, on his rebuilt body Grewcica sports the number 99, the number that Alita wore when she was a motorball player in the manga. At Chiren’s suggestion, Grewcica fights Gally in the Scrap Iron City (Scrapyard) junkyard. Although he initially has the upper hand, Grewcica succumbs to Gally’s techniques and skill, although the manner of his death differs from Makaku’s.
[edit] Izuchi
A cyborg who assists Makaku in acquiring dog brains, either by purchasing the animals live or by hunting them, in order to feed Makaku’s endorphin habit. Izuchi has a bounty on him, the reasons for which are not made clear in the manga. He is easily dispatched by Ido while hunting dogs. It is implied that Izuchi used to be a hunter-warrior, but was reduced to acting as Makaku's lackey.
Izuchi appears as Rasha in the OVA and is shown stalking a woman with Grewcica. His association with Grewcica is stated as the reason for his bounty, as the latter is himself worth ten times Rasha’s bounty because of his brain eating. Although Ido severs his left arm, Rasha gives Ido a tough fight, managing to stab him. Alita (Gally in the OVA) then appears on the scene and punches his head off.
[edit] Megil the Pharmacist
Megil the Pharmacist is a drug dealer and a bounty who Alita tracks down to an abandoned factory. He uses a lycanthropazine drug that he has been researching on himself, turning into an extremely muscular, psychotic werewolf strong enough to tear through concrete pillars and rip his own cyborg bodyguards to shreds. He proves to be no match against Alita however, who easily breaks his left arm. Megil lays low after Alita falls through the roof of the factory and loses consciousness, striking again after she has awakened and Hugo has discovered her. Hugo’s attempt to protect her inspires Alita to act frightened, although she disables Megil with a kick to the head that shatters his brain without Hugo noticing. Hugo takes advantage of Megil's paralysis to then smash his head in with a pipe.
Megil himself does not appear in Yukito Kishiro's manga Ashen Victor, but in this prequel to Battle Angel Alita, the Megil Corporation is a pharmaceutical company that devleops the drugs "Accel" and "Adam", which are respectively used to accelerate and slow down motorballers' nervous systems. "Adam" was developed as a means of rigging motorball races and was tested on the main character, Snev. Megil's dealings are eventually exposed, resulting in the "Adam Scandal". However, it is not until the company develops a drug called "Brainz" that results in numerous brain deaths that the company folds and its owners end up on the Factory's bounty list.
[edit] Tanji and Van
A pair of teenagers who assist Hugo with his spinal column thefts on and off by helping him solicit customers, acting as members of his lubrication/body waxing team, and serving as lookouts while Hugo steals his victims’ spinal columns. When Zapan, who has posed as a customer, busts their operation, he easily kills them. Only Tanji appears in the OVA.
[edit] Motorball-affiliated
[edit] Barjack
[edit] Tiphareans
[edit] Daisuke Ido
[edit] Desty Nova
See Desty Nova.
[edit] Ground Investigation Bureau (GIB)
[edit] Lou Collins
Lou Collins is Alita’s operator who is brought in after Alita and Figure part ways. On her first day, she makes a bad first impression on Chief Bigott by pulling a gun on him in self-defense because she thought that he planned to do what he would with her by leading her down an obscure back stairway to the GIB. Unbeknownst to Lou, she along with Dr. Russell was brought in by Bigott in an attempt to curb Alita’s intransigence. Somewhat ditzy, Lou nevertheless has a good heart. She is a new at her job, having placed first in her class in simulations, and tries to get along with Alita. Lou provides Alita with intelligence, logistical, technical, and combat support. She can also remote control the mobile unit, a single wheeled motorcycle that is issued to Alita, as well as broadcast her voice from it. Through Alita’s experiences, Lou eventually becomes her friend, and starts to develop a more sympathetic view of the world below Tiphares. She gives Kaos plans for the “Tower of Tiphares,” a 2,500 meter tower connecting Tiphares to the Scrapyard that can be constructed with the existing scrap on the surface. She also agrees to help Alita by deleting the information regarding Den and Kaos from the GIB’s systems.
Lou has saved Alita’s life on two occasions, the first occurring while Alita was dueling Den and was almost impaled by his yari. The second time occurred when Alita was fighting AR-2. As Alita was about to lose the fight and be finished off, Lou destroyed AR-2’s control terminal, freezing AR-2. Lou is consequently dismissed from the GIB and sent to the Medical Inspection Bureau (MIB). The knowledge of Lou’s sacrifice and Bigott’s promise to let her go free after apprehending Desty Nova motivate Alita to complete her original mission. When she is brought to Tiphares by Nova in her new Imaginos Body, she finds out that Lou is to be cast out for forming a friendship with a surface dweller, and manages to save her just in time. Lou is the least traumatically affected by having the secret of Tiphares unveiled to her, the only side effect she suffers being the cessation of her hiccups. She accompanies Alita and Nova to Melchizedek and witnesses the result of Alita’s injecting her Imaginos Body with a trigger given to her by Nova enabling her to go through a transmutation, creating the Life-Tree and preventing Tiphares from crashing into the Scrapyard. Subsequently, Lou eventually marries Kaos.
[edit] Bigott Eizenburg
The stern, no-nonsense chief of the GIB, Bigott intervenes just before Alita’s brain is destroyed for committing a Class A offense to recruit her for the TUNED project. Although the GIB has a team of operators who provide logistical, intelligence, and technical support, he personally monitors and oversees Alita’s operations and actions. Alita’s independent attitude and willingness to disobey orders frustrate Bigott. In order to reduce her rebelliousness, he brings in Dr. Russell and Lou Collins as people whom she can warm up to. While escorting Lou to the GIB on her first day through a back stairwell, she pulls a gun on him as she thinks that he plans to force himself on her, but Bigott reveals that he is homosexual and has no interest in her.
More than a week after Alita duels Den, Bigott dismisses Dr. Russell for his opposition to replacing Alita with the TUNED AR series. When AR-2 confronts Alita, he reveals that her value to the GIB was never more than a sample for creating the perfect series of combat androids that would be totally obedient. After Alita defeats AR-2, he has her continue with her original mission of apprehending Desty Nova with the promise that she can leave the TUNED after its completion. Bigott meanwhile has the rest of the AR series conduct anti-Barjack operations, and uses the Tipharean superweapon Abaddon to destroy the Barjack’s giant railway gun Heng. After Alita infiltrates the Granite Inn but gets trapped by Nova’s Ouroboros program, Bigott sells her out, offering her to Nova and inviting him back to Tiphares with Melchizedek and the Ladder’s approval. When the secret of Tiphares is revealed to Bigott, he slices off the top of his own head to see for himself. Seeing his own bio-chip brain, he goes insane, and is shortly after killed along with the rest of the GIB by the MIB. Bigott makes a brief appearance in the GUNNM: Gaiden side story “Homecoming” in which Alita is still a member of the TUNED.
[edit] Dr. Russell
Dr. Russell appears to be the second in command of the GIB. More kindly and not as stern as Chief Biggot, he develops an interactive interface for Lou in the form of a mini Alita that Alita herself can control remotely. Russell is dismissed from the GIB just before the TUNED AR-2 is revealed to Alita for its final test. Russell’s opposition to the replacement of Alita by the AR series is cited as the reason for his dismissal by Bigott. Alita comes face to face with Dr. Russell after she is brought to Tiphares by Desty Nova. Russell however, is nervous at the potential threat that Alita poses to the Tipharean way of life. After she is fitted with the Imaginos Body, Alita forces Russell to reveal what happened to Lou. When Nova unveils to him the secret of Tiphares, he jumps to his death.
In Last Order, Dr. Russell was used by Nova to reveal the secret of Tiphares to its citizens, being one of the adults whose head he sawed open to reveal their bio-brain chips. What happened to him after that is unknown.
[edit] Chiren
Chiren only appears in the OVA as Ido’s former partner in Zalem (Tiphares) who like him, works as a cybernetics doctor in Scrap Iron City (the Scrapyard). Unlike Ido, she is desperate to return to Zalem, and is disgusted by Ido’s acceptance of his fate. It is hinted that they used to be romantically involved, as Chiren carries a holographic photo of them together. Chiren seeks out Vector to help her, becoming his lover. In return, Vector has her upgrade the coliseum gladiators. When Grewcica approaches her after being severely damaged in a fight with Ido and Gally (Alita), she sees this as a chance to strike back at Ido by repairing and upgrading his cyborg body.
After Grewcica is killed, Chiren continues to work on Vector’s gladiators such as Zahriki (Zaariki), but starts to lose her effectiveness. Vector has her seek Gally out as he intends to have her fight for him as gladiator in the coliseum by using Yugo (Hugo) as leverage. She follows Gally to Yugo’s hideout, but begins to question her motives after hearing Yugo discuss his past and dreams with Gally. She helps save Yugo by connecting Gally’s life support system to his head, giving Gally time to take him to Ido, who transplants his head onto a cyborg body. Reporting back to Vector, Chiren tells him that Yugo is dead and that she cannot find Gally. Telling her that it is time to send her to Zalem, Vector then has her killed and harvests her organs.
[edit] Coliseum fighters
[edit] Kinuba
The reigning coliseum at the start of the manga, Kinuba is undefeated in 281 matches. His facial appearance and Power Body are somewhat styled along the lines of a kabuki actor in costume, though he shares a strong resemblance with the comic character Sláine. After defeating the challenger Zaariki, Kinuba is approached in his dressing room by Makaku, who succeeds in taking over his Power Body and killing him. The Power Body’s primary weapons are super vibration actuators that enable grind cutters mounted in the fingertips of the left hand to move at three to four times the speed of sound, easily cutting through ceramic armor. The grind cutters can be extended or retracted when not in use, and can be shot out to unspecified lengths. The fingertips can be launched individually or in combination. The Power Body also mounts a combat computer in its waist known as the Boarhead that can analyze an opponent’s strengths and weaknesses and how to respond to them.
[edit] Zaariki
Zaariki is the last coliseum fighter that Kinuba faces before Makaku takes over his body. In place of his hands, he wields two large chainsaws and his signature attack is the “Dance of the Sabato Crab.” Following Kinuba’s death, Zaariki himself becomes the coliseum champion and Vector hires him as a bodyguard. When Hugo and Alita confront Vector, Zaariki attacks them, but is no match for Alita.
Zaariki makes an appearance in the OVA as Zahriki, the reigning coliseum champion following Grewcica’s disappearance. His body is completely different, and instead of two chainsaws, his arms end in crab-like pincers. Under Vector’s sphere of influence, he eventually starts to lose. Zaariki appears as Vector’s bodyguard when the latter is confronted by Ido. He is split in two by Ido’s rocket hammer, one of his pincer arms flying into and impaling Vector.
[edit] Vanado
Vanado is the third coliseum champion to appear in the manga. Undefeated in 306 matches and 74 title defenses, he heads out into the wasteland with his manager and a film crew to duel Den for the one million chip bounty that has been placed on him as there is no one left to fight in the coliseum. Vanado mounts four large, spiked ratchet wheels, two on each arm, which can be launched at an opponent, slicing them from four directions and leaving them open for him to finish him off with his claws. Den takes his initial attack, and as Vanado is about to deliver the coup de grace, splits him down the middle with Zanshato. This is the only time in his massive form that Den is not seen in his centaur body in the regular manga.
[edit] Other characters
[edit] Barzarld
Barzarld is a very large, somewhat odd looking man who is Nova’s assistant. He does not have any special abilities aside from his immense physical strength and blind devotion to Nova. Barzarld was almost killed along with Nova when the Den aspect of Kaos’ personality took control of him when he was 15-16 years old. Barzarld does not speak much, but seems to instinctively know what Nova wants of him. He performs basic tasks such as giving Nova his flan servings and handing him tools, and acts as a driver when Nova leaves the Scrapyard after unleashing Zapan in the Berserker Body. Like Nova and Eelai, he has been injected with restorer nanomachines, making him near immortal, and has come back to life after being killed by Alita a few times. She finally kills him by throwing him into a high pressure water barrier that Nova triggers to effect his escape from her in the Granite Inn.
[edit] Eelai
Nova’s second, sultry assistant as well as his lover, Eelai assists him with more specialized and delicate tasks that Barzarld is unable to perform, such as when Nova conducts surgeries. She also acts as a bodyguard, immobilizing Ido when he tries to destroy Zapan’s brain that Nova has rescued. Eelai has been injected with restorer nanomachines, making her near immortal. She is somewhat morbid, delighting in Alita’s grief when she sees Ido’s remains in a box after he is killed by Zapan, and after having her throat slashed by Alita in rage, relishing the experience after she revives. She feels that only by having a real body as opposed to a cyborg body can one fully experience life’s joys and pains, and prefers her men to be of flesh and blood. Eelai is shown taking a reformation bath in the Granite Inn that adds organs, tissues and flesh onto her skeleton, making her feel restored. She fights Alita with a water pressure converter that can shoot high pressure streams of water at supersonic speeds. By making her Damascus Blade go faster than Eelai’s high pressure water shield, Alita is able to cut through it and kill her.
[edit] Figure Four
[edit] Hugo’s brother
Hugo’s unnamed older brother was a mechanical engineer who worked for the Factory. Much older than Hugo, he and his wife Nana had no children of their own and functioned as foster parents for him. Insatiably curious, he devised a scheme to fly to Tiphares by constructing a hot air balloon. The scheme however, ended when Nana betrayed her husband to the Clive Lee, who killed him and destroyed the balloon. He lives on in a sense in Hugo, who came across one of hands being sold by one of Vector’s street dealers and had it transplanted in place of one of his. In the OVA, Clive Lee sliced off one of Hugo’s brother’s hands, which is the one he had replace one of his.
[edit] Jasmine
Jasmine is Kaos’ friend and companion who assists him with operating his pirate radio station, Radio K.A.O.S. Slightly older than Kaos, she has known him since they were children, and believes that his psychometric ability gives him the potential to effect change. Jasmine has an ability to predict the future by using ordinary playing cards, and Koyomi has her predict Alita’s future shortly after encountering her, which proves largely accurate. Jasmine has feelings for Kaos that he is unaware of as she develops an intense jealousy of Alita after Kaos dresses the latter in a wedding dress he made himself. Jasmine is killed the next day by Desty Nova’s cyborg ninjas who target Kaos. Kaos afterwards realizes what Jasmine meant to him, and dresses her corpse in the wedding dress, although he still loves Alita.
[edit] Nana
Nana was Hugo’s sister in law, who functioned as a foster mother to him. She opposed her husband’s scheme to construct a hot air balloon to reach Tiphares, and betrayed him to Clive Lee. Hugo subsequently ran away from her, and her eventual fate is unknown.
[edit] Sara
Murdock the Dog Master’s daughter and Zapan’s lover, Sara worked at a soup kitchen. She took Zapan in after his original face was destroyed by Alita and accepted him for what he was, trying to reform him as she believed that no one ever truly won in the Scrapyard. Zapan kills her when he is driven mad by seeing Alita’s face on a TV announcement of her upcoming challenge race with Jashugan. Sara’s head is preserved in a jar and carried around by Zapan for two years while he is on the run. After Murdock’s dogs apparently kill Zapan in the sewers, it is recovered by Murdock and buried in the courtyard of Bar New Kansas. After Alita swallows some collapser in order to stop Zapan from absorbing her with the Bersker Body, Sara appears again in a vision that both of them witness because they are almost one, just before Zapan dies and Alita is able to break free of the Berserker Body.
[edit] Sentinel
Sentinel is the leader of a small group of biker bandits who operate in the badlands. The group is unusual in that they do not accept tolls in return for safe passage, viewing this as an insult. They prefer to extort goods out of their victims instead of killing them first and then taking their valuables, as Sentinel is actually averse to killing, which will make him constipated for days depending on the circumstances. His group holds up the caravan Koyomi is gambling with, and Sentinel tries to use bluster and intimidation on her to awe the caravan merchants. However, he falls prey to Koyomi’s gambling skills, being put in the embarrassing position of having to wager the “piston launcher,” an odd weapon that is his group’s symbol and which they use to intimidate their victims. When Fury kills one of his men after he threatens Koyomi, Sentinel is forced to nearly kills Koyomi, but a well-aimed shot from Alita shatters his axe and scares the bandits into fleeing.
[edit] Yolg
A nervous man with a tendency to stutter, Yolg befriends Figure Four when the latter serves as a rail mercenary on Factory Train 12. He had previously served as a rail mercenary with his friends, being the only one to re-sign in order to see his family at Factory Farm 22, the train’s destination. Suffering a broken leg during Knucklehead’s ambush of the train, he is the only other rail mercenary survivor along with Figure. Yolg accompanies Alita all the way to the Boiling Metal battalion’s base, where he is captured by the Barjack, but ends up saving Col. Bozzle’s life as Alita is about to stab him with her Damascus Blade. Yolg reveals that his actions result from his cowardice and overwhelming desire for security, but Bozzle’s treatment of Alita, the apparent death of Figure, and the revelation that the Boiling Metal is on its way to attack Factory Farm 22 where his family is, make him rethink his actions. Bozzle turns Yolg into a socket soldier and sends him to kill Alita and Figure after Knucklehead kidnaps her and sabotages the battalion. Yolg however turns on Bozzle and has his body detonated, sustaining fatal injuries. He begs Figure and Alita for forgiveness before dying.
[edit] Animals
[edit] Duke Fang
Duke Fang is a dog who belongs to the unnamed barkeep who owns and runs Bar Kansas. Extremely devoted to baby Koyomi, after Makaku kidnaps her and escapes into the sewers, he is the first to follow in pursuit. Duke Fang proves instrumental in Alita’s fight against Makaku in the sewers, pulling out the forearm of Alita’s first cyborg body which had been lodged in Makaku’s left eye, making the eye bleed again and creating a distraction. This gives Alita time to hand off Koyomi to him, thus enabling her to fight Makaku without having to worry about her. Duke Fang returns Koyomi to the surface and safety. He dies a few years later, but Koyomi’s memories of him are so vivid that as an infant she calls every dog she comes across as “Doo Fan.”
In the OVA, a stray dog that appears similar to Duke Fang is befriended by Gally before she registers as a hunter-warrior, following her back to Ido’s and later to Bar Kansas. When Grewcica appears, displays the power of his cutters by slicing the dog into pieces.
[edit] Fury
Fury is one of Murdock the Dog Master’s cyborg dogs, and appears to be modeled along the lines of a bloodhound. He is the only dog whom a 2 year old Koyomi latches onto as “Doo Fan”, what she calls all dogs she comes across after Duke Fang. He is assigned by Murdock to protect Koyomi and Shumira when Zapan wreaks havoc on Bar New Kansas in the Berserker Body, and is thus the only one of the four dogs to escape alive. Fury stays with Koyomi and her father, joining her when she runs away at age 13 to see Kaos by hitching a ride with a caravan. Fury now spends much of his time sleeping, but he still possesses some of his old instincts, as he quickly kills one of Sentinel’s bandits who is threatening Koyomi. Fury recognizes Alita when she saves Koyomi from the bandits, even though he has not seen her in 11 years. He accompanies Koyomi when she joins the Barjack, and is with her and the Heng when it fires on on Tiphares. Fury realizes that AR-10 is not Alita, and after the Heng is destroyed by the Tipharean superweapon Abaddon, destroys a flock of missile bees unleashed by AR-10 on the survivors. His first attack on AR-10 when she threatens Koyomi fails, but while AR-10 is distracted by asking the GIB to switch her ammunition over to anti-personnel rounds to deal with Buick, Fury is able to grab her around the neck and use his weight to throw her into a pile of molten metal, killing her but also dying in the process.
[edit] Gally/Alita (cat)
The original Gally/Alita was Ido’s black cat, who died a month before he found the remains of cyborg Gally/Alita in the Tiphares junkyard and is her namesake. The cat makes an appearance in the manga as part of a dream that Alita experiences while being trapped in Desty Nova’s Ouroboros program. Interestingly, in the dream Alita is named “Gally” while the cat is named “Alita.” Nova himself appears in this dream as “Uncle Nova,” reflecting that he cannot get along with the cat. After Kaos in the guise of a dream Den attempts to rescue the real Alita from the Ouroboros and begins fighting with the giant Great Martian King dream robot, the dream Alita and dream Gally merge, appearing in the form of the real Alita. The GUNNM: Gaiden side story “The Holy Night” reveals that Ido took the original Alita in shortly after he arrived in the Scrapyard, at least five years before he found Alita in the Tiphares junkyard.
[edit] Glory, Hubris, and Valor
Glory, Hubris, and Valor are three of Murdock the Dog Master’s cyborg dogs. They appear to be based on a Doberman Pinscher, mastiff, and greyhound, respectively. Along with Fury, they form Murdock’s means of tracking and bringing down the bounties he targets, and Murdock can communicate with them without speaking via a cyborg implant in his chin. After Murdock assigns Fury to protect Koyomi and Shumira when Zapan appears in Bar New Kansas in the Berserker Body, he attacks with these three, but they are killed by the Demon Dog, which Zapan forms out of plasma and is too fast for them.
[edit] Kimji
Kimji appears as Alita’s pet after her fourth straight motorball victory. When she got him is not revealed, but she did not have him when Hugo was still alive. He has a pair of feet, a single eye, string-like tail, and no visible mouth. Flight is provided by spinning his ears like a propeller. Kimji has flown away to land on Shumira’s finger twice, creating a small bone of contention between them because Shumira covets him and has had to return him each time. She asks if she can have him if Alita loses her arm wrestling match with Jashugan, as Alita has literally offered her heart as the stakes. Unknown to Alita, Kimji is actually one of a thousand TR-55 artificial life forms sent to the surface by the GIB to scout for candidates for its TUNED project. The GUNNM: Gaiden side story “The Holy Night” reveals that these units were deployed a year before Ido found Alita in the Tiphares junkyard. Kimji recorded Alita’s actions for two years, from her motorball career up through her fight with Zapan in his Berserker Body incarnation. He is revealed for what he is by Bigott Eizenburg when he recruits Alita to become a member of the TUNED, and is subsequently squashed flat by her. However, this squashing scene only happened in Alita's head, and Kimji's eventual fate is unknown.
[edit] References
- Kishiro, Yukito (October 2000). Battle Angel Alita, 11th ed., San Francisco: Viz Communications. ISBN 1-56931-003-3.
- Kishiro, Yukito (1994). Battle Angel Alita: Tears of an Angel, 1st ed., San Francisco: Viz Communications. ISBN 1-56931-049-1.
- Kishiro, Yukito (May 2000). Battle Angel Alita: Angel of Chaos, 5th ed., San Francisco: Viz Communications. ISBN 1-56931-178-1.
- Kishiro, Yukito (September 1996). Battle Angel Alita: Angel of Death, 1st ed., San Francisco: Viz Communications. ISBN 1-56931-127-7.
- Kishiro, Yukito (March 1996). Battle Angel Alita: Angel of Redemption, 1st ed., San Francisco: Viz Communications. ISBN 1-56931-053-X.
- 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.
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