Alita

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For the Lithuanian wine company, see Alita (company).

Alita (known as "Gally" in Japan) is the main character of Battle Angel Alita and its followup, Battle Angel Alita: Last Order, both written by Yukito Kishiro. She is renowned for her fighting prowess and skill at the most popular sport in the Scrapyard, motorball. Alita is occasionally referred to as "octopus-lips" due to her pouty expression.

Contents 1 History 2 Panzer Kunst 3 Alita's Attacks 4 Weapons and Bodies 4.1 Damascus Blade 4.2 Berserker Body 4.3 Motorball Body 4.4 Civilian Body 4.5 TUNED Body 4.6 Imaginos Body 4.7 TUNED AR Series (Alita Replicas)

[edit] History

From flashbacks starting in Volume 4, and further elaborated on in Last Order, Alita discovers that she was a martian native named "Yoko". In Kishiro's original series, Yoko was sent on a suicide mission. Her target was Earth's orbital ring, but at the penultimate moment her comrades were ambushed by an unknown opponent. Yoko escaped, but was left to crash into Earth.

However, with the release of Last Order, this is no loger considered cannon. Instead, Yoko was sent to upload a virus that disrupted the navigational systems of the Levathan ships. She was captured shortly afterwards by the vampire, Caerula Sanguis. Regardless, Yoko was still sent to the surface.

In the first book of the series, Yoko's damaged head and torso are found by exiled scientist Daisuke Ido while he searches the scrapyard for parts to use in his cyborg repairs. Ido decides to fully rebuild her, and name her after his cat, Alita.

When the reanimated Alita suspects Ido of murdering women to provide her body parts, her guilt causes her to track and confront Ido. She discovers that he is a hunter-warrior, or bounty hunter, and that he is seeking the true killer himself. Her fight to protect Ido causes an instinctive recollection of the lost Martian battle technique called Panzer Kunst, as she quickly applies a single killing blow to the murderer. She decides to become a hunter-warrior herself, in which job Alita occasionally displays a disturbing bloodlust and love of battle.

Alita's first battle as a hunter-warrior is against a gigantic, body-snaching, brain-eating cyborg monster named Makaku, who desroys the original body that Ido had made for her. Ido rescues her, while almost dying in the process, and feeling he has no other choise, reconnects her head to an ancient cyborg body called a berserker body, which had been especally made for war. Equipped with a new, stronger body, Alita is once again challenged by Makaku, who has become obsessed with Alita. After a long fight in the sewers underneath the Scrapyard, Alita kills Makaku.

Shortly after becoming a hunter-warrior, Alita meets and falls in love with Hugo, a young boy who dreams of going to Tiphares. Unfortunitly for Alita, her all-powerful berserker body proves to be a liability; since Hugo is a normal flesh-and-blood human, Alita is afraid that she couldn't even hold him close without accedentally tearing him to pieces. But what ends up killing Hugo is his obsession with Triphares.

Alita's drive and skill makes her the best hunter-warrior the Scrapyard has seen. Her skill and reputation as a hunter-warrior and motorball player elicit interest from Tiphares, the elite society suspended over the scrapyward to which which she harbors some hostility. Eventually, after a confrontation with a resurrected and enhanced rival, Alita is forced to become an agent for Tiphares. Despite this ironic twist of fate, Alita thinks of herself as a possible bridge between the utopian Tiphares and impoverished Scrapyard.

[edit] Panzer Kunst

Panzer Kunst, or armored arts, is a legendary Martian martial art that seeks oneness between the senses. It is commonly referred to as the strongest of the cyborg martial arts and is especially effective in disabling and destroying larger opponents. The only memories Alita has of her training are of her master on a red mountain. The training is deadly, and those who passed were those who survived. All Panzer Kunst moves and disciplines are in German.

Due to a series of events revealed in Last Order, it is revealed that Panzer Kunst is also the basis of many space martial arts. One of its agents was intercepted and defeated during a mission, and as a result Panzer Kunst and its training ground on Mars were revealed to the public. All of its techniques were made public knowledge, and subsequently influenced many other styles, especially with Panzer Kunst's innovations in free-fall fighting. However, there is speculation that some of Panzer Kunst's most powerful attacks were never revealed. The existence of a true master of the art is also a mystery.

[edit] Alita's Attacks

Most of Alita's attacks come from Panzer Kunst, although a few are of her own making.

• Mauser School Elbogen-Blatt - the Panzer Kunst art of wielding Elbow Blades; Alita's preferred weapon.
• Hertza Haeon -One of Alita's most common Panzer moves, the Hertza Haeon is a strike that delivers a high frequency vibration to the victim, concentrating kinetic energy on destroying or disabling the brain or heart. Can also be used by Figure Four, impressive because of his flesh-and-blood body.
• Verschlag - The first part of a two-staged attack. An initial strike is first applied to set loose a shockwave which will bounce around inside the body, increasing in momentum and energy, before focusing in the limbs. The enemy might notice this as a slight ringing in their ears. This is followed up by:
• Herzta Nadel - A second strike into the focal point of the shockwave, which cause the pent up energy to explode, blowing off or shattering the opponents limbs in an instant.
• Plasma Bissen - a split-second plasma jet used to create undetectable cuts and gouges in the opponent's body. Usually concealed as a punch, swipe, or parry. This attack is an original one, made up by Alita.
• Einzug Rüstungen - a technique used to match an opponent's rhythm and parry, then strike while they are off guard.

[edit] Weapons and Bodies

[edit] Damascus Blade

"...So naive. Steel of high purity is fragile... the impurities give life to the blade." - Ed

The damascus blade was created by Lam Dao and given to Alita by her motorball mechanic, Ed. The blade is hard as diamond, and can only be honed with high-pressure water or supersonic waves. The blade consists of rare metals, including scandium, yttrium and lutetium. The blade seems to represent Alita herself, as the imperfections and emotions that Alita has made her tougher than the emotionless AR-class clones. This link between blade and bearer is further recognized in Last Order, when Desty Nova merges the blade into Alita's new Imaginos body to improve its durability. Later in the series, Alita often chooses to reproduce the blade by morphing her malleable Imaginos body.

[edit] Berserker Body

After Alita’s first, non-combat body is destroyed, Ido equips her with a Berserker body that he has salvaged from the remains of a spaceship. The body allows supersonic movement as well as two unique combat abilities:

• Plasma emission – the berserker body allows Alita to inhale air and electrically heat it. She can then release it through her fingertips at over 15,000 degrees Celsius.
• Electromagnetic manipulation – Alita can control and speed up both her internal plasma as well as external sources of heat.

It should be noted that Alita’s time in the berserker body was spent with the body’s powers partially sealed for safety purposes. When the berserker mode seal is released, the body can change form at the wearer’s will by electromagnetic manipulation, and can even summon animate beings made of plasma. However, the user runs the risk of being consumed by the Berserker Body, which is constantly absorbing matter.

[edit] Motorball Body

The motorball body gives Alita speed and flexibility at the cost of power and weaponry. Because of the dangerous nature of motorball, the body’s limbs are constantly replaced and peak performance is not always guaranteed.

It is in this body that Alita first recives her Damascus Blade; first as two separate blades on her wrists. After these blades are damaged in the fight with "Caligula" Armblessed, they are re-forged into the single blade that becomes Alita's primary weapon.

[edit] Civilian Body

After returning home from Motorball, Alita found that the Berserker body had been sold by her old manager, Ed, in an effort to keep her in the sport. Since the Motorball body was unsuitable for day-to-day life, Alita had to use a standard civilian body instead. While this body had no combat abilities, Alita did have several weapons in this form;

• Damascus Blade: After Motorball, the Damascus Blade was removed from the Motorball body. It spent two years tucked in a corner gathering dust until Alita unearthed it to go after Ido, who hadn't returned from his trip to buy back the Berserker Body from Desty Nova. It was later made into a large hand-knife.

• Handgun: A small revolver. While the gun itself was nothing special (a Smith & Wesson snub nosed revolver), the bullets were tipped with "collapser" nanomachines, specifically designed to destroy Zapan's unlocked Berserker body. The mere possession of this handgun puts Alita in serious conflict with one of the most serious laws of the Scrapyard.

This body was almost completely destroyed in the fight with Zapan, and Alita was nearly killed by the Factory for the Class A Offense of using a projectile weapon in the Scrapyard.

[edit] TUNED Body

Alita (or A-1) receives the TUNED body after becoming an agent of Tiphares. Alita was connected at all times via satellite to the Tipharean Ground Investigation Bureau, or G.I.B. She was commanded by an operator, who had the ability to provide a Pavlovian shock stimulus to her should she ignore orders. As the product of advanced Tipharean technology, the body had the ability to travel at supersonic speeds and withstand a great deal of damage. However, as a “soft” body supported by nanotechnology to create and maintain vital systems, the body would overheat and malfunction under extremely high temperature conditions. Nonetheless, the body had a variety of effective support weapons, many of them designed to look like insects.

• Butterfly Damascus Blade: it’s a sword with the Damascus Blade. It´s Alita´s signature weapon, but it is not really a TUNED weapon. It has the form of a butterfly knife (switchblade) that opens up, except it is larger. A variation of this sword is Sech´s weapon, the Titanium Sword.
• TUNED Pistol: a handgun that fires armor-piercing HSA rounds. It has two firing modes: single shot and three-round burst. It´s Alita´s sidearm.
• TUNED Heavy Rifle: a powerful rifle/cannon that can be used as an assault rifle or a sniper rifle.
• Knives (Combat, CQC, Survival, Throwing)
• Grenades (Fragmentation, Smoke, Flashbangs, Incendiary, EMP)
• Unicycle: it´s a motorcycle with one wheel. It´s used by TUNED agents as a transport vehicle. It can be controled manually by the agent or by remote control by Tiphares.
• Arachno: a mobile spider based grenade, arachnos have the ability to extend a silk tripwire from their abdomens. This allows the creation of easily set-up, quick-moving traps.
• Missile Bee: a bee-shaped homing missile that has its own target selection system.
• Lice probes: a miniature machine that scans the ground for traps. Traps can then be marked on Alita’s vision.
• Firefly (Enkera): the firefly is a small flying insectoid robot which detonates into a five-second spherical plasma burst. It's applications include tunnel digging and close combat utility.
• Laser bug: converts communication into a relay laser to Tiphares in the presence of interfering terrain.
• Support System Gabriel: an unmanned low-orbit satellite that is laser equipped and can transport supplies, equipment or weapons to Alita. It also serves as the communication link between Alita and Tiphares.
• Solenoid Quench Gun: a high powered electromagnetic gun that floats to minimize recoil. Receives a power charge directly from Gabriel and fires a solenoid slug at 5 km/s, or roughly 11,000 miles per hour.
• Solid Wing: one of TUNED newest weapons. It´s a suit that uses electromagnetic waves. The suit has the capability of flight, creates a protective shield against small caliber firearms, and fires projectiles that can destroy anything within 20 meters.
• Monofilament wire: a wire that is only a few atoms wide, leading to a finer edge than any existing knife.
• Abaddon: it´s Tiphares´ ultimate defensive sistem, usually controlled by Melchizedek (although it´s not a TUNED weapon). It uses electomagnetic waves to create energy in the center of a distant object, destroying it. There doesn´t exist any physical defense against it.

[edit] Imaginos Body

During late events in Battle Angel Alita, or early in Battle Angel Alita: Last Order, Desty Nova gives Alita a new body, after destroying her with a bomb. This body relies on nanomachines even more than the Tuned Body, is said to mimic the human body down to the cellular level, and is thus a nanomachine based organism. The capabilities of this body differ between the original series and the Last Order retelling.

THE IMAGINOS: BATTLE ANGEL While both bodies had strength and speed equal to the Berserker body, the origanal Imaginos body lacked the color-changing and shape-altering abilities of the Last Order version, and was also missing the metal bands under the eyes that had been present since the Motorball body. However, this version had abilities that made it arguably the most powerful body of all.

• Plasma Jet: The Berserker body's ability to create plasma and manipulate electromagnetic energy was also a standared feature of the Imaginos, and worked in the same way.

• Accelerator: Installed by Desty Nova, the accelerator allowed Alita's brain to function 150 times faster than normal, changeing her perception of time, allowing her to think, move and react in mere milliseconds. A plasma jet could be used as a break, slowing her down when in movement. Alita returns to her normal perception of time when the accelerator is no longer needed.

THE IMAGINOS: LAST ORDER This version of the Imaginos does not have the accelerator. It can, however, match Alita's thoughts, and change it's coloring scheme and shape to better suit Alita.

• Plasma Torch: Unlike the Berserker Body, which came equipped with plasma making organs, Alita had to make the Imaginos produce plasma through sheer force of will. This caused Alita no end of trouble, and she eventually had to put herself in mortal danger just so she could gain the ability to create plasma by activating her latent survival instints. Unlike the Berserker body, which only produced a single small jet of plasma for a brief time, the Imaginos can create a long-sustaining torch of plasma of various lengths, coming off of each finger. The effect of this has also given this move the name "plasma claw".

• Damascus Blades: Alita's favorite weapon suffered from extreme metal fatigue in the year it took for Nova to resurrect Alita, so he ended up using it as an ingredient in the Imaginos body. This initially upset Alita to no end, but she later learned in her fight with Toji that she could replicate the Damascus Blade, growing two of them out of her arms as elbow blades, which suits Alita's fighting style well.

[edit] TUNED AR Series (Alita Replicas)

During her time as agent of GIB the organisation documented all of her combat experinces including the Panzer Kunst techniques. This was part of a plan to create a series of mass produced TUNED replicas all with the abilities of Alita but fully loyal to GIB and Zalem, all without Alita's knowledge. Finally, 12 Tuneds were produced with the following having appeared directly in Gunnm and Gunnm Last Order. They are marked as AR (GR in Japanese version) 1-12.

AR-2: Was send to eliminate and replace Alita. Because of having all of Alita's memories without human mercy and a completely solid (non-organic) body, she had the upperhand during the fight. However the destruction of her control terminal by Alita's friend Lou gave Alita the chance to cut the replica's head off.

AR-6 aka Sechs: After the closing of GIB, the aimless AR-6 searched out the other remaining TUNED Replicas to challenge them. Sechs' dream was to become an original in her own way; by showing that she is not like the original, but stronger (instead of wanting to take her place). Sechs alone succsesfully killed AR-1, AR-3, AR-4, AR-5, AR-7, AR-8, and AR-9. Afterwards she began to search for Alita to destroy the original as well.

AR-10: A TUNED replica who attacked Barjack's railroad cannon. She was successful in killing most of the remaining soldiers. She also tried to kill Kujumi (one of Alita's friend) but her cyborg dog came between that, bitting her neck and throwing himself with her into hot liqiud metal, killing himself and her.

AR-11 and AR-12 aka Elf and Zwölf: The only two TUNED replicas who escaped Sechs killing spree among the replicas. They also have their own personalities. Not much is know about their activities after GIBs closing and before becoming Nova's bodyguards. In book Last Order #5 however Sechs tells Alita the two worked as singers. Both are always seen together acting like twins (however they call each other best friends). They also fight together using wireblades in deadly syncronous form.

• Note all TUNED replicas have or had knowledge of Basic Panzerkunst and are able to use special attacks like the Heartza Haeon (Sechs used it in a puppet body) and Einzug Rüstung (AR-2 used it against Alita).