Battle Angel Alita

Battle Angel Alita, called GUNNM (銃夢, literally jū "gun" mu "dream", creatively read as ガンム ganmu) in Japan, is a science-fiction manga series created by Yukito Kishiro in 1991 and published in Shueisha's Business Jump magazine. The plot centers on a a female cyborg named Alita (called "Gally" in Japan) whose only memories of her past are her mastery of the cyborg martial art known as Panzer Kunst.

Alita

• Jashugan...Why did you die!? There was so much more I wanted to learn from you!
  • Kishiro (1997). Fallen Angel. pp. 198. ; Jashugan appears in a dream sequence induced by Desty Nova when Alita says this to him.
• For what purpose were you born...? Was it to be killed by me?
  • Kishiro (1997). Angel of Chaos. pp. 29. ; Alita says this to ninjas sent by Desty Nova.
• You gave me my life, Daisuke... If I'm an angel, what does that make you?

Daisuke Ido

• There is nothing in this world of value... nothing worth risking our lives for... except perhaps... what little we can create for ourselves. Without you, Alita, my life has no value.
• I live for the rush – this one moment of ecstasy. I kill for my own sake... nothing more, nothing less. I didn't want you to see this side of me... didn't want your life to turn towards the shadows. Oh, Alita...

Jashugan

• I have not begun to attain the ultimate levels! All I have done is come to grips with my own limits! Humans have limitations! And the purpose of battle is to attain the greatest heights within your own limits!
  • Kishiro (1997). Fallen Angel. pp. 211. ; Jashugan appears in a dream sequence induced by Desty Nova when he says this to Alita.

Desty Nova

• I never seem to get along with that cat. One of these days I'll poison the little monster.
  • Kishiro (2001). Angel's Ascension. pp. 87. ; referring to Ido's pet Gally in a dream sequence he has induced in Alita of an alternate reality.
• I've battled all of nature – and I do not fear death! But one thing I cannot bear is to be rescued by the selflessness of my own experimental subject! I would rather suffer hell itself than be saved by that girl's kindness! Ashes! Lets the sky rain ashes!
  • Kishiro (2001). Angel's Ascension. pp. 229. ; referring to Alita's decision to save Tiphares from collapsing onto the Scrapyard.
• You can't fight fate – did I neglect to teach you that? People cannot choose where, when and into what conditions they are born. From the moment of birth, each person must live on life's terms. The world is cruel, but that's only natural. We begin life as a chemical reaction, the soul non-existent, the mind merely synaptic sparks. Human existence but a shadow of memory and information. We live alone, as we must – in a godless and merciless world...and yet...we live! That is the secret of free will!
  • Talking to Sachumado, embodied with the memories of Nova's latest and late assistant Jim Roscoe.
• If this were still my dream... I would do anything to protect you... Anything... to protect that eternal moment.
• In this world, there is no sanity or insanity. Here lie only the thousand faces of madness.
  • Lecturing Kaos about calling Desty Nova a madman.
• We are all prisoners inside the cage of our own flesh. And I'm planning a jail break.

Other characters

B.B. Buick

• What an honor! Shot by the Angel of Death! Shoot me some more!
  • Kishiro (1997). Fallen Angel. pp. 170. ; after being shot by AR-10.

Bigott Eizenburg

• You were never anything more than a sample to us.
  • Kishiro (1997). Fallen Angel. pp. 59. ; explaining Alita's role in the TUNED project.
• Hey...can I have my brain back...heh...heh...brai-
  • Last words while going insane after finding out the secret of Tiphares being all Tipharean adults have their brains replaced with Bio-Chips. Is shot and killed along with his staff by M.I.B. robots.

References

• Kishiro, Yukito (June 2001). Battle Angel Alita: Angel’s Ascension (4th ed. ed.). San Francisco: Viz Communications. ISBN 1-56931-293-1. 
• Kishiro, Yukito (November 1997). Battle Angel Alita: Fallen Angel (1st ed. ed.). San Francisco: Viz Communications. ISBN 1-56931-243-5. 

External links

• Yukito Kishiro's website