Alita | |
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Battle Angel Alita character | |
First appearance | Battle Angel Alita chapter 1: "Rusty Angel" (錆びた天使 Sabita Tenshi), 1990 |
Created by | Yukito Kishiro |
Portrayed by | Rosa Salazar |
Voiced by |
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In-universe information | |
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Origin | Cydonia, Mars |
Alita, or Gally (ガリィ, Garyi) in the original Japanese version, is the title character and the main protagonist of Yukito Kishiro's cyberpunk manga series Gunnm (also known as Battle Angel Alita in the English translation) and its sequels Last Order and Mars Chronicle.
Originally a Martian cyborg named Yoko (陽子, Yōko), Alita is known for her fighting prowess as a practitioner of the powerful cyborg martial art Panzer Kunst (機甲術, Pantsā Kunsuto, lit. "armor art") and her racing skill at Motorball (モーターボール, Mōtā Bōru), the most popular sport in the western district of Scrapyard. Her background and past history were briefly hinted in the original series, but were not explored until Last Order and more extensively in Mars Chronicle, which reveals that in her previous life she was highly instrumental in creating the world within which the manga series are set. During the 10th ZOTT, Alita is entrusted the relic "Fata Morgana" by Caerula Sanguis, which grants her direct access to the quantum supercomputer Melchizedek and makes her the Last Order agent.
Last Order reveals that Alita has been a cyborg since she was three years old, while Mars Chronicle reveals that she has been a cyborg her entire life since "birth". She has been shown in a human body twice – during the dream sequence after Bigott Eizenburg halted her imminent execution and offered to recruit her as a TUNED agent, she appeared as a young human woman wearing the long-sleeved white top and pants of an institution. In the epilogue of the original series, years after sacrificing herself to save Zalem from crashing down to Iron City, Alita was regenerated as a fully flesh-and-blood woman with long black hair and appeared to be taller than her typical height.
In the original manga, "Alita" was actually the name of her adopted father Daisuke Ido's black pet tomcat, who died a month before he found the remains of cyborg girl in the huge junkyard. 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. In the dream, Alita is named "Gally" while the cat is named "Alita". The side story "Holy Night" reveals that Ido took the original "Alita" in shortly after he arrived in the Scrapyard, at least five years before he found the cyborg Alita in the junkyard.