History Manga / BattleAngelAlita

The manga series ''Battle Angel Alita'' (titled ''Gunnm'' in Japanese) written by Yukito Kishiro, initially ran from 1991 to 1995, at which point it was ended due to ill health on the part of its creator. In 2000 it was revived, initially for a limited run to provide an epilogue based on the final scenario of the UsefulNotes/PlayStation game ''Gunnm: Memories of Mars'', but the new series, ''Last Order'', has since spiraled into a run longer than the original series, finally concluding with Volume 19, making it more than twice as long as the original. In October of 2014, ''Battle Angel Alita: Mars Chronicle'' (''Gunnm: Kasei Senki''), the sequel to ''Last Order'', started.

* DropTheHammer: Ido's rocket-hammer thing.

** Yani and Derossi, the Space Angels' mechanics, are basically ''Anime/{{Patlabor}}'''s Sakaki and Shige in cyborg bodies.

** The Space Angels' engineers are basically Sakaki and Shige, ''Anime/{{Patlabor}}'''s resident gearheads, in cyborg form.

** The other competitors in the Motorball story are all named for weapons (Scramasax, Flamberge, Arbelest etc.., (apparently taken from the Tunnels & Trolls Rulebook). This is less obvious than you'd think because the translator [[SpellMyNameWithAnS directly transcribed the katakana]].

* FauxAffablyEvil: Desty Nova. He also counts as AffablyEvil, depending on his mood and [[CloningBlues which]] Desty Nova you're talking about..

* CloningBlues: Often resulting in BetaTestBaddie themes.
** Desty Nova deserves a special mention. In ''Last Order'', Alita, having acquired both of Desty Nova's brain chips and using them as [[{{Pun}} Bargaining Chips]], stages a break-in with the help of another Virtual Portable Desty Nova ([[spoiler:"We call it the [=PortaNova=]!"]]). They're all ready to go in when they are interrupted by... Evil Afro Desty Nova ("Let's call me.. Super-Nova!") , who [[JustBetweenYouAndMe tells them all about how he will be destroying Alita now]], but he's interrupted by a transmission from... Desty Nova, Flan Cook.
** And earlier was a somewhat darkly humorous moment in Tiphares, when it's revealed that nanobot pods growing into cloned Desty Novas have actually become a rampant pest, and are only kept under control by teams of exterminators with flamethrowers incinerating all the ones they find. [[spoiler:Nova X even uses his own downgraded clones for experimentation. Hey, don't judge him!]]
** Alita's 12 TUNED AR-Series Replicas also qualify, even though by the time ''Last Order'' begins, AR-6 Sechs [[spoiler:ruthlessly hunts down and kills all of the others save for Elf and Zwolf, who managed to kick her ass with their WaifFu WonderTwinPowers]] just to prove to herself that she's not a [[WhatHaveIBecome cheap imitation]] and show that she's as good as or better than Alita. When she tries the same with Alita, even with Elf and Zwolf backing her up she gets [[CurbStompBattle Curb Stomped]].
** To take this trope to its limits, when ''Last Order'' reaches its conclusion, you have [[spoiler:two women existing at the same time who can both present a strong case for being the one true Alita, and yet are not quite the cyborg protagonist named Alita who was almost utterly destroyed at the end of the original series. The first being the fully-cybernetic Alita, who shows character continuity with her original self, and the second being the fully-organic body, complete with her restored organic brain (though lacking memories of the events during ''Last Order'') created to fulfill her promise to Figure Four. The concept of what makes an individual gets taken up a notch here.]]

** Mercury is populated by an alien race which[[GreyGoo evolved out of escaped nanomachines]], which are [[StarfishAliens so incomprehensible]] that their best attempt at contact so far is a 15-meter-tall mostrosity sent to compete in the Solar System's most notorious BloodSport.

In 1993, an anime {{OVA}} was released based on the first two volumes of the manga (it was later released in the United States by ADV Films under the name ''Battle Angel''). There are no plans to continue animated adaptations, but a live action version revisiting the same first two volumes of the manga as the [=OVAs=],[[note]]Taking some details from later volumes[[/note]] titled ''Film/AlitaBattleAngel'' finally got out of DevelopmentHell, and was at long last released on February 14, 2019. Thanks to Creator/JamesCameron grabbing the license, the OVA is no longer sold in the United States.

** Franchise/{{Predator}} + Lobo + [[StarWars Kit Fisto]] = Zekka