Battle Angel Tribute

Created by Yukito Kishiro.
銃夢
Gunnm.
Gun / Dream.
Battle Angel Alita.
Manga.
Anime.
James Cameron Film
Battle Angel tells the story of Gally (Alita in the U.S.), an amnesiac female cyborg. This cyborg's intact head and upper torso are found in a state of suspended animation by the cybermedic expert Daisuke Ido while he is out searching for useful scrap. Ido manages to revive her, and upon finding that the girl has lost her memory, he names her Gally after his recently deceased cat. The rebuilt Gally soon discovers that she possesses instinctive knowledge of the legendary martial art Panzer Kunst, although she has no other memories of her previous life. Gally uses her Panzer Kunst as a link to her lost past, which leads her to first becoming a mercenary Hunter-Warrior, killing cyborg criminals in the Scrapyard, and then a player in the brutal sport of Motorball. While pushing her limits in combat, Gally awakens memories of her earlier life on Mars. She becomes entangled in the machinations of Tiphares as one of their agents, and is sent to hunt those who wish to bring the floating city down. Foremost among these is the mad genius Desty Nova, who clashes with Gully before becoming her ally. Together, they take on the dark secrets of Tiphares.

The futuristic dystopian world of Battle Angel revolves around the city of Scrapyard, grown up around a massive scrap heap that rains down from Zalem (Tiphares in the U.S.), a mysterious city floating above the Scrapyard. Ground dwellers have no access to Zalem and are forced to make a living in the chaotic, violent sprawl below. Many of them are heavily modified by cybernetics to better cope with the hard life in the Scrapyard.

Zalem exploits the Scrapyard and surrounding farms for its needs, paying mercenaries (called Hunter-Warriors) to hunt criminals and arranging violent sports to keep the population in check. Massive tubes connects the Scrapyard to Tiphares. It uses robots to serve its needs and provide security on the ground. Otherwise, there is little or no contact between Zalem and the Scrapyard. Zalean citizens are sometimes banned from the city and sent in exile to the ground, however. Ido Daisuke and Desty Nova are exiled Zaleans.

The story takes place in the former United States. In the map presented in the eighth volume, the locations and geological formations closely correlate to particular cities. According to this map, the site of the Scrapyard/Zalem is at Kansas City, Missouri, and the Necropolis is Colorado Springs, Colorado. The surrounding Farm Factories that support Zalem also correspond to real cities; Farm 21 and Farm 22 are Sweetwater, Texas and Garden City, Kansas respectively. Radio KAOS is at the site of Dallas/Fort Worth. Figure's coastal hometown, Alhambra, is a real place in Southern California, and Desty Nova's Granite Inn is said to have been built out of a military base - assumed to be the NORAD main technical facility at Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado.

Battle Angel is late in the series revealed to take place in the 26th century. The dating convention used by the characters in the story is years after ES (Era Sputnik), based on the launch of Sputnik 1 in 1957. About fourteen years passes after Daisuke Ido discovers Gully in the first graphic novel. This places the entire Battle Angel Alita manga mostly between ES 577 and ES 591, or 2533 and 2547 AD.