James and Steve discuss which other actors would have played a good Desty Nova, story-wise Zapan returns to settle the score. So basically, we get Karma as a theme! Skip plot summary @5:51
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070: Battle Angel Alita vol. 5
Chapters 23 to 29
"Lost Sheep" and "Lion and the Lamb"
By Yukito Kishiro
Translation by Stephen Paul
Lettering by Scott Brown
Synopsis
Zapan, who previously fought Alita, helps out the homeless with his love, Sarah.
Suffering from post-traumatic stress after Alita tore off his face, it only takes seeing Alita on TV, now a Motorball champion, to trigger his mental breakdown. Forgetting his strength, he decapitates Sarah and sends her head flying into the soup that she cooked for the homeless. He scoops out her head, apologises and walks off.
Two years later, Alita has quit Motorball and lives by herself. She spends her nights as a songstress, entertaining at the Kansas bar with Shumira. Shumira is both the bar maid and the baby sitter for Koyomi. During the day Alita teaches self-defence classes and reads Hans Henny jahn.
Zapan, now a wanted man, is on the hunt for Alita. But it's not so simple, As Sarah's father, an old man with a pack of robot dogs, intends to avenge his daughter. Alita is respectful for the old man, during the fight, and perhaps to Zapan too, since Alita gives Zapan the chance to strike by playing him a song instead. In the end, it's the old man's dogs who gives the fatal blow to Zapan.
On Alita's birthday, Ido gives her the seeds for sugar snap peas and Alita gets a letter from her old friend Umba. He reveals that he tried his best to salvage Alita's Berserker body but it is now bought and owned by the man Desty Nova.
Ido goes to visit Nova whilst Alita plants the peas. Nova introduces his next project to Ido, to revive Zapan's corpse with the Berserker body. His explanation as to why; to develop Karma and to observe the possibility that mankind can overcome their karma. Nova believes his nanotechnology is key to live a life of no consequence, no Karma, but Zapan can't be controlled and makes an attack on every one in their wake.
Not long after this Alita is escorted to Ido and Nova, Alita knows Ido well enough to grab her Damascus blade beforehand. On arrival at the ruins of Nova's lab stands Nova and his entourage. She asks about Ido and so Nova gives her Ido's head in a box. Alita is devasted, and her attempts to murder the lot fall short as their Nanomachines give them superhuman healing. Nova claims to be able to bring Ido back to life and gives Alita appropriate ammunition to fight Zapan who is now on his way to Kansas bar where he kills Gonzu.
Alita is too late to save the bar and is treated like a pariah. The community blames her for turning Zapan into a monster and so vouches to turn her into a scapegoat. They plan to hand her over to Zapan so that the monster can find peace. Alita refuses to go down without a fight.
And in their climactic battle Alita wins. The last thing we see of Zapan is that he wakes to find that Sarah is still alive that his journey for retribution was just a dream.
Topics
- The character Eelai is Nova's "Paramour" according to the 2017 Kodansha translation, Merriam-Webster defines the Paramour word as an "illicit or secret lover". She is a hypersexual woman that can be quite common in boy's manga, regardless of the comments James has on this character and the role of BDSM, one should not take his words too seriously, after all BDSM is a consensual and adult practice. A far interesting question is if Eelai will ever have her way with the Doctor Ido character.
- Who could have played a good Nova in a life action film? The actor that James forgets the name of is actor John Glover (who is on twitter for those who are curious), he played as villainous characters in 'Smallville', 'Gremlins 2: The New Batch' and 'Batman & Robin'. Other actors name dropped is Jim Carrey and Jeffrey Combs.
- Karma and scapegoating as themes for consequence. Cancel culture now being referred to as consequence culture by academics.
- Zapan's return and vengeance.
- Alita's growth as a character and plausibility of becoming a singer.
Other references
- Eric Drexler, The term "nano-technology" had been coined by the Tokyo University of Science professor Norio Taniguchi in 1974 to describe the precision manufacture of materials with nanometer tolerances, and Drexler unknowingly used a related term in his 1986 book Engines of Creation: The Coming Era of Nanotechnology to describe what later became known as molecular nanotechnology When people say nano-technology in science fiction they are usually referring to Drexler's premise.
- The manga has chapter titles which have biblical symbolism; the lamb is a symbol of purity and as such is considered most worthy of sacrificial ritual. The Manga very much depicts Alita as the would-be lamb/scapegoat. In the King James translation (KJV), Ezekiel 46:4 reads:
"In the burnt offering which the prince shall offer to the Lord on shall be six lambs without blemish and a ram without blemish"
…and in Leviticus 12:8 KJV it reads:
"But if she cannot afford a lamb, then she shall take two turtledoves or two young pigeons, the one for a burnt offering and the other for a sin offering; and the priest shall make atonement for her, and she will be clean.'"
This is very much in a similar way to how one uses scapegoats. However, a "sheep" often refers to a follower of God, and Jesus Christ is considered "The Lamb of God", The Lions are a reference to how Roman emperors persecuted the Christians. With origins as early as Ignatius of Antioch. In fact, Ignatius' open letter (his epistle) to the Romans states:
"I am God's wheat and I am being ground by the teeth of wild beasts to make a pure loaf for Christ. I would rather that you fawn on the beasts so that they may be my tomb and no scrap of my body be left. Thus, when I have fallen asleep, I shall be a burden to no one. Then I shall be a real disciple of Jesus Christ when the world sees my body no more."
For more reading check out the Order of Saint Ignatius website and this article by Kuba Shand-baptiste.
- "Demon Dogs" as a term has been used to describe the Cerberus or the "hounds of Hell", although Steven mentions it within British lore, however, and perhaps coincidentally the notion of a dog from hell actually permeates from a lot of cultures. Sadly, when it comes to dogs many myths persists to this day, especially in Islamic instances. One can't help but wonder what Islam's stance on cybernetic dogs would be.
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