Volume 6 a.k.a. the TUNED arc follows Alita as she joins a ragtag group of mercenaries. And James and Steve can't help but compare it to films like Aliens, War movies and Westerns, not bad for a cyberpunk story, no? Skip summary @6:27
071: Battle Angel Alita vol. 6
Chapters 30 to 35
"Judgement Day" and "Rainmaker"
By Yukito Kishiro
Translation by Stephen Paul
Lettering by Scott Brown
Synopsis
After the defeat of Zapan, Alita is condemned to disposal for the crime of using a firearm. However, she is saved by a man known as the Director Bigott Eizenburg, he communicates to her via a dream in the middle of her disposal procedure before saving her, Alita is hesitant to believe him, but when Bigott reveals that he is after Desty Nova it is then that Alita decides to work for his group TUNED, in the hopes that she can find Ido by tracking Nova.
We head towards an ambiguous time in the future where the authority of the scrapyard a.k.a. 'the Factory' hires mercenaries to protect their cargo from a gang of bandits.
A man called Figure Four Joins them, his most distinctive trait is that he is an organic flesh and blood man who is able to fight machines and cyborgs through his Qi and Hertza Hauen martial arts. He meets another mercenary, Yorg, who warns him about the dangerous woman on the other carriage. Alita. Figure Four introduces himself to Alita by pinching her harmonica and playing it badly! Luckily for him Alita finds him charming.
The train is attacked by Bandits. Their leader being Knuclehead. Alita manages to extinguish this threat and keep Knuclehead detained, cutting his vocal cord so that he can no longer make verbal threats. During the attack the nuclear-powered train went into meltdown, both Figure Four, Yorg and Alita survive the fallout by ditching the train; but it becomes apparent that the two men only slow Alita down. This leads to a tense discussion with Bigott on deciding the fate of the men. Figure chooses to settle things by fighting Alita. He loses. And he wakes finding out Alita has left him with Yorg and took off in a Dune Buggy.
A lot happens during these events, Alita obviously has a conscience, and Yorg has a family back home so she returns to pick up the men, but a cyclone creates the contrivance of losing Knuckehead and Alita and the mercenaries stubble upon ruins of a city not knowing at first that it is a military base owned by Barjack. The whole cyclone ordeal has Figure tie up Alita and scavenge for rations until he can trust her again. And although Alita is very happy to be fed by Figure Four, the man isn't exactly a smooth operator when it comes to winning Alita over.
A repaired Knucklehead returns with reinforcements, a party of the Barjack rebellion lead by Colonel Bozzle. Alita gives away her position by screaming and shooting at a butterfly, apparently the appearance of beady eyes on its wings creep her out. A shot from a tank targets them. Alita manages to save them due to the wall that falls having smashed out windows. Bozzle is an old friend of Yorg's and so Yorg sides with Bozzle in order to save his himself, this brings confusion to the fight and Alita is apprehended whilst Figure Four is left for dead.
Alita loses her legs and is interrogated by Bozzle yet Knuclehead is angry at being used as bait for the attack on Alita, Knuckehead attacks Bozzle and his socket soldiers. He kidnaps Alita and in their final showdown Figure manages to make a surprise attack and save Alita. Alita goes to give Figure a kiss until she is interrupted by gunfire. Bozzle and an unknown socket soldier have survived and seem to want to settle the score. In a twist of fate, the soldier is Yorg, and his final act of redemption is to rebel against Bozzle. Yorg dies in the arms of Figure and Bozzle dies too.
After burying Yorg, Alita and Figure travel on foot through the desert wasteland, with one last bastion of hope being that Figure thinks he can make it rain by singing. And you know what? By some miracle it does. Why fish is pouring from the Sky has yet to explained.
Topics
- The ending and the ambiguity of the miracle.
- The disposal scene.
- The train ambush attack.
- The romance between Alita and Figure Four.
- Yorg as a character.
Other references
- Figure Four is the second character appearing to use Hertza Hauen and Qi, the first being Jasugun during the Motorball arc.
- The Dryad Butterfly, Minois Dryas. Alita shares the fear of this butterfly with the Author Yukito Kishiro.
- Volume 6 contains visual allusions to the 1987 movie, Robocop, Alita smashes her hand through a wall to grab a soldier by surprise. And the socket Soldiers themselves are based on Peter Weller's costume and bald cap headpiece in the movie. Yukito Kishiro must have thought the bald cyborg in that film resembled a lightbulb and the socket soldiers are screwed into their bodies through such a way. This is no surprise since, Kishiro has mentioned how at one point he hoped the Robocop director, Paul Verhoeven would direct a live action film version of Alita/Gunnm, according to the October 1993 interview in Animerica magazine with Seiji Horibuchi. For Kishiro's interview and more you can purchase this book here. You can also find old scans and transcripts online too.
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