Gunnm/Characters

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


A list of the characters that appear in the Gunnm/Battle Angel Alita series. As a Long Runner, expect Loads and Loads of Characters.

Main characters

Gally/Alita/Yoko

The series protagonist, a cute and young-looking girl cyborg, who was found by Dr. Daisuke Ido on the scrap heap in the beginning of the original Gunnm. While hardly all that intimidating on the outside, she later proved to be arguably the finest warrior on Earth and probably the whole Solar System, the reasons and implications of which touched in the great detail in the sequel manga Last Order.

  • Action Girl: Or Dark Action Girl depending on her mental state of the moment. Full stop when she was still Yoko.
  • Amazonian Beauty: Her muscles aren't very big, but they are very defined.
  • Animal Motifs: An octopus, due to her perpetual pout. After her large Heroic BSOD in Last Order, she has become to act more and more like a cat.
  • Artificial Human: In Last Order, having had her organic brain replaced with a chip. Also, in the video game, her birth is revealed as being a tumoral growth in a member of Martian royalty that developed a central nervous system.
  • Badass
  • Badass Longcoat
  • Blade Below the Shoulder On and off since her Motorball days.
  • Blood Knight: Gradually transforms into one, but showed traces of this from the very beggining.
    • She flips in and out of this personality whenever things go better or worse for her.
  • Blood-Splattered Wedding Dress: At one point Alita kicks some mecha ass wile wearing a gorgeous wedding dress...for no good reason, but it sure looks cool.
  • Boobs of Steel: Quite literally. Her bust size increases with each body change, while we are at that.
    • One bonus 4koma gag in Last Order reveals during a shower scene that when she "retracts" her Blade Below the Shoulder, the steel from the blades apparently migrates to pad her breasts.
  • Break the Cutie: She almost loses her mind when Figure Four dies. The only thing that prevents her from doing so is finding out that he really isn't dead.
  • Broken Ace: Alita is far above 95% of the killer cyborgs she encounters and she honestly wants to do the right thing. Still, she tends to create just as many problems as she fixes because she is still a flawed human at heart who is controlled by emotions, fears and predjudices...and can kill allmost anything.
    • She is considered the "strongest warrior".
  • Can't Have Sex Ever: More like Can't Settle Down With Somebody She Loves, Ever. Just as Hugo renounced to his dream of reaching Tiphares for her, he got killed; just as she finished her mission and was free to go see Figure Four, she was blown up, and next thing she knew, she had to go to space to save Earth.
  • Cry Cute
  • Cute Bruiser
  • Cyborg: Her only organic part is her brain. And that's not longer true as of Last Order.
  • Deadpan Snarker
  • Determinator
  • Facial Markings: Her trademark "antiglare patches" on the cheeks that she wears in any of her bodies. They were originaly the traditional markings of Panzer Kunst users, but since Gally was the only PK user on Earth they became her own trademark, so much that they have been built into her face since the Motorball days, and only seen without them twice after that.
  • Hell-Bent for Leather: When she bothers with clothing at all, as most of her bodies are robotic enough to not need it. She apparently just loves leather as a fashion statement.
    • She loves her pitch black leather so much she even wears it in the desert while using a body that has an inherent overheating problem. (see picture)
  • Implacable Man: A flashback shows that she and possibly all Panzer Kunst users were this.
  • The Hero
  • Laser-Guided Amnesia
  • Manic Pixie Dream Girl: When Alita falls head over heels in love with Yugo she unleashes her inner MPDG to talk him out of his single minded quest to reach Salem and make him hers. She ultimately succeeds a few seconds before he dies. After this experience, Alita permanently loses that part of herself.
  • Market-Based Title: Not only that, but also her name -- she's named Alita in the English translation, but Gally (apparently from Galatea) in the Japanese original. Kishiro doesn't seem to mind though.
    • And with the help of Ouroboros both names were made canon. So now she has THREE names! To make things even more complicated, there are a few clones of her running around, each with her/his own distinct personality and name.
  • Mood Swinger: Her frequently alternating between the cheerful periods and depressed sulking in the corner would make her look almost bipolar, if not for the fact that she usually has a reason for this Heroic BSODs.
  • Older Than They Look: Spent 200 years in suspended animation, yet still looked like a teenager when she was revived. True, she WAS a teenager beforehand, and cyborg bodies do not age, but, 15 years later, and several body upgrades, is still said to not look older that 20, despite actually being closer to two centuries and a half.
    • Her "real" age, that is, the time she spent conscious and not a Human Popsicle, turned off or in other type of suspended animation, is about 30, though.
  • Pint-Sized Powerhouse: One of the most efficient warriors alive, insanelly skilled, and with the raw firepower of one of the major superpowers of the Solar System... And still just 5 feet tall.
  • Power Gives You Wings: Damascus-bladed wings, while we are at that.
  • Really Seven Hundred Years Old: Well, 200-something really.
  • She's Got Legs: Oh yes.
  • Slasher Smile: She sometimes sports one during her most battle-crazed moments. Pray you never have to be on the receiving end of a face like that, i kid you not!
  • A Taste of Power: The berserker body she obtains in the first volume has more raw firepower that ANYTHING else in the series but some of her weapons in her (inferior in combat) TUNED body, and the Imaginos body she uses in the ending and in Last Order.
  • Took a Level in Badass: The most striking one was when she was given the berserker body and went from a young girl without experiece that could do some martial arts to a plasma welding proffesional able to win a bar brawl by herself.
  • Tomato in the Mirror: Twice in fast sucession in Last Order, she has not been the same since the latter.
  • Ubermensch
  • Ultimate Lifeform: When she is recreated the second time, Payne equates her to a Humanoid Abomination.
  • Waif Fu
  • Weapon of Choice: The Damascus Blade; first used as an elbow blade, then turned into a giant butterfly knife, and then incorporated into her Imaginos body.
  • The Woobie: She has been through hell...

Dr. Desty Nova

A closest thing to a Big Bad in the original manga and the epitome of a Mad Scientist archetype. He becomes somewhat more subdued in the sequel, even becoming something of an Anti-Hero and a combination of a mentor, a Mission Control and a Parental Substitute (if you squint really hard) for the hero. Disregarding Super Nova, of course. Super Nova might go and die in the fire.


Original manga characters

Scrapyard inhabitants

Dr. Daisuke Ido

Scrapyard cybersurgeon and Hunter-Warrior who found what was left of YokoGally in the scrap heap and revived/rebuilt her. Ido initially had some hopes of a Pygmalion Plot (which is probably why he named Gally such, as a short of Galatea), but wasn't much disappointed when she turned out indifferent, and became her Parental Substitute to amend her amnesia.

  • Back for the Finale: Coutesy of Ouroboros. Gally, in her attemps to escape, has to kill him. Twice. When she manages to finally overpower the program, we get a quite heartwarming So Proud of You moment.
  • Badass Normal: The only fully organic hunter warrior in the Scrapyard (or so he thinks), and a pretty damn good one.
  • Blood Knight: His sole reason to be a hunter-warrior.
  • Killed Off for Real: Well, somewhat subverted, he is resurrected, but ends up deleting his own memories, so the Ido we (and Gally) knew and loved is gone for good.
  • Decoy Protagonist: Early on it seemed like Ido would be the main co-star next to Alita. He puts everything in motion, gets plenty of characterization and is interesting enough to last an intire series. Then comes volume five...
  • Parental Substitute
  • Pygmalion Plot: He somewhat had that idea about Gally when he found her, but quickly got over that.
  • Stuffed in The Fridge: Even if alive, the only thing that remains of the old Ido is a memory in a few persons. Very few, as most of his friends were killed by Zapan. The way things are it isn't intirely impossible for him to return but it is very unlikely.

Zapan

Hugo

A Scrapyard boy who became Gally's first friend and later a Love Interest in the original. His biggest dream was to reach Tiphares/Jeru whatever it takes. It took his life -- which was one of the first signs just how crapsack their world really is.

  • Determinator
  • Go Out with a Smile
  • Lovable Rogue
  • Oblivious to Love: Hugo, you fool!
  • Shoot the Shaggy Dog: He never gave up on his dream, no matter the hardships he went through. After discovering his chance to fulfit it was a lie, he tries to get to Tiphares by foot, but the defense mechanism of the Factory pipes tear his feet out. He keeps CRAWLING up. Then Gally arrives, ends up convincing him to drop his dream and stay with her. Cue second razor ring going down the pipe, tearing his body apart, and, despite being caught by Gally, having just the time to say goodbye before breaking and falling to his doom.
  • Stuffed in The Fridge: Subverted, Gally takes his death HARD, and even 10 years later and having found another interest, she remembers him.

Vector

Makaku

Koyomi K.

A young girl appearing in the very first volume as newborn kid who lost her parents. Koyomi serves as a quasi timer for the series since her age represents the time that has passed since the series started. Growing up in the scrapyard and with her father losing his beloved bar with the Zapan incident, she developed a rather opportunistic and sarcastic personality. However she still has a honest heart and believes in a better future.

  • Audience Surrogate
  • The Ladette
  • Identical Stranger: She is said to look a lot like Gally. This is most noticeable in the epilogue of the original manga, where She's All Grown Up.
  • Iron Woobie: Has gone through her own share of horrible events and loses, but like Gally she doesn't give up.
  • Hit So Hard the Calendar Felt It: She was born exactly at the same moment as Ido found Gally's body in the scrap heap, marking the start of the whole story. Kishiro half-jokingly maintains a separate calendar called Anno Koyomi to maintain continuity of the series.
  • Morality Pet: Became this for Den.
  • Scare'Em Straight: She almost crosses the line into villany during the raid on the scrapyard when she pushes Den to crush her father He promptly decides to put the fear of death back in the little brat by dropping her a few stories deep.
  • Tagalong Kid: With the Barjack.

Motorball people

Jashugan

  • The Ace: He ended up taking challenges only from teams, AND with a handicap, otherwise he'd have no challenge. And he had barely in this way. Justified, however, in that his brain was touched by a certain Mad Scientist who enjoys flan...
  • Back for the Finale: Like Ido, reappears in Ouroboros. Gally breaks out of the illusion by finally defeating him.
  • Dark-Skinned Blond
  • Determinator
  • Died Standing Up: After making Gally lose consciousness on a fight.
  • Energy Being: Trough sheer willpower, he briefly becomes this in his last moments. He uses this opportunity to punch Alita in half, snapping her out of her depression wile he is at it.
  • Worthy Opponent: The sole character to punch Gally in the midsection and actually defeat her in combat until Last Order.
    • This left such a mark on her that even after having long surpassed him, she still thinks highly of him.


Barjack and related

Kaos

A mysterius Radio DJ who drives around the wasteland with his assistant. His musical tallent stems from his unique ability to read memories inprinted on items by their users. This can range from music and singing from instruments to fencing from Swords. He also can only see in infrared and hear in radio signals. Becomes a potential love intrest for Gally after reading her memories. However he also harbors two dark Secrets. He has a split personality named Den who leads a massiv army and tries to destroy Jeru and he is the biological son of Destiny Nova.

Den

Leader of the marauding army Barjack. Prefers to walk around in a massiv centauren shaped robot body. According to Gally, extremly agile despite his size.

  • Blood Knight: Seeing he is Kaos' supressed rage, it is quite reasonable.
  • Establishing Character Moment: Seeing him deliver a Badass Boast to an opponent who is destroying his body, just to kill him in one single move once he finishes. Then squatting the manager of said opponent for being a pawn of Tiphares.
  • Large and In Charge
  • Self-Destructive Charge: His last attempt to destroy the floating city, after Barjack got heavily destroyed. Complete with "O Fortuna" sounding. Yes, in printed media.
    • Shaggy Dog Story: And that charge ends with his BFS breaking when he gets an strike against one of the tubes that go up to Tiphares. He decides dying is the best thing he can do then.
  • Wide-Eyed Idealist: A far darker that normal take on the trope, he belives the destruction of Tiphares would solve the world's problems. Not So Different from Kaos, after all.

Figure Four

  • Badass Normal: Can perform a shockwave attack in a human body and knows how to fight full-body cyborgs.
  • Determinator: Went up against Gally several times despite getting his ass beaten, survived having a wall drop on him and didn't stop carrying Gally through a desert without any water or shade. The only thing that can really stop him is a nuclear reactor (It Makes Sense in Context).
  • Manly Tears: When Yolg dies.
  • Out of Focus: He only got mentions in Last Order. Compare with Koyomi, Kaos, and even Vector and Gally's motorball circle, which were seen and even got some plotlines.
  • Stay in the Kitchen: He acts macho to lure Alita out of her shell but ironically he is the one who stays behind in his peacefull coastal village to faithfully await Alita's return wile she is out on her own kicking ass and taking names. That's pretty rare in fiction, when you think of it.


Tiphareans

Lou Collins

Gally's Mission Control during her Factory agent times and her closest friend since she lost touch with Ido and others (bordering on Les Yay sometimes). During the Barjack arc she was swept up into the Jeru/Salem (Tipharo-Ketherean for you Viz readers) politics, and the result... wasn't pretty to say the least. In fact, the original impulse for Last Order story was Gally's wish to save her friend (or whatever left of her).

Bigott Eisenburg

After Aita is nearly destroyed, Eisenburg is the one who recruits her for the "Tuned" program which involves recording Alita's fighting skills so they can make 100% loyal robotic copies of her. He is an extremely smug character who values his citizenship of Salem above all else and sees Scrapyard cyborgs as sub-human tools.

  • Big Bad Wannabe: From the first time you see him, you know he is up to no good. When he crushes the Barjack rebellion with Salem's superweapon he seems to be a really big deal too. He is anything but.
  • Go Mad from the Revelation: Just how far are you flying off the deep end if you CUT OPEN YOUR OWN SKULL WITH A BUZZSAW?'
  • Irony: The biggest hater of cybernetic implants had a chip for a brain all along.
  • Smug Snake
  • You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Does it TWICE to Alita and Lou as well...then he gets thrown into the trash himself.

Last Order characters

Space Angels

GR-6 Sechs

One of the Gally's TUNED clones, who broke free and, being burdened with an extremely powerful Middle Child Syndrome decided to prove his (well, her at the time) worth by hunting down all other clones and, finally, the original. After getting (then still) her ass kicked by Gally almost at the end of that quest (see below), she (then) toned down somewhat and became something of an Annoying Younger Sibling.

Technique's not what matters. Just keep attacking until the enemy dies.

-- How old are you, kid?
—Two!
    • Sechs mentaly even notes that he's only 1 year and 5 months old and that he should have said 20 because it's "average human age".
    • "What the fuck's a potty?"

GR-11 Elf and GR-12 Zwölf

The only TUNED clones who survived Sechs rampage, mainly because Desty Nova has taken them under his wing. Closer to a younger and more innocent Gally of the early manga, they inexplicably behave as if they were twins, and serve as a more lighthearted Foil to their more bloodthirsty older siblings.

Zazie

Martian Kingdom special forces officer (and Queen Limeira's personal bodyguard at that) who crossed the ways with Gally several times in the past, until finally becoming her ally im the Z.O.T.T. finals. While no slouch in unarmed combat, she's not nearly close to the insane feats of the likes of Gally and Zekka, and really shines with everything that shoots.


LADDER council

Aga "Trinidad" Mbadi

The vice-chairman of the LADDER council and the most influential figure in the Solar System, Aga Mbadi is a Big Bad of the Last Order, and fills that role pretty well, having a hand in almost everything that happens around our good ol' Sol for the most of the last two centuries.

  • Ambiguously Brown: An odd example. His name is unambiguously African; however, his medium-brown skintone, rather narrow features, and interests (yoga, Kalaripayyatu and other Indian martial arts) could easily lead to him being mistaken for Indian.
  • Amusing Injuries: His face is still covered in band-aids after the beatdown from Gally several chapters ago.
  • Badass

I will not allow you to alter reality without my permission.

Caerula Sanguis/Vilma Fachiri

A mysterious woman with a hidden agenda that shows up periodically in Last Order, mostly as a leader of a Guntroll Z.O.T.T. team and Star Nursery society. One of her defining characteristics is that she often alternates as an antagonist or as an ally for the heroes' team. Later revealed to be an immortal vampire indeed at least Really Seven Hundred Years Old and a Trinidad's former partner. What she really knows and plans is one of the biggest mysteries in the series.

Ping "The Weasel" Wu

The mysterious hacker living in a Robo Asyl, who saves the team after Trinidad spaces them early on in Last Order. Worshiped as a god by the throngs of a half-broken and malfunctioned robots who congregate in the underbelly of Salem, he quickly becomes Gally's ally and Mission Control, and is later revealed to be a one of LADDER's founders together with Trinidad and Caerula. He was an IT man in the Power Trio establishing most of the codes and protocols of Salem and LADDER, and knew its every nook and cranny, which is why he was able to navigate it so easily later. As Mbadi started to become more intolerant and demanding, Wu distanced from him, and finally went into hiding, ending in Robo Asyl.

  • Demoted to Extra: Rather quickly.
  • It Amused Me: One of his main motivations. Even his recent Crowning Moment of Awesome, [1] was apparently mainly done on a wager with Nova Pod.
  • Knight in Sour Armor: He's quite a cynic, and doesn't hold any illusions about human nature, but still...
  • Mission Control
  • Non-Action Guy: Probably what explains his reduced relevance in the story, which progressively becomes action-centered.
  • Older Than They Look: He may look like a stereotypical Hollywood Nerd in his 30's, but he's been around since the Terraforming Wars.
  • Playful Hacker: Nearly textbook example.
  • Red Baron: The Weasel.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: Wasn't heard about since Mbadi and Super Nova's encounter with Gally, and her fusion with Fata Morgana and rebirth from Tunguska in an Imaginos 2.0 body. But then again, Nova hasn't appeared in the story since the very same event.
    • The chapters before the final battle of the ZOTT show him still in coma and in medical care of his childhood love.
    • Chapter 109 shows him probably coming back to his senses, as he's seen smiling under the ventilator mask.

Panzer Kunst

Erika

Gally's childhood friend back on Mars when she was still called Yoko. She is part of Gally's first memories ever. After both were rescued by Gerda, she and Yoko joined the Panzer Kunst school. Her overall fate in Gally's past is still unknown.

  • Epileptic Trees: Some fans speculated that the mysterious Kunstler who attacked Zazie on Mars is no other than Erica.

Gerda

Gally's Panzer Kunst teacher and the woman who saved her and Erika from death by cruel soldiers. Not much has been revealed about her except that she was a high ranking fighter.

Tzykrow

Another Gally's teacher and one of the few Kunstlers who survived the LADDER sequestration of the school, if only by becoming a Trinidad's crony. A thoroughly unsympathetic self-important Jerkass, he was Mbadi's general go-to man in the Martian affairs and tried to ambush Gally during the Lou's brain retrieval arc, though with a singular lack of the result.

Space Karate

Zekka

For all its history, karate has acquired a reputation of a ferociousness, not flash. Zekka, apparently, singlehandedly took upon himself to change that -- a more flashy, loud and ridiculously over-the-top character hardly could be ever imagined. Essentially a parody of the insanely skilled aces in various fighting works, he's just another example of the fact that Tropes Are Not Bad -- for all his cliche-ness he's all the more amusing, and we love him just for that.

Toji

Another Space Karate master, and closest thing to the Worthy Opponent that Gally ever really had. Almost as skilled as Zekka (in fact, his master was Zekka's rival in the past), he's somehow managed to remain a Wide-Eyed Idealist who thinks that karate is a key that opens all the doors and answers all questions -- and he wants to create a "Karate planet" where he would welcome everybody who thinks the same -- and those who need their protection. Also, despite the listing order and Zekka's general flamboyantness, it is Toji who's actually the Space Karate team captain.

Rakan

Zekka and Toji's complete opposite, a notorious underworld assassin who is wanted on all Solar system planets (well, except Mercury, but only because it's populated by an inorganic nanomachine race that has a Blue and Orange Morality) and only happens to join Space Karate team because of surviving the elimination match that Zekka proposed to refill their ranks, despite his utter loathsomeness. An unrepentant pervert and rapist, he still manages to get around because he's just that good.

  • Freudian Excuse: Recent chapter revealed he became such a person after getting a bullet in the brain which affects the part of your brain responsible for social behaviour and sexuality.
  • Complete Monster
  • Irony / Karmic Death: For all his perverseness he died from the armor-piercing bullet to the ass, which punched through his whole body and ultimately destroyed his brain. At last.
  • Jerkass Woobie: Despite his unpleasantness it's almost impossible not to pity him after hearing his backstory, which showed that he wasn't even responsible for his condition: it all was just sheer bad luck.

Don Fua

Another student of Zekka's Old Master and his original Rival. He was also Toji's master in the past. Shortly before his death their master sent them on the quest to obtain and master the techniques most suitable to them both — Dragon Slaying Fist for Zekka and Tiger Killing Fist for him, and he was never heard about ever since. Zekka claims that he killed Don Fua in one of their previous meeting, bit is it really so?.. Indeed he did not, and Don Fua has returned in the Chapter 107, intent on settling his rivalry with him.

  • Always Someone Better: Probably the greatest single martial artist in the Solar System.
  • Animal Motifs: Rhinoceros beetle. Gally even calls him "beetle-monk" in chapter 108.
  • Bare-Fisted Monk: But he still used his fan occasionally.
  • But Now I Must Go: He leaves the heroes quite soon after his introduction because his current body really cannot stay too long in this word.
  • Chekhov's Gunman: Their rivalry with Zekka was set up pretty long ago, but has come in play only recently.
  • Enlightenment Superpower: Played with. He's essentially immortal, because his body is able to interact with the fabric of our space-time on the quantum level and transfer him into a kind of Alternate Universe in the whole or partially, so no attack can really harm him. But it's unclear whether this ability has anything to do with his Karate, his Enlightenment, or it's simply a function of his body. Trinidad thinks that it's the latter anyway.
  • Foil: To Zekka, obviously.
  • Martial Pacifist: Pretty much his entire schtick.
  • Megaton Punch: Even though his ultimate technique, Noble Void Palm, absorbs attacks of the others, it has a variation, which can transport a person/attack. It once ended with Zekka making a neat new crater on the Moon.
    • He has another variation of this, a Noble Essence Fist, "the fist which smashes evil", that launches a mini black hole into the enemy. Which is probably his take on the ultimate technique originally assigned to him by his master, the Tiger Killing Fist, which is supposed to be a match to Dragon Slaying Fist.
  • Vitriolic Best Buds: How he tends to view their rivalry with Zekka. Don Fua is still very much in awe with the Zekka's skill, determination and passion, feeling that he indeed nailed the essence of karate, but deeply regrets that Zekka still cannot abandon his Blood Knight ways, trying to persuade him every time they meet.
  • Warrior Monk: Subverted. He's indeed the enlightened Buddhist monk who simply knew karate. And knew it very well.
  • Warrior Therapist: He was much more calm and adjusted than Zekka even in their youth, and he takes it Up to Eleven in the recent chapters, where his main goal is to settle their rivalry with Zekka by convincing him that Ambition Is Evil.
Back to Gunnm
  1. ↑ (Disabling the city's mind control system and engineering Mbadi's public confession in his dirty little plans)
Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.org/wiki/Gunnm/Characters?oldid=1793214"