BAA - the forgotten pages

[Sergio Nova]

Battle Angel Alita technical notes

After an endless winter, I finally decided to buy the Brazilian complete edition of Gunnm. Well, complete is an exaggeration, certainly, as the Brazilian edition comprehends only Hyper Future Vision.

To my surprise, the Brazilian edition brings some extra pages that someone in the forum was looking for (and then the whole community, I think). Such pages are omitted in the American edition.

The scans here are the ones from the Japanese edition – available in ^Ripper’s site.

The Brazilian edition was published by Editora JBC, and the Japanese-Portuguese translation was made by Arnaldo Massato Oka. This Portuguese-English retranslation, as you must realize, is made by Sergio.

[The notes numbers should be checked here: http://www.easy-share.com/1908323375/Gunnm Nippon.zip]

[[Text edited according to Burning Angel]]

Tech note 1

1. Explaining
2. Factory & Deckman
3. The Factory is a production center, obviously, but in The Scrapyard, the dwellers see it as a government department.
4. The Factories are administrative units of all industrial complexes in The Scrapyard, existing to serve Tiphares.
5. All the foods and goods manufactured by the industries in The Scrapyard are sent to Tiphares through the Factories.
6. There are 11 administrative centers in The Scrapyard, from “Factory 11” to “Factory 1111”.
7. There are no human beings working in such centers, and the communication with them is made by the deckmen – especial cybernetic units.
8. The main gate of a Factory
9. A deckman working in an operative cylinder
10. Several deckmen models
11. Deckman #10’s birth
12. The deckmen are lackeys (automatons) of Tiphares, who, despite using living brains as central processing units, do not have free will or self-conscience.
13. The deckmen move inside communicating tubes and work connected to the equipments of the local system, that are used as arms.
14. A deckman moving inside a communicating tube
15. Many things about the Factories and Tiphares are still a mystery. However, little by little, as the story goes, they will be revealed.
16. Forget all your sufferings and become a deckman!
17. Orphans and suicides will be very welcome.
18. I’ve wanted to be a deckman since I was a child.
19. From now on, I’m no longer human.
20. I will cut out the flesh of your face and the language system of your brain, so don’t move.
21. Wow!
22. Processing.
23. Why did you want to become a deckman, baby?
24. For myself.
25. Yukito, 09/Aug/1991



Tech note 2

1. Explaining
2. Netman and the public order system
3. The Factory law
4. In areas controlled by The Factory, Tiphares’ subordinate organization, there is the “Factory Law”. It is used to guarantee the good operation of the industrial complex and the security of the workers in the Mills and Farms administered by The Factory. However, the rights of the citizens from The Scrap yard are entirely ignored.
5. Classification of crimes, according to The Factory Law.
6. Main crimes
7. A-class crimes

To destroy The Factory.
To rob The Factory’s belongings.
To hack The Factory’s and Tiphares’ systems.
Portage and production of flying machines.
Portage and production of firearms.
Rebellion of hunter-warrior.

8. B-class crimes

Cerebral murder.
Cerebral contusion (except if from sportive competitions).
Sale of living brains.
Robbery of prosthesis from living persons.

9. Netman
10. A Factory external terminal unit, known as netman, is used with the intent of administering the order in The Scrapyard.
The netmen are located in certain points of the city, in a street or corner, and operate as police stations. They receive complaints and information from dwellers and victims and investigate. The netmen try to identify the criminals using primary identification techniques, such as interrogating the witnesses and doing DNA analysis . If the wrongdoer is identified, his name enters the bounty list. If not, the investigation proceeds only if the crime is A-class.
At first, the netmen do not capture the criminals. But, when the crime is A-class, they are equipped with weapons, take charge and rejoin the hunter-warriors to arrest the bandits.
11. The fate of criminals
12. There are not courts or prisons in The Factory. There are only an organ bank and a furnace. The Factory identifies the criminals through the cerebral DNA. After the identification, the reward is given in exchange for the head. The brain is then burned as an ingredient to pharmaceutical industries.
13. Netman’s diagram
14. He contains an antenna to communicate with The Factory
15. A pretty mouthie (using organic prosthesis)
16. Optional unit.
It is usually equipped with an electric pistol for self-defense. Depending on the situation, he can have an anti-hunter missile cannon.
17. The anti-hunter missile detects the barcode in the brain. After the identification, the missile persecutes the rebel continually, like a fly, in order to destroy him
18. He has motorized bearings on the tiptoes, allowing him to move at a speed of almost 40km/h on the streets.
19. The round eyes show that he is kindred to the deckmen.
20. Monitor
21. Charming fingers (using organic prostheses)
22. Exclusive manipulator
23. Keyboard (completely waterproof)
24. Printer-tray
25. Model: netman # 2
26. As it can be noticed, the fate of criminals is severe in The Scrapyard, and it gives no possibility of forgiveness. But the arrest rate of criminals by the hunter-warriors is proportionally low due to the non-existence of crime combat forces. This perpetuates The Scrapyard as a paradise of criminality.
27. Yukito, 08/Jan/1992



Tech note 3

1. Explaining
2. The Scrapyard and Motorball
3. The two greatest entertainments in The Scrapyard are the “Underground Coliseum” in East Zone, and the “Motorball”, in West Zone. (Please note that Ido’s workshop is in Tempest Street, East Zone.)
4. In the “Underground Coliseum” an impressive fight tournament takes place, with gigantic (more than 5m tall) cyborgs facing one another. It is very similar to a show and may be compared to today’s pro wrestling.
5. Underground Coliseum
6. As for Motorball, it is a greater event, having many complex rules, equivalent to baseball matches and today’s race cars – like Formula 1.
7. The seven basic rules of motorball

1.The winner is the player who crosses the finish line carrying the ball after completing all fixed laps.
2.The circuit is one-way, and if the player changes direction and intentionally advances more than three meters, he loses points.
3.The player who remains stagnant in the track for more than one minute is disqualified.
4.In case the Motorball leaves the track or is damaged, the match is interrupted until a new one is provided.
5.It is forbidden to use fire, manual, flying, explosive throwing weapons.
6.Players who fights in the boxes are disqualified.
7.The ball-keeper is not allowed to stop in the boxes.

Special rule: In case only two players remain in the track, a “confrontation” will be announced, when the players will fight each other to determine the winner. In this case, rules number 1 and 4 do not apply.

8. The Motorball organizations are controlled by The Factory. Players from remote regions go to The Scrapyard only to take part in the event and, thus, become famous.
9. Thanks to that, the number of Motorball players, counting the amateur league, is extremely high. Adding the professionals who work in the enormous circuits (ten, in total), Motorball must be considered as the largest enterprise in The Scrapyard.
10. Main league:
The élite sportive team, whose transmissions are made even to Tiphares. Only 50 athletes take part of it.
11. Second league:
Its is the most successful league with the audience, due to the race strategies, the quality of the fights and the players’ unpredictable tricks.
12. Third league:
The access league. Due to the direct and intense fights, it is a great success with the sport maniacs, who consider it as “the true Motorball”.
13. Amateur league:
Extra-official category that joins semiprofessional players or players who were outcast from the other leagues.
14. The Motorball pyramid
15. The wagers are made in the circuit. Besides, the fan may enjoy the monitor-link. With such a machine, he can virtually experience the emotion of the games through his preferred player.
16. Motor-link system scheme
17. Human
18. Monitor-link (a chair to watch the games)
19, 20, 21 & 22. Fan
23. Robbery who attacks the public
24. Radio signal
25. Circuit control tower
26. Transmission lines
27. Audience
28. Player
29. Transmitter
30. Box
31. Faster, man!
32. Coach
33. Speed: 300km/h
34. As the average audience in the motor-links also influences pointing, the players do not take efforts only to win, but also to attract the public.
35. Yukito, 08/June/1992



Tech note 4

1. Explaining
2. How a cyborg works
3. Today, I’m going to explain the structure of a cyborg.
4. Vertebrae
The artificial vertebrae are produced by nanotechnology and only The Factory is able to produce them. Thus, they are rare and too expensive. On the other hand, their reflexes are considerably faster than the ones from normal vertebrae.
5. To place the nerves, it’s enough to use “neuroglue”.
6. Software and hardware that convert the orders from the nervous system in a signal to the actuators. The cyborg’s physical ability depends on this program.
7. We are professional.
8. The face
Sight
Hearing
Smell
Touch
Taste
9. It is composed by organic and mechanic parts and polymers.
10. Sensorial information
11. Exhalation
12. Inhalation
13. Hormone
14. Brain
15. Lung
16. Oxygen
17. Heart
18. Glucose
19. Liver
20. Entrance
21. Stomach and intestine
22. Emergency battery
23. Exit
24. Entrance and exit of the nervous system signals
25. Bloodstream
26. Internal organs
The internal organs mold a compact unit that is hardly destroyed.
27. Generator
28. Fusion at ambient temperature
29. The basic technology of the cyborgs in The Scrapyard hasn’t evolved much in the last centuries.
30. Looking at the other side, the structure has been simplified a lot. They became modular and are very easy to fix and modify.
31. They need to change the heavy water once in a while to work from five to ten years in order to make the cybernetic bodies obtain powerful and immediate torques. Inner combustion motors may be installed, making it a hybrid system.
32. Neural converter
33. Mechanical limbs
34. Actuators
35. According to the author, “Wett Zeug” comes from German “Competition machines” and is the name of especial cybernetic bodies, built for Motorball players.
36. Traditional artisan who has been working for generations concocting ceramic-made articulations.
37. How the cyborgs arise in The Scrapyard!
38. The making of Gally’s face
39. It seems Doctor Ido gives especial attention to the face and internal organs.
40. Oh, damn! I don’t want the mouth this way!
41. I have to rebuild her!!!
42. The making of Gally’s internal organs
43. Did you know that the dernier cri among women now is “glucose cartridges” that reduce feeding and excretion times?
44. Outrageous!!!
45. A true living being must appreciate tasty food and make his necessities in the toilet.
46. I’ll install the “stomach turbo B”, the most potent and complete digestive system ever manufactured, in Alita!
47. So what? Has it come out? That’s the greatest proof that you’re alive, Alita!!!
48. Ido, you jerk!
49. Ouch!
50. Are you well?
51. I’ve just scratched my knee.
52. Let’s heal her!
53. Heeeeyyy!
54. This is also impaired.
55. The arm must be cut out!
56. The surgery costs one million!!!
57. What? Don’t you have money?
58. Take only the richest ones.
59. Right, boss!
60. The end
61. Yukito, 07/Feb/1993

Tech note 5

1. Explaining
2. Today, I, Professor Nova, will explain nanotechnology, this wonderful technique.
3. Nanotechnology history
1942 – First science-fiction to use nanotechnology was Waldo, by Robert A. Heinlein.
1959 – Richard Feynman gave a lecture in the American Society of Physics entitled “There is plenty of room in the bottom”.
1976 – Eric Drexler announced the idea of the assembler.
1981 – Doctors Rohrer and Binnig, from IBM’s Zurich Lab, developed the STM (scanning-tunneling microscope)
1986 – Drexler publishes the bible of nanotechnology: “Engines of Creation”.
1990 – IBM researches write the logo “IBM” using atoms (illustration below).
Letter written using 35 atoms of xenon.
4. About nanotechnology
5. A nanometer is a unit of measure equivalent to 10-9m, that is, a billionth of a meter, “Nano” comes from Greek “nánnos” and means “too small”.
6. Nanomachines are molecular-sized robots that are made through gears and motors built molecule by molecule. They work by using static electricity. Thanks to the properties of molecular alloy, they difficultly break. They have a predefined program and are named “assemblers”.
7. Illustration of a Professor Nova’s assembler. 20 nanometers is the size of the smallest virus.
8. The assembler captures and positions the molecules at the speed of 1 million units per second and it is able to create a perfect copy in 15 minutes.
9. Each copy start creating new copies and the number multiplies. Exponentially, in ten hours they reach a number of 68 billion units and in less than a day they reach the weight of 1 tonne. In two days they would be heavier than Earth itself. But, obviously, there are security programs to hinder such a tragedy to happen.
10. At first, the assembler is able to reproduce any physical object. The possibilities of using this technology are infinite.
11. Example.
12. Brain reconstruction ____________ brain improvement
Berserker body ________________ (biomechanical beings)
Artificial spines _______________ (artificial organs)
Restorers _____________________ (no death and no aging)
13. Others
- create food from inorganic matter
- self-building machines and devices
- development of new materials
- molecular computers
- terraforming planets, etc
14. In theory, they can perfectly control any sort of matter.
15. How to make flan
16. Hihihi… I’ve secretly developed this flan machine.
17. Put water, mud, fish bones without any criteria and…
18. The miracle of nanotechnology! You’ve got flan!
19. Wow!
20. Flan
21. Oh, how delicious!
22. But the flan machine decontrols.
23. The assemblers, without anything to make them stop working, make Prof. Nova’s lab a gigantic flan.
24, 25 & 26. Flan
27. Arrgh!
28. The end
29. Yukito, 12/Aug/1993

Tech note 6

1. Explaining
2. The Factory’s commodities circulation system
3. The electricity available in Tiphares comes from space through the upper column.
4. Water, food and manufactured products are sent to Tiphares through the tubes. The industries in each factory work thanks to Tiphares’ electricity.
5. Mount Tiphares (1500-2000m)
Mount made by the detritus expelled from Tiphares. Occasionally the slope collapses and the mount changes its form continuously.
6. The Factory
7. This is the interrelation of The Factory’s administered structures.
8. I’m rich thanks to that.
9. Recycling.
10. Recycling Tiphares’ garbage is one of the great industrial activities.
11. The Scrapyard.
12. Civilian caravans by land.
13. The Factory’s deposits.
14. Workmanship
15. Garbage
16. The Factory’s underground transportation tubes
17. Industry
18. The imported raw material is processed here. These structures are administered by The Factory and sustained by neighboring workmanship.
19. The Farm
20. Farms administered by The Factory.
The deckmen control the farms, and, besides The Factory’s army, there are mercenary troops to protect them against enemy attacks. In the countrified villas in these farms, there is plenty of food, but also a chronic lack of medicines and cybernetic parts and, hereby, they depend on help from The Scrapyard.
21. The Factory Railroad
22. Station gates
23. They are directly administered by each Factory. There are 11 in total. The in-and-out checking is rigorous as they fear terrorist attacks. They are the intermediate routes Vector informed Hugo about.
24. Notice! The Wall
25. “Hydro-wall”. No one has ever succeeded to smuggle through this wall.
26. The absurd pressure of the wall can even crease armored cars.
27. Even if a hole is open by dynamite…
28. That’s now! Trespassing!
29. The Wall is immediately after back to normal.
30. And the victim will eternally float inside the wall…
31. Three invaders have fallen into The Wall today.
32. Argh!
33. Uarrgh!
34. The end
35. Yukito, 21/Nov/1993

Tech note 7

1. Explaining
2. The mystery of psychometry
3. Psychometry
Power that allows discovering information about the people who possessed an object just through touch. In Kaos’ case, he is able to access and reconstruct people’s most intimate data such as their techniques and feelings.
4. Hypotheses on the origins of psychometry 1
The energy emanated by living beings’ feelings can be recorded in an object or space in the form of electromagnetic patterns. When a pychometrist enters in contact with an object or place, the electromagnetic pattern of his brain enters in resonance with the local pattern and transforms it in audiovisual sensations. It can also occur that his conscience is taken by those sensations, but when the electromagnetic waves presently known are considered, this hypothesis may become implausible.
5. I, the wondrous Professor Nova, am back to comment my son Kaos’ incredible power.
6. Objects psychometered by Kaos
7. Work by Murasama of Ise, swordsmith of Muromachi period (1333-1568). The tree alongside shows the origin of Tachibana Ryûkisai’s, its old owner’s, technique.
8. Yamaha DX7
Digital keyboard that represented the decade of 1980. The old owner, Alan Parsons, was born in London in 20/Dec/1948. He worked as a sound engineer for The Beatles and Pink Floyd. Later he created The Alan Parsons Project and released several albums. The music sung by Kaos is in 1987 album “Gaudí”.
9. Tachibana Ryûkisai

Aisu Ikôsai
(Style: Aisu Kage no nagare)
Kamiizumi Nobutsuna
(Style: Shinkage-Ryû)
Kamiizumi Hitachinosuke Hidetane
(Style: Kamiizumi-Ryû Gunpô)
Kamiizumi Mondonoshô Norimoto
(Style: Aizu Itto-Ryû)
Jingo Izunokami Muneharu
(Style: Jingo-Ryû)
Yagyû Sekishûsai Muneyoshi
(Style: Yagyû Shimanage-Ryû)
Hôzôin Intei
(Style: Hôzôin-Ryû Sôjutsu)
Marume Kurandonosuke Nagae
(Style: Taisha-Ryû)
Okuyama Kyûgasai Kimishige
(Style: Shinkage-Ryû)
Hikita Bungorô Kagekane
(Style: Hikitakage-Ryû)

10. Hence, I’m complimenting hypotheses 1 using the theory of scalar waves, instead of electromagnetic waves, to explain psychometry.
11. Scalar electromagnetic radiation.
12. Nikola Tesla discovered the Tesla Wave (longitudinal, Scalar Wave), which is different from the standard electromagnetic wave (transversal) and Thomas Bearden transformed it into a theory (Scalar Field Theory). The scalar wave is an energy that comprises electricity, magnetism and gravity in the dominion of the fourth dimension, being considered a gravitational, longitudinal wave.
13. Nikola Tesla (1856-1943) – Austrian-born U.S. electric engineer and genious scientist.
Thomas E. Bearden (1930) – Scientist who helped in the development of missiles by the American army as an expert in ballistics.
14. Hypotheses on the origins of psychometry 2
If we imagine that the human mind has the ability of being a scalar waves emitter, human feelings would be recorded in the objects and places with scalar radiations. In this case, information would be recorded as a gravitational potential energy of fourth dimension. A psychometrist has a high capability of being a receptor of cerebral scalar waves and he will be able to pick up a great series of scalar waves frequencies.
15. If the hypothesis above is correct, it is possible for any person to be able to become a psychometrist. It would also explain a great number of phenomena as omens, telepathy, phantasms through the schema: brain = transmitter – scalar waves receptor = psychometry.
16. I need research a little more about scalar electromagnetic radiations.
17. Kaos’ problem
18. Is this the just-dug new ruin?
19. Ikh!
20. Ouuuch!
21. Police, help!!!
22. Whom are you talking to, Mr. Kaos?
23. Not everything is cool to a psychometrist.
24. The end
25. Yukito, 07/March/1994

Tech note 8

1. Explaining
1b. The author’s secrets
2. My ideas to write this page are over, and as I have received many questions about me…
3. … the special of this number will brazenly refer to the author – that is, me!
4. Yukito Kishiro
Birth: 20/March/1967
Born in Tokyo, raised in Chiba
Pisces from the year of the Sheep
Blood type O
5. Personality: always against everything
Hobbies: 3DCG
Collect old anime themes and TV heroes
Collect books relating mysterious cases
Mottos: “To do what is accessible to man and wait for divine
providence”
“A frog in the well will never see the ocean, but will
acknowledge the limit of the sky.”
Weaknesses: Colored candles (especially shaped as Santa Claus).
Janome-chô (the butterfly minois dryas).
Dead shrimps and crabs (cooked).
Liquors and cigarettes.
Autographs (No! For God’s sake!).
Preferred dishes: lamen and flan.
Dishes I hate: shrimps and crabs (any arthropod), fishes and seafood.
Preferred fighters: Matsutatsu Ooyama
Bruce Lee
Preferred swordsmen: Bungurô Hikita
Koguma Iwama & Doronosuke Hijiko
Preferred motorcycle: Yamaha’s V-Max (it remembers an insect: Kamadôma)
The youkai I want to be: dorotarô
Preferred mysterious
unknown animal: tatzelwurm
Things I hate: popular things
People who make incomplete things

6. Yukito’s history
7. When I was a baby, I used to draw only (original) monsters. My first manga was drawn in a cardbox and all the characters were monsters. The titles were “Saaki” (Death Lurking)… “Sensô” (War)… Only violent things.
8. Pre-history
9. Antiquity
10. It’s the end of the world!
11. During some years in elementary school, I draw a manga in a series of more than seventeen college notebooks. The protagonist was a monster that piloted a gigantic robot.
12. At that time I was already used to creating post-apocalyptic stories.
13. At the time of high school, I acquired a dip pen and ink, but I could complete any manga. I drew more than 300 pages in pencil without human characters.
14. Cultural blooming
14b. Middle Age
15. Entering secondary school, I finally started drawing humans and inking a total of 280 pages (I was aiming 1,000 pages, but I did not succeed). In the middle of the third year, I sent my work for the first time to a manga contest and won.
16. It was good they liked my tracing, but nowadays I consider the story deplorable.
17. “Kikai” (Sinister Vapor) was awarded in the 16th Shonen Sunday’s Manga Contest for beginners in 1984.
18. Turbulent times
19. I published short stories in fanzines in order to know the market and evolve as a person.
20. The fanzine I then created at the time is “Out Rigger”. Maybe it can still be found in Comiket.
21. Nowadays
22. I became a professional in 1988, when I was more tranquil about tracing and script. That year I also released the fanzine “Bugbuster”, that may perhaps be found at Comiket together with “Out Rigger”.
23. List of posterior works
1988 – Kayôsei (Mystery in the Marine Planet) (32p) Shogakukan
Hito (Flying Men) (31p) Kadokawa Shoten
1989 – Dai Mashin (The Great Machine) (40p) Shogakukan
Mirai Tokyo Head-man (Future Tokyo Head-man) (40p) Shogakukan
1990 – Uchû Kaizoku Shonen-dan (Space Pirate Kids) first part (30p), second part (30p) Kadokawa Shoten
24. The ideas and characters that were left out this time were quite reused in Battle Angel Alita.
25. Tears / Kasa Jizô!!!
26. In the end of 1993, while I was working and listening to the the signed channel of Japanese folklore…
27. A long time ago…
28. Etsuko Ichihara’s and Fujio Tokita’s narrations are marvelous.
29. The channel started showing the story of Kasa Jizô in the program Ancient Japanese Legends in TBS mangas.
30. But when it was time for the old man to start crying because of the umbrellas no one used to buy from him…
31. And once on cable television the programs are repeated many times a day…
32. What?
33. Second time
34. I can’t believe it. Why me?
35. Third time
36. Why? Why?
37. The fourth time after the audience fell asleep.
38. I cannot work!
39. I found out that I have another weakness: the Kasa Jizô.
40. The end
41. I must be getting old. I cry for anything.
42. This character representing the author is used sice school times and is based in Metaluna Mutant, that is seen in the science-fiction film “The Island Earth”.
43. One thousand apologies for not answering readers’ letters.
44. Ha! Ha!
45. Image cut out due to graphic design.
46. Your last mission, A1.
47. People from “Priestess Live!” You sent me lots of Alita books that had increased the quality, but I have never answered. Up to now, Alita’s little doll in the manga was an idea taken from that fanzine. In this volume, the doll disappeared after Lou was fired.
Higuchi-san, from Kioto, I am sorry. You liked it, but when I received your letter I had already made the story. You wrote that your dream was to transform Battle Angel Alita in a game, but I have no proposal of that kind, and I would really like the idea to take place. As the author, I would like it to be an action game. I even have some ideas.
48. Since the secondary school, I have only watched TV programs recorded in video, and my knowledge of artists and singers is nought!
49. Thus, I have difficulties to talk with ordinary people.



Obs.: Literally, Kasa Jizô means “Statues and Umbrellas”. It is a Japanese legend that, in general terms, tells the story of an extremely poor couple who give their umbrellas to Buddhist statues in Jizô that were covered by snow. Eventually they receive great wealth from the statues in retribution for their charity.
Yukito, 17/July/1997


Tech note 9

Afterword
Yukito Kishiro

1. Creating a science-fiction periodic story in a manga magazine oriented to the general public demands a lot of work. But as I have worked just with this gender for more than twenty years, I would never be able to create a school adventure. I lost three years taking my work to different publishers till it was accepted by Business Jump, a seinen magazine. It was a different target to me, as I was planning to publish works in a shonen magazine. But I accepted the challenge (that now looks like craziness, simply) of creating a science-fiction to attract seinen audience. That was the backdrop for the birth of Battle Angel Alita.

2. Battle Angel Alita’s original idea appeared in a storyboard I made to an adventure that I had made, entitled Rainmaker. In one of the last versions, Alita came to light, but she was just a supporting character. Mr. Tomita, the editor, fell in love with her and under his request I created a new story putting her as the protagonist. That was the prototype-storyboard of Battle Angel Alita. And neither Tiphares nor The Scrapyard existed then. Alita was adult (actually, she did not have her characteristic fleshy lips!). She was a tuned agent and was already supported by the operator Lou. Alita used firearms and, in the climax of the adventure, she received a mental attack in the shape of ouroboros (in such a version, the strange title Gunnm – Gun Dream – had a clearer meaning).
Unexpectedly, the beginning of the periodic publication was booked, and I had to create the storyboard of the first episode in a hurry, changing the entire concept. In that moment, Battle Angel Alita, as the readers know it, was shown to the world for the first time. But, in that first version, the woman-beast was defeated by Ido and his rocket-hammer. Mr. Tomita saw that final and said: “It would be cool if the protagonist used a deadly strike as Kamui’s “idsuna otoshi”. Thanks to these words, Panzer Kunst was included in a hurry in the story. Besides, they used the term “fight” to number the episodes and thus, independently of the author’s intentions, the manga of “futuristic martial art combat” gender… Snif! Snif! Well, eventually, this term was a success.

Note: The editor is probably referring to the ninja Kamui, of Sanpei Shirato’s Kamui-Den (The Legend of Kamui).

3. My greatest worry when creating Alita’s adventures was to make them as understandable as possible. Mr. Tomita himself gave me the idea of including explaination footnotes in order to avoid making the readers constrained because of unknown technical terms. I did not create previously any universe in Battle Angel Alita (I just had some ideas that, because of the plot, I left to tell later, and some others that I had to cut out.). The notes about Battle Angel Alita world that I have put in the tankobons are just later interpretations, not a prescript necessary for the reader to understand the story. Honestly, I started the story without defining how Tiphares would be. I invented the details as they became necessary and just took care to avoid contradictions. If I restrained myself too much to a universe or to the subplots, I would end up tied and would limit my imagination. The improvisation was also a very important concept that I adopted when creating Battle Angel Alita.
4. I opted for including cyborgs in the story not because of the cyber punk gender fashion. Before anything, I believed it was the best way of making a science-fiction referring to the innermost of the human being. The cyborgs, The Scrapyard and Tiphares, are metaphors of modern society, but I did not creat them with intentions of making any sort of specific criticism. The Scrapyard is a world where all the values have been lost. There are no legends, traditions or ideologies. We ourselves live in a world exactly alike. The importance here is not to judge if this is good or bad. The importance is to be aware of that.
It is the contrast between the sensitive inner-world and the hard outer-society . And, being conscious of that, we must learn that we are to continue to live without been taken by unbelief and cynicism. That is the strength that comes from our will, not from humor. And it is the real meaning of the fight to maintain individuality. That is what I intended to retract through Battle Angel Alita.
Battle Angel Alita is presently published in Thai, Chinese (Taiwan and Hong Kong), English and French. Time changes, but I am curious to know how far a work of mine can become universal.

4/May/1995

[Burning Angel]

Nice work Sergio. Oh god this is alot of work:

Tech notes 1:

5. All the foods and goods manufactured...
7. There are no human beings...
15. Many things about the Factories and Tiphares are still a mystery.

Tech notes 2:

4. In areas controlled by the Factory...
10. The netman is located in certain points of the city, in a street or corner, and operate as police stations. They receive complaints and information from dwellers and victims and investigate. The netmen try to identify the criminals using primary identification techniques, such as interrogating the witnesses and doing DNA analysis. If the wrongdoer is identified, his name enters the bounty list. If not, the investigation proceeds only if the crime is A-class.
11. The fate of criminals
12. There are no courts or prisons in The Factory.
16. Optional unit.
It is usually equipped with an electric pistol for self-defense. Depending on the situation, he can have an anti-hunter missile cannon.

Tech notes 3:

3. The two greatest entertainments in The Scrapyard are the “Underground Coliseum” in East Zone, and the “Motorball”, in West Zone.
4. In the “Underground Coliseum” an impressive combat tournament takes place, with gigantic (more than 5m tall) cyborgs facing one another. It is very similar to a show and may be compared to today’s pro wrestling.
5. Underground Coliseum
6. As for Motorball, it is a greater event, having many complex rules, equivalent to baseball matches and today’s race cars – like Formula 1.
7. The seven basic rules of Motorball

1.The winner is the player who crosses the finish line carrying the ball after completing all fixed laps.
5.It is forbidden to use fire, manual, flying, explosive or throwing weapons.
6.Players who fight in the boxes are disqualified.

8. The motorball organizations are controlled by The Factory.
11. Second league:
Its is the most successful league with the audience, due to the race strategies, the quality of the fights and ts and the players’ unpredictable tricks. ("martial fights" doesn't sound well together)

Tech notes 4:

36. Traditional artisan who has been working for generations concocting ceramic-made articulations.
46. I’ll install the “stomach turbo B”, the most potent and complete digestive system ever manufactured, in Alita!

Tech notes 5:

2. Today, I, Professor Nova, will explain nanotechnology, this wonderful technique. ("the" is not needed)
1959 – Richard Feynman gave a lecture in the American Society of Physics entitled “There is plenty of room in the bottom”.
1976 – Eric Drexler announces the idea of the assembler.
6. Nanomachines are molecular sized robots that are made through gears and motors built molecule by molecule. They work by using static electricity.
13. - Self-building machines and devices
- terraforming planets

Tech notes 6:

3. The electricity available in Tiphares comes from space through the upper column.
4. Water, food and manufactured products are sent to Tiphares through the tubes. The industries in each factory work thanks to Tiphares’ electricity.
10. Recycling Tiphares’ garbage is one of the great industrial activities.
15. Garbage

Tech note 7:

3. Psychometry
Power that allows discovering information about the people who possessed an object just through touch. In Kaos’ case, he is able to access and reconstruct people’s most intimate data such as their techniques and feelings.
4. Hypotheses on the origins of psychometry 1
The energy emanated by living beings’ feelings can be recorded in an object or space in the form of electromagnetic patterns. When a pychometrist enters in contact with an object or place, the electromagnetic pattern of his brain enters in resonance with the local pattern and transform it in audiovisual sensations. It can also occur that his conscience is taken by those sensations, but when the electromagnetic waves presently known are considered, this hypothesis may become implausible.
7. Work by Murasama of Ise, swordsmith of Muromachi period (1333-1568). The tree alongside shows the origin of Tachibana Ryûkisai’s, its old owner’s, technique.

10. Hence, I’m complimenting hypotheses 1 using the theory of scalar waves, instead of electromagnetic waves, to explain psychometry.
12. Nikola Tesla discovered the Tesla Wave (longitudinal) (Scalar Waves), which is different from the standard electromagnetic wave (transversal), and Thomas Bearden transformed it into a theory (Scalar field theory). The scalar wave is an energy that comprises electricity, magnetism and gravity in the dominion of the fourth dimension, being considered a gravitational, longitudinal wave.
13. Nikola Tesla (1856-1943) – Austrian-born U.S. electric engineer and genious scientist.
Thomas E. Bearden (1930) – Scientist who helped in the development of missiles for the American army as an expert in ballistics.
14. Hypotheses on the origins of psychometry 2
If we imagine that the human mind has the ability of being a scalar waves emitter, human feelings would be recorded in the objects and places with scalar radiations. In this case, information would be recorded as a gravitational potential energy of fourth dimension. A psychometrist has a high capability of being a receptor of cerebral scalar waves and he will be able to pick up a great series of scalar waves frequencies.

(btw, the Scalar Field Theory and the "Tesla Waves" have been discarted and are considered a pseudoscience/pseudophysics)

More to come tomorrow.

[moooV]

After an endless winter...

It's only starting for me, I'm living in the diametrally opposite hemisphere.

[crazyankan]

Impressive...

But hasn't this been translated by VIZ?

[Sergio Nova]

Thanks, Burning Angel. I will edit the text soon (tomorrow or on Wednesday).

[Sergio Nova]

After an endless winter...

It's only starting for me, I'm living in the diametrally opposite hemisphere.

Don't be cynic. You know it is just and simply a metaphor.

[Sergio Nova]

Impressive...

But hasn't this been translated by VIZ?

Well, someone (I cannot remember who) had complained about these pages.
As to Viz, the first edition, as available here, does NOT have them.
I am aware that they have a second edition, but I have never seen.

[Burning Angel]

Sergio, remember that I am not finished with the edits. I still have to edit Tech notes 8 and 9. I'll do it tomarrow.

[Burning Angel]

Tech notes 8

5. Personality: always against (always aganist what?)
Hobbies: 3DCG
Collecting old anime themes and TV heroes
Collect books relating mysterious cases
27. A long time ago…
29. The channel started showing the story of Kasa Jizô in the program Ancient Japanese Legends in TBS mangas.
41. I must be getting old. I cry for anything.

Tech notes 9

2. Thanks to these words, Panzer Kunst was included inmediately into the story.
Well, eventually, this term was a success.

3. My greatest worry when creating Alita’s adventures was to make them as understandable as possible.
Mr. Tomita himself gave me the idea of including explaination footnotes in order to avoid making the readers constrained because of unknown technical terms.

4. The cyborgs, The Scrapyard and Tiphares, are metaphors of modern society, but I didn't create them with intentions of making any sort of specific criticism.
There are no legends, traditions or ideologies.
The importance here is not to judge if this is good or bad. The importance is to be aware of that.
It is the contrast between the sensitive inner-world and the hard outer-society.
And, being conscious of that, we must learn that we are to continue to live without been taken by unbelief and cynicism.
That is the strength that comes from our will, not from humor.

[Sergio Nova]

I have to apologize for delay, but recently I have had a lot of professional work (Englih-Portuguese translation) - that sort that gives money, you see. Thus, I have not honored my otaku activities. But no matter the sacrifices, Yukito Kishiro is already canonized.

Please note:

1. Motorball - I have changed it to capital letter, as you recommeded, but initially I see it as a sport, thus I would write it the same way I write baseball, basketball, football and so on.

2. Thomas E. Bearden (1930) – Scientist who helped in the development of missiles by the American army as an expert in ballistics.

The text is exactly this one. The American army developed the missiles. Bearden simply helped in such a development.

3. The usage of definite article changes from language to language, and I must admit that I have never learned how to use it in English (and, honestly, I think I will never do).

4. Personality: always against. The Brazilian text says Personalidade: sempre do contra. It is a Brazilian Portuguese expression used to identify someone who is always ready to disagree, no matter what is being discussed. I have completed the expression to a less polemic one.

5. Thanks to these words, Panzer Kunst was included in a hurry in the story. He means exactly that: in a rush.

[Burning Angel]

And when will you release the pages?

[crazyankan]

Wild Words has only capital letters. So don't worry if a thing should have a large or small letter.

[Sergio Nova]

And when will you release the pages?

Let's see who will be the editor, if crazyankan or Dharko. Then we will have a first edition. In the end everything will be published in a single volume with Gunnm complete edition pages.

[Burning Angel]

Let's see who will be the editor, if crazyankan or Dharko. Then we will have a first edition. In the end everything will be published in a single volume with Gunnm complete edition pages.

The Gunnm complete edition pages is the Gunnm Works artbook and sketches that came inside the complete edition?

[Sergio Nova]

Let's see who will be the editor, if crazyankan or Dharko. Then we will have a first edition. In the end everything will be published in a single volume with Gunnm complete edition pages.

The Gunnm complete edition pages is the Gunnm Works artbook and sketches that came inside the complete edition?

Yes, that is the idea.

[Burning Angel]

Fair enough.

[crazyankan]

Tech note 1-6 done.
Hard job :/

[Sergio Nova]

Tech note 1-6 done.
Hard job :/

I believe. Actually, you are going fast.

[crazyankan]

9. Tachibana Ryûkisai

Aisu Ikôsai
(Style: Aisu Kage no nagare)
Kamiizumi Nobutsuna
(Style: Shinkage-Ryû)
Kamiizumi Hitachinosuke Hidetane
(Style: Kamiizumi-Ryû Gunpô)
Kamiizumi Mondonoshô Norimoto
(Style: Aizu Itto-Ryû)

ETC

I need some help with this part. Where should I start?
Can someone draw how I should be typesetting it?

[Sergio Nova]

Take a look in the Brazilian edited page.
http://www.4shared.com/dir/24013819/771 ... aring.html

I think this will help.

[crazyankan]

Typesetting and cleaning done. It took maaaany hours.

Now I must go through it for checking for mistakes.

[crazyankan]

I only have Burning Angels modifications left to insert.
One or two days more Sergio.

[Sergio Nova]

I only have Burning Angels modifications left to insert.
One or two days more Sergio.

Hey, Burning Angel's corrections are already included in the edited text.

[crazyankan]

http://img37.imageshack.us/i/jsjdajdsda.jpg/

[Sergio Nova]

http://img37.imageshack.us/i/jsjdajdsda.jpg/

The text here says Tachibana Ryûkisai.
Then it follows in the same order you have in the edited text (supposing I understood your question).