Up To Phase 96: Appreciation Thread

[BeastSoulEyes]

Alright, first HAPPY NEW YEAR to everyone!!!

May this year be full of ownage and surprise from our beloved manga !

So now! Thanks to the work of our dear scanlators and translators we have shinny and beautiful phases ready to be read and read again in our hard drives. Now that we finally are in page with the releases we should now take the time to discuss where the serie is going right now .

In my case, I'm glad of how the serie is turning out now that we are at the twilight of the ZOTT. The ZOTT did manage to introduce a kick-ass context, some memorable fights (the Guntroll fight is hands-down the best IMO), and some great characters (ZEKKAAAAA!!!) and side-story.

And we still have the finals and the probable big surprise event ahead of us . So yea I'm excited.

The only thing I can complain about is the fights of the final being separated. Just imagine the chaos it would have been if they all fought together .

[TheNefariousImp]

I'm so glad this community stuck around since there isn't as huge a fanbase for this series as there is for bigger titles like Berserk, which have had consistant scanlations/translations for years now. I've seen plenty of Battle Angel fansites and groups dissapear into the ether over the last decade, so this community is damned strong to have lasted as long as it has. I've been lurking here since near the beginning, just never really bothered to post. Thanks to the translators, scanners, editors and everyone else involved in making this series readable in English. Anyhoo...


While I do enjoy the characters and technologies of this current story arc, I am disappointed at how long this tournament has lasted. I remember back when the series started up and Gally and co. went up into space I thought "oh snap, she's finally going to return to Mars." Then they end up stuck, so okay, cool, lets get a look at space politics and some martian teasers, like the 4th Reich and what not. But then Gally gets into a tournament, and the last time that happened it was only about 1 and a half volumes (what are we at for the Zott now, 5 or so?). Now I'm just looking forward to the end of the ZOTT so we can get some proper plot progression. Plus it will be fun to see Mbadi get pwned again (and maybe Gally's former Panzer Kunst master, after Frova has got done turning him into his karma-beast, or maybe that will be left for Mars, gah, too many plot threads to keep track of). Still, I trust the finale will be grand and hopefully worth the wait.



And also, what happened to that whole saving Lou thing? I mean, Lou as Gally knew her is dead, so what will become of her teenage brain at this point? Does it even matter?

[Sergio Nova]

One thing is certain: ZOTT took too long, indeed, although we had great moments as that lunatic project to create saints and Jetan-G opening the gates of hell.

As to Lou Collins's brain, that is a good question. We must remember that the ZOTT took a few days (in the story, I mean - to us readers it took an entire year or more). Alita/Gally will return after it soon - probably with Ping Wu's co-operation.

[Megan_Gale]

Battle Angel fandom is stronger because the source material itself is solid, solid enough to keep intelligent people from hitting a certain point in their lives where they feel embarrassed to let fellow adults know that they're into it. (fill in the blank with your own least fave series of choice.) You Ripper's guys do a far superior job translating the new scans than most other scanlators bother, probably out of appreciation for nuances that don't exist in other, more popular titles. I doff my metaphorical cap to you all.


As for the look back on BA:LO?

Ruling out the ZOT as time filler Kishiro resorted to in order to maintain regular production without taxing his sanity beyond the limits? (Which I wouldn't begrudge him, since enough exposition was woven throughout, but regardless.)

Let's presume the direction of the story was deliberate and carefully planned. Judging by the sheer mass of pages the ZOT takes up vs every other story arc thus far, as a reader you're kind of forced to consider it the paramount event of the series to date, and thus, should be looking at it as the definitive showcasing of each character in it.

Alita, in many ways, truly becomes an adult around this point. The revelations about her Panzer Kunst days close the book on her adolescence, and the events at the end of volume ten, and ensuing depression and apathy, mirror the feelings of anomie most young adults experience upon having completed school and then being conscripted into the flawed, inescapable drudgery of adulthood. A much bolder and rarer expression of character, in comics, than the childish quest to discover "who am I...really?" One more reason why Kishiro is one of the best in this medium today.

For the character Sechs it's like the first Battle Angel series in Cliff's Notes form. Self-discovery through pushing hard against rivals who teach you about conviction, morals, et cetera. Sechs can be read as a reinforcement of what was stated in the first series.

The very act of using a tournament as the central storytelling device (again, presuming nothing cynical about that decision) allows Kishiro to have an easy setup to show philosophies in conflict, as he always has, but in rapid-fire succession. The interesting thing about this is that the whole problem with Ketheres, the real crisis of Last Order, is that the world is oppressed by a totalitarian leader bent on creating an Orwellian utopia.
There's a lot to read into the parallels between Aga Mbadi's ideas and what passes for progressive thought in the real world, today.

The ZOT can be read in many ways as an almost linear argument between solutions for surviving, and transcending, this kind of crisis.

Example:

• Team Space Angels = (under Sechs) ideological cypher, seeking self-knowledge
  Team Space Angels = (under Alita) seekers of personal freedom, with no grand scheme for controlling their fellow man.
  Guntroll = Reactionary group trying to effect damage-control from outside the perameters of the system. Easily dispatched by the mechanations of the government.
  Starship Cult = Anarchists, with little concern for any greater cultural change other than what selfishly suits them. Easily dispatched by the mechanations of the government.
  Giant Nanotech Penis Monster = (I forget its name, but that's how everyone remembers it anyway, so screw it.) The basest elements of humanity, reduced to raw aggression. Rapists, murderers, and other lone criminals. Frightening, and capable of inflicting great harm to society, but always in the end controllable.
  
  Moving along to international politics?
  
  Jupiter Union = the USSR. We beat em in the real world, because totalitarian oligarchies always get complacent SOMEHOW, and even outclassed outsiders will eventually figure out the cracks in the armor. Here the government didn't really care either way about taking out the fascists, mainly because their presence provides the security of stalemate. I think that the UN might have operated along those principles too.
  
  Venus Republic = Modern capitalism carried to its logical extreme. Dehumanizing in the most literal sense. Eventually the repressed will revolt and overthrow it from within. Nice touch making them French.
  
  and where are we now?
  
  the Karate Allies
  The final battle!
  They're a tougher nut to crack. All they really have in common between them is mastery of craft. Going on my own predictions, I think the sociopath Rakan will be punished, and I think the lone rebel Zekka will find his body crumbles under the strain from the cumulative effects of years of overexertion. No man is an island.
  Earnest, naive Toji I predict will become an avatar of his master, who will test Alita's resolve with Buddhist philosophy.
  I don't know much at all about Buddhist philosophy. Therefore I'm not confident to say what's going to come of that.
  I expect it won't conquer the fascists, though, if Tibet is any indicator.
  
  I'm no fan of the tournament story arc, myself. But I like what happened here. Can't wait to see where it goes afterward.

[Cailon]

@TheNefariousImp: Why thank you! Welcome and since you took the leap to register I hope to see you around now!
Saving Lou: Uhm yeah... The first motivation to go to Jeru in the first place... well afaik Lou's brain is in the P-Box now, I think after the finals they'll get her a teenage body. (And then what? don't know^^)


Interesting. If Toji really'll become Don Fuas Avatar and Zekka would have to struggle with his old fizzyroy body, then maybe the pairings can be as they are now. And there'd be no need for a trade to Alita-Zekka and Sechs-Toji, a trade that would be kinda lame.
Oh but a fight together--- it would really be cool and maybe more realistic. But it's simply impossible for a manga. Maybe in a movie but not a manga I think. Also, they all are proud warriors (with Rakan more or less), so butting in is out of the question

Rakan however is more the rapist and criminal you addressed on Anomaly (penis monster). I think Anomaly is the pure instinct, nothing more. Like a Freudian Nightmare, Gerambo said it. It has no choice of yes or no, it is just advancing forward forward forward - and for a mindless monster, the fastest way to go forward is to destroy and to fuck everything. He was only stopped by a man who walked this very road even more intense: Zekka. Like he explained to Sechs (after his question for his opinion about an ultimate warrior): if a man meets a cow, he kills the cow. And if you can, waste the whole area, the whole planet. There's no hope or light for a future in this style of life, its 100% uncompromising.
But its not exactly doing evil things, its rather beyond things like good and evil imo. Rakan on the other hand is deliberately evil because unlike Anomaly he can decide and unlike Zekka he's not following an absolute bushido (way of the warroir). He just wants to be like this. I hope he'll have a most painful end but I trust Zazie with this. She has seen too many fucked up things in her life to not punish someone like him.

I liked the intense opposition of flesh vs. metal with the two superpowers. It was developed into the extreme but it didn't feel unreal or hilarious. Thats good SciFi, if you always think of it as if it could really be this way. And Kishiro is a master with this imo.
I'm not seeing the Jovian Union as a shadow of a (in the real world already crumbled) USSR. They may have lost the match but they still pose the largest military power in the solar system - just look at the parade of the fleet at the beginning of the semifinals. And its people all seem to be very straight with the doctrine, we haven't seen any rebellious tendencies. Which is very unlikely since I bet that brains (or rather hard drives^^) in question could be hacked and re-written very quickly.

Venusian Republique: I don't see them to be overthrown from within. Who would do it and why? There are only fat ones and those gorillas (who supposedly have brains as big as a nut). No, I think the fattys are rather satisfied and comfortable with their capitalistic, hedonistic lifestyle there on Venus. I'm veeery interested however if they will have problems with the nano machines from the surface in the near future. They had such a fast evolution, it even outruns the Gesiners - from primordial soup to an ape-like thing in 20 years! You know, that means another year at most and they can speak or even build space ships.

Also, I like how you describe the ZOTT as the final stage of Alitas youth to adulthood. Makes sense for me, its an interesting point of view. Like most of us, I'm also torn between hating the ZOTT for taking so long and loving the incredible variety of it and its side-stories. Therefore I'm very keen to see the battle and its end but I also want to go on, to see Mars finally!

[Megan_Gale]

Cailon, yknow now that you mention it there is a major window for Kishiro to write Teen Lou into a kind of reprisal of her tech support/copilot role now that she's kind of trapped in space with Alita and the Angels. I mean lord knows there's not much else for her to do in space, by herself. She might as well make herself useful. Maybe they can put her brain in Zekka's bike

Re: the ZOT?

Anomaly, I think you're right. I'll still say it supports my thesis!! Raw instinctual aggression can't topple a totalitarian state.

The Karate Allies I don't think I have figured out, I admit. But hey! The story arc is still going. The future is wide open...! On the whole I will say that I don't get Zekka. His bushido seems to have loopholes, when Sechs and Homme de Feu were concerned. His philosophy doesn't seem like it would accept teamwork, but there he is, being more or less a well-behaved contestant (with a couple of memorable exceptions ) Even in the beginning -- why would it be okay to let yourself be hired by Ladder to taking out an old rival? I'd figure by rights he should destroy Ladder... and THEN destroy his old rival. In that order. I mean clearly he takes his way of life seriously enough to shed his brain and his body; that seems like it's taboo anywhere you'd go in the Alita universe.
I hope we get an origin story on him during this fight like we got for Ping Wu back in volume ten. Fingers crossed!!

Oh, and to clarify, for Jupiter Union and Venus Republique I was just talking about the fighting teams themselves. Jupiter sunk all its cash and resources into a super war machine, but clever thinking, breaking taboos (the berserker cells) and an unforeseen circumstance brought it all down.
Venus' story, the end in particular, read like a whacked out David Cronenberg style parable about class warfare. All of their enslaved organisms revolted, from Olympe right down to... whatever those nasty little things were.

You know what now that I'm thinking more about it the seeded teams kind of have nothing to do with my actual thesis statement about survival in a totalitarian state, because they're different states altogether. Argh.

I am not letting go on the anomic stuff with Alita, though!! Check out the Wikipedia listing. It's so fitting!!

Having been around sixteen when I first read the original series and being in my mid twenties now, I completely identify with Alita throughout. It's a big reason why this series is a sentimental favorite of mine. On top of every other reason to speak highly of it.




God knows what's up on the planets. I'd wager a guess that based on the suicide girls in the Space Cult ceremony, Jupiter citizens have at least enough free will to run away and join up with terrorist cults. (Or maybe that remark about many of the girls being the daughters of prominent politicians was a little hint... Some robot animals are more equal than others?)

[Cailon]

BeastSoulEyes, could you edit your thread and make it Up to phase 96 and so on? I think its nice to have a thread about general discussions so that it won't vanish in the raw- or TL-threads...

I'll just copy my rant about the phase in here...
As for the cats:
I think this is important regarding Tojis story, seen in Phase 74 (volume-wise. Phase 78 if you go phase-wise).
Tojis order of cats is: Alita-cat, Jashugan-cat, Caerula-cat (Nekomata? Has two tails), Stupid-cat (Maneki neko). Maneki Neko defeated the rat easily. BUT there's this one above Maneki Neko, the Cheshire cat (or Schrödinger's cat ).

Now, he rambles about cats in this order: "The grand old cat" (=Maneki Neko), "The great tiger-pawed cat" (=Jashugan-cat? But the Jashugan cat has only one tail...), "The gray demon cat" (=Caerula-cat) and again "The grand old cat" (=Maneki Neko).
Is it strange that he don't use the order he used before? Maybe he's just confused by Alitas strength.
Anyway, the more important question would be: is Toji just confusing the cats at the end of his story? I don't really think so. I think it indicates that, while Alita truly is on the level of the Maneki Neko, there is someone above her. The only one could be Don Fua (which would fit with the ghostly appearance and the constant grin of both the Cheshire cat and Don Fua).
Also: holy fuck, so Alita could defeat Jashuga with her pinky now? And would even overcome Caerula easily? Wow, damn!!

Edit: I just realized that I accidentally saved this script over the half-finished script for Eden: It's an Endless World chapter 126 that I was working on last night XD.

shit man! that's bad. Too late for ctrl+z?

[TargaryenX]

Is the "Grand old cat" called "maneki neko"? I'm pretty sure that maneki neko are those little white cats with the raised paws that are supposed to be good luck ("maneki" means "invitiation" so maneki neko is "beckoning cat"). The grand old cat in the story is black. As far as I know there isn't a connection between the two.

[Cailon]

Hm, then 1. Toji is also messing up things at this point and 2. I fell for it cause I'm illiterate there. Now that you say it, the cat looks like this beckoning cat. However, it is the grand old cat in Tojis story... hm.

[TargaryenX]

Oh...I didn't even remember that part, this is different from the story that I found on the internet, so I think I'll go with this version. Thanks for reminding me.

[ulysses]

Everybody seems globally satisfied with the evolution of Gally in this tournament, and I have to disagree with you on that point.
I enjoyed GLO a lot until Gally was reborn in the semi-finals, but I have gradually grown really bored of the following developments.

Actually, I am disapointed in how powerful Gally has become.
The only three instances in which we can really gauge her evolution have been the semi finals against Jupiter, the encounter with Rakan, the irruption in front of merlin and Mbadi, and the current fight with Toji. In those fights, she faced opponents who won over her in the past, but she easily overpowered them this time, and emerged of the fights unscathed. Through all of those fights, Kishiro makes it very clear that no one can be Gally's match anymore, whether it be in the physical or electronical realm. This is much too one-sided to be interesting anymore. By undergoing this new birth in the Imaginos 2.0 body, Gally has gained a lot of power, but she has lost her humanity.

Graphically, Kishiro seems to emphasize this psychological transformation. At some points, Gally's face becomes dark and only her white, pupilless eyes are ominously glowing (with the addition of a grim smile on some occasions): for example in the sechs-gally sparring in front of xazi, or in the fight against Toji. This is unprecedented in the manga and to me it clearly underlines that Gally is now closer to a beast than to a human being. If not sufficient, her feline tail now emphasizes this even further.

Now gally easily defeats the four-brains master of the universe, she overpowers Toji who has grown a lot since their last encounter, and hacks into Jupiter military control from such a great distance. Such a stupidly immense power takes all the salt out of her fights.
I liked the time when she was full of doubts, when each new victory would give her a new answer, when she would yield power from the memories of her friends and of her former fights. Where has all of this gone? She's now floating above the powerless ants struggling at her feet.
I liked how she cried when she remembered the children she couldn't save, the blind rage that would overwhelm her when she put her heart, her dreams, her will and her life at stake in the fights. Now that she has come back, she hasn't expressed more feelings than a vague smile on her face. She looks so detached of her surroundings, and with the fact that she is now conscious of being deprived of her last biological remains, she looks completely inhuman to me. And yet that used to be the main question in Gunm: how can you be still considered human when you have become a cyborg?

Megan_Cale, if I understood you well, you seem to think Gally has gone beyond the childish question "who am I?"
But Gally doesn't seem to have answered the question: at the moment when she comes back to life, after having been utterly destroyed by Super Nova (physically and mentally), she merely says "Once again I'm back to this world of battle". She didn't solve the problem, she just doesn't care about it anymore, it's like she gave up on it. This detachment looks more like emptiness to me: she's lost her fears, she's lost her goal, she's above the tourment that used to characterize her former self. As she said, she's now falling endlessly, but she doesn't know where or when it ends.

I only hope that's only temporary, and I really want to have her back to her true self quickly.

[litchi master]

Some of us also think that Alita has grown too powerful and that the fights have brcome too Dragon Ball, and i tend to agree on that part too. I for one love Dragon Ball but it is one of a kind. I don't want BAA to go Dragon Ball, but I think this may serve a purpose.
ZOTT is supposed to be the battlefield between the different forces of the universe, by maintaining the balance between the planets it prevents a fullscale conflict from happening. Back in the 19th century it was the great idea of the Olympic games, each country displaying the strength of its athletes to impress its neighbours. Why do you think there are still military Olympic games? Unfortunately Pierre de Coubertin's idea was not totally successful.
So the great powers of the universe Jupiter and Venus are sure to display a lot of a sample of their strength to show off to justify their status as super powers. (like the US and USSR back in the day)
its also a way to supress opposition as has already been said,and a way to let off the steam for the inhabitants like motorball and coliseum were in Kuzutetsu.
So all in al the space angels are in the the middle of a universal conflict on a reduced scale, so to prevail they have to be able to defeat the fiercest contestants enhanced by the great powers.
But more imporantly, Alita's dramatic increase in power is the only path way towards the universe's true fullscale battlefield Mars. We can only wait to see what wil happen there and what opponents she will have to face.

[TheNefariousImp]

I think that Alita's newfound hacking powers will be nullified on Mars, since most of the people there seem to pride themselves in living a natural life cycle. Not to mention that Gerda is there, and we have no idea what faction she is part of, nor what technology her current brain/chip/quantum computer is housed in. Plus there is Frova, and I have no doubt he will make Mbadi regret releasing him. As she travels to new places or gets into new situations, she is usually put in front of a daunting challenge regardless of how super-powered she may seem.


Alita was humiliated when they first made it up the orbital ladder when Mbadi bodyhacked her and forced her to kiss his feet. And now she is pretty much the most powerful threat to the ladder and the competing Venetian and Jovian factions and she is fully aware of this fact. Her current mood reminds me of the time when she wakes up in Salem: introverted, contemplative, and a little bit cocky with her new found abilities. Same goes for the post-motorball arc, there really wasn't a match for her in the scrapyard and she was in a state of peace, but I don't think it is in her nature to stay complacent, at least until she can feel like a whole person. As it is, she's still fragmented in that her original(?) brain isn't her right now, that she has a huge mainframe inside her (not to mention that freaking energy core) and I've got a feeling that in the end of the series, she'll become whole, though maybe at the cost of her own life to spur on massive societal overhaul (such as in the original ending).


But in any case, the Zott tournament is giving me Flame of Recca flashbacks, please let it end soon.

[D-Scape]

Actually, I am disapointed in how powerful Gally has become.
The only three instances in which we can really gauge her evolution have been the semi finals against Jupiter, the encounter with Rakan, the irruption in front of merlin and Mbadi, and the current fight with Toji. In those fights, she faced opponents who won over her in the past, but she easily overpowered them this time, and emerged of the fights unscathed. Through all of those fights, Kishiro makes it very clear that no one can be Gally's match anymore, whether it be in the physical or electronical realm. This is much too one-sided to be interesting anymore. By undergoing this new birth in the Imaginos 2.0 body, Gally has gained a lot of power, but she has lost her humanity.

I see several complaints about Alita’s freaky power-upgrade. I admit I have ambivalent feelings for her developments, but if you’re critical of her current status as “undefeatable” I think this is about to change.

If Gunnm was your stereotypical shônen-manga Alita’s constant power-upgrades would’ve been used to prep her for the final battle against a more clearly articulated antagonist (like Son Goku vs. Vegeta/Frieza/Perfect Cell/Majin Buu). At this point – the final - she would still be lacking something that prevents her from winning, something she’d be likely to gain in some sort of last effort in the ultimate showdown (spirit bomb, kame-hame-ha etc.). Looking at the progress in Last Order it seems unlikely this is how it’s going to happen. She’s become so powerful that it’s likely she now sees herself as some sort of indestructible “übermensch”, especially in her current fight against Toji. This could make it seem like the outcome of the final has been decided already, but I believe it’s more likely she’ll receive some serious comeuppance instead. It’s unlikely she’ll gain any more power upgrades, instead she’ll receive some sort of power downgrade because she doesn’t need more strength, but a weakness since her lack of weaknesses separates her from the rest of the characters surrounding her (her lacking piece of “humanity” if you like). Whether this will happen due to Toji or Zekka beating her to a pulp or something else I don’t know for sure, but in a way I think it’ll be somewhat similar to her battle against Jashugan ages ago. The point of that fight wasn’t to see her victorious, but to get her back on the right track again.

Of course, this is just my speculations.

[litchi master]

Like Nefarious imp said there is still the possibility of a natural down grade as has already been said onanother topic, she may relinquish the fata morgana to caelula or it may not be working on Mars, and let us not forget the sword of damocles
which is still to be deployed. Who know how it will affect Alita?

Now more improtantly, about Alita's emotional state, I don't think there is anything wrong about it, considering the time line. For us years have elapsed, but let us take a look at what the last 6months have brought her.

After a ten year search she finally finds Ido again but he has forgotten everything including her.

She finds out that Tiphares has been using her to create copies of her and that she is to be disposed of once they have squeezed every information they wanted out of her.

She uncovers the secret of Tiphares

is killed by nova and resurrected 1year after on tiphares(which equates to a year long coma)

there she looks discovers that the utopia of tiphares is in shambles and that the only friend she has has been killed by her own fault however there exists a possibility to save her.

she unwillingly causes the death of an orphan kid trying to help him

discovers she used to be part of a terrorist group and that she is personally responsible for the death of a hundred thousand people and destruction of grunthal

She then encounters Frova who happens to have betrayed her and replaced her brain with a brainchip out of whim.
her personality collapses and she gets killed again.

That's a shitty six month if you ask me, and she has hardly been revived again that she has to fight to prevent the anihilation of tiphares and kuzutetsu to boot. And i know I overlook a few details. So yeah Neko Alita may be aloof and aggressive, but I think this is her way to deal with the pain. this reminds me very much of the motorball arch, after the death of hugo. She has lost all her landmarks and she needs time to recover psychically, but that's a luxury she doesn't have right now.

[Megan_Gale]

The thing that's really setting this apart from Dragonball Z style heights of stupidly ominipotent power is how self-aware Alita is acting about it. Battle, her way of life, has pretty much been reduced to a series of foregone conclusions for her, and if on some level she was still using it the way Sechs does (as a way to solve deeper philosophical problems) she's taken a major loss right from that. And for real litchi Master, I totally second that: it's been a rough couple o'months. She's earned the right to be a bitch. I mean she's taking the news about her brain way better than Ido did, ya gotta give her that much at least.

What the future holds for this crazy new power is TOTALLY up in the air. First off, I'd like to point out
ALITA'S HONEST TO GOD BRAIN HAS NOT PARTICIPATED IN ANY OF THE ACTION OF LAST ORDER.
So let's identify the Nuclear Option, the weapon of mass storyline destruction: Current Alita is nullified (anyway you'd like; defeat in battle, death by Sword of Damocles disaster, turns herself into a tree ) and Classic Alita is revived and carries on the rest of the story from that point.
(I don't care how much of a character dilemma her power levels presently are, I don't ever want to see any of that shit.)

But these new powers are always problematic.
For example, what the heck is hacking? It's a vaguely defined concept in BAA:LO, for sure. Like, does the internet/an internet/Melchizedek pervade EVERYTHING thus allowing a person who learns code to retool their entire landscape at their whim? (This is my conjectured theory about Mbadi's hacking power.) If this is the case, would the crappy piecemeal cyborgs on the surface be immune to body hacking? Could full-flesh Figure Four put up a fair fight against Mbadi's battle yoga? Or maybe it can alter the functionality of ANY electronic by scrambling certain signals, the way a cell phone left on can mess up hospital equipment. Zazie being any indicator, Mars-borgs are vulnerable to body hacking. But are they all?? Questions, questions!! My point is, it'd be easy to see the hacking power bow out once the story is (ahem) back on solid ground

I'm completely with Iitchi Master and the Nefarious Imp. Mars will fuck ALL this shit up left and right and sideways.
If she goes to Mars and squares off against the top level Panzer Kunstlers (and we know at least two of them are alive) power is not going to be the issue so much as technique, technique, technique. And the old troubling remembrance that strikes at the most inopportune times, let's never count those out. She's got some teary reunions in store that could/probably will turn out to be extremely rough, if what all this Cam Ranh stuff was getting at is to be accepted for fact.
It's also going to be time for an answer to the question the Venusian Ladder representative asked so many chapters ago...
Why are there Nazis on Mars?????


For my money Alita would be a lot less believable if she weathered every new low in her life with some shallow can-do spirit. And I'm glad Kishiro has the restraint to avoid pouring on the Evangelion-style catatonic angst to show off her range of emotion.

Hey, wasn't Caerula struck with this depressing feeling of omnipotence at a certain point in her development, too? Alita's SO the grey demon cat right now!! Oh snap! She's gonna fight Don Fua, I know it! He's gonna put her in her place bigtime, and it will be moving and amazing and ahhhhh I can't TAKE IT!
...Is the three month hiatus over yet?!

[litchi master]

But these new powers are always problematic.
For example, what the heck is hacking? It's a vaguely defined concept in BAA:LO, for sure. Like, does the internet/an internet/Melchizedek pervade EVERYTHING thus allowing a person who learns code to retool their entire landscape at their whim? (This is my conjectured theory about Mbadi's hacking power.) If this is the case, would the crappy piecemeal cyborgs on the surface be immune to body hacking? Could full-flesh Figure Four put up a fair fight against Mbadi's battle yoga? Or maybe it can alter the functionality of ANY electronic by scrambling certain signals, the way a cell phone left on can mess up hospital equipment. Zazie being any indicator, Mars-borgs are vulnerable to body hacking. But are they all?? Questions, questions!! My point is, it'd be easy to see the hacking power bow out once the story is (ahem) back on solid ground

Well about the Melchizedek net I think it is omnipresent at least on Ketheres, and the Tuned as they had a link with tiphares ares specifically exposed to this danger. remember the uruboros
As M'bady is linked with the system with the peace keeper system, but is not restrained by it thanks to his brainchips and yoga ability. he can manipulate all the people equiped with unanism.
BUT neither Zechs or Xazie have it, so how come he can manipulate them?
well zechs is was a tuned so he may use the former GIB tiphares link to hack his body.
However what of xazi? I think he may be able to access the drivers that enable the brain to control the body.
but how can he mess with them? radio wave length? if there is no transmission equipment can he do anything?As xazi is in the military she may have a radio equipment within her body though there seems to be no indication of that. In this case, like the tuneds she would be a victim of the sophistication of her own body.
tuned are far more advanced than other earth Cyborg bodies as they have access to a lot of information from Tiphares but this may be their weakness. Indeed the simpler make of the earth cyborgs may make them immune to body hacking but I woudnt bet it is impossible to touch hack them as they still need a computer to operate the driver that makes them able to control their bodies.
And there is still the nanomachines solution, though they are banned, is this the case of every nanomachine? and would this stop M'badi from using them?

[Akumeno]

I'm more on the donfua kicking really hard the crap out of gally and after than the mars arc with its own chalenges but Gally mooping the floor with virtual mbadi was priceless that how you use your overpowered kitty paws!!

[Twitchywrote]

The thing that's really setting this apart from Dragonball Z style heights of stupidly ominipotent power is how self-aware Alita is acting about it. Battle, her way of life, has pretty much been reduced to a series of foregone conclusions for her, and if on some level she was still using it the way Sechs does (as a way to solve deeper philosophical problems) she's taken a major loss right from that. And for real litchi Master, I totally second that: it's been a rough couple o'months. She's earned the right to be a bitch. I mean she's taking the news about her brain way better than Ido did, ya gotta give her that much at least.

What the future holds for this crazy new power is TOTALLY up in the air. First off, I'd like to point out
ALITA'S HONEST TO GOD BRAIN HAS NOT PARTICIPATED IN ANY OF THE ACTION OF LAST ORDER.
So let's identify the Nuclear Option, the weapon of mass storyline destruction: Current Alita is nullified (anyway you'd like; defeat in battle, death by Sword of Damocles disaster, turns herself into a tree ) and Classic Alita is revived and carries on the rest of the story from that point.
(I don't care how much of a character dilemma her power levels presently are, I don't ever want to see any of that shit.)

But these new powers are always problematic.
For example, what the heck is hacking? It's a vaguely defined concept in BAA:LO, for sure. Like, does the internet/an internet/Melchizedek pervade EVERYTHING thus allowing a person who learns code to retool their entire landscape at their whim? (This is my conjectured theory about Mbadi's hacking power.) If this is the case, would the crappy piecemeal cyborgs on the surface be immune to body hacking? Could full-flesh Figure Four put up a fair fight against Mbadi's battle yoga? Or maybe it can alter the functionality of ANY electronic by scrambling certain signals, the way a cell phone left on can mess up hospital equipment. Zazie being any indicator, Mars-borgs are vulnerable to body hacking. But are they all?? Questions, questions!! My point is, it'd be easy to see the hacking power bow out once the story is (ahem) back on solid ground

I'm completely with Iitchi Master and the Nefarious Imp. Mars will fuck ALL this shit up left and right and sideways.
If she goes to Mars and squares off against the top level Panzer Kunstlers (and we know at least two of them are alive) power is not going to be the issue so much as technique, technique, technique. And the old troubling remembrance that strikes at the most inopportune times, let's never count those out. She's got some teary reunions in store that could/probably will turn out to be extremely rough, if what all this Cam Ranh stuff was getting at is to be accepted for fact.
It's also going to be time for an answer to the question the Venusian Ladder representative asked so many chapters ago...
Why are there Nazis on Mars?????


For my money Alita would be a lot less believable if she weathered every new low in her life with some shallow can-do spirit. And I'm glad Kishiro has the restraint to avoid pouring on the Evangelion-style catatonic angst to show off her range of emotion.

Hey, wasn't Caerula struck with this depressing feeling of omnipotence at a certain point in her development, too? Alita's SO the grey demon cat right now!! Oh snap! She's gonna fight Don Fua, I know it! He's gonna put her in her place bigtime, and it will be moving and amazing and ahhhhh I can't TAKE IT!
...Is the three month hiatus over yet?!

It's not three months, hon! We get a new chapter in March.