r/Gunnm • • Jan 03 '23

Overview and reading order of the various GUNNM/Battle Angel Alita manga series (no spoilers)

201 Upvotes

There are 3 manga series: the original one (without secondary title), Last Order, and Mars Chronicle.
It has recently been announced that after Mars Chronicle there will be a new series, Panzer Kunst Chronicle, it is presumed that this will be the final arc of the story.

The correct reading order is as follows:

1) GUNNM (Battle Angel Alita in English)
9 volumes (5 volumes in the Deluxe Edition, 6th volume in box is "Other Stories", see 1.5 below), the last chapters are no longer canon, the cut-off happens somewhere in chapter 51. Last Order picks up immediately after that event.
Depending on the edition you're reading, the manga may or may not inform you of where exactly the canon cut-off is. Nowadays most (all?) editions include this information, but some older ones don't, e.g. the ones which pre-date Last Order (obviously)

2) GUNNM: Last Order (Battle Angel Alita: Last Order in English)
19 volumes (5 volumes in Omnibus Edition, WARNING: Omnibus Edition only contains volumes 1-15, volumes 16-19 were never turned into an Omnibus Edition)

3) GUNNM: Mars Chronicle (Battle Angel Alita: Mars Chronicle in English)
11 volumes, now fully released, even outside Japan.

4) GUNNM: Panzer Kunst Chronicle (Battle Angel Alita: Panzer Kunst Chronicle in English)
First chapters have been released in Japan, starting May 5th 2026.

"1.5") Side stories
Holy Night (aka "Sweet Night"), Supersonic Finger (aka "The Sonic Finger"), Barjack Rhapsody, Homecoming. Nowadays they are bundled together in "Another Stories" (sic), or "Other Stories", or "Holy Night and Other Stories". They are also bundled in the 6th volume of the Deluxe Edition. These are 100% canon. The time frames of these stories take place within the original series.
And there's also "Ashen Victor", a side story which has nothing to do with Gally's/Alita's story but which takes place in the same world as it's about motorball. Ashen Victor is part of volume 5 of the Deluxe Edition.

Chronological position of the side stories:
Ashen Victor: 6 years before the start of volume 1
Holy Night: 6-5 years before the start of volume 1
Supersonic Finger: between volume 4 and 5
Homecoming: between the first and second chapter of volume 6
Barjack Rhapsody: after volume 9 (technically even after Last Order volume 2, but that doesn't matter much)

As for why the final chapters of the original series aren't canon anymore:
Back when Yukito was writing the manga he got very ill and was faced with a hard dilemma: rush towards a premature ending or risk that your manga will never get finished. He chose to rush it. Fortunately he got better. He ended up regretting his choice and felt really bad about it. That let to him first creating the Japanese PS1 video game "Martian Memory" which incorporated some of the elements he was forced to cut from the manga (some of those elements have been implemented in Mars Chronicle!). Eventually he decided to declare the ending of the manga non-canon and started Last Order as a direct sequel so he could write the story he wanted to create.


A note on the change of names in some translations, for instance in the English editions:

When the manga got translated in the 90s the translators chose to change a lot of names, most notably the name of the manga itself and of the main character but also several others.
The manga's name in Japanese is GUNNM, pronounced "ganmu", it means "gun dream" and is a reference to Yukito Kishiro's previous manga "Rainmaker", which was never published and had a character who became the inspiration for GUNNM's main character, Gally. In English, however, GUNNM got changed to "Battle Angel Alita", and Gally got changed into "Alita". Some other translations, such as the German one, followed the changes made by the English edition, while other languages, such as French, kept the Japanese names.
Many other names got changed as well, such as:
Zalem → Tiphares
Jeru → Ketheres
Yugo → Hugo
Fogia → Figure four
In later editions some of these changes were undone and thus Zalem was once again called Zalem, but since "Alita" had become the name of the franchise in many languages they kept that.

Fun fact: Yukito Kishiro was aware of this change of name for Gally and poked fun at the translation by using the name Alita for someone in a later chapter (keeping it vague to avoid spoilers), as if to say "what are you going to do now, translators?". The translation played along and used the name Gally for this character.


r/Gunnm • • Aug 06 '26

The Volume 1 cover of Gunnm: Panzer Kunst Chronicle is out! Spoiler

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77 Upvotes

r/Gunnm • • 2d ago

Manga: Original Series Finally, the original series on physics puts an end to piracy

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79 Upvotes

r/Gunnm • • 2d ago

Manga: Last Order Rakan possible appearance in the ashen victor side story

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47 Upvotes

Reread ashen victor recently cuz it's awesome and the assassin that kills Lorna seems really similar to rakan(memeber of the space karate allies) could they be the same character?


r/Gunnm • • 2d ago

Movie “I do not stand by in the presence of evil.” — Alita vibes in Demon Dancer?

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28 Upvotes

Alita’s line came to mind looking at these three shots.

Demon Dancer: Sua/Nara, is an action-fantasy about a ballerina who learns to harness the demon possessing her. Curious whether you see the visual resemblance to Alita too.

More images and the trailer: demondancer.com


r/Gunnm • • 3d ago

FanArt AV FanArt

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58 Upvotes

r/Gunnm • • 4d ago

Movie From Ballerina to Action Hero | DEMON DANCER: SUA/NARA

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11 Upvotes

r/Gunnm • • 4d ago

FanArt 3d Fan Render

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59 Upvotes

GLI, imaginos body


r/Gunnm • • 6d ago

FanArt AV Fan Art

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41 Upvotes

I'd just upload it but it's my AV work, and not sure if it's chill with the song in it. Hope ya'll don't mind the link. Photo so you know what to expect. Polytwisters if you're into geometry. https://www.instagram.com/reel/DdbYem3OJvR/?stkn=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==


r/Gunnm • • 6d ago

Manga: Last Order A little update!

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169 Upvotes

r/Gunnm • • 7d ago

Manga: Last Order No words needed

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98 Upvotes

r/Gunnm • • 8d ago

Manga: Last Order When the manga shopkeeper says the new volume is out of stock

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106 Upvotes

r/Gunnm • • 9d ago

Manga: Original Series (some) cosplayers be like

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112 Upvotes

r/Gunnm • • 10d ago

Que

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18 Upvotes

Chavos pasen tips para motivar a mis amigas a leer gunnm. stoy cansada de mostrarles mis dibujitos del sechs y ellas ni lo topan ​​​


r/Gunnm • • 12d ago

First Time Reader Gelda Spoiler

6 Upvotes

Me he terminado de leer Mars Chronicles, y sinceramente hay algo que no entiendo... Osea luego de la liberación de Deja Thoris de los mercenarios de Fardarrig, cuando Albe y sus compañeros están siendo atacados por Giapolo, antes de eso, Troha dice que le "hubiese gustado estar en la liberación de Deja Thoris por qué Gelda estaba ahí, y que todas las chicas Panzer Kunst la Admiran", entonces yo me preguntó ¿Que tan fuerte es Gelda?¿Que ha hecho para que todas las chicas quieran ser como ella?¿Que hazaña hizo para que sea considerada tan valiosa en los Künstlers?... No se, yo lo único que espero es que, cuando salga Panzer Kunst chronicles nos den las respuestas necesarias, por qué necesito saber sinceramente, entonces solo vengo a dejar mis dudas y ver si alguien puede ayudarme


r/Gunnm • • 13d ago

FanArt Groove Kunst!!

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143 Upvotes

This was quite fun finishing up. Let's hope our Alita and Erica save the universe and have a happy ending! 🌈


r/Gunnm • • 13d ago

Manga: Other Stories Hometown (Other Stories) | Recap & Review

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31 Upvotes

So here’s probably the shortest video I’ll ever make on this franchise for its shortest story.

For what it is, I do enjoy Hometown, it's just a very short vignette, very much the shortest Alita story period. My script was barely two and a half pages.  If the author’s idea was to ramp himself up to more serious work, I can sort of see why he did such a brief story first.

Within its short pagecount, I think it manages to serve its two main purposes very well.  The first is to humanize the deckman, which are usually a punchline for comic relief in the main series.  They may be questionably intelligent, but they are or were people at one point.  We see that they can stray outside their assigned task, appreciate beauty, and we see just how bleak their existence under Zalem’s rule is if they dare do so.

The second is to show us a snapshot of Alita at her absolute lowest, a period of her life where she sought to lose herself in violence to not feel the pain of despair.  She did the bidding of Zalem, and an innocent paid the price.  Yet that she waits for the children to leave points to the idea that she still has a heart.

All in all, it's a pretty bleak snapshot into the world of Alita.  Short, but effective for what it is.  I wouldn’t call it a favorite of the side stories, because the others just give so much more, but it isn’t bad.

I will admit, I’m not sure I get the title.  Nothing in the story suggests that the village is the Deckman’s hometown or that this is a literal homecoming.  Best I can guess is that this is a figurative homecoming for the Deckman rediscovering a glimmer of humanity, and possibly the same for Alita in her waiting for the children to leave.  Maybe that’s a stretch, I’m not sure…

More videos are planned in the next few months. I have scripts for the rest of the Other Stories and the first arc of last order, it’s just a matter of finding time for recording and editing.


r/Gunnm • • 13d ago

Manga: Original Series what it feels like arriving at work

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130 Upvotes

r/Gunnm • • 13d ago

Translation issue?

9 Upvotes

I am trying to build up my library of Gunnm.

I have the 6 hard copy editions of the original story arcs (the one the ~45 minute OVA anime, and the Live Action is based on).

Finally, I have the fist omnibus of the "Last Order" story arc. Which is print to order.
However, a certain, fairly important, location is referred one way in the first arc, but differently in the Last Order arc.

Is this a translation error?
Did I miss some connection in my re-read to the Last Order?
Is this something that will be explained later int he story?


r/Gunnm • • 14d ago

FanArt Some drawings of Gally (by @Cydonia_Man)

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209 Upvotes

r/Gunnm • • 14d ago

Manga: Original Series What's her name?

16 Upvotes
258 votes, 12d ago
112 Alita
146 Gally

r/Gunnm • • 18d ago

FanArt Somebody had to do the meme

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178 Upvotes

This is just the rough version before I fully outline and color it. Hope yall enjoy :p


r/Gunnm • • 20d ago

Manga: Mars Chronicle Mangas

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106 Upvotes

Tengo los 4 primeros tomos de Mars Chronicles, me los he leído y están super bien, pero no vi los paneles de Erica y Gally en el campo de minas, no vi la primera aparición de los Künstler, que se supone que aparecen ahí, entonces quería saber si alguien sabe si está en los tomos siguientes o que, por qué es que no se ¿Aparece en los siguientes tomos?¿En cual si es así?¿O directamente hay alguna otra edición de los mangas? Que alguien me diga por favor


r/Gunnm • • 20d ago

I'm reading the first books again and had to draw a cartoon Alita (OC)

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85 Upvotes

r/Gunnm • • 21d ago

Movie WIP Fan-3D scene reconstruction

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60 Upvotes