Content Warning: Mild gore, sexism, explosions, brief underage nudity (because Japan), violence
This deluxe volume starts out with the conclusion of Yugo’s story. If you’ve seen the movie, you have an idea of what happens. For those of you who haven’t, Yugo starts going nuts. He starts laughing hysterically and ends up running away, leaving Alita and Vector behind. While Alita searches for him, chips start falling from the sky, sparking fights in the streets. She catches up with him on one of the support tubes of Zalem, trying to make his way there. But, there’s a small problem. Zalem sends down spinning rings of blades to clear away vermin, including people like Yugo. He gets badly damaged by one and Alita tries to save him from the next one. She holds on to his arm and he says he’s glad he’s met her. And then his arm gives way and he falls to the ground while Alita screams his name.
A month later, we’re with Ido as he tries to find Alita, having given up his Hunter-Warrior gig and the clinic to search for her. Along the way, he stops a (very) young woman named Shumira from being raped (Japan, please stop with the rape stop, thanks). It turns out that she recognizes Alita, and making sure that she isn’t Ido’s girlfriend, reveals to him that she’s joined the Motorball league. That’s right, we’re in the Motorball arc now.
After being rejecting Ido, we now switch to Alita’s point of view. She’s got a pair of mechanics or coaches or something, named Ed and Umba. Ed is an old Motorball player, who has a resemblance to Frankenstein from Rodger Corman’s Death Race 2000, while Umba is the mechanic and looks like a plum that’s on it’s way to becoming a prune. Together, they help fix Alita’s new Wettzeug, or racing body, keeping the Berzerker body in storage.
From here on, we jump between Alita and Ido. Ido has kind of joined up with Shumira, who turns out to be the younger sister of Jasugun, the champion of Motorball. He’s so good, he often plays with one arm removed from his Wettzeug. But, he has a brain problem and Ido is able to help. Meanwhile, Alita is making a name for herself and is about to cross into the Second League rankings. However, another player, Aydakatti, has the number that Alita wears in the Third League. They have a match to settle if Alita gets the number (she doesn’t even have any special attachment to it, she just likes it) or Aydakatti will still wear it. This match isn’t official, so they use a skull and it’s just the two of them, but shit gets real fast. Aydakatti is a brawler, not a racer, so it throws Alita off at first. She then proceeds to kick the crap out of him so bad, he concedes to Alita after the second match.
While out and about, Alita beats up some bikers and then runs into Jasugun, Ido, and Shumira. Shumira tries to steal Alita’s little fuzzy creature friend (Kimji), Ido trash talks her, and Jasugun ends up defeating the leader of the bikers in an arm wrestling match. We also find out that Ed and Jasugun used to play on the Motorball circuit together back in the day. They were in an accident, which is why Ed’s arm shakes randomly and Jasugun was used by a man named Desty Nova as an experiment. After beating the biker boss, Alita challenges Jasugun to an arm wrestling match, putting her heart on the line. Alita bets her heart on the match. No, she seriously takes her heart out of her chest on puts it on the table, so it’ll be crushed if she loses. There’s a lot to this, as Jasugun uses Ki to fight, while Alita puts her faith in her abilities. It ends in a draw, as Jasugun destroys 80% of Alita’s arm power but he wants to face her on the Motorball track. After he walks away, his arm falls off because she wrecked his arm.
After this, Alita goes into her Second League game, with everyone knowing about the challenge and that she gets to pick five other players to join her against Jasugun. This game is a slaughter fest. There’s Adyakatti, three of his “disciples” as he calls them, a guy they call Caligula because he’s so violent, and a few others. It becomes a mess quickly as most of the players start attacking each other. One, Tiegel, called the Shame of the Second League, because he has a hulking Wettzeug and doesn’t move very fast, doesn’t get into much of the fighting as they leave him in the dust but he keeps begging Alita to let him join the group she’s forming. This whole match is fantastic to read. The design of the players is varied and different, the fights are great (if bloody), and you get a sense of every character as the game progresses. I won’t tell you who wins but it’s a real upset. The other thing is that Alita gets a memory from her home: A giant red mountain.
After this game, Alita has formed her team to take on Jasugun. It’s her, Adyakatti, Caligula, Tiegel, and Zafal Takie, who was the other player that almost beat Alita. Before the match, Ed has Alita’s broken Damascus blades made into one and Ido meets with Alita. There’s also Jasugun trying to prevent himself from dying from the neural overload he’s been dealing with this whole time. After the conversation with Ido, Alita tells Ed that she’s quitting after the game against Jasugun, win or lose. He freaks out and drags her to meet with their sponsor. A crazed man tries to kill Alita with a pipe gun but Ed throws himself in the way and dies instead.
It’s all come down to this: Alita and crew versus Jasugun. It’s so important, Zalem illuminates the track. This battle is the best of the whole volume, with Jasugun making short work of everyone except Alita. During the struggle between the two, Alita has another flashback, of a red landscape and someone teaching her a secret. She also learns her real name, Yoko.
Who wins? Well, seeing as there’s another three volumes of this series, I think you can guess. But I won’t tell you how the fight goes, only that it’s worth your time to check it out.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Suggestion: This volume is more focused than the last, even if there is some filler, but it’s an important part of the series.
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