Battle Angel Alita: Mars Chronicles (1st July 2025)

I've recently read the entire series of Mars Chronicles, and I have a lot to say. Honestly, it's an amazing addition to the Alita Mythos. It's a decent and emotional story. I think it's better than Last Order. Last Order focuses on a lot of characters and the ZOTT tournament arc, although it is pretty fun, it seems stretched out. Alita doesn't even spend much time in it. And the main big baddie Mbaddi Trinidad suffers a rather anticlimactic end at the hands of Vilma. She just slices him into cheese blocks as he gets thrown into space. Mars Chronicles is unique in that 10% of its story continues from Last Order, and the rest is a prequel to Alita's turbulent past in the war-torn planet of Mars. We saw snippets of that in Last Order in the form of brief flashbacks and memory recollections. The first flashback showed how Yoko (Alita) met Erika, both of whom were forced to walk through a minefield before being rescued by a Panzer Kunst warrior named Gelda. Erika would act as an older sister to her. Always caring, overly protective towards Yoko, and trying to keep her away from danger. It's a wholesome dynamic as Yoko is always clumsy, shy, and very clingy.

But the first chapters of the manga felt like a monster truck running me over. Yoko and Erika end up in an orphanage where they try to befriend some older girls. This is cut short when a militant faction bombs and storms their village. And yeah, most of those orphans are not spared any mercy. Each suffers horrible deaths at the hands of these soulless soldiers, one by one, only Erika and Yoko manage to make it out alive. I had to take small breaks in between these readings just because of the strong, realistic-looking imagery of the artworks. But I think by far the most mindblowing twist in this series is the reveal of Alita's origins. Initially, I thought she was just a random girl, born from humble beginnings and a poor family, forced to wear a cyborg suit due to an illness. But in reality, she was born as a tumor face, which was surgically removed by an archeological worker, who accidentally got exposed to some ancient tomb curse. Yeah, it's wild and insane. But it kinda made sense. Yukito slowly builds up tension through small details, eventually culminating in that reveal. And it was pretty well pulled off. But the manga kind of ends on a cliffhanger. Yoko and Erika end up being recruited by the Kuntler faction led by a council of school masters known as altmeisters. The next manga will continue the story and hopefully give us some closure on Erika's and Alita's sisterhood. They've both gone through so much, and Erika being revealed to be already dead but now resurrected as a Necro Soldier, just tears your heart apart.

That brings me to another very interesting concept, the Necro Soldiers. Through chemical operations on a dead brain, you can reanimate a corpse with its memories and skills intact, except they are remotely controlled, making them a virtual puppet. Even Super Nova was pretty shocked by such a practice. If a crazed psychopath, and a former main villain of the old story himself, is shocked, then that should tell you something. I am still trying to figure out who this Dasein person is. He seems to be very old, over 200 years old, as he was active and also cooperated with altmeister Austad in his nefarious operations on Mars. Altmeister Austad strikingly resembles Ceaser, he wears a large robe, trimmed mushroom cut. He is a Martian supremacist and imperialist. Believing in strength and might makes right. Grunthal would be carpet bombed after the disastrous failure of Operation Maulwurf. The Venusian, Jovian, and Earth republics established a ceasefire and annihilated them. Alita was used in his expansionist ambitions as a scapegoat and convenient sacrifice, but it backfired. This leads me to believe he suffered the same fate as Ceaser, betrayal from within, from other altmeister schools, and eventual collapse of the Grunthal faction before Dasein showed up to create his own proxy of necro soldier kunstler remnants. Dasein is most definitely on Mars, and god only knows how far the necro soldier rabbit hole goes. Now that Mbadi is gone, they can spread out undetected and infiltrate all government branches across the galaxy. Alita is now serving the Jovian and Melchizedek supercomputers to protect their interests after becoming a Last Order agent. So we can only hope she will be able to stop her former dead friends and colleagues from taking over the world and spreading these zombies. And of course, bring back Erika. To Alita, Erika is as close to a sister as someone can be throughout her childhood and teen years. I am betting Erika will rebel against them; she is prone to defying others in her younger years. Alita loves her dearly, and deep down, Erika will realize that and break free from Dasein's grasp. They are an inseparable yin and yang. No banner of allegiance will keep them separate.

It is quite terrifying how Dasein possesses so much money and influence across so many Martian factions and organizations. I doubt it is someone already established; they're a puppet master hiding in the shadows, acting only when necessary. He controls the Einherjar, which in Norse Mythology translates to fallen warriors resurrected by Odin to fight in Ragnarok. Dasein is evidently playing god, bringing back Erika, Gelgt, Parabellum, and others to serve as his obedient foot soldiers. He is the direct opposite of Nova's karmic transcendence and Alita's fight for self-determination and individuality. The final battle will most likely take place in Ragnarok, aka Mars. A great war between gods and monsters. Mars is the stage for cosmic reckoning, and Alita will be there to change the course of history as she always has. The necro kunstlers symbolically represent her sins and past identity she no longer associates herself with. And to put a final nail in the coffin, she has to beat them one last time.

Alita is no longer Yoko, and she is the true and only follower of Tiger Sauer's Panzer Kunst. She will whoop the living crap out of these traitors and heretics. As all of these Necro Soldiers have already failed in Panzer Kunst, they have all already died, and now they're back not as free and mighty people, but unhumans, not even living beings; they are taint, dirt, and insults for what Tiger Sauer fought and trained people for. They are all lost!!! Only Alita stands as the sole warrior and last Kunstler, not these puppets with strings. When Alita dehumanizes and humiliates them with wise words, they, too, will realize what they've become and either die denying it or, in an act to show they're human, kill themselves. Follow their leader, as the internet meme goes. Alita is the ultimate free warrior who fights for others. She is selfless, the wars and battles, and the friends are what keep her living and existing. Overall, I am incredibly hyped for the continuation of the series next year. I am confident that mr Yukito will deliver a banger finale to an awesome cyberpunk story.