What Only Hardcore Battle Angel Manga Fans Know About Alita's Past

The entertainment landscape contains innumerable fandoms that span just about every recognizable property. From Whovians to Trekkies, there's a proper niche for everyone, no matter their interests. In recent years, one of the most prominent has been the Alita Army, a fan group dedicated to celebrating director Robert Rodriguez's 2019 production Alita: Battle Angel. The online community also aims to spread positivity, welcome new members with open arms, and campaign for a potential sequel in any form they can get it.

It's a fair assessment to call the Alita Army's members some of the foremost experts on the science fiction production, the universe it establishes, and the characters who inhabit it. However, not everyone that informally signs up is already well-versed in every piece of Alita-centric media, leaving the more educated of the bunch to help them fill in the gaps. That includes breaking down the manga series her film stems from, Battle Angel Alita, by famed artist Yukito Kishiro.

Considering the fewer limitations that come with the print medium, Battle Angel Alita was able to explore elements of the titular character's story that the film didn't have time for. This means that those familiar with the movie alone are likely missing important parts of Alita's story that were told exclusively in the source material. Here's but one example of how manga readers have a leg up on their cinephile counterparts in this regard.

A key aspect of Alita: Battle Angel's plot is the young cyborg's journey of building her new life after losing all of her memories. Introduced as nothing more than a human brain in a worn-down metallic shell, Alita (Rosa Salazar), with the help of Dr. Ido (Christoph Waltz), is successfully reconstructed, and treated as his surrogate daughter. This is all well and good, but the movie never dives deep into who left her behind originally, or perhaps more importantly, who she was before becoming a cyborg.

Whether or not Alita: Battle Angel does this on purpose or not is unknown, but worry not, the answer is out there. As Screen Rant brings up, Yukito Kishiro's written work states that before going by Alita and adopting her mechanical physiology, she was known simply as Yoko. Therefore, those curious about this point would have to give the manga a good read for some answers. Maybe if Alita gets a continuation down the line, her old identity will be addressed at long last and perhaps become a focal point on the big screen. 

Until that day comes, Battle Angel Alita is all that die-hard fans have to work off of for this chapter of Alita's human life.