Kishiro Yukito 木城ゆきと

At 17, he won one of Shuueisha's manga contests, but opted to go onto art school instead of ploughing straight into the manga industry. Kishiro has admitted to being influenced by Western SF/action movies (eg. the Mad Max series), and unusually, some Western comics (eg. The Dark Knight Returns). He did a few short stories prior to Gunnm, none of which have been republished. Made his debut in 1984. {CMA}

See also:
<http://www.interq.or.jp/drums/tsutomu/E-top/E-top.html>

Gunnm [Battle Angel Alita]
銃夢
serialized on Business Jump, 1991-1995
9 volumes @ Y500
[ 01:9109| 02:9202| 03:9207| 04:9305| 05:9309| 06:9401| 07:9404| 08:9409| 09:9507]
aizouban 5 volumes @ Y2000
[ 01:____| 02:9902| 03:9904| 04:9908| 05:9912]

In the future, land-dwellers make out a living from the garbage discarded by Zalem, a giant city which floats above them. Ido Daisuke finds a girl's intact head amongst the flotsam, and attaches it to a military-grade android body, christening her Gally. To Ido's surprise, Gally turns out to have the mindset and abilities of a crack soldier. Gally embarks on a long, bloody journey to reach Zalem, the unreachable utopia, and uncover the mystery of her origins.

A unique manga with elements of the cyberpunk/action/martial arts/SF genres. Unfortunately, it was rudely terminated with a slapdash ending, like Kiseijuu. Despite this, Kishiro's art and storytelling ability is undeniably another step forward for the manga industry. Reportedly, the sudden end of Gunnm was due to illness of Kishiro. Originally, Kishiro had planned Gunnm to take a while longer by exploring more of Gally's past.

Remnants of that original ending (called "Space Story" by Kishiro) in which Gally goes to her roots on Mars, can be found in the playstation role playing game ("GUNNM memory of Mars") that Kishiro later on helped to create. Later on the Gunnm deluxe books came out, nicknamed "Gunnm complete edition" and Kishiro felt that the time was right to start drawing his "Space Story", which is being published as "GUNNM Last Order".

See also: Gunnm homepage
<http://www.tama.or.jp/~ryup/gunnm/gunnm.html>

Special features:
Every tankoubon contains at the end two pages of technical notes. Descriptions of the world of Gunnm. A few four-koma strips are there too. The tankoubon do not contain any color work inside. Most of the covers consist of one, big, beautiful, continuous color image.
TRA:(F)Glenat(E)Viz Communications(I)Marvel Manga(G)Carlsen Comics
Click to buy English translated volume 0 at Amazon.
Click to buy English translated volume 0 at Amazon.
Click to buy English translated volume 0 at Amazon.
Click to buy English translated volume 0 at Amazon.
Click to buy English translated volume 0 at Amazon.
Click to buy English translated volume 0 at Amazon.
Click to buy English translated volume 0 at Amazon.
Click to buy English translated volume 0 at Amazon.
Click to buy English translated volume 0 at Amazon.
Click to buy English translated volume 0 at Amazon.
Click to buy English translated volume 0 at Amazon.
Click to buy English translated volume 1 at Amazon.
Click to buy English translated volume 2 at Amazon.
Click to buy English translated volume 3 at Amazon.
APG:(OAVs)(02)930621,930821

Jump J books Gunnm
novel
written by Kawamura Yasuhisa
published by Shuueisha, 1997
1 volume @ Y780
[ 01:9704]

Illustrations by Yukito Kishiro, black and white throughout the book, four color panels at the beginning (same quality as the covers of the Gunnm series).

Hito
木城ゆきと短編集・飛人
short story collection
published by Shuueisha, 1997
aizouban 1 volume @ Y819
[ 01:9708]

This collects six short stories:
o Kaiyousei [Evil Ocean Star]
published by Shougakukan, 1988
Short story of 32 pages.
o Hito
published by Kadokawa Shoten, 1988
Short story of 31 pages.
o Dai-Mashin [The Great Machine]
published by Shougakukan, 1989
Short story of 40 pages.
o Mirai Toukyou Head Man
published by Kadokawa Shoten, 1989
Short story of 40 pages.
o Uchuu Kaizoku Shounendan
published by Kadokawa Shoten, 1990
Short story of 60 pages.
o Kikai

Haisha [Ashman aka Ashen Victor]
灰者
serialized on Ultra Jump, 1995-96
1 volume @ Y1000
[ 01:9806]

Takes place in the same universe as Gunnm, more precisely, the action is set in the Motorball circuit world from Gunnm's universe. Revealing more about the motorball world while following the career of a contender who is going through a crisis after a long series of crashes, which resulted in his nickname "Crash King". The story is set some decades before the arrival of Gally and knowledge of the Gunnm series is not necessary to enjoy this.

TRA:(F)Glenat(E)Viz Communications(I)Planet Manga
Click to buy English translated volume 0 at Amazon.

Leviathan Saga: Aqua Knights
serialized on Ultra Jump,
3 volumes @ Y800
[ 01:9903| 02:0001| 03:0009]

Before starting Gunnm back up, Kishiro bought a computer, and produced this completely digitally drawn series.
Looks like he turned this out at a fairly good clip; he must be feeling well, and computers must be saving him enough time to remain sane. But then again, looking at the manga, sanity is perhaps not an issue. It begins normally enough, though the designs look more like GaoGaiGar than Kishiro; with a half naked child and his deranged cross eyed dad finding a female knight washed up on shore. The little boy manages to become her apprentice, at which point the two characters are separated for all of volume two, talking blue cats show up, there's this insane Victorian steam punk villain and his miserable girlfriend who no longer exists in reality to the befuddlement, in a half-volume long flashback, of the local physicians Desty Nova and Doc Ido. Then some African mystics wander through, and Death and his homies help fight of the evil that tries to steal this kid's mother, who is more of a glowing ball of light, really. A three volume chunk of gleefully sillyness between grim and depressing Gunnm; refreshing. Contains more little boy penis than your average shoutakon anthology, be warned. And more shit jokes than a kindergarten. {EIR}

The Aqua Knights series has been suspended at volume 3 by Kishiro so that he could start working on Gunnm - Last Order.

TRA:(I)Planet Manga(E)Viz Communications
Click to buy English translated volume 1 at Amazon.
Click to buy English translated volume 2 at Amazon.
Click to buy English translated volume 3 at Amazon.

Gunnm Last Order
銃夢 Ｌａｓｔ Ｏｒｄｅｒ
4 volumes @ Y648
[ 01:0107| 02:0202| 03:0209| 04:0306]

The sequel of the original Gunnm (Battle Angel Alita) series. Kishiro has never been satisfied with the ending of the Gunnm series. He had to rush it because of his illness. Gunnm Last Order picks the original series up somewhere in the last volume of the original series. More exactly, it continues from the point on where Gally was blown up by the doll bomb and Nova runs off with her remains.

Last order begins one year after this. Nova has returned to Salem, and has been busy reconstructing Gally from the few remaining parts of her brain. He recreates a perfect android body for her, based on the berserker design but with using the materials of the Damascus blade and adding a few extras. Then, right before awakening Gally, Nova decides the time is ripe to reveal the secret of the Salem people. This causes a civil war among the Salem people...

Kishiro delivers. Gorgeous artwork. Gally is cuter than ever. Good story and finally an ending for the Gunnm series that's worthy of it.