We talk about more characters and moments in the cyberpunk epic, Gunnm, including a very supernatural dude who uses psychometry. Plenty of coil guns and stone tape theory talk in this one. skip summary @5:00 and remember, BLM always and forever.

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072: Battle Angel Alita vol. 7

Chapters 36 to 41

"The Grounding" and "Dual Man"

By Yukito Kishiro

Translation by Stephen Paul

Lettering by Scott Brown

The Cyborg Alita leaves her love at his fishing town of Al Hambra so that she can continue her journey as a TUNED agent. She promises to return but her quest to find the villain Nova is what drives her. Alita gains a new TUNED operator, the Zalemite Lou Collins, who provides intel and help for Alita. When attacked by ninjas Alita is helped by the drone known as Gabriel. And one of the dying ninjas streams a video to Alita. Through the ninja, Nova says that in order to find him Alita must find Den of Barjack first. Den happens to be a gargantuan cyborg terrorist, who intends to attack the city of Zalem.

Meanwhile Alita saves a young girl from a gang of bandits, the girl is non other than Koyomi, the baby Alita saved years ago, Koyomi is now a proud owner of a familiar cyborg dog as she journeys to find a radio host called Kaos. She gives Alita much insight into the scrapyard and what her past friends have been doing. And although Alita works for Zalem she regards the scrapyard as her home. Soon afterwards they are swallowed into a sinkhole, Alita saves Koyomi from drowning but damages her lungs in the process. When Alita wakes, she finds that she has no connection to Collins, that Kaos has saved her and has also fallen in love with her. Kaos can only speak using radio waves and so one must use a receiver to understand him, but Kaos also has the unique power of telemetry and through touch he can see the memories and emotions of a person's past. Kaos tells Alita that her real name is Yoko and that his father is Nova. On their way to Nova, they are pre-emptively stopped by Den. Den wants Kaos to surrender Alita and pledge his loyalty to Barjack. Alita chooses to fight Den whilst Kaos escapes. The fight is in favour of Den until Collins links back online to Alita and air drops the Solenoid Quench Gun.

Koyomi, who is upset by Kaos' obsession with Alita, is swayed over Den's words of rebellion against Zalem. Reunited with her dog, she sides with the crippled Den and Alita decides to spare Den's life so to catch up with Kaos. Eventually a rainstorm begins and Alita reaches Kaos to find him digitally possessed by Den, Den already having a transmitter implanted into him. Den fights Alita once again.

Topics:

• Alita's introspective moment and epiphany.
• Yasmin as a tragic figure.
• First impressions
• The Kaos character
• Koyomi

Other references:

• Al Hambra translates to "the red one" and implies that the war chronicle arc is set in California. The real-life city of Al hambra is eight miles from Los Angeles.
• Aztec Sun God,
• Telemetry (a.k.a. "stone tape theory" or "psychometry" or "pscychoscopy") the stone tape term came from parapsychologist T.C. Leftbridge. Joseph rodes Buchanan coined the word Psychometry and describes as such that "The Past is entombed in the Present! The world is its own enduring monument; and that which is true of its physical, is likewise true of its mental career. The discoveries of Psychometry will enable us to explore the history of man, as those of geology enable us to explore the history of the earth."
• EPR paradox
• The drone "Gabriel" is a biblical reference.
• The "BFG trope", shown with the Solenoid Quench Gun. This acts as a coil gun or a rail cannon, The word Solenoid implies that it is an electrically charged coil. Whereas a rail cannon specifically would use rails. It's also the type of weapon that is seen (if somewhat fantastically) in the videogames Metal Gear Solid and Resident Evil 3. Demolition Ranch have a video on using a rail gun. Technically the Large Hadron Collider itself is a coil gun. For more info you can always check out this video from Hacksmith Industries.

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