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Berserker Body
BAA01 93 Berserker Body
The Berserker Body in Battle 3.
Statistics
Type Cyborg body
Creator République Vénus
Users Alita
Zapan
Debut Battle 4

The Berserker Body (バーサーカーボディ Bāsākā Bodi?) was a powerful cyborg body that was used by both Alita and Zapan. Although not named in the OVA, it is perhaps the body most associated with Alita due to its exposure.

Design[]

The body was designed as a mechanical lifeform with one sole purpose in mind, that of turning a human into an efficient and powerfully destructive weapon. Configured to only require a user's brain, it was equipped with variable skeletal muscles, allowing it to be configured for a user of either sex.[1] When Daisuke Ido first found the body, it had a lock on it, that kept its "Berserker mode" in check.[2]

Even while locked, it was still very powerful and capable of generating plasma and electromagnetic fields. However, when unlocked, the Berserker Body's true destructive capabilities were unleashed. It could absorb any kind of matter, transform its appearance depending on what the user wanted, and was single-mindedly focused on destroying a target

Capable of regeneration, it was nearly invulnerable to practically all conventional forms of attack thanks to its ability to manipulate electromagnetic fields and plasma.

Desty Nova later revealed that the Berserker Body was made up of nanomachines called Berserker cells developed by the République Vénus, explaining the reasons behind its destructive capabilities.[3]

History[]

BAA01 96 Warship interior

Ido finds the Berserker Body in Battle 4.

The body was originally suggested to have been a relic of the Terraforming Wars and the product of space technology. It was equipped on an unknown warrior whose spaceship crashed in a ravine west of the Scrapyard.

Centuries later, and several years before he found Alita in the Tiphares dump heap, Ido came upon the wrecked ship. While exploring it, he found a cyborg body whose original owner's brain had long since been gone, but the body appeared to still be fully functional. Recognizing the superior technology and craftsmanship involved, he was driven to study the body and took it back to his clinic.

However, when he examined it, Ido soon realized that the body, which he dubbed the Berserker Body, was built solely for destruction. He locked it away in the basement to prevent it from falling into the wrong hands.

Plot[]

BAA01 117 Alita in Berserker Body

Alita in the Berserker Body.

After Alita had been nearly killed by Makaku in ES 577,[4] Ido realized that she needed power that she would know how to use. He had Gonzu take them both to the basement of his clinic, where he explained how he had found the body and his plan to give it to Alita. He reprogrammed the body to assume a female shape and allow her head to be transplanted onto it, a notable change from its original configuration. Because of his injury, Ido was unable to perform the transplant himself but supervised Gonzu, a former cyberveterinarian. After a long and exhausting surgery, they succeeded, and Alita awoke in her new body.

Alita first saw combat in the Berserker Body when she triggered a brawl with the hunter-warriors at Bar Kansas. She then faced off against Makaku, who had acquired the Power Body. Although she appeared overmatched at first, the Berserker Body showed its capabilities when she fought him in the sewers.

She was able to generate plasma, using her Plasma Jet to blow off one of Makaku's arms. She then carved incisions into the actuators of Makaku's other arm, which caused it to explode when he tried to fire the grind cutters at her. When Makaku made a last-ditch attempted to commit double-suicide with Alita by entangling her with his Maggot Body and triggering a hydrogen explosion, she held the flames back using an electromagnetic field.

Alita then had a brief and successful career as a hunter-warrior before the shock and loss of Hugo a year later[4] led her to run away from home. After she was discovered by Ed, she decided to become a motorball player. She was transferred into a motorball body and the Berserker Body was kept in storage. At some point during Alita's tenure with Esdoc Motors, Ed sold the body to Desty Nova in an attempt to keep Alita on the circuit.

Following her defeat of Jashugan, she and Umba presumably discovered this and Umba helped track the body down. Two years after Alita's motorball career had ended,[5] Umba wrote her a letter in which he revealed that he had traced the Berserker Body to Nova, who was unwilling to part with it. When Ido found out about this he volunteered to retrieve it.

BAA05 123 Zapan humanoid

Zapan in the Berserker Body in humanoid form, absorbing some hunter-warriors in Battle 26.

BAA05 205 Alita falls

Alita and the remnants of the Berserker Body in Battle 29.

After Ido arrived at Nova's manor, he discovered that Nova planned to transplant Zapan's brain into the Berserker Body to help satisfy its overwhelming desire for revenge. Ido tried to destroy the brain but was stopped by Eelai. He was then strapped to an operating table and forced to watch as Nova transplanted Zapan. First, however, he released the lock on the body, which caused it to go out of control. The body fused with Zapan's brain and sought out a power source, wrecking Nova's lab. Ido tried to stop it by injecting it with a giant syringe of collapser, but failed and was killed. Zapan destroyed the manor and escaped. After Alita arrived at the manor, she learned what had happened from Nova and received the collapser and a revolver to fight Zapan.

Zapan soon learned that he could manipulate the Berserker Body to transform its appearance and generate plasma. After he was fired on by some netmen, Zapan fired on Factory 99 and learned where Bar New Kansas was. He went there in search of Alita, but did not find her, killing and absorbing the hunter-warriors who attacked him. He then nearly killed Master but was halted by Murdock. To counter Murdock's cyborg dogs, Zapan created the Demon Dog out of plasma to fight them. He foiled an attempt by Murdock to kill him with a powerful grenade which destroyed the bar, and leveled the block before departing. Following his destruction of Ido's clinic, the Factory Army responded to the destruction and fought a losing battle with Zapan that lasted through the night.

The next morning Alita, who had returned just after Bar New Kansas had been destroyed, set a trap for Zapan in the remnants of Ido's clinic. Realizing that he could no longer control the Berserker Body, Zapan was drawn by a song that Alita had set a remote-controlled doll to play on her portable keyboard. The ruse worked and Alita was able to get the drop on Zapan, damaging him with the rocket hammer. When she tried to fire on him however, he was able to throw her aim off with a tentacle and tried to absorb her. Alita was forced to sever arm and then her body below the waist to escape Zapan before managing to fire two shots into him. The collapser began to work just as he tried to finish her off with a plasma blast, as his arm exploded and the Berserker Body began to disintegrate. Transforming into his aerial form, Zapan took Alita high into the air and tried to absorb her again. However, she staved this off by swallowing a vial of collapser. Zapan then had a vision of himself with Sarah again and was able to break Alita's fall with his final thoughts as the Berserker Body disintegrated.

Other appearances[]

Gally vs

The final boss fight against Zapan in Martian Memory.

Although not named, the Berserker Body is the only cyborg body used by Gally in the OVA, as she is transplanted into it after Ido discovers her. Despite her fighting abilities, Panzer Kunst is notably not mentioned as her fighting style.

The body also appears in Gunnm: Martian Memory. In addition to being used by Gally and Zapan, it is also used by the game-only character Potemkin when he is infected with Berserker cells, assuming the same humanoid form that Zapan did. Potemkin can also spawn Demon Dogs and use plasma.

Alita recieves the berserker body in the film and is the primary body she has in the posters. Unlike the manga version, the berserker body was a Martian-developed technology for the elite URM soldiers known as the Berserkers during the Great War known as The Fall. Additionally, Alita recovers the berserker body with assistance from Hugo and his friends in locating the crashed URM spacecraft in the Badlands, unlike the manga, where Ido finds it several years earlier. Like the live action game, Gunnm: Martian Memory also features the berserker body as technology originating from Mars, and used by Elite Martian soldiers, including the endboss of the game.

References[]

  1. Battle 4
  2. Battle 25
  3. Phase 1
  4. 4.0 4.1 Gunnm LO History timeline.
  5. Battle 23

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