Battle Angel Alita Wiki
Register
Advertisement

Taraba (タラバ Taraba?) was a renowned Space Karate master who became a member of the Space Karate Forces and competed in the Tenth Zenith of Things Tournament (ZOTT).

Appearance[]

Taraba had a shrimp-like appearance, most notably with his head, as he had an antennae-like mustache and a chonmage shaped like a shrimp's tail. The rest of his body was muscular and appeared segmented. He is depicted as being a dark brown on the cover of Sans Angel. Taraba was the second largest member of the Space Karate Forces.[1] He dressed in priestly garb and was shown holding prayer beads in his right hand while his left displayed a mudra, suggesting that he was an adherent of Space Buddhism.[2]

Personality[]

At first doubtful of the feasibility of Toji's dream of founding Planet Karate, Taraba nonetheless was moved by his conviction, and offered his life to help Toji fulfill his aspirations. During his fight with Homme du Feu, he gained a measure of respect for him, which drove him to not go down without a fight, issuing a challenge to him to fight as a man.

Relationships[]

Taraba knew Zekka and Tunpò's unnamed master from Mars, but the nature of this relationship has not been revealed. During his short time with the Space Karate Forces, Taraba became a mentor to Toji and was able to teach him Super-Carapace Sanchin.[3]

Abilities[]

As a master of Super-Carapace Karate, Taraba believed in being a master of defense, but also possessed powerful offensive capabilities. When prepared, his use of Super-Carapace Sanchin made him nearly invulnerable to any attack.

  • Squilla Blow: By focusing a tremendous amount of energy, Taraba could then channel this through his arms in a simultaneous strike, sending the energy through an opponent.
  • Super-Carapace Sanchin: By distorting space with special electromagnetic waves, Taraba could generate a defensive wall impervious to all forms of attack. Its weakness however was that an opponent could attack a blind spot if Taraba overlooked protecting a specific part of his body.

History[]

Taraba was from Titan. He believed in the old idea that the mastery of defense made karate its most powerful.[4] His age was not revealed, but he knew Zekka and Tunpò's master and hinted that he was older than any of the members of the Space Karate Forces.[5]

In ES 591 after the Block-B Quarterfinals match of the Tenth Zenith of Things Tournament, Zekka issued a call to fill the four remaining reserve slots for the Space Karate Forces. Over a hundred space karatekas appeared, and Zekka had them all engage in a massive brawl to filter out the more capable ones. After ten minutes of battle, Taraba leaped into the air and impacted the ground with Squilla Blow, throwing several karatekas into the air and throwing up a massive mushroom cloud. Telling the "small fry" to be gone, he then used Super-Carapace Sanchin to fend off two challengers, Cube and Pluto, before taking down Mad-cow.[6] Zekka then stepped in thinking that Taraba had come to see him, but Taraba revealed instead that he wished to spar with Toji. The two appeared to tie, but Toji yielded, revealing that his hand would have been broken and his torso split in half it were an actual fight. His belief and sincerity in his dream of founding Planet Karate moved Taraba, who offered himself to help fill Toji's aspirations. Rakan, who had gotten bored at the absence of any females, then spotted Alita and tried to attack her with his Rape Strike, but failed and crashed into a wall. Taraba realized that Alita could manipulate mental space, but was unaware of this capability. Nonetheless, Zekka had Rakan added to the Space Karate Forces as a condition of Taraba joining. Following this Taraba taught Super-Carapace Sanchin to Toji.

BAALO13 58 Taraba defeats Bigorne

Taraba defeats Bigorne in Phase 76.

For the Semifinals match against the Genome Kingdom, Toji, Rakan, and Taraba took the field first, although Taraba thought he would be fine by himself. He promptly attacked Bigorne with a flying kick, but this had no effect on its bio-reactive armor. It then counterattacked with a barrage of bio-missiles while Taraba was still in midair, but they were detonated by a shock wave produced by Toji. Bigorne turned to blasting Taraba with griffenium shells from its finger cannons, which he deflected using Super-Carapace Sanchin. Intercepting one of the shells with his hand, he threw it back at Bigorne's head, then followed up by attacking the spot where it had impacted the monster, destroying the main body. This prompted Homme du Feu to unleash Arduinna, which had been growing inside the arena during the match. Inside Arduinna, Taraba came face to face with Bigorne's self-amputated tail Pincequeue, which grabbed him with its jaws. However he used Squilla Blow to send a tremendous burst of energy through its body and destroy it, with some of Pincequeue's body parts impacting the Genome Kingdom's bio-platform, Gizmon.

BAALO13 107 Taraba calls Homme de Feu a man

Taraba becomes the first person to call Homme du Feu a man in Phase 79.

BAALO13 123 Taraba's death

Taraba's death in Phase 79

Toji then broke free of Arduinna and went to stand back to back with Taraba, as they were surrounded by acrorhagi. Taraba then imparted to Toji the lesson that "karate is most powerful when its practitioner has mastered defense".[4] He was able to block a frontal barrage of nematocysts using Sanchin, then was impaled from behind and injected with plasma poison by what turned out to be a decoy Toji, whose form Homme du Feu had assumed to get Taraba to drop his guard. Homme du Feu dodged a kick from Taraba, then began pummeling him with his fists. Despite the pounding he took, Taraba was able to rise on his own even though the plasma poison had eaten through his body. He told Homme du Feu that he was not the scum he had taken him for, realizing that he had known great sorrow when he plumbed his soul and that it took a man to put his life on the line for a cause. He then challenged Homme du Feu to rise like a man and defeat him, prompting Homme du Feu to physically attack him instead of finishing him off at a distance. Taraba blocked the resulting punch and was able to disable Homme du Feu's arms with a two-handed thrust, but could not deliver a mortal below because Homme du Feu kicked him. However this allowed Rakan to take advantage of the situation and slice Homme du Feu in half with a Depleted Uranium Kick. When the real Toji emerged from Arduinna, he came across Taraba, whose body collapsed into pieces when he touched it.

References[]

  1. Phase 74
  2. Phase 77
  3. Phase 92
  4. 4.0 4.1 Phase 77
  5. Phase 74; Phase 77
  6. Phase 74

Site Navigation[]

Advertisement