Kodansha Comics Releases Battle Angel Alita Manga Digitally Before Print Release

Kodansha Comics announced on Wednesday that its English language release of Yukito Kishiro's Battle Angel Alita manga will be available digitally on Comixology and Kindle before its print release. Volumes 1-3 are available now in the Comixology Originals line for US$10.99 each or free with Comixology membership. Volumes 4-6 are set for release in August and volumes 6-9 will release in October. The previously announced hardcover deluxe editions will be available starting in November.

Kodansha describes the story:

In a dump in the lawless settlement of Scrapyard, far beneath the mysterious space city of Zalem, disgraced cyber-doctor Daisuke Ido makes a strange find: the detached head of a cyborg woman who has lost all her memories. He names her Alita and equips her with a powerful new body, the Berserker. While Alita remembers no details of her former life, a moment of desperation reawakens in her nerves the legendary school of martial arts known as Panzer Kunst. In a place where there is no justice but what people make for themselves, Alita decides to become a hunter-killer, tracking down and taking out those who prey on the weak. But can she hold onto her humanity as she begins to revel in her own bloodlust?

Kishiro's Battle Angel Alita manga ran in Shueisha's Business Jump magazine from 1990 to 1995, followed by the 1995-1996 prequel Ashen Victor and the single-volume GUNNM: Other Stories. The story continued in 2001 with the partial retelling Battle Angel Alita: Last Order, which moved to Kodansha's Evening magazine as the result of an issue between Kishiro and Shueisha's Ultra Jump magazine. The newest manga, Gunnm: Kasei Senki (Battle Angel Alita: The Martian War Chronicles), launched in Kodansha's Evening magazine in 2014.

Viz Media previously published the original manga and Ashen Victor in North America. Viz Media also published the first 15 volumes of Last Order before Kodansha Comics took over to publish the final four volumes. Kodansha later released Last Order omnibus editions.

A live-action film adaptation directed by Robert Rodriguez is slated for July 20, 2018.