This interview was gathered in "Extra Business Jump Special Issue 
8/10" 
{the same of the Guncyclopedia - Blaise.}
Italian traslation performed by Claudia Baglini, English 
translation by Salvatore Falco.
© Copyright Yukito Kishiro/Shueisha. © Copyright Panini for Italy. 

The World of Alita.
Interview to Yukito Kishiro.

The publication of Alita (Gunnm in the original) is gone on for four years... Which was 
the source of ispiration for the autor of this comic, Mr. Yukito Kishiro, for so long time? 
In search for the answer to this and to many other questions, we went to the studio of 
Kishiro, who granted us an interview in which he discloses all the secrets of Alita's 
working. 
Question: Mr Kishiro, lots of readers are eager to know the backstages of Alita. 
First of all, we know that there is a prototype project, before the comic. Would you talk about it ?
Kishiro: All right, even if it is a very personal project. This prototype story unwinds in a close future 
and is set in a world in which police is absolutely not able to control the proliferating of the criminal 
activities. So the settling of the accounts are committed to ordinary citizens, particulary to some 
squadrons similar to SWAT (special weapons and tactics), controlled by the government and 
composed exclusively of cyborgs. This particular found a transposition even in Alita, were the 
special agents ruled by the central organization are called 'tuned'. In my prototype story Alita 
(Gunnm. in the original) is a tuned since the beginning. The operator who conveys her governative 
instructions makes a mistake and is fired; another operator takes his {or her - Blaise} place: in this 
way is born the figure of Lou. 
Question: In this prototype story they show up other characters used later in Alita ?
Kishiro: At the time the story is set, buildings are 'intelligent', completely controlled by computers. 
But a dangerous band of hackers succeed in getting into the central system and in controlling all the 
buildings in the city. The responsible of this situation is above all the dangerous leader of the 
hackers, the legendary criminal called Ido [laughs]. He is a sort of madman, that has nothing in 
common (apart of the name) with Ido in Alita. Also the physical aspect of this two characters are 
different. Later I thought to make Alita fight with Ido and his band of hackers: the girl should be 
obliged to pass through a deadly psychological assoult, the Uroboros... {I don't know if it is a 
mistake, in the Italian version of G. is written Ouroboros - Blaise.} 
Question: It looks like a rather interessant story...
Kishiro: To tell the truth there are various passages (differents by Alita) that don't persuade me 
completely. In some of my short stories I drawed something of similar, but with a stronger 
structure, and effective characters. In the case of the prototype story, instead, you can not escape by 
the usual close future. A bit common, in short. 
Question: Above all, I would like to underline the originality of the image of the 'close future' you 
transmit in your works.
Kishiro: See, when I write a tale, the story and the characters come later. First of all it has to exist a 
'container', in a word a coherent world, into which action and its figures can insert. Environment is 
the fundamental. 
Question: Such as in the case of Salem. The city suspended in sky.
Kishiro: At the beginning I though to name it "Heaven's Gate" {the name of the drink offered to 
Yugo by Vector- Blaise.}, but later it seemed a bit common idea. As this city is a sort of heavenly 
capital, I though to baptise it "Jerusalem", by the name of the heavenly city. From here the two 
colonies, "Jeru" and "Salem". Finally I thought to pronounce it in the German way, "Zalem" [this is 
the way salem is pronounced in the japanese version of the manga]. 
Question: Let's return for a moment to your usual creative process. Once you fixed the environment 
of your next manga, how do you succeed to transfer it inside the comic?
Kishiro: First of all I state myself the problem of doing it so to make my mental image 
understandable to the reader. In a film everything is easier, beacuse the director can show with a 
running shot the type of environment the action unfolds in, but this is not always possible in a 
manga. So the best idea is to invent figures who know nothing of the environment in which they are 
at the beginning of the story.[laughs] In this way, even if the protagonists ignore the environment 
they move in, thei thought and their feelings, aroused by the same environment, automatically work 
as explanations for the reader. 
Question: Infact at the beginning of Alita the protagonist is memoryless.
Kishiro: True. The idea is creating a container-environment in which inserting the figures who knows 
nothing about that environment. But the publishing of a manga is ofthen decided suddenly, so is not 
always possible exstabilish in advance all the details of the world the story unfolds into. This means 
that some aspects of the container-environment are decided with the proceeding of the publishing. 
Without taking into account that a total programmation of the environment from the beginning 
implies the keeping of a certain level of consistency. With other words, fantasy is checked and can't 
run free, for not risking to fall in contraddiction with the things told in the previous episodes. For 
Alita I chose a very flexible method of working, which allowed a high level of liberty: firts of all I 
sketched the basic framework of the environment the figures move in, so to add as many details as I 
need in a progressive way, with the story going on. 
Question: Let's suppose you inserting in a work of yours a figure who knows well the environment 
in which he lives. In this circumstance, if I understand well your reasoning, everything this figure 
tels about the world in which the story unfolds you have to write it down into a block notes and 
control it as the story proceeds, not to contradict yourself. It is complicated, isn't it? [laughs]
Kishiro: Without taking into account that in this case the figure, well knowing his own environment, 
would say things not understandable by the reader, who knows almost nothing about that 
environment. This would create the need for inserting explanations, which would make the story 
heavy. It is much better having figures who don't know the world they live in, as neoborns. 
Question: But in this way the story doesn't go on...
Kishiro: Well, there is always the old trick of the figures who have a past and some knowledges, but 
who forgot everything. For example, Alita was in the past a normal person, adult and with full 
controll of her functions. But the lost of memory implies for her the need of restarting from zero. 
Of course it remains an invisible thread which connects her to the past, letting her to have some 
basics abilities and characteristics. And the story goes on. 
Question: Was Alita found by Ido ?
Kishiro: Alita doesn't know anything about her world. So the need for compensation will push her 
towards persons opposite to her, persons who know everything. I though that giving her this sort of 
partner were a good idea. According to me, Alita and Ido form an armonious picture. At first I also 
thought to clear out Ido, making him killed by someone, but later I preferred to let him live. 
Question: This is one of the advantages of an open structure, such as the one of Alita, in which you 
can insert and modify as many details as you want. Is it correct?
Kishiro: I think so. About this argument, I thought to make Alita more quiet and contemplative. I 
mean, I really didn't think that Alita could prove so a stiff fellow [laughs]. 
Question: Thank you for granting us this interview, Mr. Kishiro. We wait anxiously for your next 
comic work.