Den (Battle Angel Alita)
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| Den | |
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| Battle Angel Alita character | |
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| First appearance | Battle Angel Alita: Angel of Chaos |
| Last appearance | GUNNM: Gaiden |
| Created by | Yukito Kishiro |
| Profile | |
| Nicknames | "Lord Den", "Master Den" |
| Date of birth | Has been with Kaos since he was a young boy, but was freed from him and installed into a slave body by Desty Nova in ES 579 |
| Date of death | ES 590 |
| Occupation | Nomadic warrior, Barjack leader |
| Known relatives | Part of Kaos' psyche |
| Fighting style | Unnamed sword-fighting style, sōjutsu |
| Weapon (s) | Giant katana and yari |
Den is a fictional character in the Battle Angel Alita manga by Yukito Kishiro. He is the founder and leader of the Barjack, a rebel army dedicated to destroying Tiphares and the Scrapyard. A physical manifestation of Kaos' uncontrollable rage, Den as he appears is actually a giant remote-controlled slave unit run from a transmitter embedded in Kaos’ chest.
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[edit] Background
Called a figment of his psyche by Kaos[1], Den describes himself as the child of Kaos’ uncontrollable rage,".[2] which has been within Kaos since he was young. Whenever this rage manifested itself, Kaos became homicidal, but he has no memories of what happens to him when this part of his psyche takes over. Normally dormant within Kaos, when he is 15 or 16 it suddenly bursts forth, resulting in the near death of his father Desty Nova and his assistant Bazarld, and making Nova aware of it for the first time. In ES 579, Nova installs an EPR transmitter into Kaos’ heart and nervous system and creates a slave body for Den, making him independent of Kaos’ body. He can however, use the transmitter to take control of Kaos' body without his knowledge, and the death of Kaos can mean the death for both of them.
[edit] Bodies and abilities
When the slave unit is created by Nova, it is man-sized. Den goes into the wasteland in order to find himself and train as a warrior. He discovers his purpose in finding a suitable body to contain his rage, rule the desert, and bring Tiphares to the ground. When he appears as leader of the Barjack, Den’s body is many times its original size, being large enough to fight the equally massive coliseum champion Vanado. This is the only time in the original manga that Den’s lower body is that of a man’s. He has another lower body in the form of a horse's which appears to be his combat body. In this centaur form, Den’s body is a formidable weapon, fast, heavily armored, and able to crush anything in his way. Den’s body is not indestructible though, as Alita nearly kills him during their fight with a solenoid quench gun.
Den wields a giant katana named "Zanshato", but is also armed with a yari and equipped with a shield on his left arm when in his centaur form. His massive size is not a handicap in fighting a much faster and smaller opponent when he duels Alita, as he is a master of controlling his chi and even his kizashi or super chi, enabling him to predict Alita’s moves even though she manages to blind him.
Den makes an appearance in the Last Order side story "Another Story: Bashaku Ando", in which it is revealed that more than one remote-controlled bipedal body of him exists. One was found by Eakins, the manager for Farm 3, who used it to ambush Scrapyard supply convoys, and who plans to revive the Barjack to operate as a bandit organization. The other is in the care of Geriperi, an old eccentric who rescues Koyomi after she is injured in an attack by Eakins' Den on the convoy she is traveling with. The two Dens duel each other at the Barjack revival meeting held at Farm 3, in which the second Den operated by Geriperi triumphs. He then leaves after ordering the remaining Barjack to assist in the construction of the Tower of Tiphares.
[edit] Leadership of the Barjack and death
- See also: Barjack
Den develops the firm belief that Tiphares is the source of the surface dwellers' pain and misery, and that anyone associated with Tiphares, the Factory, or the Scrapyard is corrupted and not fit to exist in the new order that he plans to create. After years of wandering, he formed the rebel army Barjack and began his war against Tiphares in ES 585. Ruthless towards his enemies, Den displays empathy and compassion for his troops, who address him as “Master Den” or “Lord Den.”
Because of his connection to Kaos, the knowledge of Alita that Kaos gains from his psychometric ability is passed on to Den, who knows that she is with Kaos. He targets her because she is a TUNED agent and fights her because of her willingness to protect the Scrapyard. The day after fighting Alita, Den manifests himself in Kaos’ physical body, revealing himself to Alita and attempting to kill her. Alita’s refusal to kill Kaos and thus him as well leaves him puzzled.
Den speeds up the timetable of the Barjack campaigns to control more territory closer to the Scrapyard and Tiphares after the connection between him and Kaos is revealed to Alita. After the Heng is destroyed and Den orders his generals to switch over to guerilla warfare, he charges the Scrapyard in a last attempt to attack Tiphares. The Factory ground forces inflict fatal wounds, blowing off his right arm and the latter half of his centaur body. Den manages to bring Zanshato down on one of the Factory tubes, but the katana breaks and the tube is undamaged. He then succumbs to his wounds. His fallen head is treated as a deity by some Scrapyard residents prior to the self-destruction of Melchizedek.
[edit] Relationship with Kaos
Kaos believed for years that the EPR transmitter in his chest was a life support unit and only discovered his connection to Den after the latter took over his body in an attempt to kill Alita.[3] Den however, is fully aware of their shared connection, but remained dormant within Kaos in order to keep Kaos alive, because his actions might have killed them both given Kaos' frailty.[2] He does not reveal his history to Kaos until shortly before his death in the Scrapyard. Kaos tried to stay neutral in the war between the Barjack and Tiphares, although Den tried to enlist his support for the Barjack more than once. Den makes one final attempt after Kaos rescues Alita and tries to forcibly kidnap him after another refusal, but the attempt is thwarted by Alita, enabling Kaos to escape. When Kaos tries to rescue Alita from Desty Nova's Ouroboros program before Den's final attack on the Scrapyard, he appears in one of Alita's dreams as Den, suggesting that he has accepted that Den is a part of him. The dream Den then battles the giant Great Martian King dream robot which is controlled by Nova.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Kishiro, Battle Angel Alita: Angel's Resurrection, page 115.
- ^ a b Kishiro, Battle Angel Alita: Angel's Ascension, page 116.
- ^ Kishiro, Battle Angel Alita: Fallen Angel, page 14.
[edit] References
- Kishiro, Yukito (September 1996). Battle Angel Alita: Angel of Death, 1st ed., San Francisco: Viz Communications. ISBN 1-56931-127-7.
- Kishiro, Yukito (May 2000). Battle Angel Alita: Angel of Chaos, 5th ed., San Francisco: Viz Communications. ISBN 1-56931-178-1.
- Kishiro, Yukito (November 1997). Battle Angel Alita: Fallen Angel, 1st ed., San Francisco: Viz Communications. ISBN 1-56931-243-5.
- Kishiro, Yukito (June 2001). Battle Angel Alita: Angel’s Ascension, 4th ed., San Francisco: Viz Communications. ISBN 1-56931-293-1.
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