Ask John: Why Is Battle Angel Called Gally On The DVD?

Question:
I was wondering why Battle Angel Alita is called “Gally” on the DVD? Isn’t that very, very wrong? Or is it as I hope I would be, just a print error, and they call her by her right name on the DVD?

Answer:
Actually, the discrepancy between the names Gally and Alita comes courtesy not of AD Vision, but from Viz. In the October 1993 issue of Animerica, Fred Burke, co-translator for the Viz Comics Battle Angel Alita manga explains that, “For a Viz Comic to work, it’s got to appeal to more than just the hard-core manga and anime crowd;” therefore there were several alterations made in the translation of the manga. Yukito Kishiro’s title Gunnm, a compound of Gun Dream, was re-named Battle Angel Alita. Gally, the protagonist, had her name changed to Alita, a name, Burke explains, means “noble:” a name that he discovered while searching through a book of baby names. Burke also explains that, for no reason given, the floating city Zalem was re-named Tiphares: a name meaning “beauty,” taken from the Qabalah and the mystical Tree of Life. Furthermore, Yugo’s name was given a cosmetic change to Hugo for American readers.