Battle Angel Alita Manga: Deluxe, Paperback, Last Order and Mars Chronicle
The original Battle Angel Alita is in print from Kodansha as six paperbacks or five Deluxe hardcovers. Last Order and Mars Chronicle are separate series.
The original Battle Angel Alita has two current Kodansha print editions: six paperbacks or five Deluxe hardcovers. Pick one and stay with it, because their numbers do not match. Last Order and Mars Chronicle are separate series by the same creator, Yukito Kishiro, and neither is part of either edition or of the Deluxe box.
The original series: two editions
| Edition | Books | Dates | US list |
|---|---|---|---|
| Paperback | Vols. 1–6, 304 to 336 pages | August 3, 2021 to May 10, 2022 | $12.99 each; $77.94 for all six |
| Deluxe Edition (hardcover) | Vols. 1–5, 400 to 452 pages | November 21, 2017 to October 16, 2018 | $29.99 each; $149.95 for all five |
| Holy Night and Other Stories (hardcover) | Four short stories and bonus material | November 20, 2018 | $29.99 |
| Deluxe Complete Series Box Set | Deluxe Vols. 1–5 and Holy Night; 2,392 pages | December 18, 2018 | $179.94 |
Deluxe or paperback
Kodansha describes the Deluxe books as “400-page hardcover deluxe editions, featuring an all-new translation, color pages, and new cover designs.” Deluxe Vol. 5, the final volume, “includes the rare, acclaimed story ASHEN VICTOR, plus two extensive interviews with creator Yukito Kishiro and all of the canon and non-canon endings.”
The paperback edition, in Kodansha’s words, “features an updated translation in six affordable, 300-page volumes.” It costs about half as much at list, $77.94 against $149.95 for the five hardcovers. The Kodansha pages we checked do not say whether the paperbacks carry Ashen Victor or the interviews, so do not assume they do.
Six books against five means the editions break the story in different places: Paperback 4 runs 320 pages and Deluxe 4 runs 452, so a matching number does not mean matching contents. Kodansha’s chapter notes do not give a reliable crosswalk between them, and our catalog does not guess one. Kodansha’s 2019 digital sale post also listed “the original series (Volumes 1-9)” in digital form, a third numbering. Record the edition name beside each book.
The Deluxe box
The box holds the five Deluxe hardcovers plus Holy Night and Other Stories, whose product page lists four short stories “first published in Japan from 1997 to 2006”: Holy Night, Supersonic Fingers, Homecoming and Barjack Rhapsody. At $179.94 the box costs exactly the same as those six hardcovers at list. Penguin Random House’s listing adds that it “includes print with new art by Yukito Kishiro, plus two additional prints.” Holy Night is the sixth book in the box. It is not Paperback Vol. 6, which is the end of the main story.
Where Last Order and Mars Chronicle fit
Kodansha’s February 2019 post on the wider series sorts them by time: Mars Chronicle under “The Past,” which “goes back into what Alita was looking for all along—her childhood memories on Mars,” and Last Order under “The Future,” a “sequel series” that picks up after Alita is reconstructed by Desty Nova. Kodansha now lists Mars Chronicle as complete in 11 volumes, at $10.99 each in print. Its Last Order page lists only Vols. 16 to 19. The 2019 post described Last Order as “omnibus volumes 1-5, plus latest volumes 16-19 as standalone volumes” in a digital sale, and the current page does not show a print edition of the earlier volumes.
Kodansha does not publish a reading order. Its Mars Chronicle page calls the series Kishiro’s “new sequel that reveals the true story of Alita’s childhood on Mars” and “the final chapter” of the saga, and the 2019 post called it “the latest story arc.” Read by those labels, Mars Chronicle is the newest series even though it is set before the original; the order of reading after the original series is your choice.
Which to buy
- Cheapest complete original story: the six paperbacks.
- Want Ashen Victor, the interviews and the extra stories: the Deluxe box, which costs no more than its six books bought separately at list.
- Finished and want more: Last Order, the sequel, or Mars Chronicle, which Kodansha calls the final chapter; check which Last Order volumes are in print before you start.
The Battle Angel Alita catalog lists every ISBN. For other franchises with companion series, see the companion books guide.