Zapan

Zapan (ザパン) is a fictional character in the Battle Angel Alita manga by Yukito Kishiro and its anime adaptation. He is a hunter-warrior or bounty hunter registered with the Factory in the Scrapyard and with the exception of his brain, is a full cyborg. Zapan is named after one of the seven kings who ruled over the four regions of hell according to 16th century demonologists. His namesake is most likely Zagan, a great king and president of hell described by Johann Weyer in Pseudomonarchia Daemonum who commands 33 legions of demons. Zapan develops an enmity with the protagonist Alita and later becomes one of her deadliest enemies following his acquisition of the Berserker Body, one of her former cyborg bodies.

Hunter-warrior
Zapan first makes an appearance when Daisuke Ido and Alita in her new Berserker Body visit Bar Kansas. Although there are many other hunter-warriors present, Zapan is the only one who is named, revealing that he was one of Ido's patients. When Ido proposes that the hunters band together and go after the infamous criminal Makaku, Zapan makes an exception, claiming that hunter-warriors are lone wolves and that Makaku is none of his business. He claims that to be a professional involves carefully choosing one’s prey and minimizing risk. This does not sit well with Alita, who questions Zapan’s rationale as a disguise for cowardice. This provokes a fight with the hunter-warriors, as Alita refuses to back down. During the fight, Alita manages to get ahold of Zapan from behind, manipulating his arms and legs and using him to slice up the other hunter-warriors before sending him and the other fighters out of the bar in a heap. He manages to escape Makaku when the latter arrives at Bar Kansas.

Zapan next appears after Hugo is leaving Ido’s clinic after conducting some repairs. He warns Hugo about Alita, then after Hugo leaves, swears vengeance on Alita for humiliating “the great Zapan” at Bar Kansas. While later staking out Hugo’s place, he observes Vector drop Hugo off. This association leads him to suspect that Hugo may be connected to the series of spinal column thefts that have lately been taking place because of Vector’s position as the top black market broker who controls the Scrapyard’s illegal parts. In disguise, Zapan selects Hugo and his team for a lube job, and catches Hugo in the act just as he is set to paralyze Zapan from behind. He makes quick work of Hugo’s accomplices, and only misses Hugo because he is hit with a fire bottle (a portable Molotov cocktail). When he goes to drop off the heads for the bounty, Zapan comes across Alita and Ido, who happen to be at the same factory he visits. Although Alita does not recall him initially he breaks the news that Hugo will soon be a bounty. After Alita runs off in search of Hugo and Zapan collects his chips, he taunts Ido, instigating a fight which results in Ido getting knocked out. Zapan then alerts other hunter-warriors and a netman that Alita is planning to run off with Hugo, and sets up a trap for Alita with Ido as bait to prevent her from fleeing. Incredulous that Alita has apparently killed Hugo, Zapan decies to check for himself and discovers that she has hooked her life support system to Hugo’s head, keeping his brain alive. His actions however, appear to the netman as an attempt to rob Alita of her bounty, a violation of Factory Law, and Alita retaliates, hitting him with a blow that slices his face off. Zapan falls off the building they are standing on and is presumed dead.

Criminal
Zapan survives his fall and manages to get a new face. A few months later on the night of Alita’s motorball challenge race with Jashugan, he is no longer a hunter-warrior and is at a soup kitchen assisting his lover Sara, who works there. A televised announcement of the race and Alita’s image on a TV screen drive him crazy, and he starts tearing his second face off. Sara tries to stop him, but in his madness Zapan strikes her head off and kills her. Coming to his senses, he takes Sara’s head with him. This makes Zapan a bounty for murder.

His face swathed in bandages, Zapan manages to escape capture for two years, making his way back into the Scrapyard, where he kills Tank Man and another hunter-warrior after they leave Bar Kansas. Consumed with fear at the knowledge of the feats that Alita has accomplished, he seeks out a drug dealer for something to take his fear away, but ends up killing her after she shows an unhealthy interest in Sara’s head. His attitude towards Sara at this time also reflects that he is somewhat ambivalent about her, hating her as much as he loves her. After Murdock the Dog Master appears, he manages to track Zapan to the sewers, where he is cornered by Murdock’s dogs. Alita, who is also there however, gives Zapan a chance to take his revenge on her. Playing a song on a portable keyboard, she allows Zapan to do what he will with her until she stops playing. Zapan however, becomes paralyzed with fear, and cannot do anything. Murdock’s dogs then tear him to pieces, severing his head, which falls into the sewers.

The Berserker Body
When Ido goes to Desty Nova’s in order to buy back Alita’s Berserker Body which Nova now owns, Nova shows him an experiment he is about to undertake to see if man can conquer his own karma. It is a brain which was found by his assistant Bazarld in the sewers that had sustained level 7 damage. Nova’s nanotechnological expertise however, was able to restore it to level 3. Nova reveals that he restored this brain to see how it would fight its karma. Ido, recognizing Zapan’s distinctive mark on the bandages that used to cover Zapan’s face, tries to destroy the brain, but is subdued by Eelai. This makes Nova even more anxious to carry out the desires of Zapan’s brain, which cries out for revenge and power. He unveils the Berserker Body and releases the lock on its Berserker mode. The body starts to run amok, seeking out a power source and a brain to fuse with, causing more and more damage to Nova’s lab. Nova is unable to inject the body with destructive nanomaterial to break it down, and Ido attempts to do so, just as Zapan begins to manifest himself in the Berserker Body. Zapan cannot remember his original face, but incorporates his symbol into a new face with one of his eyeballs. He kills Ido and completely destroys Nova’s manor before setting off in search of Alita.

The Berserker Body in Zapan’s form is more powerful than when Alita possessed it, due to the unlocking of its Berserker mode and Zapan’s obsessive madness for revenge, both of which bring out its full potential. He can form the body into any shape he desires through the manipulation of electromagnetic fields, such as assuming a winged form that is capable of flight, or shifting into a humanoid form. He can also form superheated electrical spheres and plasma, capable of destroying anything and when used as a shield, making him invulnerable to all types of attack. Zapan can also absorb and assimilate other cyborgs, effectively killing them. His capabilities make him the only being shown to successfully fly beneath Tiphares and survive attempts by the netmen to shoot him down.

Zapan locates Bar New Kansas and disguises himself with a blanket when he enters the bar in search of Alita. He asks for Alita, but on being told by Shumira that she is not present, nearly kills her, but gets Gonzu instead. As the hunter-warriors present attack him, Zapan forms a plasma sphere and kills them all. He then interrogates the barkeep, and is on the verge of killing him when Murdock intervenes with his dogs. Assigning Fury to protect Koyomi and Shumira, Murdock battles Zapan with his remaining three dogs, Glory, Fury, and Hubris, but Zapan forms the demon dog out of plasma, which makes short work of them. Face to face with his daughter’s killer, Murdock tries to kill Zapan with a powerful grenade that demolishes Bar New Kansas, but Zapan shields himself and flies off to embark on a rampage through the Scrapyard. He demolishes Ido’s clinic and wipes out the defending Factory forces. A vast section of the Scrapyard is laid waste with untold numbers of people killed and more left homeless.

Zapan finally comes face to face again with Alita after she returns to the Scrapyard from the remnants of Nova’s manor. He hears the same song that she played back in the sewers and recalls how he was filled with cowardice, hatred, jealousy, and fear, because the song reminded him so much of Sara that he was moved to tears and unable to carry out his revenge. Knowing that his hold on the Berserker Body is weakening and that it will obliterate the Scrapyard, he falls for Alita’s ambush and she manages to damage him with Ido’s rocket hammer. Zapan however, succeeds in fusing his body with her left arm, making her cut it off. He then manages to pin Alita beneath some rubble and is about to kill her with plasma, but she cuts off her lower body and succeeds in reaching her revolver, hitting him with two rounds of collapser-tipped bullets. Again he tries to finish her off with plasma, but his left arm explodes from the collapser. After Alita stabs him with her Damascus Blade, Zapan morphs into winged form, taking them both up into the sky where he begins to fuse with Alita in an attempt to kill her. Alita manages to swallow some liquid collapser, halting the process and separating from Zapan. They share a few moments of shared consciousness, in the form of a vision of Sara comforting a troubled Zapan. Because of this, Zapan overcomes his hatred and with his last act before the collapser finishes him, he forms a pair of wings, breaking Alita's fall and saving her life.

Battle Angel OVA
Zapan makes two brief appearances in the Battle Angel OVA, but is not named, although he is listed in the credits as Zavan. In Rusty Angel, he is one of the hunter-warriors at Bar Kansas when Grewcica confronts Gally (Alita) and Ido. In Tears Sign, he uncovers Yugo (Hugo) as a spinal column thief by posing as a customer. Zapan finds out Yugo’s name because his accomplice Tanji mentions it however, unlike in the manga where he knows that Hugo is one of the kids setting him up to steal his spinal column.

Zapan's trademark symbol
The hook and cross symbol that Zapan wears on his forehead is the logo for the rock band Blue Öyster Cult. He has this symbol on his forehead in all of his incarnations except for when he had his second face, and can remember its likeness more than his own face. He puts it on the bandages that cover his head after he tore off his second face, and in the Berserker Body, makes it appear on his face with one of his eyes at the center where the dot is.