Daisuke Ido

Daisuke Ido in Battle Angel Alita

Daisuke Ido (イド・ダイスケ, Ido Daisuke) is a fictional character in the Battle Angel Alita manga by Yukito Kishiro and its anime adaptation. Known as "Doc Ido", he is a cybernetics physician or cyberphysician, a doctor who specializes in operations on cyborgs who lives in The Scrapyard. Ido also has a second line of work as a hunter-warrior. He is a former citizen of Tiphares, the great floating city suspended over The Scrapyard, as is indicated by the mark on his forehead, and is the first Tipharean introduced in Battle Angel Alita. He is responsible for restoring Alita after finding her in the Tiphares dump heap, a massive pile of garbage ejected from Tiphares.

Background

Ido was expelled from Tiphares seven years before the start of the main story, making it the year "B.K. 7" within the Anno Koyomi chronology, or ES 569 as per the dating convention used in Battle Angel Alita: Last Order. Ido's background in Tiphares is not revealed in the manga, although his skills as a regular doctor imply that this was his profession. The reasons for his expulsion from Tiphares are not stated, but Desty Nova states that on occasion, Tiphareans like him and Ido will be created who lack a "'limiter'", which makes them defects within the Tipharean scheme of order and a potential danger to their fellow citizens. Such elements are purged by being literally cast out with the garbage onto the Scrapyard below.

Ido survived his fall, and for an unknown period of time was living with a woman named Dina in the Scrapyard. It was also during this time that he acquired the original Gally/Alita, a black cat. Ido also became a hunter-warrior in order to survive as he had not yet learned how to become a cyberphysician, employing his trademark rocket hammer and wearing a black hat and trenchcoat. Two years after his expulsion, he saved a young woman from a massive cyborg, but was kicked out by Dina after bringing her home. Ido and the young woman, who he named Carol as she appeared to have suffered regression, then stayed with Gonzu for a year. During this time, Ido tried to become a cyberphysician under the tutelage of the veteran cyberphysician Gauss for six months, but learned that he lacked the compassion to operate on cyborgs. Soon afterwards, he encountered the Tipharean cyberphysician Dedekind, who specialized in replacing the cyborg limbs of his patients with recloned ones grown from their DNA using Tipharean technology. After working with Dedekind for six months, Ido accepted his offer to become his partner.

Later that year however, Ido discovered that Carol was actually a clone of Dedekind's patient Pakila. After the deaths of Carol, Pakila, and Dedekind, Ido found the purpose he had been lacking and returned to complete his apprenticeship with Gauss, eventually opening up his own clinic five years before the start of the main story. His patients include the cyborg residents of the Scrapyard as well as hunter-warriors like Zapan. Ido also found the Berserker Body some time after in the remnants of a crashed spaceship and hid it away after discovering the destructive potential that it possessed.

Battle Angel Alita

Ido's discovery of Alita marks the beginning of the Battle Angel Alita story and occurred the same year that Koyomi was born, making it Year 0 in the Anno Koyomi chronology or ES 576. After reviving and transplanting her into a civilian cyborg body, Ido tries to keep his bounty hunting secret from Alita, but she eventually finds out and decides to become a hunter-warrior herself. At first initially opposed to the idea, Ido comes to accept it. He is nearly killed in Alita's first fight with Makaku, but is rescued and treated by Gonzu, who under his supervision, transplants Alita into the Berserker Body. Ido's decision to introduce the newly rebuilt Alita to the other hunter-warriors at Bar Kansas, a popular hunter-warrior hangout, brings her into conflict with Zapan, and unwittingly sets in motion a series of events that sees him later emerge as one of Alita's deadliest adversaries.

After Alita becomes involved Hugo and he becomes a bounty, Zapan uses Ido as bait in order to trap Alita, whom he suspects of rebellion for trying to flee with Hugo. Rescued by Alita after she defeats Zapan, Ido and Gonzu transplant Hugo's head onto a cyborg body. At this point in the story, Ido reveals that it is impossible for anyone from the surface to reach Tiphares, much less buy passage there. After Alita runs away following Hugo's death, Ido spends a month on the streets looking for her, ending up in the Western Region of the Scrapyard. After rescuing Shumira, the sister of the reigning Motorball champion Jashugan, from a pair of thugs, Ido discovers that Alita has become a motorball player and tries to get her attention after a match that she wins, but she ignores him.

Ido stays with Shumira for a week, then witnesses Jashugan's first race on the circuit in a month. During the race, Jashugan suffers a flatline attack that forces him to pit. Ido ends up saving him by connecting Shumira's brain waves to an amplifier, enabling him to come from behind and win the race. He joins Jashugan's team as a result, becoming his tuner with the hope of forcing Alita to leave motorball and come home by helping Jashugan win his challenge match with her. After Alita wins the match, he returns to his practice.

Two years after this, Ido volunteers to buy back the Berserker Body from Desty Nova, to whom it was traced to after Alita's former motorball manager Ed sold it in an attempt to keep her on the motorball circuit. This results in his meeting Nova, the first time that he has encountered a fellow Tipharean face to face since meeting Dedekind years ago. Ido gets caught up in Nova's plan to unite Zapan's brain with the Berserker Body, and when Zapan in his newly reincarnated form starts to wreak havoc, attempts to inject him with collapser to stop him, but gets killed in the process, as he had not yet been injected with restorer nanomachines that would have helped him physically regenerate. Nova promises Alita that he will resurrect Ido as he has become his patient. Ido's clinic is subsequently destroyed by Zapan in his search for Alita.

Alita does not encounter Ido again until 11 years later, when she is working as a TUNED agent. With Kaos' help, she learns that Ido is at Farm 21, which has been under Barjack control for two years. Here she finds Ido, but he does not remember her. Ido's cyborg nurse Kayna shows Alita a recording that Ido made five years ago which he made after discovering the secret of Tiphares for himself after rebuffing repeated attempts by Nova to make him his assistant. This revelation nearly drove Ido to madness, and he decided to erase his memory rather than having to come to terms with the implications of his newfound knowledge. Following this, he takes up work again as a cyberphysician in Farm 21, where Alita is forced to leave him.

Battle Angel Alita: Last Order

Like several characters from Battle Angel Alita, Ido has yet to make an active appearance in Last Order, outside of appearing in Alita's thoughts.

Battle Angel OVA

Ido is a major character in the OVA, which reveals that he was considered the best cyberphysician in Zalem (Tiphares), and was a partner with the anime-only character Chiren, with whom it is implied he was also personally involved with. Since the anime continuity differs from the manga however, the canonicity of this information is dubious.

Relationships

Ido in the Battle Angel OVA

Ido and Alita's relationship is like that between a father and daughter. Ido has stated that she is like a daughter to him more than once and considers her family, given that he reconstructed her and helped "raise" her to adapt to life in the Scrapyard. The relationship progresses through several stages reflecting Alita's mental and emotional growth over time. Before he became aware of her Panzer Kunst abilities and even briefly after, Ido wanted Alita to remain pure and unsullied by not becoming a hunter-warrior.. He realizes however, that her life is her own and accepts her decision. Two years later, he accepts her decision to play motorball after discussing her motivations with her. He also accepts Alita's willingness to "leave the nest" so to speak, as after she retires from motorball she lives on her own for two years. After being resurrected by Desty Nova and learning the secret of Tiphares, Ido left a last message for anyone looking for him in which Alita is the only person mentioned by name. Because of his psychometry, Kaos was able to read Ido's experiences when he repairs Alita, turning Ido's parental love for her into a romantic love that he feels for Alita.

Other than the relationship that he formed with Carol years ago before the start of the main story which is depicted in the side story "Seiyakyoku", Ido is not shown to have developed any other romantic relationships. Shumira appeared to be interested in him briefly, but this may have been motivated by her jealousy of Alita and was not reciprocated. Desty Nova's assistant Eelai takes an interest in him largely because he is a "full-flesh man", but again, the attraction is one-sided. Ido's relationship with Chiren in the Battle Angel OVA is implied to have been more than professional, as is suggested by the digital photograph that Chiren has of the two of them together and Ido's reactions when he discovered that Vector had harvested her organs.