Grewishka (also known as Guryushika) is a supporting character in the 1993 animated cyberpunk OVA Battle Angel Alita and in the 2019 live-action film Alita: Battle Angel. He is a former cyborg coliseum fighter turned into a vicious mercenary and killer. In the OVA, he is voiced by Ryūzaburō Ōtomo in the original Japanese version, John Bull in the Manga UK dub, and by Brian Grandvelt in the ADV dub. He is portrayed in the live-action film by Jackie Earle Haley through motion-capture and CGI.
History[]
OVA[]
Formerly a champion of the Coliseum, Grewishka was kicked out due to his brain-eating addiction and had a bounty of 1 million credits put on his head by the Factory. At some point, he partnered up with fellow brain-junkie Rasha and the two would stalk and murder young women in the Scrapyard's alleys. One night, however, the two murderous cyborgs were interrupted by the hunter-warrior Daisuke Ido. Ido attacked and wounded Rasha, but was injured himself in retaliation. Before Rasha could kill Ido, Ido's recently-restored cyborg ward Alita intervened, attacking and decapitating Rasha. Grewishka became enraged and attacked Alita, but the nimble cyborg girl easily outmanoeuvred the hulking criminal, severing his arm and kicking him off a ledge into a sewer canal.
Grewishka survived the fight and soon after sought the help of Chiren, Ido's former colleague in cyber-medicine. He told Chiren about Alita and her impressive fighting ability and Chiren, eager to prove her superiority over Ido, agreed to rebuild Grewishka and heavily modified him, outfitting him with new armour and extending supersonic cutting cables built into the fingers on his right hand.
After being modified, Grewishka followed Alita and Ido to a meeting ground for hunter-warriors, demonstrating his new power by tearing a stray dog to shreds. He challenged Alita to a duel to the death, which Alita accepted.
Alita and Grewishka confronted each other in the Scrapyard, with Grewishka making great use of the shredding cables installed in his hand. Powerful as he was, though, Alita was small and highly agile. She also possessed an ability to generate and control plasma and managed to inflict catastrophic damage on Grewishka, destroying both of his arms. With her final attack, Alita delivers a plasma strike that tears Grewishka in half. Grewishka screams in agony as the plasma overloads his circuits, causing him to explode.
Film[]
Grewishka's character remains largely the same in the 2019 film as it was in the Gunnm manga and the OVA. Originally a Motorball player, he was kicked out for unknown reasons, only to become a mercenary for Nova, the overseer of the sky-city Zalem. Under Nova's order, Grewishka hunted and killed humans and cyborgs alike, harvesting organs and spare parts from his victims.
Grewishka, along with Rasha and Nyssiana, ambush Dr. Ido in a dark alley one night. Ido is saved by Alita, who kills Rasha and Nyssiana and severely damages Grewishka. Grewishka escapes into the sewers, swearing revenge. He later finds Dr. Chiren, who is working for the Motorball organiser Vector, and the doctor begins working on rebuilding Grewishka. At first, Vector tells Chiren not to waste her time on Grewishka, but is soon silenced by Nova, who speaks to Vector through Grewishka via an implant in the cyborg's brain and commands Chiren to proceed with the augmentation.
After being rebuilt, Grewishka forces his way into a bar frquented by the hunter-warriors of Iron City and calls Alita out, using his new grind-cutters to kill a dog that Alita had adopted. Outraged, Alita accepts his challenge. Grewishka then smashes through the bar's floor, revealing a tunnel leading to the ruins of the old city that Iron City had been built upon. While Alita possesses tremendous raw talent for combat, her current body isn't designed for it and she is soundly defeated after Grewishka's grind-cutters tear her to pieces, leaving only her head, upper torso and one arm intact. Even after being crippled in such a way, Alita still manages to fight back, using her remaining arm to launch herself off the ground towards Grewishka and impale her arm through his right eye. Grewishka grabs Alita and tosses her to the ground, her arm still embedded in his eye socket, and runs away.
Grewishka is later repaired and shows up again towards the end of the film, acting as Vector's bodyguard. When Alita challenges Vector in his office, Grewishka enters to finally settle their score. With her new Berserker Body and the Damascus Blade she took from Zapan, Alita is more than ready for the hulking killer. Before Grewishka has a chance to make a move, Alita charges the Damascus Blade with her internal plasma, performs a slashing uppercut and cleaves Grewishka in two. Unlike in the OVA, Grewishka doesn't explode upon his death in the film.