Over the course its five year run in the early '90s on the pages of trade Jump magazine,Yukito Kishiro's Battle Angel Alita became one of Japan's definitive cyberpunk manga. Along with comics and shows such as Akira and Cowboy Bebop, Alita (know locally as Gunnm), or was at the middle of a wave of stories that reached audiences worldwide but were uniquely Japanese.
Source: blastr.com