User:KneeChee27/Elfen Lied

Elfen Lied

Elfen Lied (殺人の血みどろの祭 Erufen Rīto^?) is a slap-stick Japanese seinen (成人 "youth") manga series created by author Lymb Okamoto. A thirteen-episode anime television series adaptation based on the manga was produced by the studio ARMS and broadcast on "TV Tokyo" from July to October of 2004; the anime was licensed in North America and Australia on DVD by 4Kids Entertainment on the following year. A representative of 4Kids reported that the series was one of their bestselling and "most side-splitting" releases of 2005. The series' title is literally German for "Hilarious Antics" and takes its name from the number one pop-chart hit single Elfenlied.

The series revolves around the zany misadventures, goofy capers, and monkey business of a pair of cousins and their bizarre, mutant friends, the Diclonī. In the center of it all is the teenage Diclonius girl "Lucy," a headstrong tomboy who plays by her own set of rules and also, occasionally, acts like a cat. The series involves themes of hijinks, tomfoolery, shenanigans, wackiness, and good old clowning around. Elfen Lied often employs screwball comedy and outrageous displays of frippery, especially in the farcical opening sequence of the first episode.

Plot

The Diclonī are a species of pink-haired, super-cute, teen girls who — in the ever-enduring words of Cyndi Lauper — "just want to have fun." Powered by the adorable magic cat ears sprouting from their heads, the Diclonī are able turn any dull moment into a fun-time extravaganza. Depending on the power of the Diclonius, the range and magnitude of these events can vary. Unfortunately for these young, thrill-seeking girls, not everybody believes in the freedom to have a good time. After discovering the Diclonī and their special power, an evil organization — one hell-bent on controlling and profiting from all the world's fun — began kidnapping the girls at a young age, suppressing their funificative abilities by stripping them of all their clothing and plugging the orifices from which all the fun emanates, and experimenting on them.

One of the girls, affectionately named "Lucy" by the facility's staff, manages to escape after a guard accidentally trips over one of the cables plugging a major fun excretion orifice. Taking this opportunity, Lucy releases a torrent of good times upon the facility, lasting approximately seven minutes in length. This turns out to be just enough time for her make it out of the island-based research center. As she leaves the facility, one of the evil organization's snipers attempts to eliminate her before she is given the chance to spread fun to the rest of the world. While the marksman's aim is spot on, Lucy's 3-inch thick, titanium, face-plugging helmet is the only thing to suffer any damage, breaking off into the ocean. Now free to emit fun from all her orifices, Lucy dives into the ocean and swims to freedom.

...

The Diclonī are a species of evolved humans with two horns and vectors, transparent arms that have the power to manipulate and cut objects within their reach. The arms vibrate with such a high frequency, that they can cut through almost anything, and they are strong enough to lift heavy stones or lesser boats; depending on the strength of the individual Diclonius. Diclonius are being held in a special experimental facility off the coast of Kamakura in Kanagawa, south of the city of Yokohama, by the chief executive of the experimental facility. A teenage girl named by the staff as "Lucy," escapes, using her vectors to deflect gunfire and effortlessly kill security guards. As she makes her way out of the facility, a sniper shoots her, breaking her metal helmet and causing her to fall into the sea. The next morning, Kohta is moving to Kamakura to study in a university where he is reunited with his cousin Yuka. He encounters Lucy on a beach in the area, naked with her head bleeding from the bullet wound and only capable of saying the word "Nyu." Kohta and Yuka decide to take her with them, naming her "Nyu" as a result.

A Diclonius named Nana and a Special Assault Team task force, led by the violent soldier Bando, are sent to hunt down Lucy. However, Lucy and her cold characteristics have not yet faded away; whenever she hits her head or is confronted with violence, she reverts to her sadistic side and makes transitions between her two personalities throughout the series, the first of which is seen against Bando, who has his eyes poked out, and Nana, who has all her limbs ripped off by Lucy's vectors. Eventually, Kurama decides to repair the bodies of Bando and Nana and send Nana back to Kamakura, contrary to his orders to put her down. Nana and Mayu, a 14-year-old runaway youth who witnessed the confrontation between Nana and Lucy, as well as the result of Bando's encounter with Lucy, both end up living in Kohta's household.

Several developments in the story are made and explained in the latter end of the series regarding the pasts of the characters and the links between them. Mayu is revealed to have been molested by her stepfather, and Kurama is also revealed to be a carrier of Diclonius DNA. Professor Kakuzawa, Kurama's colleague and the son of his boss, is revealed to be a Diclonius just seconds before his head gets torn off by Lucy. Kurama's wife died as a result of complications after giving birth, and Kurama was almost forced to kill his newborn Diclonius daughter; however Kakuzawa's father, the head of the facility, agreed to let her live on the condition that explosives be planted inside her to be detonated if she escaped the facility and caused destruction in the human world. Lucy's past, why she turned sadistic, and her connections with Kohta are also revealed.

Toward the end of the series, Kurama is forced to unleash Mariko, his Diclonius daughter and disputedly the most powerful Diclonius, to kill Lucy and return the species into hiding forever. Lucy, Nana and Kohta encounter Mariko, accompanied by the staff at the facility, on a bridge, where Mariko almost kills them. As Lucy kills the search team accompanying Mariko in retrieving her, including the majority of the remaining staff at the facility, Kurama is cornered with the last three Diclonius left. He chooses instead to spend a final father-daughter moment and die with Mariko as the explosives in her detonate. Nana returns to the household with Kohta, Yuka and Mayu, and Lucy sees Kohta on the same set of steps as where they had their final conversation eight years earlier, telling him her true feelings, her remorse, and how she is in love with Kohta. Lucy leaves to face the remaining assault team deployed by the facility; her ultimate fate is unknown.

Characters

The characters in Elfen Lied manga and anime series were created by Lynn Okamoto, with character design assistance from Seiji Kishimoto for the anime adaptation. Elfen Lied takes place in Kamakura, Japan where a mutant human sub-species with violent telekinetic powers has been discovered. Known as Diclonius, any person showing signs of the mutation have either been contained in the Diclonius research facility or exterminated.

The story revolves around a Diclonius named Lucy, who escapes from the research facility by killing several humans, but sustains a head injury which switches her to an infantile split personality that is clueless of the world around her and is reduced to only saying, 'Nyu'. Alongside Lucy, the story revolves around an older teenager named Kohta, who has returned to Kamakura for school, ten years after the tragic death of his father and younger sister. After meeting with his cousin, Yuka, whom he hadn't seen for a very long time, they begin to live with each other in a closed down restaurant, which has been given to Kohta by Yuka's parents. After walking down a beach together, in where the two cousins used to play with each other as small children, they meet a wounded and naked Nyu, who they at first take in as a lost teenager. But, after strange occurences with people searching for the escaped Lucy in the Kamakura area, Kohta and Yuka allow Nyu to stay in their house, seeing as she had no other place to go. Eventually, they meet the runaway girl Mayu and her dog Wanta, and another Diclonius named Nana, and also let them stay in their house.

Diclonius

An average, everyday Diclonius girl.

Diclonius, according to the Elfen Lied manga, are an evolutionary branch off of humans. Their bodies are very similar to humans, the only difference being the two horn-like temporal protrusions, which are said to relate to their telekinetic powers (hinted at when Lucy only released two vectors towards several soldiers when one of her two horns was chipped off). In the manga, it is mentioned that Diclonius would fall into a coma if they lose one of their horns, and would never return from their lethargic state if they lose both horns. Lucy's horns grow back though and manage to recover from this twice. Their powers involve the usage of invisible arms, known as "vectors". They usually have a limited range of a few meters; Lucy's are able to extend to two meters in the manga). They also have the ability to detect the location of each other, such as when Kurama releases Nana from the offshore laboratory to search for and retrieve Lucy.

A key dispute throughout the series is the Diclonius propensity towards violence. Many have a vendetta against humans, and have ambitions to wipe out the human race and populate the world with their own species. Diclonius DNA is transferred to normal humans if the vectors of the Diclonius penetrate them. An incident involving the escape of a child Diclonius during Kurama's early years where the Diclonius' vectors penetrated him resulted in Mariko being born a Diclonius, and Kurama takes precautions against a recurrence by attempting to sterilize Bando.

It is disputed and contradicted during the series as to how Diclonius develop this behavior, whether it is part of their personality or whether it stems from abuse by humans, and both conclusions are supported by significant evidence. Kurama explains to Bando that Diclonius are born with the intention of populating the world, and Lucy has implied to be directed by Diclonii instincts when she kills humans. In the anime's final episode Lucy tells Kohta that "I was born to destroy humans." However, it is also shown that the Diclonius have usually been subjected to some type of severe psychological trauma; for example, Lucy was tormented by her human peers and witnessed the killing of her pet as a child, while Mariko was raised in neglect since her birth. They could therefore have developed their homicidal tendencies from abuse.

The researchers at the experimental facility believe the Diclonius to be nothing less than an existential threat. The Diclonius there are kept in isolation; where they are heavily restrained and fed through a tube. Lucy mentions the danger to the human race to Kohta in the final episode: "Given just five years, I can ensure that there are more babies of our kind born in the world than there are normal humans."

Diclonius, a mutant species similar to humans in build but distinguishable by two horns on their head and "vectors", transparent telekinetically controlled arms that have the power to manipulate and cut objects within their reach.

Protagonists

Kaede (Lucy/Nyu)

Lucy (ルーシー Rūshī^?) is a teenage diclonius girl, around 18 years old, and the central protagonist/antagonist of the series. Lucy has four vectors with a limited range of about two meters. However, she can be swift and lethal within that range, and will use any nearby objects as high velocity projectiles to kill at greater distances. She is also capable of stopping or deflecting most standard ammunition when she concentrates on the task.

Lucy hates humans mainly because of how she was treated by her human peers as a child, of whom she eventually killed several after they captured a puppy Lucy had been caring for and beat it to death in front of her. Consequently, she discounts non-diclonii, claiming they are not real people, to the point of telling Nana that she has "not killed anyone yet". She seems to lack empathy and kills without much concern and normally as a first reaction. She is incredibly sadistic, amputating limbs and blinding foes, leaving them to bleed to death rather than killing them outright. Despite this lack of concern for human life she will not harm Kouta, and cries and apologizes for killing his family in a fit of jealousy; she loves Kouta, but due to her vengeful nature, she believes he will be content without her existence. As such, she refrains from killing in his presence, except in the anime, when at the end, she kills a whole army in front of him. However, Lucy still isn't above acts of jealously, once using her vectors to shove Yuka when she saw her holding hands with Kouta. She never refers to herself as Lucy, but thinks of herself as "Kaede", which is the name she uses to sign her letter to Kouta in the manga. After her death in the manga, Kouta and his daughter are approached by two twin girls with ribbons in their hair, heavily implied to have some connection to Lucy.

Nyu (にゅう ^?) is a split personality of Lucy that developed after a .50 BMG round pierces the metallic helmet encasing her head. Nyu has a childlike personality and infantile knowledge of the world, and lacks spoken language skills, being able to say only "Nyu" and "Kohta" most of the time. Near the end of the anime, she develops a wider vocabulary, with the ability to say phrases like "Don't cry, Kohta!". Nyu is innocent and incapable of violent acts, a foil to the normally cold and sadistic Lucy; she is the manifestation of her "good side". When Nyu is attacked violently (or hit on the head), she regresses into Lucy; likewise, when Lucy is treated with love and kindness, or wants to hide herself from Kohta, she will change back into Nyu. While Nyu exists first due to trauma, it is believed that Lucy subconsciously encourages her presence due to her feelings of guilt towards Kohta and to prevent her from harming him (directly or indirectly). In the manga, this is confirmed by Lucy herself.

During the final episode, Nyu cuts her hair to try to be in appearance like his deceased little sister Kanae, whom Kohta claimed to have said horrible things to her before she died in the hands of Lucy. When Kohta mused if Kanae would ever forgive him for what he said, Nyu copied Kanae's appearance of short hair and a bow and, on account of Kohta asking Nyu what she was up to, said, 'I'm Kanae!' and said she forgave Kohta so he wouldn't be sad. Coincidentally, this is the same hairstyle Lucy donned in her youth. She is subverted by Lucy for a larger portion of the manga's final volumes, but reemerges in chapter 106, helping her other personality stop a third personality, based entirely on Diclonius instincts (which in flashbacks, was what urged Lucy to start killing), from harming Kohta. She then urges him to kill her and fulfill the promise he made with Lucy so long ago, which he does. After her death, Kohta names his daughter after her.

Voiced by: Sanae Kobayashi (Japanese), Kira Vincent-Davis (English)

Kouta

Kouta (コウタ/耕太 Kōta^?) is the main male character of the series and is first introduced in Volume 1, when he arrives in Kanagawa Prefecture to attend college, having previously arranged to stay with his cousin Yuka while at school.

Kouta enters the story when Yuka's family rents him a closed down restaurant as long as he maintains it, and begins living there with Yuka while going to a university. Kohta has repressed traumatic memories of witnessing the deaths of his father and sister, which later in the plot is revealed to be by Lucy's hand, who acted out of jealousy. He suffers from amnesia brought on by the trauma of this event, causing him to end up in a psychiatric ward for over a year following the event. Due in part to his loss, Kouta is sympathetic towards girls in trouble and is extremely generous and protective to the girls around him, because he can relate to them, and they remind him of his late younger sister, Kanae.

He meets Lucy in his childhood when she is burying her dead puppy and running away from the orphanage where she killed four children. In the anime, he was visiting his cousin with his family and decided to go to the mountain to draw, taking with him a music box he had recently purchased which plays Lilium, the song used as the anime's theme. He strikes up a conversation with her when she apparently likes the song from the music box. He finds her horns fascinating and gives her a hat to cover them up while in public, believing Lucy hates them. He asks her if they could be friends and spends time with her. He takes her to the zoo, telling her that he likes to look at the "strange animals." In Lucy's hallucination, she perceives this as the reason why he was so nice to her. He lies to her about the gender of his cousin by saying that Yuka is a boy so Lucy wouldn't be upset or jealous. When she finds out that he lied to her, she stows away onto his train, where Kouta is initially happy to see her. His sister, however, is terrified of Lucy, having seen her kill several dozen people at the fair. While attempting to protect her brother, Lucy rips Kanae in half and decapitates Kouta's father. Before she goes to kill Yuka, a traumatized Kouta knocks her down and begs her to stop killing people.

In the anime version, Kouta's repressed memories are triggered when Lucy kills a whole army in front of him, afterwards singing Lilium, the song that brought them together. He is more forgiving in the anime, effectively stating that she became a monster because everyone treated her like one, even kissing Lucy and stating that he still loves her and her Nyu persona; though, he proclaims that he cannot bring himself to fully forgive her for the murder of his family. However, once he gets his memories back in the manga, he is truly unforgiving towards her for killing his father and sister. He, however, considers Nyu innocent of her more violent half's actions. Even though he was injured from trying to save her earlier, Kouta still decides to confront Lucy again, once again reiterating his desire for revenge. However, because both Nyu and Lucy share a body, he cannot bring himself to carry out his vengeance and instead offers her a peaceful life so long as she promises never to harm a human being again.

Although Lucy initially agrees, a chain of events lead to her instincts betraying her and Kouta once again mortally wounded. She almost destroys the world in her despair, but manages to subdue her violent instincts upon deciding to save his life in return for hers. Upon regaining consciousness, Kouta finds that Lucy is literally melting away from her last act of selflessness. Unfortunately, the violent personality once again breaks through and starts assaulting the world once more. Kohta shoots and kills her at both Lucy and Nyu's urgings, thus stopping Lucy's violent rampage once and for all. He names his daughter Nyu in her memory and is seen visiting Lucy's puppy's grave over the years in order to honor a promise he'd made to her in their childhood. He then discovers a note Lucy had written and signed with her real name (Kaede) with Nyu's help, buried near the stone. Kouta finally can fully forgive Lucy for the slaughter of his family upon reading it. As he is crying, Nyu calls to a girl named "Kaede" and two twin girls with ribbons in their hair appear, heavily implied to bear some connection to Lucy and Nyu. One states that they've been waiting for their special friend, to which Kouta finally turns around, smiling with tears of joy in his eyes.

Voiced by: Chihiro Suzuki (Japanese), Adam Conlon (English)

Yuka

Yuka (ユカ ^?) is Kouta's cousin around his age and moves in with him at the restaurant. It is revealed in both the manga and the anime that she since childhood have had feelings for Kouta and reacts jealously to Kouta's attention to Nyu; however, it is later shown that she is jealous of any girl (regardless of age) who she suspects may be close to Kouta, to the point of being irrational.

At one point her feelings are returned by Kouta briefly. This occurs when Lucy goes missing and the two of them are resting under a shrine. Holding her, Kouta apologizes for not remembering anything about his past, or how he once felt about her. The two share a kiss, but shortly after, Lucy appears and their relationship is halted. Mayu once described her as the "mother" at Kaede House, and Kouta as the "father". Yuka does possess a caring and mature side, and seems to be protective of both Nyu and Mayu, and later on Nana; however, in quite a few ways, she is a typical teenager, particularly when it comes to dealing with her feelings for Kouta and friendships with the girls who come to live with them. In the manga, Kouta has a daughter named Nyu, who highly resembles Yuka as a child and is likely her daughter.

Voiced by: Mamiko Noto (Japanese), Nancy Novotny (English)

Mayu

Mayu (マユ ^?) is a young homeless girl of around thirteen years old (In the manga she is introduced at age twelve and turns thirteen, but in the anime she is introduced at age 13 and turns 14.) Mayu is first introduced when she arrives at the closed down restaurant (then inhabited by Kouta, Yuka, and Nyu) to return an umbrella she found at the beach. Mayu lives on the beach with a stray puppy whom she refers to as Wanta, subsisting mostly on bread crusts from a nearby bakery. When the bakery closes down, though, she reluctantly accepts Kouta and Yuka's offer to stay at the restaurant.

It is later discovered that Mayu had run away from home after enduring repeated molestation by her stepfather. Her own mother would not protect her, because she was jealous of her. Kouta and Yuka later contact her mother who seems eager to let her daughter stay with them; they are officially given custody over Mayu and she begins to go to school in their area. Mayu is also responsible for saving Bando's life when she discovered him lying on the beach, dismembered and blinded after his first confrontation with Lucy. In the manga, it is shown that Mayu cared deeply about Bando.

Voiced by: Emiko Hagiwara (Japanese), Cynthia Martinez (English)

Nana

Nana, appearing to have misplaced her arms and legs.

Nana (ナナ ^?), also known as Number 7, is a young Silpelit girl who has the physical appearance of being 12-14 years old. Nana's actual age is actually about 6 years old; the manga explains in greater detail that Silpelits age more rapidly than humans (or a "Queen Diclonius" like Lucy). Her name, 'Nana', is Japanese for the number seven, the number by which she was called at the research facility ("Nana" is also a fairly common female name in Japan). Most Diclonius babies are euthanized at birth in sweeps of hospital maternity wards, but Nana was one of a handful kept alive for use as a test subjects and has spent her entire life in the Diclonius research facility.

Nana sees Kurama as her father, whom she calls "Papa," because she needed something to keep her from going insane during the torturous experimentation, believing that she is making him proud. Kurama in turn sees her as his daughter and cares very much for her. In an attempt to recapture Lucy, Kurama sent out Nana to find her (diclonii can telepathically sense each other), then retreat until Kurama could arrive with soldiers, but Nana wanted to impress Kurama so she tried to capture Lucy herself. Lucy and Nana engaged in a brutal telekinetic battle that ended with Lucy dismembering Nana. Kurama personally came to stop Lucy and save Nana, then also disregarded Director General Kakuzawa's order to kill her by giving her new prosthetic limbs (a running gag is that they always fall off at some point) and setting her free with money to survive. In the manga, Nana saw Kurama in a much more romantic light and he possibly returned her feelings; during the ending, Nana and Kurama were shown together visiting a grave marked "Kurama" and Kurama holding Mariko's ashes. Nana then reveals that they are now living together. Nana asks him to take her as his wife and began crying, questioning whether Kurama wanted to "make babies with Nana", to which Kurama smiles and responds, "Why are you saying such silly things? Nana is my...", as the scene fades.

Unlike many other Diclonius, because Kurama treated her with kindness, Nana is not homicidal or sadistic. She has the ability to temporarily disable other Diclonius' vectors by having her vectors go through their pineal gland. Although her vector power is superior to Lucy's in terms of range (5 meters to Lucy's 2) and certain abilities, she lacks Lucy's sheer strength (Lucy can lift and throw many times heavier objects than Nana can), and violent nature (Nana's empathy for others does not allow her to fight as vigorously or kill). With her vector arms, she is later able to manipulate prosthetic appendages and even throw them like a rocket punch.

Nana can be seen as the exact opposite of Lucy. While Lucy's default personality is serious and cold, Nana's is friendly and kind; Lucy's split personality "Nyu" is similar to Nana's default while Nana sometimes goes into trances and acts cold like Lucy's default personality. One time in particular was remarkably similar to Lucy's fall into the path of a cold-blooded killer, and it literally took the force of a magnum bullet grazing her skull to knock her back to her senses. Nana is in the middle of the spectrum of Lucy's split personalities: she's not as mature as Lucy, but more mature than Nyu. She is, in fact, extremely childish due her young age.

Voiced by: Yuki Matsuoka (Japanese), Sasha Paysinger (English)

Nozomi

Nozomi (ノゾミ ^?) is a 15-17 year old soft-spoken and shy friend of Yuka who would have been introduced around episode 6-7, but only appears in the manga for unknown reasons, although some theories are that they couldn't find a fitting voice for her, or that they didn't know what to do with her since the manga was still ongoing. She has a psychological bladder problem because of her father frequently physically abusing her when she was a child for wanting to become a singer and therefore wears diapers. Kouta first encounters her while walking to the store (not realizing they both know Yuka), and both are embarrassed when the wind blows her skirt up. They later meet at the restaurant and Nozomi is revealed to have a great talent for singing. Nozomi is the person who sings the song "Elfenlied", while teaching Nyu how to sing.

Antagonists

Kurama

Kurama (蔵間 ^?) is the chief of research working for Kakuzawa, aged in his mid-30's, of the diclonius children in the research containment facility. He is also the surrogate father of Nana and biological father of Mariko. His wife, Hiromi Kurama, died from Caesarean section complications shortly after she gave birth to Mariko. Although he had previously been tasked with killing all diclonius births, he falters when he must kill his own daughter. Lucy carries a deep hatred toward Kurama, stemming from his failure to save Aiko Takada (seen in the Elfen Lied OVA); however, she states that she will not kill him but will kill everything that loves him. It is revealed late in the series that the General Director of the Diclonius research program kept his daughter Mariko alive, increasing Kurama's perceived debt to him. Near the end of the series, Kurama makes a deal with Bando to repair his damaged arm in exchange for his help in killing Lucy.

Kurama kills himself in the final episode of the anime as he cradles Mariko in his arms, lamenting his failure to give her the warmth and love she needed in her life. The explosives implanted inside her are detonated at his command, and he perishes along with his daughter. It should be noted that right before the explosion, Kurama has a series of images flashing in his mind. In them, his wife is still alive and Mariko is a normal child, and together the images make up Kurama's idea of how life presumably would have played out if Mariko had been born normal (Mariko as a toddler, Mariko on her first day of school, etc.).

Kurama does not die in the manga; Mariko (worried about the safety of her father) confronts Lucy and clings to her as the bomb inside her detonates; this results in Lucy's horns being destroyed and turning back into Nyu, as well as Mariko's death. Kurama, depressed by his pathetic ability as a father, attempts to commit suicide with a nearby MP5, but is saved by Bando. Kurama then lives in a small shed on the beach and is rendered partially insane. He clings to a dead body of what he thinks is his daughter, Mariko, and won't let anyone come near him. Later, Nana finds him but he shuns her away, still clinging to the clone Mariko. Another clone Mariko shows up and Kurama tries to embrace her too. She however attacks him and fights with Nana. When she is about to finish Nana off, Kurama shoots her in the head and survives the series, regaining his sanity.

In the epilogue, Kurama and Nana were shown together visiting a grave marked "Kurama" and Kurama holding Mariko's ashes. It is then revealed that they are now living together. Nana asks him to take her as his wife and began crying, questioning whether Kurama wanted to "make babies with Nana", to which Kurama smiles and responds, "Why are you saying such silly things? Nana is my...", as the scene fades.

Voiced by: Osamu Hosoi (Japanese), Jay Hickman (English)

Bando

Bando (坂東 ^?) is an operative in his mid-30's who worked for the National Police Agency's Special Assault Team (SAT). Though he is fully human, he is as homicidal and apathetic towards others, and does not hesitate to kill anything to accomplish his agenda. Despite his outward nature, he always feels obligated to return the favors others have done for him. However in the manga, he also shows compassion at rare times. He is a hardy and effective soldier, with an excellent aim able to kill several targets in only a few seconds.

After being defeated by Lucy, Bando is repaired with weak bionic, cybernetic and prosthetic implants, and escapes on a quest for revenge against her. Heavily armed, Bando returns with weaponry powerful enough to pierce the shield created by vectors; however, this is less effective at long range[citation needed]. Bando is so determined to win that he cleans up the garbage on the beach ahead of time to prevent Lucy from utilizing the objects as weapons. Bando is driven by the will to fight and to prove his superior ability in combat, and to avenge the wounds he suffered at Lucy's hands, however at the end of the anime he is defeated again by Lucy, who leaves him alive instead of killing him.

In the manga, he is shown to have a compassionate side, for example saving Kurama from killing himself, and feeling obligation to bury the dead. He is reluctant to accept positive emotions from others, such as Mayu and Nana, and, while he is violent, ruthless, and all too willing to kill, he takes great offense to acts of perversion, such as child molestation. When Mayu asks for help when she is attacked by an unknown man, Bando expresses intense disgust over the man's actions. Later, Bando is almost killed while protecting Mayu from Lucy, who attacks Mayu after she is exposed as a killer. Lucy rips off his remaining arm, cuts him in half then flees. As he dies in Mayu's arms, Bando reflects that he had always wanted someone to cry for him after he died, since he had isolated himself from society his whole life. In his memory, Mayu continues cleaning the beach where Bando had come to live. In the last chapter, Bando is seen approaching Mayu on the beach, telling her there was no way he could die. Mayu runs towards him in tears and embraces him. A close-up shot of his foot seems to indicate that he was resuscitated through the use of bionics, although no definite explanation is ever given.

Voiced by: Jouji Nakata (Japanese), Jason Douglas (English)

Mariko

Mariko Kurama (蔵間マリコ Kurama Mariko^?), also known as Number 35, she is described as the only surviving "third generation" Silpelit(a Silpelit born from one infected by another Silpelit, as opposed to one born from one infected by a Diclonius) and is the daughter of Kurama She is described as the most powerful of the diclonii. During an escape attempt by Number Three (who was actually Nana's sister), Kurama was infected by her vectors and thus turned into a carrier of the Diclonius virus, and his daughter was born a silpelit. In the anime she possesses 26 vectors (up to fifty in the manga[citation needed]), each with an approximate range of 11 meters (range is much higher in the manga).

Mariko was imprisoned as an infant and raised inside a steel container with human contact consisting of nothing more than a scientist acting as a sort of foster mother through speakers and monitors. Her physical impairment is seen in her atrophied limbs as she moves around in a wheelchair.

Despite the environment she was raised in, Mariko is relatively well developed psychologically. She is extremely homicidal and sadistic, and enjoys torturing and dismembering her victims. However, her personality is not blatantly evil. She is only having fun, seeing killing as a game, and the pleasure she gets from it is equivalent to a child ripping the wings off of an insect or burning ants with a magnifying glass. She is in fact capable of caring about others and has a strong love for Kurama.

In order to keep Mariko under control, the research institute implanted at least two bombs (probably more) in her body during infancy; one is used to remove her right arm, after she attacks scientists at the institute. When she is sent to kill Nana, Mariko is also given a prosthetic to move with her vectors. In the anime, Kurama later orders the other bomb(s) to be detonated as he walks away embracing his daughter, killing not only Mariko, but himself as well.

In the manga, during confrontation with Nana, Kurama tells both of them about the circumstances of the birth of Mariko. Feeling rejected by her father, Mariko attempts to kill Nana as an act of revenge but is stopped by Bando, who at the request of Kurama, escapes carrying Nana with him, although he is not able to prevent her from returning to the fight.

Meanwhile, Kurama reconciles with Mariko, who immediately afterward protects him from being hit by an non-explosive missile. After being hit by this missile, Mariko temporarily manifests a split personality like Lucy/Nyu that is infantile and affectionate towards her father. Lucy then appears, searching for Nana with the rest of the inhabitants of the Inn. Upon seeing Kurama, Lucy attempts to kill him, but Mariko sacrifices herself to save her father. She tries to kill Lucy to protect Kurama by activating the bombs that were inside of her body, while holding on to Lucy.

Voiced by: Tomoko Kawakami (Japanese), Luci Christian (English)

Director Kakuzawa

Director Kakuzawa (角沢長官 Kakuzawa Chōkan^?) is the head of the research center at 70+ years old performing experiments on Diclonius. He is from a long line of Diclonius ancestry that has been watered down by inter-breeding with humans (much of this is, however, only revealed in the manga). As a result, he has no vectors and much smaller horns on his head, which he hides under a wig. His and his son's aim are in part to replenish their bloodline with the Diclonius they are experimenting on (of which Lucy is the first to be able to reproduce) and thus gain power as "kings" of the new race, which would wipe out humanity and replace it entirely. In the manga, he even claims to desire the position of a god of the new, Diclonius-ruled world he envisions. He is the father of Anna Kakuzawa, professor Kakuzawa and Lucy's Diclonius half brother. Even after revealing to Lucy all his plots to terminate mankind and to fill the world with Diclonius, he is decapitated by Lucy along with his Diclonius son. She then reveals that he is not a Diclonius at all, and that his horns were the result of an unrelated mutation. In the anime, he isn't killed, and continues with his plans.

Voiced by: Kinryu Arimoto (Japanese), Andy McAvin (English)

Professor Kakuzawa

"I swear, if my head weren't screwed onto my neck..."

Professor Kakuzawa (角沢教授 Kakuzawa Kyōju^?) is the 30-something son of Director Kakuzawa. Like his father, he is a watered-down Diclonius with small horns and no vectors. When he and Kurama were younger, they both went to university together. It was Kakuzawa who originally got Kurama involved in research on the Diclonius. He is the lecturer for a course at the university in which Kouta and Yuka are enrolled. He was the one responsible for releasing Lucy at the research center. He is later beheaded by Lucy after abducting and attempting to rape her.

Voiced by: Hiroaki Hirata (Japanese), John Swasey (English)

Other Characters

Kanae

Kanae, playing some sort of practical joke on her brother, no doubt.

Kanae (カナエ ^?) is Kouta's younger sister, already deceased by the time of the story. Kanae was protective of her brother and became jealous whenever other girls showed him attention.

At the festival Kanae watched as Lucy killed several people around her. It's not shown but Kanae claims in the manga that she saw Lucy killing people using her vectors, which are normally unseen to the human eye (with the exception of Mariko's vectors); unlike everyone else, who did not connect Lucy and the deaths, and were led to believe it was a bomb.

She is later brutally murdered by Lucy before her father, on the train leaving Kamakura. In the anime, Kouta and Kanae's father comes over to see what is happening, unaware his daughter has died, before he is also murdered by Lucy. In the manga he witnesses Kanae's death as well and apparently intends to avenge her by attacking Lucy (instead, he is killed). However the trauma of witnessing their murders, in both series, causes Kouta to repress his memories of the events; in the manga, he believes that Kanae was killed in a car accident, whereas in the anime he believes that she simply got sick and died.

Voiced by: Maria Yamamoto (Japanese), Monica Rial (English)

Kisaragi

Kisaragi (right), the lovable klutz.

Kisaragi (如月 ^?) is Kurama's personal secretary who seems to space out at work often and is often quite clumsy. She is killed by Lucy at the start of the story when she, completely oblivious of what is going on, trips in front of the rampaging Lucy, who tears off her head and uses the body to shield herself from the security team's gunfire. In the manga, Kisaragi was taken hostage by Lucy while walking down the hall. Since Kurama's men were unable to get a clear shot of Lucy, Kurama told Kisaragi they had to sacrifice her. Kisaragi did not seem upset after hearing this, instead saying she was happy to give her life if it meant she was helping. Kurama assured her that her death would not be meaningless, but before Kurama could tell his men to shoot, Lucy tore off Kisaragi's head. After using Kisaragi's decapitated body as a shield and killing the men, Lucy told Kurama that Kisaragi's death was meaningless, and left laughing. After she is killed Kurama picks up her decapitated head and vows to avenge her death.

Voiced by: Maria Yamamoto (Japanese), Tiffany Grant (English)

Arakawa

Arakawa (荒川 ^?) is a young researcher in her mid-20's who is also Professor Kakuzawa's partner who works alongside him to create a vaccine in order to counter the threat of the Diclonius virus. She along with Kouta inadvertently discovered Professor Kakuzawa's severed head and warned the boy not to disclose anything of what he saw or heard with anybody else. Afterwards, she reported her finding to Director Kakuzawa at his compound facility, but he wouldn't let her go scot-free after seeing his son's horns. She was threatened by Director Kakuzawa to take charge of his deceased son's research or else be killed. She is also seen ripping a picture of Kouta out of a book and stashing it in her coat when Director Kakuzawa's back was turned so he wouldn't know of his association with Lucy.

In the anime, Arakawa is a minor character whose role provides little or no contribution at all for advancing the plot, as later she's often seen complaining about that being so busy does not allows her to take a shower which becomes a recurrent gag in the series. However, her character eventually plays an important, key role for humanity's salvation in the last story arc of the manga.

Voiced by: Eriko Ishihara (Japanese), Jessica Boone (English)

Sahto

Sahto, the rookie.

Sahto is an agent who we meet at the beginning of the story patrolling the beach with Bando. He seems to be in his mid-30's or late 20's. He constantly whined and talked which provoked Bando to not like the man. Not much is known due to the fact he is brutally decapitated by Lucy when he tries to shoot her in the head at Bando's command.

Saito

Saito (斎藤 ^?) is Mariko's foster mother, in her mid-twenties, and one of the scientists working at Chief Kakuzawa's compound facility. Although she has never actually seen Mariko in person, every day she and the Diclonius girl have been verbally interacting with each other through the use of loudspeakers. Mariko always referred to Saito as "Mother" during these interactions.

When Shirakawa and the scientists were forced to release Mariko from her confinement tank, which she had been sealed in all of her life, they pondered their options as how to make her submit to their commands. Saito was the first to volunteer in greeting Mariko in an attempt to appease her, mistakenly believing that by allowing herself to be seen by Number 35 would help to identify herself as the Diclonius' mother. At first the reunion went as expected; Mariko overjoyed for seeing her "mother" for the first time ever, and Saito immediately feeling pity for the Diclonius upon watching the abysmal condition of her body: dehydrated, undernourished, unable to walk.

Once an unsuspecting Saito approached close enough, Mariko revealed her true colors. Unemotionally asking "My mommy?", when Saito answered "Yes," Mariko replied "My mother, isn't you!" She then exploded the lower half of Saito's body and threw the upper torso through the window of the control room to catch the operator off guard. To prevent Mariko from going on a killing spree, Saito used her final breath to detonate the explosive in Mariko's right arm in order to subdue her.

Voiced by: Maria Yamamoto (Japanese), Allison Sumrall (English)

Shirakawa

Shirakawa (白河 ^?) is a scientist that works very closely with Kurama. Though her personality on the surface reflects a business-like demeanor, she holds a secret affection and genuine concern for Kurama. The manga portrays her personality as mostly servile and submissive, to the extent of letting Director Kakuzawa sexually abuse and humiliate her to get information from him. It is also revealed she has feelings for him and considers admitting it before being decapitated by Lucy. In the anime, Lucy cuts her in half.

Voiced by: Hitomi Nabatame (Japanese), Shelley Calene-Black (English)

Isobe

He is the head staff manager of research on the diclonius children in Chief Kakuzawa's island facility and also Kurama's subordinate in his mid-40's. He's portrayed as an uncaring, callous, and analytical figure towards the Diclonius just like the rest of the scientists experimenting on them. Both his role and physical appearance are slightly altered for the manga, seen few times paired up with Bando in the latter, but do not seem to affect the general plot in any way. Isobe views all Diclonius as dangerous threats to humankind's existence that need to be permanently caged or "put to sleep" like animals. In the final episode he is decapitated by Lucy, when he tries to take advantage in shooting at Nana after the latter was taken aback by Kurama's death. In the manga he is killed by Mariko.