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This page lists the characters of Elfen Lied and their associated tropes.
Lucy / Kaede[]
Voiced by: Sanae Kobayashi (JP), Kira Vincent-Davis (EN)[]
The female protagonist of the series, she is a teenage Diclonius around 18 years old. Lucy has four vectors with a limited range of two meters. However, she demonstrates prodigious control over her vectors and can be swift and lethal within that range in addition to being able to use nearby objects as high velocity projectiles to kill at greater distances. She is also capable of stopping or deflecting most standard ammunition. Her great skill, murderous intent and ability to reproduce have caused her to be regarded as the most dangerous of the Diclonius.
Lucy hates humans mainly because of how she was treated by her human peers as a child. Consequently, she discounts non-Diclonii, claiming they are not real people, to the point of stating that she has "not killed anyone yet". She seems to lack empathy, kills without much concern, and acts sadistically. Despite this lack of concern for human life she will not harm Kouta, as he was her only childhood friend.
- Adaptation Dye Job: Somewhat. Her hair is more dark and red in the anime, while in the manga it's a pure pink.
- The Atoner: Sort of.
- Ax Crazy: In the manga, at least, Lucy doesn't just nonchalantly tear people to pieces, she does it with a huge grin on her face.
- Evil Laugh: Manga-only.
- Anti-Villain Protagonist: Type II. One of the best examples.
- Badass: Oh so much.
- Badass Adorable: When she starts defrosting, she builds up an immense reservoir of Moe.
- Berserk Button: If she sees you as a threat to Kouta, you will die. Period.
- Break the Cutie: She used to be a sweet kid named Kaede, but Tomoo killed that off when he tortured her and killed a dog that she had as a child, even telling her that she must beg that Tomoo doesn't hurt him if she wants the dog safe. Although it costs his life, she uses his actions as a reason to condemn humanity by history.
- Broken Bird: Just about as broken as you can get. Seriously.
- Bully Hunter: Lucy takes this trope to the logical extreme and beyond in her backstory. Just...don't hurt dogs near her, ok? Less a case of wanting to get her own back on bullies, more a case of having a full-on psychotic break.
- But Your Horns are Beautiful: When Kouta first meets Lucy as a child this is more or less what he says.
- Catgirl: Her appearance looks like this, but the "ears" are actually horns, making her more of a Cute Monster Girl.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: In the most frightening way imaginable.
- The Combat Pragmatist
- Curb Stomp Battle: Pretty much any "fight" she takes part in, although this is reversed in the battle between Lucy and Mariko, but only in the Anime. Averted by her duel with Nana, which is more or less an even match; Nana gets the advantage, but Lucy wins because she's far more willing to hurt Nana than vice versa.
- Dark Action Girl
- Dark and Troubled Past: Lucy was once a girl named Kaede who attended an orphanage. Tomoo, despite his lack of reason to, made fun of her ear-like horns and, in the anime adaptation, her status as an abandoned child. She condemned humanity by history, effectively.
- Death Glare: And a swift death follows. Always.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: Most of her arc in the anime. "Defrosting" also includes being slightly less murderous.
- Depraved Bisexual: Never throughly explained, however if Nyu means anything...
- The Determinator: No matter how many people oppose her. She will find Kouta and she will apologize to him, and anyone who gets in her way will die. Horribly. Also, if your name is Kurama, don't ever let your loved ones near her. She will kill every last one of them. And there's nothing you can do to stop her.
- Evil Sounds Deep: Lucy's voice is deep and quite ominous in comparison to Nyu's chirpy, childish, high-pitched voice.
- The Eeyore
- Fetish Fuel Station Attendant: Deep and ominous voice? Check. Tall, Red and Bishoujo? Check. Woobie? Check. Tsundere and Sugar and Ice Personality? Check. Frequently naked? Check. Badass? Check. Sadistic psychopath? Um...CheckPlease. (It's going to turn someone on, though.)
- Fiery Redhead
- Forgotten Childhood Friend
- Freudian Excuse: She was bullied by a cruel child named Tomoo and despite destroying him she used him as a reason to condemn humanity by history.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: She was resigned to being bullied by the other children at the orphanage for being a freak of nature. Then she got the power to turn a perfectly ordinary living room into a blender.
- Hearing Voices: This is how the genetic urge to Kill All Humans manifests itself to Lucy for the first time. It probably put a damper on her childhood relationship with Kouta when she didn't even notice that she was strangling him.
- Heroic Sacrifice / Superpower Meltdown : Toward the end of the manga.
- Hidden Eyes: Quite often, although very prominent when she's just reverted back to Lucy.
- Humans Are Bastards: Lucy believes strongly this. And considering all she'd been through, one can't honestly blame her (YMMV, of course). [1]
- Identity Amnesia: The switch between Lucy and Nyu and back is triggered by either a nasty injury (usually a blow to the head) or a very traumatic memory.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: It would be hard to say if she has a heart of gold. Platinum or bronze, maybe. But whatever the case, her Pet the Dog moments show that she does have redeeming qualities.
- Karma Houdini: Averted in the manga; Kouta does not forgive her for brutally murdering his dad and sister in cold blood, and she dies by Superpower Meltdown, but the personalities of Kaede and Nyu are reincarnated as twin girls and are reunited with Kouta some years later. In the anime, however, she is implied to survive her last showdown with the army, and while Kouta doesn't exactly forgive her (or at least not her actions), he's much more sympathetic to her plight, and he'd rather see the killing stop than seek revenge.
- Kill All Humans: If it wasn't for Kouta. She would've done this long ago.
- Kick the Dog: She once tries to kill Mayu after Mayu saves her from being killed.
- Kick the Son of a Bitch: The cruel kids at the orphanage got this too, considering what they did, putting her on both ends of Kick the Dog.
- Kick the Morality Pet: Poor Kanae...
- Kick the Son of a Bitch: The cruel kids at the orphanage got this too, considering what they did, putting her on both ends of Kick the Dog.
- Limp and Livid: Quite a lot.
- Long Lost Sibling: In the manga, she has a younger half-brother, the first male Diclonius. Upon meeting each other, she kills him. She doesn't hate him, but she did it because their kind can't exist anymore and the fact said half-brother was being controlled by Kakuzawa.
- Love Makes You Evil: At first, but she does get better.
- Made of Iron: She survives taking an anti-tank slug to the head in the first episode. To be fair, though, the thing barely grazes her, she's wearing a helmet, and she has her vectors to protect her. She still does survive falling hundreds of feet off a cliff into the ocean without drowning immediately afterwards though.
- Magical Girlfriend: They can't all be Belldandy.
- Meaningful Name: Can be seen alternatively as a female version of Lucifer (the devil, which fits her role as an evil mass-murderer), and also sounds like "lucid," which could refer to Nyu only initially talking in full sentences when Lucy is at the wheel.
- Lucy is also the name of a protohomonid skeleton with an upright gait and small brain capacity, suggesting a missing link between the great apes and modern humans. Lucy, being the first of her kind capable of "proper" reproduction, could also potentially serve as a missing link between humans and some future Diclonius race.
- Monster Progenitor: She's not the first diclonius by a long shot, but her vectors are capable of spreading the diclonius condition to the gametes of humans she touches with them.
- And how can we forget that She's the only fertile female of her species.
- More Than Mind Control: Turns out Lucy, or rather Kaede, was Driven to Murder in part, by the manipulations of a Complete Monster, Omnicidal Maniac Split Personality within her (Born from either snapping at the constant abuse, her own genetic drive to Kill All Humans, or both).
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Most people seem to either not know or forget that "Lucy" isn't her real name. As revealed toward the end of the manga, "Lucy"'s real name is Kaede.
- Pay Evil Unto Evil: She's far more sadistic towards people who actually deserve it. She'll kill anyone, but she'll torture people like Bando half to death.
- That doesn't explain what she did to Nana and Manga!Mariko.
- Then again, it was mostly Revenge by Proxy directed at Kurama, who isn't exactly the nicest guy in the world.
- That doesn't explain what she did to Nana and Manga!Mariko.
- Perpetual Frowner: In stark contrast to Nyu. Exception are reserved for when everybody else is unhappy.
- Person of Mass Destruction: An order of magnitude more dangerous than the other diclonii, due to being fertile.
- She also has the power to destroy the Earth. At the cost of her own life...
- Power Gives You Larger Horns: A convenient power-up in the manga allowed her to take down a helicopter and smash it onto Nosou and the Mariko clones.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: In the anime. In the manga, they're green according to the cover art.
- Redemption Equals Death: In the manga; probably not in the anime.
- Sanity Slippage
- Shameless Fanservice Girl: Unlike Nyu, she does know that being naked is a problem, but she often has other things on her mind.
- Slasher Smile
- Sociopathic Hero
- Split Personality Takeover: The shift between Lucy and Nyu; Lucy knows when Nyu has been in control, but doesn't try to stop it from happening.
- Star-Crossed Lovers
- The Stoic
- Stringy Haired Ghost Girl: Tends to have this appearance whenever she reverts back to her Lucy persona from her Nyu persona.
- Sugar and Ice Personality: What young Lucy's tsundere tendencies have matured into by the start of the series. Although not at the same time, Lucy's character seems therefore to be the very rare quartet of Tsundere, Sugar and Ice Personality, Yandere and Cute and Psycho.
- Super-Powered Evil Side: She's it, except there's an even more evil side that's essentially her basic instincts.
- Sympathetic Murderer: Walking trope Embodiment.
- Tall, Dark and Bishoujo: She is very beautiful and tall with long red hair, in contrast to Nyu who is neither aloof or tall. If you watch closely, you'll notice that Nyu is actually about a head shorter than her...
- Then Let Me Be Evil: After Tomoo tortured her, she lost her goodwill.
- Tragic Villain: So very, very tragic.
- Tranquil Fury: In the anime, where she kills without a change in her facial expressions.
- Unlucky Childhood Friend
- Unstoppable Rage: About 90% of the time.
- Unusual Ears: Well, they're technically horns(?), but the principle is the same.
- Used to Be a Sweet Kid
- Weak but Skilled: She's actually not that powerful compared to some of the other diclonii; Nana has longer vectors and can hold her at bay, while Mariko is an outright nuke. Lucy is a far more experienced killer, and when Nana tries to go easy on her, Lucy rips her limbs off.
- Subverted in the end of the manga where her vectors can split islands and have a reach of at least hundreds of kilometers.
- When She Smiles: She hardly ever smiles (when she's not killing someone), but when she does...
- Woman Scorned: Sure, Kouta! Don't tell Lucy that you're going to the festival with your female cousin! Even if she finds out, it's not like she'll go so far as to murder your little sister, your father, and dozens of other people, right?
- Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds
- You Gotta Have Pink Hair
Nyu[]
Not a separate character in the strictly technical sense, Nyu is the split personality of Lucy that developed after a .50 BMG round grazed the metallic helmet protecting her head. Nyu has a childlike personality, an infantile knowledge of the world, and lacks spoken language skills, only able to say "Nyu" and "Kouta" most of the time. Nyu is innocent and incapable of violent acts, a foil to the normally cold and sadistic Lucy; she is the manifestation of Lucy's "good side".
When Nyu is attacked violently she regresses into Lucy; likewise, when Lucy is treated with love and kindness or wants to hide herself from Kouta, she will switch 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 Kouta. In the manga, this is confirmed by Lucy herself.
- Anything That Moves: Nyu tends to be rather... indiscriminate when it comes to others.
- Apocalypse Maiden: Nyu is innocent and no threat to anyone. Her other personality is a world-killing weapon.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Put Nyu in danger or do anything to Kouta, and you are seriously going to regret it.
- Brought Down to Normal: The anime cuts off before Lucy is reduced to an extended coma and Nyu is allowed to develop. She is even able to talk in full sentences, and is, at that point, a full personality that directly contrasts Lucy perfectly. She still keeps her Verbal Tic, though.
- Cute Mute: In the sense that her trauma left her with a very limited vocabulary.
- Good Eyes, Evil Eyes: Just contrast the innocent Nyu persona's wide, bubbly eyes with the narrow, hateful, tortured eyes of the Lucy persona.
- Helpless Good Side: In spades.
- Heroic BSOD: When she is captured again, she thinks it was impossible that her actual side is the killer.
- Important Haircut: Nyu's long hair gets chopped off to impersonate Kouta's younger sister Kanae to signify Lucy's guilt over the incident where she killed her.
- Innocent Fanservice Girl: Too many incidents to count.
- Probably the most notable is that she has walked up to Kouta and shoved his hand against her breast, twice, and the 2nd time they were both naked.
- Pokémon-Speak: Technically, she was nicknamed after the only word she could speak at first. It later becomes subverted after the cutoff from the anime.
- Shallow Love Interest: Kind of the point.
- Skinship Grope: She recognizes this behavior as acceptable due to Kouta's mishap.
- Verbal Tic Name
Kouta[]
Voiced by: Chihiro Suzuki (JP), Adam Conlon (EN)[]
An 18-year-old student who arrives in the Kanagawa Prefecture to attend college. He is the male protagonist of the series. Kouta lives in a closed-down inn with his cousin, Yuka, while attending university.
Kouta has repressed traumatic memories of witnessing, firsthand, the deaths of his father and sister. He ended up in a psychiatric ward for over a year following the event, but eventually made a full recovery. As a result, he is particularly sympathetic towards girls in trouble and is extremely generous to and protective of the girls around him. He is very kind and gentle as well, offering to shelter the various suffering characters he and Yuka stumble across, and treating them as part of his family. He and Yuka both initially meet Lucy as she washes up on the shore of a nearby beach.
In actuality, Kouta initially met Lucy in his childhood after she killed her first victims. Unlike everyone else, he found her horns fascinating and forged a strong bond of friendship with her, thus keeping her murderous Diclonius instincts repressed. However, we all know what happens when Morality Chains inevitably break...
- Accidental Pervert
- Angst Coma: Justified given the gruesome severity of what he witnessed.
- Anti-Hero
- Butt Monkey: The poor guy had his family killed just for one simple lie!
- Dark and Troubled Past: Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, anyone?
- The Dulcinea Effect: Only slightly, but Kouta is undeniably more inclined to go the extra distance to help out a girl in need.
- Heroic BSOD
- Innocent Blue Eyes: Kouta has blue eyes. Contrast Tomoo, who has been given blue eyes as well.
- Loves My Alter Ego
- Morality Pet: To Lucy
- Non Action Nice Guy
- Star-Crossed Lovers
- Shiny Midnight Black
- Team Dad: Sometimes referred to as the "Father" of the group, and he acts like it. Despite looking like a typical Nice Guy, he can be surprisingly strict and gruff when he needs to be.
- Trauma-Induced Amnesia: A significant part of the plot.
- Unlucky Everydude: Very unlucky.
Yuka[]
Voiced by: Mamiko Noto (JP), Nancy Novotny (EN)[]
Kouta's cousin, who is around 19 years old and planning to attend the same university as Kouta. She moves in with him at the inn after having not seen him in many years. Having had a crush on Kouta since childhood, she still harbors strong feelings for him, and is openly jealous of Kouta's attention to Nyu, to the point of being irrational.
Despite her brash tendencies, Yuka is geniunely as kind and caring as Kouta. Though she is hesitant and reserved, she is accepting of Kouta's decision to use their inn to shelter those in need.
- Absurdly Youthful Mother: She and Kouta both adopt Mayu despite the fact that Yuka is only 19 and Mayu is 14.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: In a grating manner as well. People tend to dislike her for this... while forgetting that Lucy can be even clingier. At least Yuka would NOT try to kill Lucy, whereas Lucy HAS used her vectors to push Yuka down and started her Roaring Rampage of Revenge because she was jealous of her..
- Cool Big Sis: Arguably. She tries, bless her heart, but it doesn't necessarily work.
- Kissing Cousins: She is infatuated with her cousin Kouta. Kouta is also attracted to her, as the temple scene indicates, but then there's Lucy/Nyu muddying things up.
- Misery Poker: Very much so. She spends so much time fuming over the fact that she can't get close to Kouta when everyone else has been to hell and back.
- In the final chapter of the manga, Kouta's daughter resembles Yuuka.
- Team Mom: As the older of the girls, she is sometimes referred as the "mother" of the group in the anime.
- Tsundere
- Victorious Childhood Friend: In the manga, if Kouta's daughter is any indication...
- Yandere: Early on, definitely, but she fortunately decides to back off.
Mayu[]
Voiced by: Emiko Hagiwara (JP), Cynthia Martinez (EN)[]
A young 14 year-old girl, abandoned by her mother and a victim of sexual abuse by her stepfather. She has run away from home and is homeless at the start of the series, subsisting on bread crusts she is given at a local bakery under the pretence that they are for the small puppy, Wanta, that accompanies her. She ends up living with Kohta and Yuka as her legal guardians. Mayu befriends Nana and tries to take her under her wing.
- Break the Cutie: Her Abusive Parents. Yes, nary a cutie escapes unbroken in this series.
- There's also when she hears about Lucy, she doesn't believe that the person she knew as Nyuu could be a sadistic killer and saves her during her 2nd fight with Bandou, after which Lucy tries to kill her.
- Does Not Like Men / Hates Being Touched: She follows this to a degree; the manga implies that her traumatic experience with her stepfather has soured her on men in general, and finding Kouta in the bath groping Nyu doesn't help. Ironically, she appears to bond most closely with Bandou, who generally treats her like crap, except for when he saved her from the "Unknown Man".
- Rape as Drama: She was sexually abused by her stepfather, and very nearly raped by the Unknown Man.
- The Runaway: A textbook Abused Runaway.
- Shrinking Violet
Nana[]
Voiced by: Yuki Matsuoka (JP), Sasha Paysinger (EN)[]
Also known as Number 7, she is a young Silpelit (Diclonius born from a human) girl who has the physical appearance of being 14 years old. Most Diclonius babies are euthanized at birth, but Nana was one of a handful kept alive for use as a test subject. As a result she has spent her entire life in the Diclonius research facility. Nana can be seen as the exact opposite of Lucy. While Lucy's default personality is serious and cold, Nana's is fragile, friendly, and kind. Nana's default personality is very similiar to Nyu and she also has an endearingly immature knowledge of the world.
Nana was a stand-out subject among the Diclonius for being able to effortlessly repress her murderous instincts. Accordingly, she has never used her vectors to harm humans (or anything for that matter). Chief Kurama sees her as his daughter and cares very much for her. In the end, Nana and Kurama are regarded more instead as a couple with Nana referring to herself as his 'wife', as Kurama couldn't accept Nana as her daughter.
- Adaptation Dye Job: Her hair was purplish-blue in the manga, but is purplish-pink in the anime. Also her eyes were green rather than rose-pink.
- Artificial Limbs
- Badass
- Berserk Button: Threaten to hurt her "papa". I dare you.
- Break the Cutie: An extremely clever inversion. It's explicitly stated that her "Cutie" persona is a psychological defense mechanism that she developed as a result of the universe's constant attempts to break her.
- Beware the Nice Ones: The few times said cutie-persona/psychological-defense-mechanism is broken through. During Nana & Bandou's first meeting on a moonlit beach, Bandou pushes her too far and she snaps on him, gaining the same dead look in her eyes that Lucy almost-constantly has and trying to kill him (and coming very close) until a .50-caliber bullet grazing her head knocks her back to her senses. Later in manga Chapter 74, The Unkown Man threatening Mayu and casually killing Number 28 right in front of Nana is enough to set her off again. Unfortunately, he blasts her before she can attack, taking her out of the fight.
- Can't Catch Up : Despite smarts in battle and ever-increasing savvy, she has a good showing but always gets curbstomped by opponents.
- Cute Clumsy Girl / Dojikko: Combine with Artificial Limbs that are quite prone to popping out and, well...
- Detachment Combat / Rocket Punch: Prosthetic limbs plus vectors equals projectile appendages!!! Must be seen to be believed.
- The Determinator
- Disability Superpower: See above, plus her prosthesis are naturally Immune to Bullets (as Bando realized during their brief first fight).
- Hero Antagonist: To Lucy.
- Incorruptible Pure Pureness: Everything dumped on her only made her sweeter and more heroic, not less.
- Lethal Chef: Given that she was raised in a lab, this isn't all too surprising.
- Morality Pet: For Chief Kurama
- Mundane Luxury: To someone who was raised as a test subject like she was, a simple hot bath is a luxury.
- My Name Is Inigo Montoya: Nana invokes this one constantly, usually just after she's been dealt a severe injury in combat, with "This doesn't hurt at all!" Also usually, the trope is horrifically subverted. Occasionally the reverse occurs, and Nana goes on to triumph in the encounter (albeit, usually, temporarily).
- My Species Doth Protest Too Much: Diclonii are genetically driven to murder, right? Not this one.
- Only a Flesh Wound: Her battle with Lucy.
- The Pollyanna: Admirably and heroically. Under ridiculously brutal circumstances that turned other Diclonii into killers. Choosing not to be one of the series' unstoppable killing machines, Nana maintains an unshakable positive outlook, anchored by her belief that everything will be OK when she can be with papa again.
- Power Nullifier: She can use her vectors to temporarily disable other Diclonius's vectors.
- Redemption Equals Life: If you count simply being a Diclonius as a state in dire need of redemption, Nana definitely qualifies. She is one of the kindest characters in the series, meaning she staunchly rejects the inherent, ingrained desire to eradicate all humans. She never takes a single life throughout both the anime and manga and is amply rewarded by being the only Diclonius to survive the manga.
- Seven Is Nana: Nana is Diclonius subject Number Seven.
- Too Incompetent to Operate a Blanket: raised in a lab, and thus, unable to even cut a cabbage with an ordinary knife.
- Took a Level In Badass
- You Gotta Have Pink Hair
- Younger Than They Look: Silpelits age at about double the rate of normal humans. Nana looks 14 and is really around seven years old.
Nozomi[]
A 15-17 year old girl who's Yuka's best friend and kohai, she aspires to become a famous opera singer like her late mother. However, her father does not approve of her dream, due to her being the only heir of his business, and also because she has a throat defect that will eventually make her lose her voice if she strains it too much.
Due to Dad's rather... violent opposition of her dream, Nozomi developed a psychological trauma that makes her wet herself whenever she becomes too nervous. Despite this, she tries to get into a music high school, secretly training at the Maple Inn, which Yuka invited her to, during her free time and moving there permanently after getting accepted.
- Ascended Extra: She has a special chapter in the manga depicting her past. Arguably the Lightest and Softest chapter in the entire series.
- Bring My Brown Pants: Due to her anxiety issues, she pees herself constantly.
- Cute Mute: In chapter 83, her throat gets crushed by a soldier, turning her into this until the final chapter.
- Demoted to Extra: Surprisingly few people are aware of Nozomi's existence. Despite being a main character, and the reason the show's called Elfen Lied (it's the name of her favorite song), she was written out of the anime.
- Potty Failure
- Pursuing Parental Perils: Nozomi's mother lost her voice from singing due to a vocal cord defect. Nozomi has this same defect and never learns about it. Except when her father tells about it.
- The Runaway: While she didn't really run away in a direct way like Mayu, she still kind of qualifies as an Abused Runaway.
- Shrinking Violet: With damn good reason.
Dr. Kurama[]
Voiced by: Osamu Hosoi (JP), Jay Hickman (EN)[]
The chief of research of the Diclonius children in the research containment facility. He is also the surrogate father of Nana and biological father of Mariko. His wife died from when she tried to stop him from killing their daughter shortly after she gave birth to Mariko.
Kurama was initially respected for his stern, no-nonsense attitude and his devotion to his job, in spite of the horrible atrocities that were being carried out. However, recent events cause Kurama's ironclad devotion to waver...
- Anti-Hero: Type IV. He's willing to terminate innocent children and not-so-innocent adult women alike, for the sake of saving the human race.
- The Atoner
- Badass Bookworm
- Bishonen
- Beard of Sorrow: In the later chapters of the manga.
- Better to Die Than Be Killed: One interpretation of the ending of the anime: he actually lasts much longer in the manga. His sanity, however, does not.
- Fond Memories That Could Have Been: His Diclonus daugther, Mariko. As they both die (at least in the anime). A definite Tear Jerker.
- Heroic BSOD: After shooting Mariko.
- I Did What I Had to Do: He has this attitude as he executes baby diclonius.
- Offing the Offspring: Kurama was initially in charge of terminating Diclonus children because he was the only one who could do it with no signs of regret. That is, until, his own daughter Mariko turns out to be one as well...
- Pay Evil Unto Evil
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Blue to Bando's Red.
- Scary Shiny Glasses
- Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: Him and Bando. Though, Kurama is a Badass Bookworm on par with Bando's Badass Normal.
- Sharp-Dressed Man
- The Stoic: Initially, although less and less as the plot progresses.
- The Spock
Bando[]
Voiced by: Joji Nakata (JP), Jason Douglas (EN)[]
An operative for the National Police Agency's Special Assault Team. Although he is technically human, he is as homicidal and apathetic to other people as the worst Diclonius are. He is incredibly skilled in combat and widely-regarded as a lethal and bloodthirsty soldier.
- Anti-Hero: Type V in the manga. Type IV in the anime. Unlike Kurama, Bando kills mostly For the Evulz, or Revenge.
- Artificial Limbs: After his skirmish with Lucy, who wouldn't?
- Ax Crazy: Not only he is a self-admitted Psycho for Hire, and not only he refuses to personally kill Nyu who can't defend herself, because he can't be arsed to do something so boring, at the beginning, he will smash your face if you as much as try approaching him from the back, even if you are a harmless woman. He gets notably less crazy later in the manga, though, as a part of his Character Development.
- Badass Normal: In the manga at least, he, after surviving multiple encounters with Dicolonii, learns how to dodge vectors.
- He also nearly manages to beat Lucy in his 2nd fight with her, losing because the Unknown Man got in the way, and then because Mayu got in the way.
- Also when facing the Unknown Man, he gets hit with one of his toxic spiked balls, and he endures the pain and rips it out despite being hooked into his skin with barbs.
- Big Damn Heroes: Manga exclusive, combined as it often is with a nice case of Dynamic Entry.
- Blood Knight.
- Character Development: Bando is probably the most Dynamic Character in the series. He goes from a borderline-Complete Monster who joins the SAT to legally kill people, to a Jerkass who will repay people who are in his debt, to finally, a Jerk with a Heart of Gold and Jerkass Woobie who risks his life to stop the Unknown Man from raping Mayu.
- The Combat Pragmatist
- Cool Shades: Very cool.
- Crazy Prepared: After getting his ass handed to him by Lucy early on. He completely cleaned up the beach in order to make sure Lucy had nothing to attack with, figured out her range of attack, and got modified Desert Eagles that fired rounds too heavy for Lucy to block or at close range knock away.
- Curb Stomp Battle: He gets the short end of the stick when he meets Lucy.
- He gives one to the Unknown Man, even though he had his crossbow and Bando didn't use a gun.
- Disability Superpower: His prosthetic arm allowed him to remove a spiked ball from his body during fight with the Unknown Man.
- The Determinator: Grabs hold of a spiked metal ball, which is coated in agony-inducing toxin, out of his body and baseball-pitches it straight into the ass of the guy who shot him with it.
- Don't Sneak Up On Me Like That
- Even Evil Has Standards: Bando has lines he won't cross. If he feels in someone's debt he will try to return the favor.
- And even he can't stand the Unknown Man.
- Flat What: His expression when Lucy throws The Unknown Man's head at him is priceless.
- Half the Man He Used To Be: Loses his lower half and his left arm (and his right one, though he lost it earlier, and It had been replaced with a cybernetic). He recovers, but with a cybernetic lower half (and arms).
- Hitman with a Heart: Particularly in the manga.
- Jerkass -> Character Development -> Jerk with a Heart of Gold: While he's a much bigger bastard than normal of the latter, he has his moments mainly towards Mayu. It's perhaps better than nothing that Bandou is simply a Jerkass and not a Complete Monster, given his behavior and the general treatment of most humans in this show!
- Large Ham
- Noble Demon
- Psycho for Hire: Before his Character Development.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Red to Kurama's Blue.
- Staying Alive: Walking Trope embodiment.
- Sunglasses At Night
- Villainous Rescue
Director Kakuzawa[]
Voiced by: Kinryu Akimoto (JP), Andy McAvin (EN)[]
The director of the Diclonius research facility. He is a repulsive, power-hungry man lacking any sense of morality and will do whatever it takes to achieve his goals. He is from a long line of Diclonius ancestry that has been watered down by inter-breeding with humans. As a result, he has no vectors and much smaller horns on his head. The aim of him and his son is, in part, to replenish their bloodline with the Diclonius they are experimenting on (of which Lucy was the first specimen capable of reproducing) and consequently become "kings" of the new race.
- A God Am I: His ultimate goal.
- Authority Equals Asskicking: A villanous extreme: he will kill a subordinate if they decide not to obey.
- Bad Boss: Putting it lightly.
- Big Bad: The main antagonist of the series. Definitely moreso in the manga.
- Blasphemous Boast: "Not even God can stop me now!"
- The Chessmaster
- Contemplative Boss: Almost always.
- Evilutionary Biologist
- Equivalent Exchange: He believes that Kurama must trade Mariko's life, which is Kurama's daughter for working with him.
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A human has no more than two hands. To take something, one must drop what one's holding. |
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- Hoist by His Own Petard: Satisfyingly killed by Lucy in the manga.
- Karma Houdini: In the anime, in addition to barely getting any screen time, he never faces a bit of danger and is free to gleefully continue his abhorrent research facility.
- Large and In Charge: According to the full-cast shot in the last chapter, he is taller than the rest of the cast by a notable amount.
- Large Ham: He really loves to say his plans out loud.
- Evil Is Hammy: Very hammy.
- Macho Masochism
- Stalker with a Test Tube: A rare male example.
- The Reveal: During his final confrontation with Lucy, it is made known that his family were never true Diclonius, merely Humans with a minor genetic mutation who invented legends and eugenic myths to cope with the persecution they faced in medieval times. The strife he caused our heroes and the world takes on a whole new light.
- The Unfettered
- Utopia Justifies the Means: His goal is to destroy the human race and produce more Diclonii using Lucy, the only fertile female Diclonus, to replace them. He doesn't want to do this for any moral reason, though, but only so that in 100 or 200 years he can be worshipped as the god of the new species.
- Idiot Ball: His plan to do the above involves making it so that all children except Lucy's are born slipelits, which are sterile, thereby reducing the Earth's population to one breeding pair (Lucy and himself) plus his male Diclonius son, which will almost certainly result in extinction of the Diclonii as well even if Lucy cooperates.
- Wicked Cultured
Mariko Kurama[]
Voiced by: Tomoko Kawakami (JP), Luci Christian (EN)[]
Also known as Number 35, she is a young Silpelit girl who is the biological daughter of Kurama. She is regarded as the most powerful of the Diclonius, possessing 33 vectors each with an approximate range of 11 meters in the anime (the number and range is much higher in the manga).
After her mother's Death by Childbirth 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, she is relatively well developed psychologically (for a given degree of "psychologically"), unlike Nana. 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, and the pleasure she gets from it is equivalent to a child playing with toys, not really noticing the differences.
- Adaptation Dye Job: Averted/played with. Due to weird lighting, she seems to be blonde in the anime for most of her early appearance, but outside the funky sunset light (which would need to contain an enormous amount of dust to have that effect, by the way) she's got the classic Diclonius pink hair.
- Badass Adorable
- Cloning Blues: Only in the manga. Has a terrifying effect on an already beyond-broken Kurama.
- Curb Stomp Battle: In the Anime, She utterly dominates Lucy! In the Manga? Not so much...
- Enfante Terrible: Emphasis on the terrible.
- Children Are Innocent: ...but she doesn't know better.
- Evil Cripple: Not so much evil as childishly amoral.
- Explosive Leash: Taken to an extreme. She has multiple bombs planted in her body set to go off every 30 minutes if a specific code does not get constantly transmitted.
- Heroic Sacrifice: In the manga, she charges a now-quite-unhinged Lucy and gets right next to her, allowing herself to be killed just in time for the explosives implanted in her to go off. The explosion knocks Lucy's horns off and causes her to regress to Nyu, thus saving Dr. Kurama from Lucy.
- Improbable Age: 5 years old.
- Love Makes You Evil: A lesser extent than Lucy, but most definitely present.
- Obliviously Evil: For the most part.
- Redemption Equals Death: In the manga.
- Split Personality: In the manga, after being flattened by a huge-ass missile, Mariko temporarily takes on a Nyu-esque persona, even down to only being able to say "Myu". She snaps back to normal when Lucy shows up.
- Stepford Smiler / Slasher Smile
- Too Powerful to Live: Hence the Explosive Leash.
- You Gotta Have Pink Hair
- Blondes Are Evil: Manga only.
Kanae[]
Voiced by: Maria Yamamoto (JP), Monica Rial (EN)[]
Kouta's little sister who died before the series start. She was actually brutally slaughtered by a jealous Lucy, and along with his father, serves as the trigger for Kouta's Trauma-Induced Amnesia.
- Bratty Half-Pint
- Dead Little Sister
- Memento MacGuffin / Tragic Keepsake: The seashell she gives to Kouta on the day of her death.
- Cassandra Truth : Her wild story about a horned girl killing people with arms that came out of her head is proven true in the worst way.
Arakawa[]
Voiced by: Eriko Ishihara (JP), Jessica Boone (EN)[]
A researcher working alongside Professor Kakuzawa to find a vaccine for the Diclonius virus. She, along with Kouta, ends up seeing Professor Kakuzawa's mutilated body. She reports to Chief Kakuzawa what she's seen, but he doesn't intend to let her off scot-free, and threatens her with death lest she take up the rest of Professor Kakuzawa's research.
In the anime, she's basically only there for comic relief, but in the manga, she plays an extremely important role as the story progresses on.
- Chekhov's Gunman: Manga only. She ends up finally creating the Diclonius vaccine.
- Deadpan Snarker: Again, manga only.
- Expy: YMMV, but she does bear a striking resemblance to Yomi Mizuhara.
- Hot Scientist
- Meganekko
- Nerds Are Sexy
- Plucky Comic Relief: In the anime, and early manga. Combined with:
- Running Gag:
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"I'm never going to get to take a shower!" |
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Nousou[]
The head scientist of Chief Kakuzawa after Kurama's departure.
- Bishonen: Just look at his face!
- Cloning Blues: He cloned Mariko.
- Dissonant Serenity: He performs brutally horrific experiments on Diclonii while having a calm expression all the time.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones.
- Karmic Death
- Heel Realization: Feels regret over his tortuous experiments after realizing he loved the clones of Mariko he created as if they were his daughters.
- Mad Scientist: Oh so much...
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Releasing Barbara from his control might have been the right thing to do, but it definitely wasn't the smart thing.
- Stepford Smiler
- Trademark Favorite Food: Seen with something that does not look like Pocky.
- White-Haired Pretty Boy
The Agent[]
An ambiguously looking operative that goes alongside Nousou at the assault of Maple Inn. Is the one that knocks Lucy out and brings her back to the facility.
- Anti-Hero: Type IV
- Bifauxnen.
- Badass: Oh yes.
- Badass Normal: The only person to defeat Lucy. Even though it was a cheap shot.
- Combat Pragmatist: Ruthless, but not sadistic. Will use any means to win.
- Cool Shades.
- Disney Death
- Kick the Dog: Shooting Kouta was a dick move.
- Genre Savvy: She recognizes that removing the mind-control device from the clones leads to dangerous things (See Nousou's entry). So when Arakawa does it, she quickly put it back in right before the clone went all Ax Crazy
- Hidden Depths.
- Sunglasses At Night.
- Reverse Mole: Works for the Japanese goverment. Sent to Kakuzawa as a spy.
- The Stoic.
- Not So Stoic: Stays behind to face certain death so Arakawa can escape with the Diclonius vaccine. Starts crying as soon as Arakawa is gone.
Tomoo[]
This cruel child, hated by most fans, is the ringleader of the children who tormented Lucy as a child named Kaede. He is also the one most responsible for her hatred of humanity.
- Adaptational Jerkass: Tomoo is actually much nicer in the manga than he is in the anime. In the latter, Tomoo spikes his dialogue with words that make him seem to be even worse, for mocking Lucy for abandonment example telling her to beg if she wants her dog to be safe.
- Asshole Victim: There's no sympathy for him when Lucy finally reaches her Rage Breaking Point and kills him as her vectors is this.
- Ax Crazy: If that grin as he smashed a hapless puppy to death is anything to go by, Tomoo is practically this.
- Bad Boss: If his minions were NOT loyal to him, Tomoo could've been this. Or a Manipulative Bastard.
- Creepy Child: Tomoo ironically was this more so than his victim was when she was a child. It gets worse when you recognise him as an evil example and that she was (formerly) a good person.
- Dark Is Evil: Tomoo has black hair on his head and an empty void for a heart (and later his own head).
- Defeat Equals Explosion: Rare non-robotic example. When she kills Tomoo, Kaede makes him explode.
- Enfante Terrible: Tomoo probably would grow up to be a serial killer if Lucy hadn't killed him.
- Evil Is Petty: If you ask him, the only reason for Tomoo to beat Kaede was the lack of emotion.
- Evil Laugh: Tomoo lets out a creepy one when his henchmen grab Kaede as she moves to save her dog.
- Fluffy the Terrible: While his name might not strike fear, what Tomoo did definitely does.
- For the Evulz: Tomoo has absolutely no reason to kill the puppy aside for his own twisted amusement. Therefore, it is terrifyingly possible that he is beyond redemption.
- Gone Horribly Right: Tomoo tortured Kaede just to get any reaction at all. He succeeded and was violently destroyed for it.
- Hate Sink: You gotta make Gigabolt Man-o-War of Rockman X8 seem like a sane person to even like Tomoo.
- I Have Your Wife: Tomoo holds Kaede's hostage in his gambit to bring out her emotion. She does react, but fails to save the dog as Tomoo beats him.
- Innocent Blue Eyes: Inverted hard! Tomoo has blue irises that ring his pupils and despite that has a black heart instead of the expected golden one. Just like Fecto Elfilis.
- Jerkass: Big time. He treated Lucy like crap and later brutally murdered an innocent dog with a grin on his face. Good luck finding any gold in his heart!
- Karmic Death: Tomoo gets caught in the blast when Lucy explodes outwards at the apex of rage at his cruel games.
- Kick the Dog: Or rather, beat the dog to death with a vase.
- Kids Are Cruel: Of the utter sociopath kind. Tomoo and his minions lack any kindness.
- Mugging the Monster: Tomoo brutally killed Kaede's dog, paving the way to his own death as her powers awaken. The room is too compact to provide escape, unfortunately for him.
- Multiple Choice Past: Good luck finding any details on Tomoo's past.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Inverted hard. Tomoo kills a dog and his reaction is utter joy! His only regret was that it happened too quickly.
- Oh Crap: Just before Lucy kills him his look is one of pure shock and terror. Justified as she just eviscerated a minion of his.
- Posthumous Character: His death occurred before the main story.
- Revenge: Tomoo comes back in episode 9 to haunt Lucy's dreams as revenge.
- Riddle for the Ages: Plagued by these.
- Slasher Smile: Tomoo sports this during his cruel game of tormenting Kaede.
- Small Role, Big Impact: Tomoo plays a small role in the story, but if it weren't for his actions, Kaede would still be a sweet woman today, and Dicloniī wouldn't subject mankind to Deader Than Disco.
- Smug Snake: When Tomoo was tormenting Kaede, he was having a giddy time.
- Starter Villain: Chronologically, Tomoo and his partners were the first true villains to appear in the series.
- Terrible Trio: Tomoo has two boys that follow his command. Neither one of them stands up to him.
- The Bully: You bet he is!
- The Sociopath: Oh boy is he... The only reason Tomoo beat the dog was so that Kaede would feel something. You would get the feeling that she saved the world from a serial killer.
- They Look Just Like Everyone Else: His appearance is just like any normal kid, and yet he behaves nothing like one.
- Troll: Frustrated over her lack of reactions, Tomoo beat and killed Kaede's dog in his attempt to bring her emotions out. It ends badly for him. Although, technically, Tomoo got his wish.
- Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: Tomoo is very close to 1980's Strawberry Shortcake's age, but his personality clashes heavily with hers: he is a psychopath and a monster.
- Walking Spoiler: Tomoo's relevance to the plot is entirely associated with how Lucy began her Start of Darkness, after which he ldies painfully.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: Tomoo makes his only appearance in two episodes, and further appearances by him have failed to exist.
Tomoo's Partners[]
These children were nameless boys that followed Tomoo's command. They were destroyed when Tomoo beat the puppy that Kaede took care of and she made her vectors explode in a vengeance.
- Asshole Victim: Tomoo's partners died when their boss pulled his nastiest trick yet.
- Defeat Equals Explosion: Just like their boss himself, Tomoo's partners are destroyed when Kaede eviscerates their bodies.
- Dirty Coward: Tomoo deserved to be betrayed by his partners. Unfortunately for Kaede, neither one of them had the guts to do the right thing and pull off the betrayal.
- No Name Given: Tomoo's partners have unknown names.
- Riddle for the Ages: Did Tomoo's partners join him willingly? Or did Tomoo brainwash/torture them into following his commands? How many were there? If so, what happened to the others? Did they bail out after they realised what their boss was trying to get them to do? Did he kill them? Did they get caught and taken to rehabilitation?
- Starter Villain: Chronologically. They were the first villains to be encountered by Lucy.
- Terrible Trio: They and Tomoo formed this, though it is unknown if they became his minions willingly or if it is because he broke their minds somehow or scared them too much with his cruelty.
- Undying Loyalty: If they were not forced to follow Tomoo's commands.
The Unknown Man[]
This character is a minor manga-only character, a man clad in a black trenchcoat and wide-brimmed hat, with opaque sunglasses and greasy-looking hair. This man appears relatively civil in his debut, but soon reveals his true colors as one of the most horrifically evil bastards, if not the most evil, in the entire series. A brutal Hidan-level sadist; rapist; heartless; and all-around not very nice. He delights in causing pain and suffering, especially in Diclonius and/or teenage girls. Killed by Lucy.
- Agony Beam: A low-tech variation, in the form of a crossbow that fires spiked metal spheres coated in a toxin that causes horrible, cripplingly agonizing pain to those it hits. Bites him in the ass - literally - during his fight with Bandou.
- Abnormal Ammo: Let's just say that heavy spiked balls coated in potent toxins isn't exactly what you'd expect a crossbow to fire.
- Ax Crazy: Perhaps the craziest. And considering the likes of Bando and Lucy, that's saying something!
- Badass Longcoat.
- Dirty Coward: He gleefully tortures and rapes defenseless Diclonii and normal children, but runs away when he confronts Bando.
- Eviler Than Thou: definitely worse than Bandou and/or Lucy, and arguably worse than even Kakuzawa Sr. His evil even makes that of Tomoo of all characters
- Expy: Of Alucard. In both looks and personality (Minus the Dirty Coward part).
- Fan Nickname: For note, the above name is a fan term given to him. He never speaks his name, nor does anyone know his name.
- Hate Sink: You need to subject him to something like Adaptational Nice Guy or Adaptational Heroism to make him more likeable. Liking his canon self is a big warning sign that you could be insane.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Shortly after he tries to rape Mayu, Bandou comes in kicks his ass.
- Karmic Death / Hoist by His Own Petard: During Lucy and Bandou's showdown, he tries to save Lucy from Bandou, and she responds by popping off his head and throwing it at Bandou since there was nothing else around for her to throw.
- Nice Hat: In tune with his "Alucard wanna-be" appereance.
- No Name Given: This arguably just makes him worse.
- Psycho for Hire: Despite being less Hammy than Bando, the Unknown Man manages to be much more sadistic to his victims.
- Rape as Drama: Does this to Number 28, and tries (and comes terrifyingly close) to do it to Mayu (And probably would've done the same to Nana).
- It's also implied that he was allowed to rape many more Silpelits by the staff of the facility.
- The Sociopath.
- Sunglasses At Night.
Number 28[]
A relatively minor manga-only character, 28 is mainly known for the absolutely nauseatingly horrifying fate she suffers at the hands of the Unknown Man.
- Adapted Out: She is thankfully removed from the anime.
- And I Must Scream / Fate Worse Than Death / Cruel and Unusual Death: Sweet mother of God... she has everything below her torso removed, and it's unknown if its the former two or the lattermost.
- Rape as Drama: Courtesy of the Unknown Man.
- The Voiceless: She doesn't get any spoken lines during her time as a whole person, and afterward she can't speak because the Unknown Man ripped her vocal chords out.
- ↑ Three children killed a puppy just to mess with her. Children.