List of Elfen Lied characters

The Elfen Lied cast in the manga.

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

Plot

The story revolves around a Diclonius named Lucy, who escapes from the research facility, killing nearly two dozen people in the process. However, she 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, 'Nyū'. Alongside Lucy, the story revolves around an older teenager named Kohta, who has returned to Kamakura for school, ten years after the death of his father and younger sister. After meeting with his cousin, Yuka, whom he had not 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, where the two cousins used to play with each other as small children, they meet a wounded and naked Nyu, whom they at first take in as a lost teenager. But, after strange occurrences 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, another Diclonius named Nana, and the incontinent singer Nozomi, whom they also let stay in their house.

Protagonists

Lucy/Nyu

The female lead characters of Elfen Lied, left to right: Mayu, Yuka, Nyū, Nana

Lucy (ルーシー , Lucy^?) is a diclonius girl, around eighteen years old (fifteen in the manga) and the central protagonist of the series. Lucy has four vectors with a limited range of about two meters (7 ft). 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.^[1]

Lucy hates humans mainly because of how she was alienated by her human peers as a child, several of whom she eventually killed after they captured a puppy which 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".^[2] She seems to lack empathy and kills without much concern as a usual 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 an entire Special Assault Team unit in front of him. However, Lucy still is not 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 her real name is "Kaede", which is revealed when she uses it 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 and Nyu.

Nyu (にゅう, Miyū^?) 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 "Nyū" and "Kouta" 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, Kouta!". 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 Kouta, 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 Kouta 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 Kouta claimed to have said horrible things to her before she died in the hands of Lucy. When Kouta 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 Kouta asking Nyu what she was up to, said, 'I'm Kanae!' and said she forgave Kouta so he would not 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 Kouta. She then urges him to kill her and fulfill the promise he made with Lucy so long ago, which he does.^[3] After her death, Kouta names his daughter after her.^[4]

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

Kouta

Kouta (コウタ/耕太, Kōta^?) is 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.^[5]

Kouta enters the story when Yuka's family rents him a closed-down restaurant, the Kaeda House, as long as he maintains it, and begins living there with Yuka while going to a university. Kouta has repressed traumatic memories of witnessing the deaths of his father and sister,^[6] which later in the plot is revealed to be by Lucy's hand, who acted out of jealousy.^{[citation needed]}. He suffers from Amnesia brought on by the trauma of this event, caused him to end up in a hospital for over a year following the event^{[citation needed]}. 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 the dead puppy and running away from the orphanage where she killed 4 children (three boys, and one girl to be precise). 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 played "Lilium". 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. 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 "weird animals." In Lucy's hallucination, she perceives this as a reason for why he was so nice to her. He lies to her about the gender of his cousin by saying that it is a boy so she would not be upset or jealous. When she finds out that he lied to her, she stows away onto his train and kills his family. Before she goes to kill Yuka, he tackles her and yells at her to stop killing people.

His repressed memories are triggered when Lucy uses her vectors to kill over a dozen soldiers in front of him, afterwards singing "Lilium", the song that brought them together. He is more forgiving in the anime, 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. In contrast, he is less forgiving in the manga, and he is truly unforgiving towards her for killing his family. In the last chapter, he fulfills his promise to Lucy and kills her. Later, he and Yuka are married, and subsequently name their daughter "Nyu".

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 Kaede House.^[7] It is revealed in both the manga and the anime that she has had feelings for Kouta since childhood, and she reacts jealously to Kouta's attention to Nyū. 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.^[7]

At one point her feelings are returned by Kouta briefly. While Kouta and Yuka are searching for Nyu (after she escapes from the Professor's lab), they take shelter from the rain at the Sasuke Inari Shrine.^[8] While holding each other in an attempt to keep warm, Kouta apologizes for not remembering anything about the time they were together as kids, but states that he remembers that he liked her then and that he likes her now. Yuka initially kisses Kouta, and states that she never wants them to be apart again, after which Kouta wipes away her tears and kisses her back. However, shortly after, they find Lucy/Nyu, who runs crying into Kouta's arms. As Kouta and Nyu share a long hug, Kouta promises Nyu that he will always be with her, and Yuka again becomes jealous as she feels that Kouta is again choosing Nyu over her.

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 Nyū and Mayu, and later Nana. Yuka cares for the girls deeply since she, like Kouta, is unable to turn away people who have been abandoned by their parents and society. 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 last chapter she is shown rebuilding the inn with the others. At the end, it is shown that years later, she and Kouta have married and have a daughter, who is named Nyu.

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

Mayu

Mayu (マユ^?) is a young homeless girl of around thirteen years old^[9] (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.^[7] Mayu is homeless and lives on the beach with a stray puppy that she calls Wanta, subsisting mostly on bread crusts from a nearby bakery.

During the fight between Lucy/Nyu and Nana, Mayu is slightly injured. When she awakens in the hospital, she calls Kouta because he and Yuka are the only people she knows. Kouta and Yuka ask Mayu to stay for dinner at the Kaeda House, as Yuka suspects that Mayu may be homeless. Mayu, deciding that the fight between Lucy/Nyu and Nana was simply a bad dream, develops a friendship with Nyu as they bathe together, and Mayu accepts an offer to spend the night. The next morning, Kouta and Yuka discover that Mayu is gone; she has left a note thanking them for their help but stating that she does not want to be a burden on anyone.

In chapter 18 of the manga, it is revealed that Mayu had endured molestation by her stepfather before she ran away from home. Her own mother would not protect her, because she was jealous of the attention Mayu was receiving from the stepfather. Mayu ran away from home, and upon arriving at the beach, she befriended Wanta, who was also alone.

Back in the present, Mayu and Wanta return to the beach, but Wanta's original owner arrives and takes him away, while rudely turning down Mayu's request to visit him because of her dirty clothing. Mayu tries to comfort herself with the thought that Wanta will at least be able to live in a safe home with plenty of food, but later breaks down and cries. Losing her only friend, Mayu is devastated and spends the night, which is her birthday, alone, trying to shelter herself from the rain and cold. She cries as she wishes that Wanta was with her so she could brag about turning 14 (13 in the manga). When two police officers on patrol find her huddled in a shack, she tries to run from them, but bumps into Kouta, Yuka and Nyu who have come looking for her. After telling the police that Mayu is family (much to Mayu's surprise), they return to the Kaeda House, where Kouta and Yuka offer to let her stay with them. Yuka then presents Mayu with a small cake from the bakery — the woman at the bakery who provides Mayu with breadcrusts had saved it for her since it was her birthday. Mayu, surprised and happy at their compassion for her, becomes overwhelmed with emotions and begins to cry, prompting Kouta, Yuka and Nyu to comfort her. Meanwhile, on the front steps of the Kaeda House, Wanta is seen eagerly waiting, having decided that he would rather be with Mayu than with his original owner.

When Kouta and Yuka offer to become Mayu's guardians, her mother officially transfers Mayu into their care without a second thought. In the anime, Kouta states how strange it was that her mother was so eager to abandon her own daughter and why she never notified the police that Mayu was missing. However, he and Yuka agree not to ask questions.

The next time Mayu is seen, she is happy and smiling. She has enrolled in a nearby school and leaves each morning in her school uniform with a smile on her face (Kouta and Yuka are amazed at how Mayu has changed from when they first met). Wanta, who has been given his own doghouse, often accompanies Mayu to school. Nyu, who takes a liking to Wanta, becomes Mayu's friend. Mayu helps around the house with chores whenever she can, and soon comes to view Kouta and Yuka as her parents and Nyu as a sister.

Later in the anime, Mayu meets up with Nana, and the two become friends. Mayu convinces Kouta and Yuka to let Nana stay at the house as well, despite Nana's initial hostility to Nyu (whom Nana recognizes as Lucy). Nana eventually opens up to Mayu and tells her the true story of the Diclonius, Lucy/Nyu, and her vectors. Mayu does everything she can to convince Nana that Nyu is not dangerous, still refusing to believe that Nyu and Lucy could possibly be the same person.

In the manga, it appears that Mayu has feelings for Bando which eventually becomes love, even kissing Bando before he "died". She is extremely happy to found out that Bando is still alive in the last chapter of the manga.

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

Nana

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^{[citation needed]}, 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.^[10]

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.^[7] Kurama, in turn, sees her as his own 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) and as a present, gives her his tie, something which Nana had always wanted, which she wears as a bow to conceal her horns. Despite orders not to engage Lucy after locating her, Nana wanted to impress Kurama so she tried to capture Lucy herself. Lucy and Nana engaged in a brutal telekinetic battle, but although Nana's vectors are longer, Lucy's more powerful vectors prove decisive. Kurama, along with a group of soldiers, arrive in time to stop Lucy before she can kill Nana, but not before Lucy uses her vectors to tear off Nana's arms and legs. Although Nana survives, Director General Kakuzawa's decides that she is no longer useful and orders Kurama to kill her. Although Kurama has terminated over a dozen diclionius babies while working for the institute, he defies the Director's order - providing Nana with prosthetic limbs that she can control with her vectors (a running gag is that they often fall off) and secretly setting her free with money to survive and a promise that they will be together again one day.

Nana initially feels alone and despondant, but later becomes friends with Mayu. Mayu convinces Nana to come with her to the Kaeda House, but this initially leads to a confrontation, when Nana sees Nyu (who she recognizes as Lucy) and attacks her. After running away, Mayu follows her, and Nana reveals the whole truth about the vectors, Lucy/Nyu, and her Kurama. Mayu convinces her stay at the Kaeda House, telling Kouta and Yuka that Nana attacked Nyu only because she was cranky (due to being hungry). Kouta and Yuka agree to let Nana stay; Nana despite her lingering fears about Nyu (whom she believes may become Lucy again) adjusts to life at the house, although she refuses to tell Kouta and Yuka anything about the Diclonii and their vectors. At one point she considers leaving out of anger, but then breaks down and cries in Yuka's arms, and admits that she is scared and does not want to be alone again. Kouta, Yuka and Mayu then comfort her and welcome her into their "family".

In the anime, after Kurama dies, Nana is devastated and almost gives up all hope for the future. When Lucy and Nana meet shortly afterward, Lucy tells Nana to do what she herself cannot: to return to the Kaede House and live happily with Kouta and the others, which Nana does.

In the manga, Nana saw Kurama in a much more romantic light, and he possibly returned her feelings; during the ending, Nana and Kurama (who does not die in the manga) 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 begins 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 Diclonii, because Kurama treated her with kindness, Nana is not homicidal or sadistic, and has never used her vectors against humans. However, her fighting skills are extraordinary (In the Manga, she managed to almost defeat Mariko and her clones but was stopped by Kurama's presence). She also has the exclusive ability to temporarily disable another Diclonius' vectors by having her vectors go through their pineal gland. Although her vectors are superior to Lucy's in terms of range (5 meters to Lucy's 2, 16 ft to 7 ft) 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 with as primal vigor to kill. While physically skilled and intuitive with her vectors, she loses many fights in the series solely because of her kind nature. With her vectors, she is later able to manipulate prosthetic arms and legs, 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 to 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 only appears in the manga. She has a psychological bladder problem because of her father's frequent physical abuse when she was a child for wanting to become a singer. As a result, she is constantly wearing 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, upon recognizing Kouta, Nozomi rushes out into the garden. Thinking herself alone, Nozomi is found by Kouta—searching after her to apologize—while she is removing the very wet diaper she was wearing. Startled, she accidentally clutches the wet diaper to her chest, soaking her clothes. She reveals her poor self-esteem to Kouta, calling herself a coward and sharing her father's comments about her to Kouta. Despairing when she hears Yuka and the others approaching, Kouta saves her further embarrassment by pushing her into a nearby reflection pool to hide the reason for her wet clothes. This earns Kouta Nozomi's trust and friendship, and she even prevents him from getting hit by an angry Yuka shortly thereafter.

Nozomi is revealed to have a great talent for singing. However, due to her father's physically abusive treatment because of her desire to sing—in addition to her family's strong opposition toward her musical education—Nozomi has no place to study and prepare for the difficult entrance exams for her musical education. Nozomi stays often with Yuka and Kouta so that she can prepare for the entrance exam, and later moves in with them after she passes and is accepted as a student. While she is extremely embarrassed at first about her friends discovering her need to constantly wear diapers, she eventually comes to trust her friends enough that she leaves off trying to hide her diapers or the fact that she wets them. Nana notes later that year that Nozomi was familiar enough with the occupants of Kaeda House to the point of being able to sit at the table wearing just a shirt and her very visible diaper. This shows that her self-esteem was strengthened in the presence of her friends, and that she gained confidence as she grew to trust them more. Nozomi is the person who sings the song "Elfenlied" while teaching Nyū how to sing.

Antagonists

Kurama

Kurama (蔵間^?) is one of the antagonists in the series. He is also the surrogate father of Nana and biological father of Mariko. His wife, Hiromi Kurama, died from cesarean 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. It is soon revealed that Kurama cares deeply for Nana (who calls him "Papa") and seems to think of her as his own child. When the director orders Kurama to kill Nana, he decides to disobey him, and secretly sets Nana free with some money and a promise that they will be together again some day.

Lucy carries a deep hatred toward Kurama, stemming from his failure to save Aiko Takada (as 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 alive, increasing Kurama's perceived debt to him. It is also revealed that his wife Hiromi died from medical complications only because she attempted to stop Kurama from killing Mariko in her cradle, and that after watching his wife die in his arms, Kurama decided to let Mariko live.

Shocked and horrified when he sees that his newborn daughter is a diclonious, Kurama suddenly remembers an encounter a year earlier at the facility where an escaped diclonious placed one of her vectors inside his head and the head of a colleague. Although nethier of the men is apparently harmed by this action (and it is largely forgotten), the colleague's daughter is also born as a diclonious several months before Mariko (Kurama decides to kill his colleague's daughter himself). Upon seeing Mariko, Kurama then realizes that the virus that causes diclonious births is spread through the vectors, thus solving the mystery (until that point) as to why the number of diclonious births was continuing to increase.

In the final episode of the anime, as one of the series' most emotional scenes, Kurama and Mariko meet, and she realizes that he is her father. Mariko tells him that during her entire life at the institute's prison, she dreamed that one day he and her mother would come to take her home and live as a real family. She then demands to know why he abandoned her. Kurama raises his gun to shoot her but is unable to do so, and instead walks over to her and hugs her tightly. He reflects on the fact that he killed dozens of Diclonius girls in their cradles but left his own daughter to suffer in a dark prison her entire life. He then picks her up in his arms and promises they will never again be apart. He tells Nana that they can no longer be together and that she must try to have a happy life without him. As he walks away, Kurama signals an assistant to detonate the remaining bomb inside of Mariko's body. Kurama then tells Mariko that he never stopped thinking about her for a moment and that her mother loved her until the moment she died. The assistant hesitates, wondering if Kurama had been planning this all along, then activates the bomb. Hearing the bomb about to denotate, Kurama and Mariko tightly embrace; Kurama then has a brief vision of what their lives might have been like if Mariko had not been born as a diclonius (he and his wife with Mariko after her birth, feeding her in a highchair, comforting her, carrying her on his shoulders, and her first day of school). The bomb then detonates in a massive explosion, killing both of them.

Kurama survives 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 Bandō. Kurama now lives in a small shed on the beach and is partially insane. He later clings to a dead body of what he thinks is his daughter, Mariko, and will not let anyone come near him (it is actually a clone). 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 regains his sanity. He then reconciles with Nana and confronts Lucy at the end, who shows a third personality and rips his arm off. However, Nana saves him. In the last chapter, he is shown with two arms (meaning he got a prosthetic as well) and is revealed to be living with Nana.

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

Kurama and Bando

Bando

Bandō (坂東^?) is an operative in his mid-30's for the National Police Agency's Special Assault Team (SAT). Though he is fully human, he is as homicidal and apathetic to other people as the worst diclonii are. He is a hardy and effective soldier, even though he often disobeys orders so that he can indulge his need for violence.

After Lucy escapes, Bando is one of the SAT members sent to capture her. Initially, Bando only encounters the Nyu personality, but Lucy's personality soon emerges and attacks Bando. Bando initially welcomes the challenge, but quickly discovers that his MP5's 9mm bullets are almost effortlessly deflected by Lucy's vectors, and is then forced to dodge numerous heavy objects that Lucy throws at him. Ultimately, Lucy overpowers Bando and then takes great pleasure as she maims him, severing his right arm at the elbow, and breaking his left forearm so severely that his left hand is left dangling uselessly. Bando screams in pain, promising that he will never forget Lucy's face; Lucy responds by using two of her vectors' fingers to destroy his eyes, blinding him. Deciding that torturing Bando is no longer fun, Lucy decides to choke him, but her Nyu personality suddenly emerges, and she runs away. Bando, blind and bleedling profusely, is left lying on the ground, cursing and thrashing around in pain. Alerted by the noise, Mayu (who was taking shelter nearby) finds Bando and applies an improvised tourniquet on his arm stump before calling an ambulance, thus saving his life.

Back at the diclonius research facility, Bando, who is seen heavily bandaged, screams and curses as Kurama tells him that he must undergo castration surgery, since he has now been infected with the vector virus (and thus any children he fathers will be born as diclonii). Kurama explains to Bando the truth about the diclonii and their invisible vectors (hands) and their true purpose to destroy the human race.

After his initial recovery, Bando is outfitted with biomechanical implants, including bionic eyes and a highly advanced Myoelectric prosthetic hand, but escapes (by jumping through a window) before the castration operation can be performed. Seeking revenge against Lucy, he acquires two or more Desert Eagle handguns. In the manga he gets other weapons such as an RPG. The guns fire custom .50 Action Express rounds which are so powerful the rounds can not be blocked with vectors. But the bullets can be pushed off-course at long range though; however at close range, not even Lucy can stop them. He gets sidetracked several times in this quest, and ultimately receives aid from Kurama to "kill a diclonius that was coming." Bandō is driven by the will to fight and to prove his superior ability in combat, not to mention avenge the wounds he suffered at Lucy's hands.

In the last episode of the anime, Bandō is defeated again by Lucy, who simply tells him that they will never meet again before leaving him lying on the beach. It is implied that he survives, although the extent of any new injuries that Lucy may have inflicted on him is unclear.

In the manga his role is extended a bit more, and he is shown to have a more compassionate side, such as saving Kurama, and burying the dead. He is reluctant to accept positive emotions from others, such as Mayu and Nana. 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 his aid when she is attacked by the Unknown man (see below), Bandō expresses intense disgust over the Unknown man's actions. In the manga, Bandō is severely injured while protecting Mayu from an attack by Lucy after the latter is exposed as a killer to the young girl. Lucy rips off his remaining arm and cuts him in half at the waist, then flees. While dying in Mayu's arms, Bandō reflects that he had always wanted someone to cry for him after he died, since he had isolated himself from human contact for all his life; and he now seems to be at peace. However, Bandō is in fact still alive, and Kurama later returns and takes away his body. In the final chapter, Mayu is seen cleaning the beach where Bandō had come to live in his memory when Bando returns to see Mayu, where it is shown that his lower half of his body has been fitted with bionics.

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

Mariko

Mariko Kurama (蔵間マリコ, Kurama Mariko^?), also known as Number 35, is the daughter of Kurama^[11] She is described as the most powerful of the diclonius. During an escape attempt by Number Three, Kurama was infected by her vectors, turning him into a carrier of the Diclonius virus, which ultimately caused Mariko to be born a diclonius, much to her father's shock and horror.

As an infant, Mariko was imprisoned and raised inside a massive steel container with no human contact other than with Saito, a scientist acting as a foster mother through speakers and monitors. She has been kept alive on pure nutrients that are intravenously fed into her body through a large tube connected to her body. Throughout her life, her body has been completely immoblized through the use of restraints, which are deemed necessary to reduce the chance that she could try to escape. When she is released, she struggles to even stand - since she has spent her entire life in restraints and being fed intravenously, her body is severely emaciated and atrophied. Although she can still propel herself through the air with her vectors, she must use a wheelchair to move around.

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. She has no problems in torturing and murdering others, no matter what race or species they belong to, be it Human or Diclonius. The only one she will not harm is her father Kurama. 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.^[12] 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 bombs in her body during infancy; one is used to sever her right arm to bring her under control after she attacks and mortally wounds Saito, the scientist at the institute who acted as her foster mother. When she is sent to kill Nana, Mariko is also given a prosthetic arm which she can control with her vectors.

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 and believing that he favors Nana, Mariko attempts to kill her as an act of revenge, but is stopped by Bando,^[13] 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 a non-explosive missile.^[14] 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 bomb(s) that were inside of her body, while holding on to Lucy, but fails despite her efforts.While the bomb(s) indeed goes off, they do not kill Lucy. She instead only loses her horns, and becomes Nyu for the next several months, but not before seemingly tearing Marikos head off just mere seconds from the explosion.^[15]

In the final episode of the anime, Kurama and Mariko meet, and she realizes that he is her father. Mariko tells him that during her entire life at the institute's prison, she dreamed that one day he and her mother would come to take her home and live as a real family. She demands to know why he allowed her to suffer in the institute her whole life, and becomes jealous when Nana calls Kurama "papa." Mariko threatens to kill Nana, and Kurama raises his gun but is unable to shoot her. Instead, Kurama walks over to Mariko and hugs her tightly. He then picks her up in his arms, and promises they will never again be apart, while ordering an assistant to detonate the remaining bomb inside of her body. Kurama then tells Mariko he never stopped thinking about her and that her mother loved her until the moment she died. The assistant, after hesitating, activates the bombs, killing the both of them.

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 Diclonii 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.^[16] 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 manga, he is not killed, and continues with his plans.

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

Professor Kakuzawa

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.^[17] 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 Kohta and Yuka are enrolled. After tricking Kohta and Yuka into releasing Lucy/Nyu to him (under the pretense that she is his younger brother's missing daughter), he sedates and attempts to rape her. However, while Nyu falls asleep, Lucy wakes up. He then removes a wig to show her his horns — through genetic engineering he attempted to make himself into a diclonius, but that the results are only superficial, as he was not able to give himself vectors. He also reveals that he was the one responsible for releasing Lucy at the research center. He attempts to solicit Lucy with the promise of creating a new race of Diclonius together that will destroy the human race, but Lucy turns down his offer and instead beheads him.

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

Other characters

Arakawa

Arakawa (荒川^?) is a young researcher in her early 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 Kohta, inadvertently discovered Professor Kakuzawa's severed head and warned the boy not to disclose anything of what he saw or heard to anybody else. Afterwards, she reported her finding to Director Kakuzawa at his compound facility, but he would not let her go scot-free after seeing his son's horns. She was threatened by Chief Kakuzawa to take charge of his deceased son's research or else be killed.

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 that being so busy does not allow 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)

Kanae

Kanae (カナエ^?) is Kohta'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 is 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.^[18] In the anime, Kohta 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 Kohta to repress his memories of the events; in the manga, he believes that Kanae was killed in a car accident,^[6] whereas in the anime he believes that she simply got sick and died (and that their father died in a car accident). It is only after witnessing Lucy brutally murder a group of soldiers in front of him, with her vectors, that his repressed memories emerge.

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

Kisaragi

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. She is briefly seen later in a flashback, indicating that she has worked for Kurama for many years. In the flashback, it is clear that despite her clumsiness, Kurama does not think negatively of her or has ever considered firing her. Kurama keeps a picture of her (along with those of Nana and his deceased wife) on his desk, even after her death.

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)

Saito

Saito (斎藤, Saitō^?) 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 for over 5 years, 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.

In both the manga and the anime, 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. Saito, who is always smiling, believes she is in no danger and looks forward to finally meeting Mariko face to face. Shirakawa agrees to let Saito meet Mariko, believing that Mariko views Saito as her parent and that she would never do anything to hurt her.

At first the reunion went as expected; Mariko overjoyed for seeing her "mother" for the first time ever, and Saito happy to meet her "daughter" for the first time, immediately feeling pity for the Diclonius upon watching the abysmal condition of her body: dehydrated, undernourished, atrophied, and unable to walk. When Mariko collapses as she attempts to walk, Saito runs over and comforts. After removing the bandages covering Mariko's body, Saito smiles at Mariko's seemingly innocent face.

As Saito comforts Mariko in her arms, Mariko's murderous instincts kick in. When she sees Saito's face for the first time, she decides that this person is not her mother. She then uses her many vectors to rip her torso off and throws it through the window of the control room, preventing the guard from detonating the bomb implanted in her body. Mariko then propels herself with her vectors toward Shirakawa, ready to brutally kill her. Saito, only moments from death, detonates the bomb in Mariko's arm, effectively stopping her from any further destruction. Seconds later, she dies in shock, as shown by her frightened expression. Voiced by: Maria Yamamoto (Japanese), Allison Sumrall (English)

Shirakawa

Shirakawa (白河^?) is a scientist in her mid-30s who works very closely with Kurama at the Diclonius research facility. Though her personality on the surface reflects a business-like demeanor, she holds a secret affection and genuine concern for Kurama and on all the matters related with his mysterious past (her feelings are implicitly hinted from time to time in the series). However, Kurama does not return the feelings because most of his time he focuses on attempting to find and terminate Lucy, therefore, keeping the relationship strictly professional. She clearly sympathizes with Kurama after the Director orders that Nana be terminated - as Nana says goodbye to Kurama after he gives her a sedative, Shirakawa who is watching, is forced to leave, as she cannot keep from crying. In episode 11 of the anime, Shirakawa attempts to protect Kohta from both Mariko and Lucy, but is sliced in half at the waist by Lucy; in her final moments, she hopes that Kurama will forgive her for failing to stop Lucy.^[19]

Her character plays a more important role in the manga than in the anime. 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.^[20] It is also revealed she has feelings for him and considers admitting it before decapitated by Lucy. Voiced by: Hitomi Nabatame (Japanese), Shelley Calene-Black (English)

Aiko Takada

Aiko Takada (高田愛子, Takada Aiko^?) appears in the manga and the Elfen Lied OVA, though her full name is never revealed. She is Lucy's friend three years prior to the start of the main story, and becomes the second human who has both given love and come to accept Lucy by who she is, regardless of her Diclonius condition (i.e. her horns). She always saw Lucy on the playground and liked to sketch her saying she wanted to be an artist. She lives with her abusive step-father (who does not want her to be an artist) and his girl friend. She becomes good friends with Lucy and tells her how her mother was an artist and traveled around many places (she is alive however) and showed her a picture she made she wants to give her when she is in town. Lucy then worried about if her stepfather found it, and when she goes to see Aiko, she had killed her stepfather, but accidentally (he was about to stab the drawing with a knife and when she went to stop him, she cut his throat). Knowing the police would come, she and Lucy run off to the art museum so Aiko could deliver the picture to her mother before they are caught. Unfortunately, Aiko is shot after an ambush captures Lucy and Aiko by surprise, being mistaken for another Diclonius because she is with Lucy. Kurama, who accompanied the police, promised Aiko's well-being in exchange for Lucy's capture. Lucy agrees to be captured, and is later confronted by Kurama, while held under restraints as he tells her that Aiko died at the hospital from her injuries. The death of Aiko serves as the last straw for Lucy to become resolved in killing deliberately every human in sight (though Kohta and those familiar with him are spared), and triggering the start of her ill-fated vendetta against Kurama, promising him that she will not kill him and instead erase everything related to him to make him suffer. In the final chapter of the manga, Wanta walks past a poster of Aiko, announcing her recent art exhibit. Though this is shown in a marginal way. The manga artist never explained how she survived the incident at the art museum.

The full account of her background story and how she met Lucy is thoroughly explained in the manga.

Voiced by: Maria Yamamoto

References

1. ^ Okamoto, Lynn (2002). "Chapter 1". Elfen Lied, Volume 1. Shueisha. ISBN 978-4088763583. 
2. ^ Okamoto, Lynn (2002). "Chapter 13". Elfen Lied, Volume 2. Shueisha. ISBN 4-08-876379-3. 
3. ^ Okamoto, Lynn (2005). "Chapter 106". Elfen Lied, Volume 12. Shueisha. ISBN 4-08-876884-1. 
4. ^ Okamoto, Lynn (2005). "Chapter 107". Elfen Lied, Volume 12. Shueisha. ISBN 4-08-876884-1. 
5. ^ Okamoto, Lynn (2002). "Chapter 2". Elfen Lied, Volume 1. Shueisha. ISBN 978-4088763583. 
6. ^ ^{a b} Okamoto, Lynn (2002). "Chapter 9". Elfen Lied, Volume 2. Shueisha. ISBN 4-08-876379-3. 
7. ^ ^{a b c d} Okamoto, Lynn (2002). "Chapter 10". Elfen Lied, Volume 2. Shueisha. ISBN 4-08-876379-3. 
8. ^ The Sasuke Inari Shrine (佐助稲荷神社) is a Shinto Shrine located in the city of Kamakura.
9. ^ Okamoto, Lynn (2002). "Chapter 11". Elfen Lied, Volume 2. Shueisha. ISBN 4-08-876379-3. 
10. ^ Okamoto, Lynn (2002). "Chapter 12". Elfen Lied, Volume 2. Shueisha. ISBN 4-08-876379-3. 
11. ^ Okamoto, Lynn (19 November 2003). "Chapter 53". Elfen Lied, Volume 6. ISBN 4-08-876513-3. 
12. ^ Okamoto, Lynn (19 November 2003). "Chapter 56". Elfen Lied, Volume 6. ISBN 4-08-876513-3. 
13. ^ Okamoto, Lynn (2004). "Chapter 63". Elfen Lied, Volume 7. Shueisha. ISBN 4-08-876579-6. 
14. ^ Okamoto, Lynn (2004). "Chapter 65". Elfen Lied, Volume 7. Shueisha. ISBN 4-08-876579-6. 
15. ^ Okamoto, Lynn (2004). "Chapter 71". Elfen Lied, Volume 7. Shueisha. ISBN 4-08-876579-6. 
16. ^ Okamoto, Lynn (2004). "Chapter 66". Elfen Lied, Volume 7. Shueisha. ISBN 4088765796. 
17. ^ Okamoto, Lynn (2003). "Chapter 26". Elfen Lied, Volume 3. Shueisha. ISBN 4-08-876406-4. 
18. ^ Okamoto, Lynn (2003). "Chapter 36". Elfen Lied, Volume 4. Shueisha. ISBN 4-08-876446-3. 
19. ^ Okamoto, Lynn (2004). "Chapter 70". Elfen Lied, Volume 7. Shueisha. ISBN 4088765796. 
20. ^ Okamoto, Lynn (2004). "Chapter 64". Elfen Lied, Volume 7. Shueisha. ISBN 4088765796.