History Characters / ElfenLiedLucy

* ICannotSelfTerminate: Toward the end of the manga, [[spoiler:the Lucy/Kaede and Nyu personalities beg Kouta to kill her now that her homicidal Diclonius instincts personality has finally taken over, and she must depart their ruined body, leaving the DNA voice in control, not to mention agony.]]

* SplitPersonality: One has the mental capacities of a small child, the other's an insanely powerful killer out to take out a significant portion of humanity. She holds the current page image. [[spoiler:There's a third personality that acts as a personification of her basic, murderous instincts, which was named The Voice by Lucy.]]

* NonIndicativeName: She's named for the supposed innate genetic instinct of Dicloniii to kill or subjugate humanity. The only problem is that there's roughly zero evidence this is a thing that actually exists rather than being a form of victim-blaming intended to excuse the cruelty they're subjected to as self-defense and her existence is more plausibly explained as being a result of Kaede's massive trauma. Still, she ''does'' act like this likely-fictitious drive is supposed to, so the name sticks.

* KickTheDog: Many, many times.

* UsedToBeASweetKid: She started out as a [[ShrinkingViolet kind-hearted, but shy]] little girl, but through enough [[AllOfTheOtherReindeer torment]], [[DarkMagicalGirl crippling loneliness]], and [[EnemyWithin a psychotic inner voice]], became an AxCrazy mass murderer bent on [[KillAllHumans killing all humans]].

* KickTheDog: ''Many'' times.

[[quoteright:225:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Elfen_Lied_Nyu.jpg]]

* NakedNutter: She's frequently naked, and is quite evidently off the deep end well even before the start of the story.

* PeekABangs: She has one eye covered by her hair, though not when she's in her alternate personality Nyu, and not during flashbacks either.

* ContraltoOfDanger: In her Nyu persona, she is like an innocent young girl. When she switches to her Lucy persona, she has a much lower voice to match her dangerous and threatening nature.

** She keeps attacking [[spoiler:Alicia and Barbara]] who are trying to save [[spoiler:Nousou]] while they are helpless and she kills one of them. It's not like [[KickTheSonOfABitch they didn't see it coming]], since they took her [[spoiler:home]].

* KickTheSonOfABitch: The [[KidsAreCruel cruel kids]] at the orphanage, along with Bando (the first time around), the Unknown Man, and Kakuzawa (Junior and Senior), ''all had it coming''.

* BuxomIsBetter: Nyu likes groping bigger breasts and is disappointed of Mayu's small ones.

%%* PintSizedPowerhouse: Lucy is around 162 cm, or about 5'3''.

* GreaterScopeVillain: She is the overarching antagonist, [[EnemyWithin influencing Lucy from within]]. Ironically, she shares this status with [[KidsAreCruel Tomoo]], the very human who started her desire to KillAllHumans.

* ManipulativeBitch: Plays on Lucy’s insecurities and fears to get her to kill.

* TheBaroness: The Sexpot type but with the fear factor of the Rosa Klebb type turned UpToEleven.

* SuperpoweredEvilSide: [[UpToEleven Even more so than Lucy]].

'''Warning! Unmarked spoilers from this point onward!'''

* BlindingBangs: Another sign of when Lucy is in control; Nyuu's bangs tend to be parted whereas Lucy's tend to almost completely cover her eyes, taking on a dagger-like appearance as they conceal her face.

* TheLastDance: [[spoiler:Kouta has a fatal gunshot wound, Lucy's body is already at limits from a abortive attempt at avenging the aforementioned fact '''on a global scale''', and JSDF air and maritime forces are already scrambling to take her out with their ''full firepower''. What does Lucy do? She proceeds to sing the ''Elfen Lied'' poem while [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome patching up Kouta's body ]] ''[[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome on a cellular level]]'' '''[[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome and]]''' [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome blasting the JSDF forces out of both sky and sea]], ''[[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome simultaneously]]. She knows full well that she's going to end up with a fatal SuperpowerMeltdown.]]

[[redirect:Sandbox/ElfenLiedLucy]]

[[Sandbox/ElfenLiedLucy]]

!Lucy (& Nyu)
->'''Voiced by:''' Creator/SanaeKobayashi (JP), Creator/KiraVincentDavis (EN, series), Creator/CarliMosier (EN, OVA), Creator/AlondraHidalgo (Latin American Spanish)

The main character of the series.

!!'''General tropes'''
* AdaptationDyeJob: Somewhat. In the manga her hair is bright pink, but the anime has it as a notably darker shade of pink. Also, in the manga she has green eyes, while the anime gives her red ones.
* AnimalMotifs: Bovines. Nyū sounds similar to gyūnyū, which is milk in Japanese. An alternative word for the Japanese word ushi (meaning cow) is gyū, which Nyū's name also sounds similar to, and milk comes from cows. Being that it's also a slang word for breasts, this also alludes to Nyū's tendency to grope people's breasts, and her often appearing full-frontal naked. Additionally, during her childhood, the bullies would call her an ox due to her horns. It's also worth noting that that Satan is typically depicted as having red skin and bovine features, and is also the patron demon of the [[SevenDeadlySins Sin]] of Wrath, which its representative animal is the bull.
* ArtisticLicenseBiology: Lucy/Nyu's nipples are placed very inconsistently; they're always somewhere on her breast, but "where" depends on the artist.
* BettyAndVeronica: Veronica (darker, dangerously unstable, and telekinetic mutant) to Yuka's Betty (lighter, sane, and normal human). Kouta has feelings for both, but he could never hope to have a normal, peaceful romance with Lucy/Nyu, unlike with Yuka.
* BlondeBrunetteRedhead: The redhead (sort of) to Mariko's blonde and Nana's brunette/purple in the manga.
* BodyHorror: Towards the end of the manga, [[spoiler:her body starts decomposing due to overusing her powers. Before Kouta kills her, she has been reduced to a pile of goo.]]
* CuteMonsterGirl: Her horns look like cute cat ears. Tragically [[DeconstructedTrope deconstructed]].
* ForgottenFirstMeeting: Kouta initially met her 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, he erased her from his memory after she brutally killed his father and sister right in front of him because he neglected to specify his cousin's gender.
* GodivaHair: Her hair is sometimes depicted this way.
* GoodAngelBadAngel: Near the end of the manga, [[spoiler:Lucy vehemently rejects the advice of her [[EnemyWithin DNA personality]], who has been suggesting to her to [[OmnicidalManiac exterminate humanity]] since she was a child. She even states that subconsciously, Nyu has been telling her they can live peacefully with humans ever since Nyu was first created as a personality]].
* GoodEyesEvilEyes: Just contrast the innocent Nyu persona's wide, bubbly eyes with the narrow, hateful, tortured eyes of the Lucy persona. It's notable that Lucy's often drawn with nearly the same soft, cutesy expression as Nyu when she's around Kouta, at which point the audience (and Kouta) can only figure out that something's up when Nyu suddenly starts speaking coherent sentences.
* HideYourOtherness: She's occasionally given a head accessory like a hat or ribbons to hide her horns.
* ICannotSelfTerminate: Toward the end of the manga, [[spoiler:the Lucy/Kaede and Nyu personalities beg Kouta to kill her now that her homicidal Diclonius instincts personality has finally taken over, and she must depart their ruined body, leaving the DNA voice in control, not to mention agony.]]
* ImportantHaircut: Lucy/Nyu chops off her hair in order to impersonate Kouta's younger sister Kanae, which [[spoiler:signifies Lucy's guilt over murdering her]]. Coincidentally, it also makes her resemble her younger self.
* InterspeciesRomance: She is a Diclonius and Kouta is a human.
* LightFeminineAndDarkFeminine: Nyu is the Light Feminine (innocent, childlike, and cheerful), Lucy is the Dark Feminine (cynical, cold, and murderous).
* LiteralSplitPersonality: At the end of the manga, [[spoiler:the Lucy and Nyu personalities appear to become two separate people after reincarnating, as it's implied they're the twins Kouta's daughter is friends with.]]
* MonsterRoommate: A mass murdering superhuman with horns and invisible telekinetic CombatTentacles ends up crashing at a random family inn owned by Kouta and Yuka, although they aren't made aware of it at first.
* MsFanservice: Just about every other scene has her showing off her fairly toned figure.
* NakedFirstImpression: Kouta and Yuka find Nyu naked on a beach. This is averted for Kouta, however, as he first met Lucy when they were younger.
* NakedOnArrival: She's completely naked save for a helmet as the series opens.
* OnlyKnownByHerNickname: The names "Lucy" and "Nyu" were given to her by other people. It's until the end of the manga that we [[GivenNameReveal find out her real name]]; Kaede.
* PowerMakesYourHairGrow: Manga only. After the TimeSkip, Nyu has shoulder-length hair. The first time Lucy awakens after the TimeSkip, her hair grows and reaches her back. It stays at this length for the rest of the series.
* RapunzelHair: Her hair reaches her hips until her ImportantHaircut.
* {{Reincarnation}}: In the manga epilogue, [[spoiler:it's implied Lucy/Kaede and Nyu are eventually reborn as twins and reunite with Kouta years later]].
* SplitPersonality: One has the mental capacities of a small child, the other's an insanely powerful killer out to take out a significant portion of humanity. She holds the current page image. [[spoiler:There's a third personality that acts as a personification of her basic, murderous instincts, which was named The Voice by Lucy.]]
* SplitPersonalitySwitchTrigger: 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.
* SplitPersonalityTakeover: The shift between Lucy and Nyu; Lucy knows when Nyu has been in control, but doesn't try to stop it from happening. [[spoiler:Add in Kaede, her original personality, and the DNA Voice, which only takes over at the end.]]
* StarCrossedLovers: She and Kouta have... ''so many issues'' between them that it's a miracle they still love each other at all.
* TragicDream: Her love for Kouta extended to [[spoiler:wanting to marry him, which Kouta only finds out towards the end of the final chapter years after her death in the letter she left for him.]]

'''Warning! Unmarked spoilers from this point onward!'''
----

!!Lucy
[[quoteright:264:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/elfen_lied___lucy_by_d_jien_5870.jpg]]
Lucy has 4 vectors in the anime and around 12-15 (though one panel near the end shows her with 28) in the manga 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 and murderous intent 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.
----
* AdaptationalBadass: Played with. While certainly powerful and competent, Lucy in the manga is as likely to kick ass as she is to get her own ass kicked and usually relies on [[CombatPragmatist clever tricks or diversions]] to get the upper hand. Her anime counterpart however seems to bulldoze through everyone casually without the slightest bit of effort, only meeting her match with Mariko. The difference is that most of her anime counterpart foes end up being a lot weaker or less competent than their manga counterparts and the fact that even before her vectors get longer, manga Lucy has shown more vectors and a much more vicious and merciless nature.
* AdaptationalNiceGuy: ''Heavily'' Downplayed. While still a murderous VillainProtagonist, Lucy is considerably less {{sadist}}ic and AxCrazy in the anime than in the manga, where she was prone to {{Evil Laugh}}s and {{Slasher Smile}}s while literally tearing people to shreds.
* AloofBigSister: [[spoiler:She kills her half-brother along with his father, Director Kakuzawa. It's a MercyKill, since her brother was born specially for ''impregnating'' her and he's controlled by Director Kakuzawa. She does express remorse over killing him.]]
* AndYourLittleDogToo: {{Inverted|Trope}}, Lucy does it to the antagonist and Kouta.
** Played with early on when Lucy comes across Mayu's little dog, Wanta. She looks down at the dog, which is barking frantically at her but unable to run away because it's tied to a leash, and we're treated to what seems like a GoryDiscretionShot as we hear Lucy use her powers. When Mayu comes outside, the audience's expectations are subverted when it's revealed that Lucy actually [[PetTheDog cut the dog's leash]]. It's our first hint that Lucy's not as bad as she seems, or at the very least, [[EvenEvilHasStandards sees lines that she absolutely will not cross]].
* AnimalLover: She rarely shows open affection to humans or animals, but will absolutely not kill the latter; her personal tragedy with her own puppy in childhood likely reinforces this trope for her.
* TheAntiChrist: A near-literal example [[BiblicalMotifs because of her horns and her name being the female version of Lucifer, a demon]].
* AntiHero: Part of her CharacterDevelopment involves graduating into one, both in the anime and manga. Says a lot about [[CrapsackWorld the series]] that being an AntiHero is preferable to [[VillainProtagonist what she used to be at the beginning]].
* ApeShallNeverKillApe: Subverted with Nana when the latter tries taking her back to the research facility. She admits that she didn't really want to kill another Diclonius and tried to simply let her off with a warning, but that goes out the window when Nana refuses to back down, and she ends up gleefully turning poor Nana into a quadruple amputee and only stops short of killing her thanks to outside interference. Since every Diclonius she fights (including Nana) is working for people trying to recapture her, this reluctance never really comes into play.
* ApocalypseMaiden: Toward the end of the manga, her homicidal Diclonius instincts personality finally takes over and starts killing humans everywhere on the world at rates that would make the deadliest [=WMDs=] look like mere fireworks in an attempt to destroy humanity in a spiteful decision that since Diclonii, and mainly her, can't rule the world, she'll destroy it.
* ArchEnemy: To Kurama. At first, he (reluctantly) follows orders to have her recaptured by the facility rather than killed, but that changes pretty soon. Partially to end the threat he recognizes that she poses to the world, but also because Lucy is paying him back in blood for Aiko's death, killing his secretary, dismembering and almost killing his adopted daughter, and (in the manga) [[spoiler:being the reason for Mariko's death, and then directly killing two of her clones in front of him]].
* TheAtoner: As things go along, you'll find that Lucy really does regret her actions, and she tries her damnedest to make amends for it several points in her history, because ultimately, she's content to live with Kouta and would rather stop killing (hence why she doesn't do so in front of him). Unfortunately, this being ''Manga/ElfenLied'', fate just keeps trying to pull the rug under her feet anyway. [[spoiler:At the very end, when she has her SuperpowerMeltdown, she atones in the only way she can - by convincing a ''very'' reluctant Kouta to MercyKill her.]]
* AxCrazy: In the manga, Lucy doesn't just nonchalantly tear people to pieces, she does it with a huge grin on her face and a really EvilLaugh.
** A point could be made that Lucy is simultaneously more and less unstable than she was in the past. While she now takes [[{{Sadist}} obvious joy]] in slaughtering humans, she doesn't randomly kill everyone she comes across unless they've actually wronged her.
* BadassAdorable: When she starts [[DefrostingIceQueen defrosting]], she builds up an immense reservoir of cuteness. And at the same time, she - at her weakest - is considered a terrifying killer capable of killing dozens of armed guards with nothing on. By the end of the manga she's capable of destroying [[spoiler:islands, cities, and nearly taking out the entire planet]].
* BarbarianLongHair: Meant to emphasize on how tough, murderous, antisocial and uncontrollable she is.
* TheBaroness: The Sexpot type but with the fear factor of the Rosa Klebb type turned UpToEleven.
* BecauseYouWereNiceToMe: Kouta was the first person to treat her kindly and befriend her despite knowing she's different. Her days with him are her only happy memories, which is why Lucy fell deeply in love with him and he's the ''only'' human she refuses to harm.
* BeleagueredChildhoodFriend: She and Kouta were very close friends when they were kids. In the present, he has conflicting feelings about her since she's now a mass murdering sociopath in the run [[spoiler:not to mention she's responsible for the deaths of his father and sister]]. In the end, he has to reconcile his lack of ability to forgive her with his lack of ability to hate her (no matter how much he says otherwise).
* BlankWhiteEyes: In the anime, [[spoiler:when her right horn gets ripped off during the fight with Mariko]]. She appears to be in shock or comatose for several minutes.
* BlessedWithSuck: She has powers far beyond that of any ordinary human, which unfortunately has made her a popular target for those who see her as nothing more than a monster to be slaughtered. As a child she hated her horns for making others view her as a freak of nature, and when pushed too far she let go of all reservations in using her unique abilities to kill anyone who dared to cross her. Unfortunately, this also had the dual effect of costing her the trust of the one person to treat her with genuine kindness, which leads to her single biggest regret in life. Suffice to say, even though she's a sadistic killer, Lucy hates what she was born in to.
* BlindingBangs: Another sign of when Lucy is in control; Nyuu's bangs tend to be parted whereas Lucy's tend to almost completely cover her eyes, taking on a dagger-like appearance as they conceal her face.
* BloodFromTheMouth: [[spoiler:The initial signs of her SuperpowerMeltdown before she literally starts melting.]]
* BloodIsTheNewBlack: Frequently ends up being covered in blood after attacking people with her psychic powers.
* BrokenBird: Treated like crap by most humans, bullied relentlessly during her childhood... yeah, Lucy's about as broken as it's possible to get.
* ByronicHeroine: Morally neutral, to put it mildly. She's also largely concerned with personal interests, disrespectful of common authority, defined by conflict, and is a cynical, jaded, brooding, spiteful loner who has intense passions that drive the story.
* ChildhoodFriendRomance: She has been in love with Kouta since her childhood.
* ClingyJealousGirl: {{Downplayed|Trope}}, surprisingly. Shortly after we see the flashback where she dips into mass murder out of jealousy, she smacks a vector in Yuka's face (probably the least harmful form of aggression she can display with her vectors) in response to seeing Kouta and Yuka holding hands, and when Kouta expresses concern for Yuka appearing to just fly backward for no reason, Lucy calmly accepts that he's "taken" and never even considers laying a finger (visible or invisible) on Yuka again.
* CombatPragmatist: Her vectors can't reach beyond two meters... so she'll just throw a boat at you, as Bando learned the hard way. Not to mention stealing the gun off of a dead soldier when he tries to shoot her from a safe distance, after which he looks like a deer caught in the headlights before she shoots him.
* TheComicallySerious: Some of her funniest moments involve her saying something either really snarky or really odd while in a complete deadpan. Some of it is played for BlackComedy.
* ContraltoOfDanger: In her Nyu persona, she is like an innocent young girl. When she switches to her Lucy persona, she has a much lower voice to match her dangerous and threatening nature.
* CurbStompBattle: Any "fight" she takes part in, [[spoiler:although this is reversed in the battle between Lucy and Mariko, but only in the Anime. And also ''completely'' Inverted in her second fight with Bando in the Manga.]] 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.
* DarkActionGirl: Fits both the "dark" and the "action" parts with emphasis.
* DarkIsEvil: In the only other outfit she's most seen in, she wears a black teddy. Spells out that she's not a pleasant person.
* DeadpanSnarker: A particularly cruel snarker. This exchange stands out:
-->'''Nana:''' I'm not scared of you! [[OnlyAFleshWound It doesn't hurt at all!]]\\
(''Lucy rips off one of her arms, Nana screams in agony'')\\
'''Lucy:''' So does it hurt ''now''?
* DeconstructedCharacterArchetype: Of the MagicalGirlfriend and CuteMonsterGirl. For the former, her powers are negative in nature, being that they can dismember, infect humans, and nearly destroy the planet, and they also add to her [[AxCrazy ax-craziness]]. For the latter, her being different from the humans was what caused her to be persecuted, and said persecution ultimately drove her insane and made her into a killer.
* DefrostingIceQueen: Most of her arc in the anime. "Defrosting" also includes being slightly less murderous.
* DesperatelyCravesAffection: It's her greatest strength and her FatalFlaw, because it pushes her to commit atrocities if she felt betrayed.
* {{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 ''[[RevengeByProxy every last one of them]]''. And there's ''nothing'' you can do to stop her.
* DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu: [[spoiler: Lucy "single"-handedly took out the giant precog monster Director Kakuzawa made Anna into.]]
* DontMakeMeDestroyYou: In her first meeting with Nana, Lucy initially doesn't want to fight her and tries to just scare her off, telling her to go home. When Nana persists, Lucy gives in and attacks.
-->'''Lucy:''' I was going to let you go. After all, there aren't many of us out there. But you're just such a pain in the ass.
* TheDreaded: Being a mass murdering girl who can rip apart armed soldiers and wants 99% of the people she sees dead will do that. Practically the only people who don't end up wetting themselves when she's near is Kakuzawa Senior [[spoiler: who gets his head ripped off]] and Bando [[spoiler: who gets mutilated. Though Bando at least is capable of putting up a good fight the second time]].
* DullEyesOfUnhappiness: A trademark identifier of Lucy, in contrast to Nyu, is her dim and narrow eyes sadness.
* TheEeyore: Particularly in the anime, where damn-near every moment of screen time has her as a PerpetualFrowner.
* EscapedFromTheLab: She escapes from the lab in first episode, taking out 23 guards in the process.
* EvenEvilHasStandards: She has no qualms against killing... but avoids committing such acts in front of Kouta as much as possible. She also doesn't harm animals, as seen in her interactions with Wanta.
* EvilCannotComprehendGood: When she faces Nana for the second time, she is genuinely confused when Mayu hugs her in a desperate attempt to stop her from harming Nana, during which she pleads for "Nyuu" to stop fighting. It only stops her momentarily, but she at least does not harm Mayu for it. When she tries again to confront Nana, Mayu screams for her to stop, causing Lucy to revert back to Nyuu.
* EvilIsHammy: Loves setting up cruel {{Mood Whiplash}}es in particularly creepy ways, to the point where she may even be {{Troll}}ing the readers. Loves laughing on the dead bodies of her victims. Always boasts and taunts about her power whenever she meets a foe she hates. And yet can somehow find a reservoir of cuteness whenever she's near Kouta and boast about why she loves him.
* EvilLaugh: Manga-only. On some pages, it is rendered with an extremely thick font.
* EvilRedhead: Though she is more specifically a hot-pink head, and it's more specifically [[spoiler:her DNA Voice]] that's truly evil.
* EvilSoundsDeep: Lucy's voice is low, deep, and quite ominous in comparison to Nyu's chirpy, childish, high-pitched voice.
* FaceDeathWithDignity: In the anime finale, she shares a LastKiss with Kouta before calmly going to face a BolivianArmyEnding, though the final scene implies she survived.
* FatalFlaw: Her [[DesperatelyCravesAffection desperate need for affection]]. She wants someone to love her so badly that if she even ''suspects'' a betrayal, heads will literally roll.
* FieryRedhead: She is one you would not want to provoke, or you would be dead.
* FriendlessBackground: She spent her childhood in an OrphanageOfFear where she had no friends and was frequently bullied by the other children for her horns and emotionlessness. The one person who it seemed like she was gonna become friends with at the orphanage later betrayed her and sold her out to the boys that had been bullying her. She then made two more attempts to reach out to someone else and become their friend. The first ends with her feeling betrayed once again, while the second ends in her new friend being killed and her being captured. After that it's sort of understandable why she stopped trying.
* FromNobodyToNightmare: In the backstory, she was a shy, kind-hearted Diclonii who lived in an OrphanageOfFear. Then, she eventually became a human-hating killer after her StartOfDarkness.
* FullFrontalAssault: The fact that Lucy has nothing on but a helmet in the first scene of the anime does not stop her from taking on and killing dozens of soldiers as she fights her way free from a military facility.
* GroundPunch: The manga has Lucy using her vectors to strike the ground in order to jump long distances, they even leave hand marks and small craters behind.
* TheHeavy: The DNA Voice, which cannot directly posses her, is the one who commands her, but she is the one directly killing people.
* HellishPupils: Only in the manga, but she does not have them always.
* HeroesLoveDogs: Well, [[SociopathicHero not exactly a hero]], but she clearly has a soft spot for dogs. [[spoiler:It was the brutal murder of a puppy that she cared for that finally made her snap.]]
* HeroicSelfDeprecation: Villainous version. She puts herself down very often, usually when it [[{{Yandere}} involves Kouta]].
* HiddenEyes: Quite often, although ''very'' prominent when she's just reverted back to Lucy.
* HumanShield: Used a poor office girl at the laboratory as one when she escaped. The girl didn't even know what was going on before Lucy ripped her head off.
* ImplacableWoman: Go ahead. Keep throwing shit at her. She will ''always'' plow through it to get to you.
* TheJuggernaut: Lucy's vectors can be used for defense and are capable of stopping really intense firepower. What's more, they are invisible at all but the highest frequency, so she can slowly stalk her latest target despite them emptying clip after clip against her.
* KickTheDog: Many, many times.
** Slicing off Nana's limbs ''after'' the threat she posed was completely neutralized.
** Trying to kill Mayu ''after Mayu tried to help her''. However, this is partially negated by Lucy's own regret at even considering it.
** Killing an entire family in a house, both so she could crash for the night and because she was jealous at how the family was having a happy life. This event was meant to really show just how ''bitter'' the world made her.
** She keeps attacking [[spoiler:Alicia and Barbara]] who are trying to save [[spoiler:Nousou]] while they are helpless and she kills one of them. It's not like [[KickTheSonOfABitch they didn't see it coming]], since they took her [[spoiler:home]].
* KillAllHumans: If it wasn't for [[MoralityChain Kouta]], she would've done this ''long'' ago.
* TheLastDance: [[spoiler:Kouta has a fatal gunshot wound, Lucy's body is already at limits from a abortive attempt at avenging the aforementioned fact '''on a global scale''', and JSDF air and maritime forces are already scrambling to take her out with their ''full firepower''. What does Lucy do? She proceeds to sing the ''Elfen Lied'' poem while [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome patching up Kouta's body ]] ''[[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome on a cellular level]]'' '''[[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome and]]''' [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome blasting the JSDF forces out of both sky and sea]], ''[[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome simultaneously]]. She knows full well that she's going to end up with a fatal SuperpowerMeltdown.]]
* LastKiss: [[spoiler:In the anime, Lucy kisses Kouta shortly before confronting the soldiers who have been assigned to kill her. Her fate, however, is left ambiguous.]]
* LimpAndLivid: Quite a lot. Whenever Nyu flips over to Lucy her head drops so her hair covers/shades her eyes.
* LoveMartyr: For starters, it was her love of Aiko that made Lucy subject herself to years of human experimentation - tantamount to a living hell, yet she was fine with it as long as Aiko survived... and when she was told Aiko didn't survive, Lucy was ''crushed''. When she gets free, she spends the rest of her life trying to find Kouta so she could apologize for what she did to his family, even though she knows she can't atone for it. When that happens, and he flat out says that he hates her for what she did to his family, she still embraces him when he accepts her into his house in exchange for not killing anymore. When he takes the bullet for her from Kurama, it was her love of Kouta that drove her to heal him at the cost of a SuperpowerMeltdown.
* MadeOfIron: 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.
* MakeItLookLikeAnAccident: On the occasions that Lucy feels like being subtle, she simply pops a vessel in the victim's brain or heart. However, her flashback with Aiko shows that Kurama was still able to track her down when an area had too many deaths by sudden heart attacks or cerebral hemorrhaging to be a coincidence.
* MeaningfulName:
** 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 [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucy_%28Australopithecus%29 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.
* MementoMacGuffin: Lucy's letter to Kouta. [[spoiler:It also reveals her true name.]]
* MonsterProgenitor:
** She's not the first diclonius by a long shot, but [[spoiler: her vectors are capable of spreading the diclonius condition to the gametes of humans she touches with them.]]
** And how can we forget that [[spoiler: she's the only fertile female of her species]].
* MoreThanMindControl: [[spoiler: Turns out Lucy was DrivenToMurder in part, by the manipulations of an OmnicidalManiac SplitPersonality within her (born from either [[WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds snapping at the constant abuse]], her own [[InTheBlood genetic drive]] to KillAllHumans, or ''[[TakeAThirdOption both]]'').]]
* MurderIsTheBestSolution: If you even ''slightly'' irritate or wrong her in any way, shape, or form, you're dead. Justified to a degree, as her... not-so-happy life prompted this as a defense mechanism for her.
* MyGreatestFailure: Killing Kouta's father and little sister is perhaps the one murder she feels ''any'' guilt over, and clearly hates herself for the grief she caused him. She knows she cannot truly earn forgiveness for her actions no matter what she does, and indeed is brought to tears when confronted with this fact.
* MysteriousWaif: It's what got Kouta and Yuka to adopt her into the family at first.
* NominalHero: Given how completely messed up and outright evil many of the characters are and the fact that she is one of the main characters, Lucy can be seen as heroic at times. However, all she cares about is going to Kouta attempting to seek forgiveness from him [[spoiler:([[ThisIsUnforgivable which fails]])]] and although Kouta can maintain her somewhat stable when he's near her, she's perfectly willing to do horrible things to those who get in her way.
* NotSoStoic: In the manga, whenever she's on a killing spree, she's happier than a kid high on weed.
* OffWithHisHead: More precisely, "Off With Their Heads!". Decapitation is her preferred method of killing people she hates. It's swift, fast, ''bloodless'', and efficient. Everyone else (including Bando) fall under LudicrousGibs.
* OmnicidalManiac: Understandable, since she had been put through so much abuse that she gave in to the DNA Voice's orders to butcher all humans.
* OneWomanArmy: She's known for gaining a massive headcount.
* PayEvilUntoEvil: [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]]. Though she ''is'' more sadistic towards people who deserve it. She'll ''kill'' anyone, but she'll ''torture'' people like Bando half to death.
* PeekABangs: She has one eye covered by her hair, though not when she's in her alternate personality Nyu, and not during flashbacks either.
* PerpetualFrowner: In stark contrast to Nyu, Lucy almost always has a sullen and menacing frown unless she's with Kouta. An [[SlasherSmile exception]] is reserved for when everybody else is [[MadeOfPlasticine unhappy]].
* PersonOfMassDestruction:
** An order of magnitude more dangerous than the other Diclonii, due to [[spoiler:being fertile]].
** She also has the power to [[EarthShatteringKaboom destroy the Earth]]. [[SuperpowerMeltdown At the cost of her own life]]. Not that she matters much by the time she wants to put it into effect.
* PetTheDog: Her moments of compassion are rare, but very poignant, because it shows that she still has some humanity left in her fractured mind. As time goes on, both in the anime and the manga, the more these moments pile on, [[DefrostingIceQueen the more humanity ultimately returns to her]].
** The first instance that shows she still has a heart came in the form of her meeting Mayu's dog in a cage. While it ''looks'' like she killed the puppy, it turns out that she actually cut the rope that kept him restrained and allowed him to reunite with Mayu.
** Lucy actually took the time to protect Mayu from a fight with another Diclonius, and that was when they first met. She literally had no reason to even acknowledge Mayu's existence, but she went out of her way to protect her anyway.
** She may be a mass murdering sociopath fueled by her hatred of humans, but her ability to love is ''powerful''. The shit that she ''allows herself to suffer through'', purely for the sake of her loved ones, is her single greatest trait. See UndyingLoyalty below.
** Nothing will excuse her KickTheDog moments, but she has shown that she ''can'' (and does) learn from her mistakes if given a chance. In particular, after the incident with Kouta's family, she refuses to kill Aiko's asshole dad purely because she'd rather not make Aiko sad; she encourages and actively tries to get Aiko to reunite with her mother; she offers to take the blame after Aiko accidentally killed her father; she doesn't commit infanticide after what happened with Kanae (and feels ''bad'' about trying it with Mayu so Kouta wouldn't have to relive his memories of Kanae); and she refrains from killing anyone in Kouta's presence, no matter how much she personally hates her targets.
** She was surprisingly regretful at the idea of killing Mayu (most likely an attempt to keep Mayu from triggering Kouta's own memories as a result).
** She hated her mother for all her life... but when she finds out the truth of what her mother went through, Lucy forgives her.
** She clearly doesn't think much of Yuka, and would've killed her years ago if Kouta hadn't begged her to stop. When she and Kouta hold hands as she expresses concern over Nyuu's well-being, Lucy smacks her across the face with her vectors. Kouta helps her back to her feet and Lucy recognizes Kouta's love for his cousin, and from then on we don't see her ever try to harm Yuka again under any circumstances.
** Her genuine grief over her murders of Kouta's father and sister. That was awful, but it was nice to see Lucy herself show remorse for once. She knows she can't fully atone for it, but she still ''wants'' to atone anyway, which says a lot about how much it was eating her up inside.
** When she accepts his offer to stay with him on the condition that she doesn't kill again, it shows that, yes, she really would rather just stop killing altogether if it meant living a normal life.
** When the Maple House is attacked, and Nyu holds off much of the invasion force, Lucy wakes up, and notices that Kouta had regained his memories of her killing his family. Perhaps resigned to the fact that she and Kouta could never be together, the first thing Lucy does... is to ask Nana to care for the Maple House and its residents. Furthermore, she even asks ''Yuka'' to take care of Kouta.
** In the anime, after Kurama and Mariko's suicide, she tells ''Nana'' to live with Kouta, an act that leaves Nana completely baffled but nonetheless grateful. Somehow, Lucy found it in herself to abandon her animosity towards Nana, recognizing what she had come to mean to Kouta and expressing the hope that Nana, who was now without a home would be better family to him than she could ever be. Nana then becomes a permanent resident of the Maple House.
%%* PintSizedPowerhouse: Lucy is around 162 cm, or about 5'3''.
* ThePowerOfLove: [[spoiler:At the very end, it is her love of Kouta that eventually enables her to ''beat'' her EnemyWithin.]]
* PreMortemOneLiner: Before killing Tomoo and the orphanage boys in the backstory, Lucy says, "You know who's not human...? You know who's not human?! ''PEOPLE LIKE YOU!"''
* ThePromise: Lucy and Kouta agree to meet at the stone behind the festival terrain on the last day of the summer festival.
%%* PsychopathicWomanchild: A combination of Types C, D because of Nyu, and E.
* PutTheLaughterInSlaughter: Whenever she's butchering someone, she's always cackling.
* RedEyesTakeWarning: In the anime. In the manga, they're green according to the cover art.
* ReiAyanamiExpy: It could be said that she's a rather extremely ''dark'' take on the archetype. She has pale skin, unnatural hair and (in the anime) eye color, indeterminate origins, isn't entirely human, has a very cold demeanor (even after defrosting) unless she's killing someone, serves as a LoveInterest to the main male lead Kouta, and is [[UndyingLoyalty single-mindedly devoted]] to him. However, her single-minded devotion to Kouta had lead to deadly consequences for everyone involved. She also suffers a significant injury by getting shot in the head in the beginning, is the key to the {{Big Bad}}'s plans, and, closer to the original take, [[spoiler:serves as an ApocalypseMaiden in the climax]]. Will all of those facts, she's one of the few examples who actually stays true to the original character's UnbuiltTrope nature.
* RetiredMonster: Yes and no. By the time the series starts, Lucy has murder as the ''only'' option regarding humans, but she seems to limit her present-day killings to unsavory people. She does get better, though, ala DefrostingIceQueen.
* SanitySlippage: A chapter dedicated to her childhood shows she got so unstable and murderous through this trope.
* SatanicArchetype: She was considered a social outcast, having been abandoned by her parents since birth and born a diclonius and subsequently ostracized by many because of it, not unlike Lucifer being cast from the heavens. She is also the first and the Queen of her species, further strengthening her association with Satan. She even has the BiblicalMotifs to go with it, such as being shot in the head but surviving parallelling the mortal wound to the head the Beast survived in the Book of Revelation. Aside from that, she has the [[BigRedDevil pink hair]], her name is [[LouisCypher Lucy]], and she wants to rebel and destroy humanity. Even her AnimalMotif goes hand-in-hand, as her representative animal (bovines) are used in contemporary depictions of Satan, and the bull is the representative animal of the [[SevenDeadlySins Deadly Sin]] of Wrath, whose patron demon is Satan.
* SeanConneryIsAboutToShootYou: When Bando decides to kill Lucy by shooting the grenade next to his dead teammate, he forgot an important object: the teammate's automatic machine rifle. It went to hell from there.
* SenselessSacrifice: [[spoiler: Before her capture (sometime after she killed Kouta's father and sister), she turns herself in as a final attempt to give humanity a chance and to save her new friend, Aiko's life. She later finds out when being bound in the very place first seen that Aiko died from her wounds and that practically drove Lucy to cross the DespairEventHorizon. The epilogue reveals that Aiko survived all along, which means Kurama had lied to Lucy and they were going to experiment her anyway.]]
* SerialKiller: She's killed people [[EnfantTerrible ever since she was young]], ranging from having a place to eat and sleep for a couple of nights to [[DisproportionateRetribution the person looking at her the wrong way]]. The news reports even label her as such.
* SevenDeadlySins: Lucy seems to embody them, as part of her being the series' squivalent of TheAntichrist.
** Wrath: Lucy is defined by her UnstoppableRage, being hellbent on KillAllHumans.
** Envy: Lucy has displayed intensely jealous behavior towards Kouta, and murders his father and sister to spite him for having seemingly left her for Yuka, and has contemplated murdering Yuka. Additionally, Lucy has killed numerous families because she was jealous at how they were living a happy lives while she was ostracized for her powers and appearance.
** Greed: Lucy has killed numerous families so she can have a place to stay.
** Gluttony: Lucy has murdered people excessively, well beyond her supposed targets.
** Sloth: Lucy rarely does any work in the Maple Inn and is usually seen loafing around, instead having Nyu do the work.
** Pride: Sees herself as superior to humans, and [[spoiler:DNA Voice believes it has the right to lord over everyone else]].
** Lust: Lucy has shown to enjoy murdering and torturing her opponents far more than she lets on.
* ShamelessFanserviceGirl: Unlike Nyu, she does know that being naked is a problem, but she often has other things on her mind. Her conversation with [[spoiler:Director Kakuzawa]] is the only time that she showed the urge to cover herself.
* ShootTheDog: It isn't clear if she truly meant to kill Mayu or if it was a fakeout by the author, but her closeness to Mayu after fighting Bando a second time suggests she meant to kill her.
* SiblingMurder: In the manga, [[spoiler: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 he was being controlled by Kakuzawa, making it a MercyKill.]]
* SingleWomanSeeksGoodMan: She falls for Kouta because he is the first person to be genuinely kind to her and not shun her because she is different ([[FreakyIsCool he even finds her horns cool]]). Even though she gets, to say the least, deranged and murderous later in life, she continues loving Kouta for his virtues and refuses to harm him.
* SlasherSmile: When she's killing folks, but only in the manga.
* SociopathicHero: She does show lack of regard for human life and has shown empathy for other people (namely Aiko) in the past, but by the time Elfen Lied starts, she's too far gone in her hatred of humans.
* TheStoic: When outside of a fight, but mostly in the anime which takes away her SlasherSmile.
* StringyHairedGhostGirl: Tends to have this appearance whenever she reverts back to her Lucy persona from her Nyu persona.
* SugarAndIcePersonality: Cold and deeply cynical, but only because she's been hurt so badly every time she lets her guard down. She can be very genuinely caring and insanely loyal towards those she becomes attached to. She may slaughter humans without hesitation or remorse, but her capacity for love is still very real.
* SuperStrength: In the manga, she rips Kisaragi's head effortlessly with her bare hands.
* SuperpoweredEvilSide: She's it, [[spoiler:except there's an even ''more'' evil side that's essentially her basic instincts]].
* SuperpowerMeltdown: [[spoiler:Toward the end of the manga, Lucy goes into a literal meltdown due to abusing of her telekinetic powers while destroying some planes and then for saving Kouta.]]
* SympatheticMurderer: Even being a mass murderer with a penchant for {{Slasher Smile}}s and ColdBloodedTorture isn't enough to keep her from being sympathetic; her backstory is ''just that crappy''.
* TearsOfRemorse: In the final volume, she can finally apologize to Kouta for killing his father and sister. Her tears show her regret is genuine.
* ThemeMusicPowerUp: In the manga, Lucy sings the German song "[[TitleDrop Elfenlied]]" while [[spoiler:'''taking on an entire army from thousands of kilometers away''']]. Apparently, the more thematic the song, the bigger the powerup.
* ThenLetMeBeEvil: She's a member of a race genetically predisposed towards the destruction of the human race. Which was ''only'' ever triggered because the humans she met all treated her like ''shit''. Nice going there.
* TokenEvilTeammate: In the main cast (consisting of herself, Kouta, Nana, Yuka, and Mayu), she's easily the most unhinged and villainous of the bunch.
* TorturedMonster: Yes, she's a bitter, mass murdering bulldozer, but she went through some serious tragedy in her life that she'd done nothing to deserve.
* TragicBigot: Lucy strongly believes HumansAreTheRealMonsters, and considering all she'd been through because of humans' cruelty, one can't honestly blame her.
* TragicVillain: A very tragic one at that. A broken little girl who became a murderous monster after she snapped at the world's relentless cruelty and her own budding insanity.
* TranquilFury: In the anime, where she kills without a change in her facial expressions.
* TranshumanTreachery: Is a Diclonius, gets treated horrible because of that, and becomes a homicidal maniac and hates humans as a result.
* TraumaticSuperpowerAwakening: Her vectors activated after the bullies at the orphanage killed her puppy and made her watch.
* TsurimeEyes: Her eyes are narrow, tortured and focused, in contrast to Nyu's bright and happy TaremeEyes.
* UncertainDoom: In the anime, Lucy most likely survived the officers shooting at her but she loses one of her horns in the process.
* UndyingLoyalty: If her FatalFlaw is that she DesperatelyCravesAffection, then her greatest quality is her ''insane'' devotion to the people she loves. In fact, her loyalty is arguably ''greater'' than her desire for affection, because she willingly puts herself in harm's way for the people she cares about, frequently sacrifices her own betterment in exchange for theirs and absolutely refuses to abandon them or hate them even if they treat her badly.
* TheUnfettered:
** She will find Kouta, and she will express how awful she feels about killing his family. No way you'll ever stop her from doing that. No way she'll let you stop her from that single goal.
* UngratefulBitch:
** It is implied she once tried to kill Mayu right after Mayu saved her from being killed, but it isn't clear whether she truly intended to kill her or if it was just a fakeout. Granted, Lucy did have her vectors close to Mayu after she dealt with Bando (who tried to save Mayu as a result), so one could argue this was at least partially attributed to her being a CombatPragmatist.
** She also dislikes Yuka, who she hoped to kill in the past after taking her jealous rage out on Kouta's family, an act she abandoned only after a traumatized Kouta begged her to stop. In the present Yuka gives Nyu constant care and affection in spite of her jealousy of Nyu, but this doesn't stop Lucy from slapping her down with her vectors when she sees her and Kouta hold hands, and this was when they were searching for her after she vanished from Professor Kakazawa's lab. However upon seeing how much Yuka means to Kouta, Lucy never tries to harm her again.
* UnstoppableRage: About ninety percent of the time. Even trained assassins, other diclonii, and an army of soldiers can't so much as lay a hand on her when she wants them dead and she's pissed off.
* UsedToBeASweetKid: She started out as a [[ShrinkingViolet kind-hearted, but shy]] little girl, but through enough [[AllOfTheOtherReindeer torment]], [[DarkMagicalGirl crippling loneliness]], and [[EnemyWithin a psychotic inner voice]], became an AxCrazy mass murderer bent on [[KillAllHumans killing all humans]].
* VillainProtagonist: She has killed armed men and innocent children, for reasons ranging from "trying to kill me" to "You killed my dog" to "I envy your happy, normal life, and I need a place to crash" to "ItAmusedMe" to "[[PutThemAllOutOfMyMisery I'm going to destroy the world because I'm about to die]]."
* ViolentlyProtectiveGirlfriend: If she sees you as a threat to Kouta, you will die. Period.
* VomitDiscretionShot: During her breakdown at the summer festival we hear her vomit with the back to the audience (Strangely, tons of severed heads and oceans of spilt blood are not as bad as a small pool of vomit).
* WeakButSkilled:
** 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 [[ColdBloodedTorture rips her limbs off]].
** [[spoiler: Subverted in the end of the manga where her vectors can split islands and have a reach of at least hundreds of kilometers.]]
* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds: Several characters think that it's her natural instinct to eradicate humanity, but given her [[BreakTheCutie past]], her experiences alone would be enough to make her what she is. She truly believes that she's doing all those atrocities out of instinct, so if we look at the nurture aspect, we come to the conclusion that she {{Mind Rape}}d herself (with a little help from ''nearly everyone around her'' [[spoiler:and [[EnemyWithin an inner voice]][=/=][[SplitPersonality alternate personality]] that wants to eradicate all life]]) into believing that she was, in her own words, "born to wipe out mankind".
* WouldHurtAChild: Would kill them, actually.
* YourHeadASplode: She goes for this when she wants to make a quick kill. But she has other ways of torturing you if she ''really'' wants to make you suffer.

!!Nyu
[[quoteright:225:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Elfen_Lied_Nyu.jpg]]
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.
----
* AllLovingHeroine: Nyuu doesn't seem to hate anyone, and loves all around her.
* AlternateIdentityAmnesia: She has no memories of her past or what her Lucy side does.
* AmbiguouslyBi: She only loves Kouta... but that doesn't keep her from [[SkinshipGrope groping]] other girls. Even after she becomes intelligent, she wonders why she wants to SkinshipGrope Yuka, likely due to her former self's influence.
* AmnesiacsAreInnocent: Because she can't remember all the awful things that happened to her, Nyu is sweet and trusts others.
* TheAtoner: In the anime, as she starts seeing more of Lucy's memories, she feels great regret for her other self's actions. In one scene, she impersonates Kouta's sister Kanae so she can forgive him for the things he said before she was murdered, apologizing profusely for said murder before she reverts back to her usual state.
* BewareTheNiceOnes: Let's just say that putting her in danger, hitting her on the head hard enough, or getting her drunk or drugged will make her revert to her Lucy persona.
* BigBadFriend: To Nana, in a sense - Nana hates Lucy, but is good friends with Nyu, even though they are two different personas of the same person.
* BlankSlate: She has no useful speech abilities, latches emotionally on to the first people she meets, and frequently doesn't seem to understand what's going on. The anime cuts off before [[spoiler: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 VerbalTic, though.
* BungledSuicide: [[spoiler:She tries to cut her wrist when she learns of her Lucy personality and gets terrified that her other self has been killing people.]]
* BuxomIsBetter: Nyu likes groping bigger breasts and is disappointed of Mayu's small ones.[[note]]This is up to interpretation: her desire to grope women may be from a desire to make them feel good, since being groped felt good for her, but Mayu was clearly only upset; no telling whether she stops groping small breasts because she doesn't like small ones, or because she concluded that flat girls wouldn't feel good from it.[[/note]]
* CovertPervert: She prefers groping bigger boobs than small ones like Mayu's. She also does not grope Kouta because she explains that men have no boobs. Though, she prefers that he would grope ''her''.
* CuteMute: In the sense that her trauma left her with a ''very'' limited vocabulary. She gets better.
* DoubleStandardRapeFemaleOnFemale: She is constantly molesting the other girls that live at the inn. She isn't portrayed as a disgusting creep because she doesn't understand the gravity of her actions, and is only (for the most part) copying things that she's seen others doing.
* DrivenToSuicide: In the manga, [[spoiler:when she finds out that she's a mass murderer, she tries to kill herself, but cannot do it]].
* DumbassNoMore: In the manga, Nyu develops average intelligence and speech after the six-month TimeSkip. She gets embarrassed when her friends talk about how she behaved like a toddler before.
* ForcedKiss: To Yuka and Nozomi.
* GenkiGirl: Much more prominent in the manga. After being able to form sentences, she has such a happy personality that the manga looks like a {{Reconstruction}} of an UnwantedHarem anime.
* HelplessGoodSide: Lucy is a psychotic murderer. Her other personality Nyu is an innocent amnesiac girl who initially doesn't even know how to use a restroom. [[spoiler:She's not so helpless when she's able to use her vectors herself.]]
* IAmAMonster: In the manga, when she finds out she's actually a dangerous SerialKiller, she reacts to the truth about as well as you'd expect, and nearly kills herself for it.
* InnocentFanserviceGirl: 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.
* InnocentlyInsensitive: She cheerfully breaks the seashell Kanae gave to Kouta, which greatly infuriates him. Yuka tries to defend Nyu, saying that maybe she broke the seashell because she thought it made Kouta sad.
* InstantExpert: When Nozomi teaches Nyu how to sing, she chooses her favorite song ''Elfenlied'', a German song in old German. Nyu is able to sing it fine and [[SuddenlyBilingual has no trouble with the language at all]].
* MsFanservice: Frequently seen naked or in partial dress, usually due to her childlike personality. That said, she has no concept of privacy or modesty, and it takes some effort before she figures out how to dress herself properly.
* MysteriousWaif: Unlike most examples, we more-or-less know from the beginning how she ended up on a beach.
* NiceGirl: One of the biggest contrasts to her alter ego is her kindness and friendliness.
* NoPeriodsPeriod: Rather graphically subverted.
* NoSenseOfPersonalSpace: She constantly [[TheGlomp glomps]] Kouta, and fondles Yuka's breasts on more than one occasion. Not to menton Nozomi's crotch.
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: Whenever Nyuu speaks in coherent sentences, it usually indicates something far more serious is going on.
* PokemonSpeak: Technically, she was nicknamed after the only word she could speak at first. It later becomes subverted after the cutoff from the anime.
* PottyFailure: When Kouta and Yuka first meet her.
* ThePrankster: In the manga, she tries to play a prank on Kouta as revenge for scolding at her (and maybe for stopping her AttemptedRape on Nozomi) by surprising him. The timing of her prank is really bad, as the person she surprise turns out not to be Kouta, but Nana, who attacks her because of Lucy dismembering her.
* RoseHairedSweetie: She's innocent, cheery and optimistic in contrast to EvilRedhead Lucy.
* SkinshipGrope: She enjoys groping the breasts of the other women at the inn. She recognizes this behavior as acceptable due to [[AccidentalPervert Kouta's]] mishap.
* SuddenlyBilingual: Nyu has no trouble to sing the German song "Elfenlied" for the first time.
* TaremeEyes: A contrast to Lucy's TsurimeEyes, Nyu's eyes are bigger and rounder to make them look cuter.
* VerbalTicName: Although her speech pathology makes sense, as she took a bullet to the head.
* WomanChild: Nyu is essentially an infant in an adult body. Averted later on in the manga.

!!Kaede
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/6ae9b1a0_f189_4889_a132_244363ea60f1.jpeg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:[[UsedToBeASweetKid Sure, she's sweet and innocent at the moment...]]]]

Kaede is the original personality of Lucy and Nyu. She was once a gentle soul who never knew her parents but had some hopes for the world. That changed when some kids at her orphanage decided to bully her...
----
* BlessedWithSuck: She was born with powers well beyond anything a normal human can counter, manifested in her distinctive horns. She clearly despises them for all the abuse and mockery thrown in her direction because of her appearance, and her innate hatred for humans has made her cold and distant to most, which only earned her more unwanted attention. That's to say nothing of the absolute hell she endures after killing her best friend's family.....
* BloodbathVillainOrigin: After she snaps and commits her first murder, the room she's in is almost totally covered with the blood of her victims.
* BullyMagnet: She was relentlessly bullied by the other children at the orphanage due to her [[EmotionlessGirl emotionless]] demeanor and her horns.
* ClingyJealousGirl: In the most ''frightening'' way imaginable. Her jealousy involves murdering Kouta's family because he went to the festival with Yuka instead of her. She spared Yuka's life ''only'' because Kouta would hate her if she killed her.
* DisproportionateRetribution: She killed Kouta's little sister Kanae and his father in cold blood because he ''lied'' to her about the gender of his cousin Yuka. [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone She was eventually aware of this]].
* TheDogBitesBack: She snaps and slaughters her bullies after they take the puppy she'd been caring for and beat it to death right in front of her.
* EnfantTerrible: She began her killing spree at a young age.
* ForcedToWatch: Her StartOfDarkness was when a [[KidsAreCruel group of bullies]] beat the puppy she had started caring for to death while making her watch. They don't survive the consequences.
* FreakinessShame: She hated her horns since she was bullied because of them. Kouta was the only kid who thought her horns are cool.
* FreudianExcuse: Lucy's KillAllHumans mentality began because of the loss of Kaede's puppy at the hands of some very cruel kids, [[FromBadToWorse got worse when she felt betrayed by Kouta later on]], and practically crossed the DespairEventHorizon [[SenselessSacrifice after finding out that the human she tried to spare when she turned herself in dies from her wounds]].
* GoodGirlGoneBad: She was a good girl, until a group of orphans beat her puppy to death, the only being in the world she actually cared about. They found out about it from a girl who pretended to be her friend, the first human she was beginning to trust. That's when her murder spree began, although it was put down eventually thanks to Kouta. However, after he lies about his cousin's gender and she finds out the truth, she's gone for good.
* HearingVoices: From her EnemyWithin.
* HideYourOtherness: Kouta gave her a watch cap to hide her horns because she told him she hated them.
* KickTheDog: ''Many'' times.
** When she goes on her rampage in the festival, she kills a woman ''because she showed concern'' for her. In this case, however, it's slightly justified in that Kaede was... [[MoreThanMindControl not exactly]] in [[MindRape her right mind]] at the time.
** Brutally murdering Kouta's father and little sister without any provocation was so horrible and over the top that that even Kaede herself agreed that there was no atonement for that.
* KickTheSonOfABitch: The [[KidsAreCruel cruel kids]] at the orphanage, along with Bando (the first time around), the Unknown Man, and Kakuzawa (Junior and Senior), ''all had it coming''.
* LostPetGrievance: She had a little puppy whom she cared deeply for and was emotionally attached to. Said puppy was practically her OnlyFriend due to how all the other kids bullied her because of her horns. When the other kids find out about the puppy, [[KidsAreCruel they beat it to death and forced her to watch]], causing Lucy to reach her RageBreakingPoint and slaughter all of the kids in the orphanage.
* MeaningfulName: Kaede refers to a kind of Japanese maple tree, and the Latin ''Acer'' is the name for the genus of maples to which it belongs. ''Acer'' means "sharp" or "piercing," referring to the bladelike leaves of the maple tree. Fitting given Lucy's personality and her...well, tendency to slice things up.
* MurderTheHypotenuse: This is what she is trying to do to Yuka. The only way that stops her from attempting to do that is Kouta's presence near her. In the flashbacks, she does this to Kouta's sister and father.
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Her [[MurderTheHypotenuse murders]] of Kouta's father and little sister. They're the ''only'' kills she actually feels any remorse over.
* OrphansOrdeal: She grew up in an OrphanageOfFear where the kids treated her like freak because she isn't human.
* StartOfDarkness: Episodes 8 & 9 show Lucy's backstory as Kaede, along with the only happy day she spent while with Kouta when they were kids. The manga does this sooner, at the time of episode 6.
* TheStoic: She shut off her emotions in order to deny her tormentors the joy of seeing her in pain, which then became another reason why she was despised, reinforcing the original bigotry and egging to make her react.
* {{Tsundere}}: She pretended she didn't care about Kouta and didn't want to be friends with him or anything, but she still felt happy and blushed when he came to play with her.
* WalkingSpoiler: Her existence revolves around Lucy/Nyu's backstory.
* WomanScorned: She killed Kouta's father and sister right in front of him because he took another girl to the festival. She would have killed Yuka too if Kouta haven't begged her to stop.
* {{Yandere}}: Played UpToEleven. As it turns out, the reason she killed Kouta's father and sister was that she was angry at Kouta for lying to her and saying that the cousin he was going round the festival with was a boy instead of a girl (apparently, even if Kouta did tell her it was a girl, someone was going to die anyway). DisproportionateRetribution at the worst, although she seriously regretted it later, to the point that the thought of eventually apologizing to him gave her the will to survive.

!!Diclonius DNA Voice
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/e2c77285_95d1_4bfb_a06e_304d23c97d14.jpeg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:”You should know by now, that it is my destiny to take human life.”]]
A fourth, hidden personality within the protagonist, she is the one who drives Lucy to murder. She is the reason that Diclonii are driven to kill humans, and she has the ultimate goal of replacing humanity with her species.
----
* ApocalypseMaiden: Towards the end of the manga, she finally takes over and starts killing humans everywhere on the world at rates that would make the deadliest [=WMDs=] look like mere fireworks in an attempt to destroy humanity in a spiteful decision that since Diclonii, and mainly her, can't rule the world, she'll destroy it.
* BigBad: At the end of the series, she takes over as the main antagonist after decapitating [[spoiler:Kakuzawa]].
* BigBadDuumvirate: The voice teams up with Kakuzawa to destroy all humanity.
* TheCorrupter: To Lucy and possibly the other Diclonii.
* CuteIsEvil: More so than any other character.
* EnemyWithin: Lucy has a pretty complicated mindset. Ultimately, however, it is the voice, the embodiment of her basic instincts, that is the undisputed, unambiguous villain who pushes her to do everything horrific onscreen.
* FinalBoss: After killing [[spoiler:Kakuzawa]], she becomes the main threat to Kouta and his friends.
* TheHeartless: She's the result of all the abuse Kaede suffered.
* HiveQueen: Implied to be influencing all the diclonii, not just Lucy.
%%* KillAllHumans: Her goal.
* ManipulativeBitch: Plays on Lucy’s insecurities and fears to get her to kill.
* MoreThanMindControl: Inflicts this on Lucy and possibly the other Diclonii by influencing them to kill humans.
* NonActionBigBad: She’s the one trying to destroy humanity, but as pointed out, she cannot directly posses a body- hence she has to rely on Lucy and the other Diclonii to do the killing. Subverted in the finale when she finally does seize control of Lucy.
* SatanicArchetype: Even more so than Lucy, as she has everything Lucy does and is the one corrupting ''her''.
* SplitPersonality: The hidden fourth one, who manages to be worse than Lucy.
* SuicidalCosmicTemperTantrum: Towards the end of the manga, she takes over after realizing that she and the Diclonii can't rule the world so she will kill as many humans as she can before she finally expires.
* SuperpoweredEvilSide: [[UpToEleven Even more so than Lucy]].
* TakingYouWithMe: She decides to do this to the entire world once she can’t rule it.
* TheUnfettered: She has no reservations about doing anything in her considerable amount of power to kill all the humans and replace them with her species.
* WalkingSpoiler: Her mere existence is a major reveal.
* WomanBehindTheWoman: To Lucy; she’s the one telling her to kill people.
[[/folder]]