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12
13This page lists the characters of ''Manga/ElfenLied'' and their associated {{tropes}}.
14
15'''WARNING: Unmarked {{spoiler}}s ahead!'''
16
17[[foldercontrol]]
18
19[[folder:Diclonii in General]]
20
21A race of superhumans with horns, who have the ability to extend telekinetic vectors. Because of their powers, they are feared by all humans.
22
23----
24* AlwaysChaoticEvil: It's repeatedly stated in-universe that Diclonii are genetically programmed to hate humans and want them dead. Of course, how much of this is true is called into question by the fact that many Diclonii only became that way [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters because humans kept treating them badly]].
25* AnimalLover: Diclonii are more friendly with animals than humans.
26* AxCrazy: A particularly violent Diclonius can wreak havoc using their vectors.
27* BadassAdorable: The majority of Diclonii are cute young girls, and their powers are extremely deadly.
28* BeePeople: They have no physical insectoid traits, but their caste system works similar to a beehive. Their species consists of a single fertile queen (Lucy), a large number of sterile workers (Silpelits), and [[spoiler:a single male drone whose only purpose is to fertilize the queen (Lucy's brother)]].
29* BecauseYouWereNiceToMe: Although most Diclonii have been treated badly by humans and thus hate them, they can grow to care for and love a human who shows kindness to them. And if someone ''dares'' harm a human or animal that a Diclonius has bonded with...well, a very messy death is most likely in short order.
30* BizarreAlienReproduction: Diclonii reproduce by infecting human males with their vectors, causing any children he sires to be Silpelit Diclonii.
31* HornedHumanoid: The distinguishing feature of a Diclonius is a pair of white horns that resemble cat ears.
32* HumanSubspecies: The Diclonii, or ''Homo Diclonius'', are the result of mutant ovaries. They have neko ear-like bone horns and enlarged pituitary glands; besides that, they're a cross between humans (most of what they are), social insects (for Silpelits in how they age), viruses (how they reproduce, for the most part) and gods (the vectors).
33* MindOverMatter: All Diclonii have telekinetic vectors, invisible hands that they can use for various purposes. That purpose usually involves killing humans.
34* NightmareHands: Diclonius can create "vectors", invisible energy-based hands that reach out from their body with the power to manipulate objects, including the strength to dismember or decapitate the average human being. Most Diclonious have a limited range and can only generate four "vectors" total. One Diclonious girl, however, can generate up to twenty "vectors" that have enormous reach and are actually visible to the naked eye.
35* OneGenderRace: Only female Diclonii are ever seen, and the Diclonii Research Facility reports that Diclonii can only be female. [[spoiler:This is ultimately subverted with the introduction of Lucy's half-brother, the only male Diclonii in existence. The only reason he's male is because he shares a mother with Lucy and was born as a fertile Dicolinus who ages normally, unlike the sterile Silpelits]].
36* {{Oni}}: Several of their motifs are based on the mountain beast. There's obviously the horns and monstrous strength (albeit as vectors), but they also follow Oni conceptually: Oni are described as the antithesis of humanity and are born when a human gives in to their evil desires, and thus are AlwaysChaoticEvil. Diclonii give in to their murderous desires and too can never go back to normal, and are fundamentally against humanity.
37* OurElvesAreDifferent: Being that the series is called ''Elfen Lied'' ("elf song" in German), Diclonii have some traits of fantasy elves, being a mysterious, superpowered, beautiful and inhuman race that turns children into their own species. Even their horns are evocative of the traditional pointy elf ears.
38* ThenLetMeBeEvil: Diclonii are mistreated and considered monsters by humans because of their destructive abilities. This usually leads to them becoming human-hating {{Omnicidal Maniac}}s.
39* TouchedByVorlons: When a male human is infected by a Diclonius' vectors and then goes on to impregnate a female human, the result is a Silpelit Diclonius.
40* TraumaticSuperpowerAwakening: Many Diclonii only realize they have vectors after they use them to kill someone, accidentally or not. At one point in the manga, a special response team arrives at a home and finds a severed human head in the basket of a tricycle, next to a crying three-year-old Diclonius. They're forced to gun her down after her vectors rip a policeman apart.
41* UnskilledButStrong: Most Diclonii have no knowledge of fighting techniques. They have little need of them when they have the ability to rip people apart in the blink of an eye.
42* TheVirus: If a male human is infected with the Diclonius virus, any children he fathers will be Silpelit Diclonii. This is the Diclonius' primary method of reproduction.
43* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds: The majority of Diclonii have been mistreated and abused by humans, and are prone to lashing out in destructive fits with their vectors as a result.
44* YoungerThanTheyLook: Silpelit Diclonii age twice as fast as humans.
45[[/folder]]
46
47!Maple House Residents
48[[folder:Lucy & Nyu]]
49-->See her page [[Characters/ElfenLiedLucy here]]
50[[/folder]]
51
52[[folder:Kouta]]
53->'''Voiced by:''' Creator/ChihiroSuzuki and Creator/HitomiNabatame (young) (JP), Adam Conlon (series), Creator/BlakeShepard (OVA), Creator/ChristineAuten (young) (EN), Bruno Coronel and Creator/IsabelMartinon (young) (Latin American Spanish)
54[[quoteright:160:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kouta_elfen_lied.png]]
55
56An 18-year-old student who arrives in the Kanagawa Prefecture to attend college. He is the male lead and {{Deuteragonist}} of the series. Kouta lives in a closed-down inn with his cousin, Yuka, while attending university.
57
58Kouta has repressed traumatic memories of witnessing, firsthand, the deaths of his father and sister. He ended up in a psychiatric ward for over a year following the event, but eventually made a full recovery. As a result, he is particularly sympathetic towards [[TheDulcineaEffect girls in trouble]] and is extremely generous to and protective of the girls around him. He is very kind and gentle as well, offering to shelter the various suffering characters he and Yuka stumble across, and treating them as part of his family. He and Yuka both initially meet Lucy as she washes up on the shore of a nearby beach.
59----
60* AccidentalPervert: Yuka [[DoubleStandardAbuseFemaleOnMale slaps him a lot for this]]. The first time it happened, Nyu had been out in the rain and her clothes were soaked. Kouta tried helping her change with his eyes closed, but his cousin walked in at just the right moment for his honest explanation to be hardest to believe.
61* AdoptivePeerParent: He and Yuka both adopt Mayu despite the fact that they're both university students and Mayu is 14.
62* AngstComa: In the backstory, he spent an entire year in a coma after watching his little sister Kanae and his father get slaughtered right in front of him by Lucy.
63* AnimalLover: Kouta loves animals and he studies biology to work with animals.
64* BabiesEverAfter: [[spoiler:The DistantFinale shows him going to the place where he first met Lucy/Kaede to wait for her with his daughter [[DeadGirlJunior Nyu]], who resembles Yuka]].
65* BadassNormal: He's not a fighter by any means, but he'll ''never'' hesitate to defend his loved ones or those in dire need of help, no matter how outmatched he is.
66* ChickMagnet: He attracts a teenaged, mutant girl with horns on her head and his own cousin! Also Nozomi, but she does not fall for him that hard like the others.
67* ChildhoodFriendRomance: He was friends with Lucy/Nyu for a short time in their childhood until she killed his father and little sister for taking another girl to the festival. The trauma caused Kouta to erase her from his memories. His current feelings for her are complicated even though he does feel attracted to her.
68* ClassicalAntiHero: Kouta is a protagonist with no superpowers, has some psychological issues and not any talents. He's also a student in a rather low-leveled university.
69* DarkAndTroubledPast: He watched the girl he befriended go into a {{Yandere}} rampage that killed his father and little sister. He was so traumatized that he changed his own memories.
70* DeathGlare: [[spoiler:To Lucy, right after he regains his memories in the manga.]]
71* {{Deuteragonist}}: He's the second most important character over here, due to his relationship with Lucy.
72* TheDulcineaEffect: Only slightly, but Kouta is undeniably more inclined to go the extra distance to help out a girl in need.
73* EasilyForgiven: In the anime, he forgives Lucy for killing his family. In the manga? Not at all.
74* FirstFriend: To Lucy, [[spoiler:or rather, Kaede]]. Before meeting him, Lucy's only true friend was a puppy she secretly took care of at the orphanage. After a girl who stood up for her betrayed her secret and got the pup killed by Lucy's bullies, Kouta would become the first human to truly reach out to her, making him Lucy's MoralityPet.
75* FirstKiss: Stolen by Yuka.
76* ForgottenFirstMeeting: In actuality, Kouta met Lucy in his childhood after she killed her first victims. Unlike everyone else, he found her horns fascinating and forged a strong bond of friendship with her. However, he erased her from his memory after she brutally killed his father and sister right in front of him because he lied to her about his cousin's gender.
77* FreakyIsCool: He was the first person to think that Lucy's horns are cool.
78* HospitalEpilogue: Even after being healed by Lucy's vectors around the end of the manga, he still had to be admitted to the hospital.
79* InterspeciesRomance: With Lucy, since she's a Diclonius.
80* IWillWaitForYou: At the end of the manga, [[spoiler:he goes to the place where he first met Kaede and waits for her every year on the last day of the summer festival, even though he knows she won't come because he killed her with his own hands. Although, the twin reincarnations of Lucy and Nyu eventually come to meet him.]]
81* KissingCousins: He is attracted to his cousin Yuka, as the temple scene indicates, but then there's Lucy/Nyu muddying things up. In the final chapter of the manga, [[spoiler:it's implied they end up together. If Kouta's daughter's resemblance to Yuka is any indication.]] The manga also implies that his feelings for Yuka were always stronger than for Lucy/Nyu, judging from his many scenes with Yuka.
82* LivingEmotionalCrutch: To Lucy. His very existence is the only reason Lucy hasn't completely snapped after all the torture humans put her through. She still loves him and one of, if not the only thing that gives her the will to go on is the thought of one day finding Kouta again and apologizing to him for killing his father and little sister.
83* LovesMyAlterEgo: He tells Lucy he loves both her and Nyu.
84* MaybeEverAfter: [[spoiler:He promises Yuka to never leave her again at the end of the manga. In the DistantFinale, his daughter resembles Yuka.]]
85* MoralityChain: If Lucy haven't met him, she would have given in to her Diclonius impulses and decided to kill all the human race long ago.
86* MoralityPet: To Lucy; he's the ''only'' reason she ascended to anti-hero after her start of darkness.
87* NiceGuy: Though [[TheFool not always]], but case in point: he was the first human to ever treat Lucy with an ounce of human decency.
88* NonActionGuy: Kouta isn't very strong, smart, has no powers, weapons or anything except some cool friends. Although he has a knack for solving his problems by slapping/punching people in the face.
89* NotWhatItLooksLike:
90** Played straight when Kouta tries to change Nyu's wet clothes, as she doesn't know how to do it herself.
91** Subverted once when it's exactly what it looks like. Kouta is most definitely groping Nyu, mostly because she made him. [[ClingyJealousGirl Yuka is not exactly convinced by his explanation.]]
92** Happens again when Mayu sees him and Nyu in the bathtube.
93* OnlyFriend: To Lucy. She even admits that the times they spent together are the only happy memories she has.
94* OrdinaryHighSchoolStudent: Kouta is just a normal university student with no speciality.
95* ParentalHypocrisy: [[spoiler: He tells his daughter Nyu to not play in the mountains, despite the fact he used to play in the same mountains with Lucy/Kaede when they were little.]]
96* PartingWordsRegret: His last words to his little sister Kanae were a threat that he'd "hate her forever" unless she apologized to his friend Lucy, who Kanae had just accused of murdering people at the festival they were at. Kanae is then bifurcated in front of him... ''by Lucy herself''. He shows clear regret in present times for fighting with her just before she died.
97* PleasePutSomeClothesOn: When an angry Kouta finds Lucy on the beach near the end, he tosses her his coat.
98* ThePromise: Lucy and Kouta agree to meet at the stone behind the festival terrain on the last day of the summer festival.
99* RepressedMemories: Kouta eventually finds out that his father and sister did not die from an accident and an illness, respectively. Instead, they were both murdered in front of him by Lucy, and the trauma of witnessing this caused him to block the memories out.
100* SecretKeeper: He accidentally discovers Nozomi's embarrassing secret when he catches her checking her dirty diaper. He then throws her into water so the other girls at Maple House don't see her peeing herself.
101* StarCrossedLovers: The murder of his family at her hands really puts a huge problem for his relationship with Lucy.
102* SympathyForTheDevil: Though he can't condone or forgive Lucy's actions by his own admission, Kouta just can't bring himself to hate her.
103* TeamDad: He's sometimes referred to as the "Father" of the group, and he acts like it. Despite looking like a typical NiceGuy, he can be surprisingly strict and gruff when he needs to be.
104* ThisIsUnforgivable: He does not forgive Lucy for killing his family, but he's still conflicted with his feelings for her.
105* TragicKeepsake: The seashell Kanae gave to him on the day of her death.
106* TraumaInducedAmnesia: A significant part of the plot, as it's about Lucy killing his father and sister in front of his eyes.
107* UnluckyEverydude: ''Very'' unlucky. He is constantly found in [[AccidentalPervert compromising positions with female characters]] by... other female characters, and is given a lot of flack for this by [[ClingyJealousGirl Yuka]]. Not to mention his entire family ends up being killed because of one white lie.
108* UnreliableNarrator: We rapidly learn that Kouta's trauma has rendered him this, when relating how his father and younger sister died.
109* WouldHitAGirl: Not necessarily brutal, but he has no problems slapping women when they upset him. Not to mention that he hits Nyu with a slipper because she was going to, er, have her way with Nozomi.
110[[/folder]]
111
112[[folder:Yuka]]
113->'''Voiced by:''' Creator/MamikoNoto (JP), Creator/NancyNovotny (EN), Susana Moreno (Latin American Spanish)
114[[quoteright:418:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/yuka_9.jpg]]
115
116Kouta's cousin, who is around 19 years old and planning to attend the same university as Kouta. She moves in with him at the inn after having not seen him in many years. Having had a crush on Kouta since childhood, she still harbors strong feelings for him, and is openly jealous of Kouta's attention to Nyu, to the point of being irrational.
117
118Despite her brash tendencies, Yuka is genuinely as kind and caring as Kouta. Though she is hesitant and reserved, she is accepting of Kouta's decision to use their inn to shelter those in need.
119----
120* AdoptivePeerParent: She and Kouta become the legal guardians of the abused Mayu. Yuka is 19 and Mayu is 14, so she's only five years older than her adopted daughter.
121* BettyAndVeronica: Betty to Lucy/Nyu's Veronica, since Yuka is a normal, sane girl and not a psychotic murderer. It's obvious which of the two is the one Kouta feels more at ease with.
122* ClingyJealousGirl: She gets easily jealous whenever she catches Kouta and Nyu having a "moment", [[{{Flanderization}} especially in the anime]].
123* CoolBigSis: She's a caring older sister figure to all the younger girls living with her.
124* CrossPoppingVeins: Happens to Yuka twice, once when Kouta was about to mention that her cooking wasn't special, and when his little sister teases her in the flashback.
125* DoubleStandardAbuseFemaleOnMale: Yuka tends to get pretty violent on Kouta several times.
126* FirstKiss: With Kouta. In the manga, it's a French kiss.
127* KissingCousins: She is infatuated with her cousin Kouta. Kouta is also attracted to her, as the temple scene indicates, but then there's Lucy/Nyu muddying things up. [[spoiler:The ending of the manga implies Yuka does eventually marry Kouta and has a daughter with him.]]
128* ImpossiblyTackyClothes: Some of her outfits that she lends to Nyu tend to really stand out, to say the least. They certainly suit the plucky and childlike Nyu just fine, but they contrast drastically with Lucy's vengeful and apathetic persona.
129* InnocentlyInsensitive: She gets mad at Kouta for not being able to remember a promise due to [[TraumaInducedAmnesia his sister and father getting violently murdered in front of him about twenty minutes after making said promise in some rather guilt-inducing circumstances]]. Granted, she has no idea that he repressed his memories of that day, and she regrets her earlier reaction once she figures this out.
130* JerkassRealization: After reflecting on why Kouta felt the need to take in Nyu and the other girls who were left with nowhere else to go, Yuka saw herself as a terrible person for how much she scorned Kouta through all they've been through, realizing that she was being selfish in her feelings.
131* JizzedInMyPants: To her embarrassment, she wets her panties whenever she has an arousing moment with Kouta or Nyu.
132* LetsSeeYouDoBetter: During the festival flashback, Yuka is constantly breaking the clay animals at one of the stands. Kouta says that she's terrible at it, so Yuka tells him to do it if he's so awesome at it. Then he does and manages to get the animal shape out of it, and she promises to get better at it.
133* LoveConfession: When Yuka confesses to Mayu how jealous she gets whenever Kouta pays attention to other girls, Mayu gently asks Yuka if maybe the reason she gets so jealous is that she loves Kouta. Yuka tearfully admits she's right.
134* MaybeEverAfter: [[spoiler:Kouta promises Yuka to never leave her again at the end of the manga. In the DistantFinale, Kouta's daughter resembles Yuka.]]
135* MiseryPoker: She spends so much time fuming over the fact that she can't get close to Kouta when everyone else has [[DysfunctionJunction been to hell and back.]]
136%%* MsFanservice: See ReluctantFanserviceGirl below.
137* OnlySaneWoman: She is the only main character without any serious traumatic event in her backstory. The fact that she is a typical {{Tsundere}} in a world where every main character has serious mental disorders makes her the most normal of all them.
138* PleaseDontLeaveMe: In her final scene in the manga, she tearfully asks Kouta to never go anywhere without her again.
139* ReluctantFanserviceGirl: Takes up the MsFanservice role rather unwillingly, due to her being a frequent victim of Nyu's [[SkinShipGrope antics]] or getting {{Panty Shot}}s that are seen by Kouta.
140* StrongFamilyResemblance: [[spoiler:Her daughter, Nyu Jr., looks exactly like Yuka.]]
141* TeamMom: As the oldest of the girls, she is sometimes referred as the "mother" of the group in the anime.
142* {{Tsundere}}: Sweet type. She's usually a sweet girl, but she can be violent and harsh towards Kouta.
143* VitriolicBestBuds: With Nyuu; she gets along civilly with her but admits she is jealous of the affection Nyuu constantly receives from Kouta, feeling she has been cast aside by her own cousin. Nyuu meanwhile loves her company and constantly feels the need to grope Yuka, much to her dismay. However, Lucy holds very clear contempt towards Yuka in spite of the care she receives from her and would've killed Yuka years ago if not for the guilt she felt over Kouta's sister and father. Luckily, this guilt means Lucy cannot bring herself to kill another one of Kouta's friends or family, and after the one time she pushed her with her vectors she quietly resolves not to harm Yuka again. In the manga, she trusts Yuka to care for everyone at the Maple House.
144[[/folder]]
145
146[[folder:Mayu]]
147->'''Voiced by:''' Emiko Hagiwara (JP), Creator/CynthiaMartinez (EN), Creator/MelissaGedeon (Latin American Spanish)
148[[quoteright:900:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/vol3cover.jpg]]
149
150A 12-year-old girl, neglected by her mother and a victim of sexual abuse by her stepfather. She eventually runs away and is homeless at the start of the series, living on the beach and subsisting on bread crusts from a local bakery under the pretense that they are for the small puppy, Wanta, that accompanies her. She ends up living with Kouta and Yuka as her legal guardians, and later befriends Nana and tries to take her under her wing.
151----
152* AttemptedRape: [[spoiler:She was very nearly raped by the Unknown Man in the manga.]]
153* BrokenBird: She was badly traumatized by her stepfather's sexual abuse and her mother's indifference.
154* TheConscience: She tries to talk Nana down from killing Lucy and keep the peace between them.
155* CooldownHug: She tries one on Lucy when she and Nana begin to fight at Maple House in the Anime; Lucy [[SubvertedTrope just pushes her away]]. She insists a second time, however, and [[DoubleSubverted this time it works.]]
156* DoesNotLikeMen: Her traumatic experience with her stepfather has soured her on men in general, and finding Kouta in the bath groping Nyu doesn't help. Bando is the only man she's never afraid of.
157* FaintInShock: She passes out from the shock of seeing Nana's prosthetic leg fall off.
158* HappilyAdopted: By Kouta and Yuka. They later track down Mayu's mother, who signs over legal guardianship to them without any complaint (she didn't want Mayu in her life anyway). Afterward, Mayu is seen living quite happily with Kouta and Yuka, and says she considers the two of them to be her real family.
159* TheHeart: She's kind and friendly to everyone, and tries to keep the peace between Lucy and Nana.
160* HeterosexualLifePartners: She forms a fast bond with Nana, who asked Mayu to be her friend to which Mayu happily agreed.
161* IfYouKillHimYouWillBeJustLikeHim: She uses this on Nana to talk her out of killing Lucy.
162* IncorruptiblePurePureness: She tries to bring out the best in everyone, and maintains an idealistic view of the world despite her trauma.
163* IntergenerationalFriendship: She bonds most closely with Bando who is at least ten years older than her.
164* InterruptedSuicide: Heavily implied in the anime, after running away from home. [[SuicideBySea She leaves her shoes on the shoreline and starts to wade out into the ocean,]] but turns back when she hears a puppy barking. Supplementary materials confirm that Mayu cannot swim.
165* InterspeciesFriendship: With Nana. Mayu is careful to protect Nana and her true nature as a Diclonius.
166* LetThemDieHappy: When [[spoiler:Bando lies dying after TakingTheBullet from Lucy for Mayu, he asks what happened to Lucy. Before Nana can tell Bando she got away, Mayu says that Bando's last bullet killed her, so he can die believing he finally got his revenge on Lucy. Subverted when Bando turns out to be alive in the last chapter.]]
167* LittleMissSnarker: In the manga, she shows some moments of genuine wit and sass, sometimes making sarcastic remarks in response to Kouta's AccidentalPervert antics.
168* MoralityPet:
169** Her relationship with Bando is one of his most humanizing traits. He generally treats her like crap just as he does with everyone else, but she's the only person he goes out of his way to protect.
170** In the anime, when Lucy is fighting Nana at Maple House, Mayu tries to give her a CooldownHug, and Lucy immediately stops using her vectors to avoid hurting her.
171* NiceGirl: Mayu is very friendly considering her DarkAndTroubledPast. She does her best to see the good in everyone, Lucy and Bando included.
172* ParentalNeglect: Mayu's mother didn't care about her new husband sexually abusing her daughter. Later, she willingly gives up custody of Mayu to have her stay with Kouta and Yuka at the Maple House.
173* PluckyGirl: Mayu's got bravery to spare when she's pushed to it, as she shows when Bando tries to threaten her into revealing Nyu's location and she has the presence of mind to [[WhatTheHellHero call him out to his face]].
174* PrecociousCrush: She develops feelings for Bando who is old enough to be her father. [[spoiler:She confesses her feelings by kissing him after he's torn in half by Lucy.]]
175* RapeAsBackstory: She was sexually abused by her stepfather.
176* RapeAsDrama: Mayu is an unfortunate victim of RapeAsBackstory and AttemptedRape.
177* TheRunaway: After enduring sexual abuse at the hands of her stepfather, Mayu decided enough is enough and ran away from home. She then lived at the beach until she was taken in by Kouta and Yuka who let her move into Maple House with them.
178* SailorFuku: She wears this as a school uniform after moving in permanently with Kouta and Yuka.
179* ShrinkingViolet: Due to being homeless and having a traumatic backstory, Mayu is withdrawn and timid in the beginning.
180* TearsOfJoy: Tears from her eyes when Kouta and Yuka welcome her to live with them, letting her know she isn't a burden to them.
181* TraumaButton: Mayu was sexually abused by her stepfather on a regular basis, leading to her running away. When the Unknown Man attacks Maple House and tries to rape her, Mayu flashes back to her stepfather doing so and flips out.
182* TraumaInducedAmnesia: Mayu does this to a lesser extent regarding her witnessing Lucy's brutal dismemberment of Nana.
183[[/folder]]
184
185[[folder:Wanta]]
186[[quoteright:225:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/wanta_elfen_lied.jpg]]
187
188A puppy that Mayu found when she was helpless. He is a lost dog belonging to a woman who named him "James", but he runs away from her to stay with Mayu and lives together with the Maple House citizens.
189----
190* BalloonBelly: He gets one after being overfed by Nana.
191* CanineCompanion: Mayu rarely goes anywhere without Wanta.
192* HeroicDog: Both supported and subverted in Mayu's dog Wanta. His loyalty to Mayu (even over a woman who claimed to be his true owner) and the others is stellar. But like his human and otherwise friends, his ability to save them is way limited, and he is nearly killed by the vicious Unknown Man.
193* PreciousPuppies: He's a little, adorable white puppy and one of Mayu's best friends.
194* SmallRoleBigImpact: He comes into Mayu's company after she runs away from home, and it's his sudden appearance that renews her will to live. Together, they eventually find a new life for themselves in the Maple House.
195* TeamPet: He's the pet of the Maple House residents.
196* VerbalTicName: ''Wan'' is the Japanese word for a dog's bark.
197* YouRemindMeOfX: He reminds Lucy of her childhood puppy that was killed by the bullies at her orphanage, and appears to be the same breed as that puppy.
198[[/folder]]
199
200[[folder:Nana]]
201->'''Voiced by:''' Creator/YukiMatsuoka (JP), Sasha Paysinger (EN), Romina Marroquín Payró (Latin American Spanish), Creator/RubinaKuraoka (German)
202[[quoteright:220:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/nana2.png]]
203
204Also known as [[SevenIsNana Number 7]], she is a young Silpelit (Diclonius born from a human) girl who has the physical appearance of being 14 years old. Most Diclonius babies are euthanized at birth, but Nana was one of a handful kept alive for use as a test subject. Nana was a stand-out subject among the Diclonius for being able to effortlessly repress her murderous instincts. Accordingly, she has never used her vectors to harm humans (or anything for that matter). Chief Kurama sees her as his daughter and cares very much for her.
205----
206* AdaptationDyeJob: Her hair is purplish-blue in the manga, but is purplish-pink in the anime. Also her eyes were green in the manga rather than rose-pink.
207* AdaptationalJerkass: In the manga, when she offers to help Bando up only for her arm to fall off, she's hurt when he accuses her of doing it on purpose. In the anime, she instead laughs and asks, "So you figured it out?", which suggests that she actually ''did'' do it on purpose. This is changed in the dub, where she apologizes.
208* AdaptationalWimp: In the anime, she's completely curb-stomped by Mariko. This also happens in the manga, but there Nana fights back and gets even the upper hand. Actually, she ''wins'' and might have killed her if [[spoiler:Kurama has not appear there]].
209* AfraidOfNeedles: She's scared of injections.
210* AnArmAndALeg: The end result of her fight with Lucy ends with Lucy tearing off all of her arms and legs one by one.
211* ArtificialLimbs: She gets realistic prosthetic arms and legs to replace the ones Lucy ripped off.
212* BadassAdorable: Nana is one of the sweetest characters in the series. However when pushed she is more than capable of kicking ass, especially if someone threatens Kurama.
213* BenevolentMonsters: Even though she's a Diclonius and was tortured most of her life, Nana harbors no ill will towards humanity, loves her human adoptive father and lives peacefully with the humans at Maple House. Overall, she's also totally harmless unless someone threatens the people she cares about, especially Kurama.
214* BewareTheNiceOnes: The few times said cutie-persona/psychological-defense-mechanism is broken through. During Nana & Bando's first meeting on a moonlit beach, [[{{Jerkass}} Bando]] pushes her too far and she snaps on him, gaining the same dead look in her eyes that Lucy almost-constantly has and trying to kill him (and coming very close) until a .50-caliber bullet grazing her head knocks her back to her senses. Later in manga Chapter 74, [[spoiler:the Unknown Man threatening Mayu and casually killing [[KillTheCutie Number 28]] right in front of Nana is enough to set her off again. Unfortunately, he blasts her before she can attack, taking her out of the fight]].
215* BlemishedBeauty: Lucy rips off all her limbs and they're replaced with prosthetics. She still looks cute.
216* BlondeBrunetteRedhead: In the manga, she's the brunette to Mariko's blonde and Lucy's redhead. In the anime, they all have pink hair.
217* BrokenTears: She breaks down in tears when [[spoiler:Kurama rejects her for not being Mariko]].
218* CantCatchUp: Despite smarts in battle and ever-increasing savvy, she has a good showing but always gets curbstomped by opponents.
219* CassandraTruth: Nana knows about Nyu's alternate personality Lucy, but no-one else believes her.
220* CurbStompBattle:
221** Finds herself at the end of these, most noticeably against Mariko. However in the manga she often ends up returning the favor, often to the person who was just beating the living crap out of her as Mariko can attest.
222** She also casually beats the [[spoiler:clone of Mariko, Barbara,]] senseless until the latter takes [[spoiler:Kurama]] hostage.
223* CuteClumsyGirl: Combine with ArtificialLimbs that are quite prone to popping out and, well...
224** It's much rarer in the manga which mostly consists of her limbs falling off when fighting.
225* {{Cyborg}}: She gets four prosthetics and they're not as strong as flesh-and-blood limbs, but Nana gets creative with combining their detachable nature and her vectors.
226* DaddysGirl: She views Kurama as her father and she would do anything to make him happy.
227* DeathFakedForYou: After she fails to kill Lucy, [[YouHaveFailedMe Director Kakuzawa order Nana to be disposed of]]. Kurama couldn't stand to let that happen, so he instead puts Nana to sleep and sends her away from the research lab in an escape capsule where he leaves her money that should let her feed off for herself somewhere else.
228* DespairEventHorizon: Between the loss of her limbs at Lucy's hands, Kurama releasing her to fend for herself for the sake of her own survival, and finally witnessing her "father's" suicide, Nana seems to be a frequent victim of this. Justified though as she is the only Diclonius not to be a sadistic killer and like Lucy has lived a hellish life sheltered inside the facility; unlike Lucy though she has ''never'' stepped foot into the outside world, and thus struggles to find the peaceful life she desires.
229* DetachmentCombat: Prosthetic limbs plus vectors equals [[MundaneMadeAwesome projectile appendages!!!]]
230* {{Determinator}}: She's on the receiving end of several [[CurbStompBattle Curb Stomp Battles]], but still gets up for the next one.
231* DisabilitySuperpower: Lucy rips out Nana's limbs, but Nana later uses her prosthetics as part of her fighting style.
232* EvenTheLovingHeroHasHatedOnes: Nana is nice to almost everyone and [[MySpeciesDothProtestTooMuch actively defies being a killing machine, unlike most Diclonii]]. However, she loathes [[VillainProtagonist Lucy]] for being murderous and [[AnArmAndALeg ripping her limbs off]].
233* EvilWearsBlack: Averted. She wears black, yet she is the most moral and [[IncorruptiblePurePureness pure]] out of all the characters, especially given the [[EvilVersusEvil morality]] of the series.
234* ExtremelyProtectiveChild: She's usually the most harmless Diclonius, but threaten her papa Kurama and she'll show you she can be fierce too.
235* TheFettered: She's the only Diclonius with strong morals that keep her from becoming a killing machine like other members of her species.
236* {{Fingore}}: In the anime, Lucy chops off all of the fingers on her right hand before ripping her right arm off.
237* GoodCounterpart: Nana can be seen as the exact opposite of Lucy. While Lucy's default personality is serious and cold, Nana's is fragile, friendly, and kind. Nana's default personality is very similiar to Nyu and she also has an endearingly immature knowledge of the world.
238* HandicappedBadass: Having all of her limbs ripped off and replaced with prosthetics doesn't stop her from taking on Bando and winning.
239* HellishPupils: In the manga, whenever she acts like an evil Diclonius. This is true of the anime as well, where she gains these whenever she senses Lucy's presence. In her first meeting with Mayu, she cannot sense Lucy but when told about Nyu she gains these upon realizing they are in fact the same person.
240* HeroAntagonist: To Lucy. While she does work for the Research Containment Facility, she works for [[TokenGoodTeammate Kurama]] and she's got to be the most straight-up heroic character in the series.
241* HeroicWillpower: Otherwise, she would have become just as homicidal as all the other Diclonii.
242* ImaginaryFriend: Cruelly subverted. Nana tries to tell the others that CuteMute Nyu has a murderous SuperpoweredEvilSide named Lucy, but they think that it's just this.
243* IncorruptiblePurePureness: Everything dumped on her only makes her sweeter and more heroic, not less. On top of that, she seems to be in complete (or near-complete) control of her murderous DNA.
244* InterspeciesRomance: [[spoiler:Implied with Kurama at the end of the manga.]]
245* LastOfHerKind: [[spoiler:She very well could be the last Diclonius following the development of the vaccine.]]
246* LethalChef: Given that she was raised in a lab, this isn't all too surprising (especially in the OVA: first, she burns some in a pan, then she's too enthusiastic cutting the lettuce, her prosthetic arm comes of and the knife nearly hits Mayu).
247* LoveMartyr: When she finally sees Kurama again after he's missing for six months, he's too focused on grieving [[spoiler:Mariko's death]] and dismisses Nana as a "mere test subject" who isn't even his real child. Nana feels angry at Kurama's coldness to her even though she had been waiting for him and worrying the entire time he was gone. Despite that, Nana still loves him and chooses to be with him even if he rejects her. Her love eventually helps Kurama recover from his depression.
248* MadeOfIron: She takes a bullet to the face from Bando, and all it does is knock her back to her senses and freak her out from the sight of the blood.
249* MoneyToBurn: A variation; she's so clueless over the concept of money that she uses the yen Kurama left her with for kindling.
250* MoralityPet: Even though he's dedicated to the elimination of the Diclonius species, Chief Kurama truly cares about Nana as his adopted daughter and defies Director Kakuzawa's direct orders to ensure her survival.
251* MsFanservice: There are TONS of scenes of her naked throughout the series.
252* MundaneLuxury: To someone who was raised as a test subject like she was, a simple hot bath is a luxury. She also initially treats steamed rice like the most tasty meal in the world.
253* MyNameIsInigoMontoya: Nana invokes this one ''constantly'', usually just after she's been dealt a severe injury in combat, with "This doesn't hurt at all!" Also usually, the trope is ''horrifically'' subverted. Occasionally the reverse occurs, and Nana goes on to triumph in the encounter (albeit, [[RunningGag usually]], temporarily).
254* MySpeciesDothProtestTooMuch: Diclonii are genetically driven to murder, right? Not this one.
255* NakedOnArrival: Like any other Diclonii, she's introduced completely naked. [[FanDisservice Chained to a wall and covered in blood.]]
256* NiceGirl: She is kind and sweet to just about everyone, to the extent of even [[spoiler:mourning for Mariko like a sister and lamenting that Mariko didn't get to experience all the good things in life]] despite the torture she put Nana through. She only ever loses her temper when it comes to Lucy, for [[AnArmAndALeg understandable reasons]].
257* NoHoldsBarredBeatdown:
258** Lucy keeps dismembering her limbs even if she's already defeated.
259** Receives a brutal one from Mariko. In the manga however, Mariko makes the mistakes of [[spoiler: threatening Kurama.]] Nana's response is to [[spoiler:punch her senseless and disable her vectors before threatening to kill her.]]
260* NoLongerWithUs: Nana just felt like being melodramatic for some reason...
261* NoSocialSkills: Undoubtedly a NiceGirl but between being YoungerThanSheLooks (Nana hasn't even cracked double-digits yet and has the mental age to match) and having had a, let's say, ''[[RaisedInALab irregular]]'' upbringing, she doesn't come off as the most normal person. She seems [[CloudCuckooLander strange]] for not already knowing normal known facts and ways of life, and tends to get frustrated easily and sulk when people don't listen (or she doesn't explain herself well).
262* OnlyAFleshWound: Subverted in her battle with Lucy; after she gets her leg and fingers chopped off, she insists it doesn't hurt... only to drop the tough girl act and scream in agony when Lucy takes off one of her arms.
263* ThePollyanna: Admirably and ''heroically''. Under ridiculously brutal circumstances that turned other Diclonii into killers. Choosing not to be one of the series' [[UnstoppableRage unstoppable killing machines]], Nana maintains an unshakable positive outlook and focuses on the good things in the world, anchored by her belief that everything will be [=OK=] when she can be with Papa again.
264* PowerNullifier: She can use her vectors to temporarily disable other Diclonius's vectors. This is how she disarms Lucy, unfortunately only ''after'' losing all her limbs for her troubles.
265* ProHumanTranshuman: Even though she is a Diclonius, she has maintained her faith and trust in humanity in spite of the extreme odd stacked against ther.
266* RaisedInALab: She has spent her entire life in the Diclonius research facility where she was raised as a test subject, so she knows absolutely nothing about the world outside the complex where she used to live, to the point of burning a "bunch of papers" that turned out to be money. And being gullible enough to believe that the money when kept together would attack her in her sleep.
267* RedemptionEqualsLife: If you count simply ''being'' a Diclonius as a state in dire need of redemption, Nana definitely qualifies. She is one of the kindest characters in the series, meaning she ''staunchly'' rejects the inherent, ingrained desire to eradicate all humans. [[spoiler: She never takes a single life throughout both the anime and manga and is amply rewarded by being the ''only'' Diclonius to survive the manga.]]
268* ReluctantMonster: She's the only known Diclonius to be able to effortlessly repress her murderous instincts.
269* ReplacementGoldfish: [[spoiler:Kurama kinda adopted her to make up for trying to kill and abandoning Diclonius biological daughter Mariko, since Nana isn't anywhere as dangerous as Mariko. Later in the manga, however, Kurama and Nana agree she can't be a replacement to Mariko after Mariko's death. Nana then decides she'll become Kurama's wife in the future so they can be a family.]]
270* RocketPunch: Bando lured her on the beach, where she couldn't use anything as a projectile to throw at him. She used her artificial arm. She later uses her arms this way again.
271* RoseHairedSweetie: She has pink hair in the anime like all other Diclonii. Unlike other Diclonii, Nana is a sweet and friendly girl.
272* RunningGag: If it can create a humorously awkward moment, it's likely one of her artificial limbs will fall off.
273* SelfHarm: She once tries to hit her head until she bleeds, in hopes she'll lose her memories and powers like Lucy/Nyu.
274* SelfProclaimedLoveInterest: In the manga, after her father figure Kurama says Mariko is his only daughter, Nana starts calling herself [[WifeHusbandry his wife]] out of wish to become a real family with him. Kurama never says he agrees, but he does assure Nana that he won't leave her again.
275* SevenIsNana: Nana is Diclonius subject Number Seven.
276* ShamefulStrip: Mariko humiliates her by subjecting her to ClothingDamage with her vectors, while disabling her artificial limbs, leaving her a helpless, screaming, crying mess while Mariko simply starts giggling innocently.
277* SlasherSmile: Even she has these kind of smiles, mostly when she fights other Diclonii and has the upper hand.
278* ThouShaltNotKill: She's the only Diclonius to have never killed a person, even when she's at her worst.
279* TokenGoodTeammate: Unlike the Diclonius research institute and the entire Diclonius species, Nana is a peaceful Diclonius who never kills a person in the entire series.
280* TokenHeroicOrc: She's the only known Diclonius who ''isn't'' a sadistic killer.
281* TookALevelInBadass: After her defeat by Lucy, Nana becomes better in battles. Often because of her ArtificialLimbs she can throw as projectiles and other quick surprise attacks. Also, in every battle with Mariko and [[spoiler:her clones]], Nana gets the upper hand at least once per battle, depending on the occassion.
282* TooIncompetentToOperateABlanket: She was raised in a lab, and thus, unable to even cut a cabbage with an ordinary knife. When she first meets Mayu, she is completely clueless over the concept of money and uses the yen Kurama left her with for kindling.
283* ATragedyOfImpulsiveness: Kurama explicitly told her ''not'' to engage Lucy when he found her, but she chose to do so anyway in an attempt to make him proud. It ends badly.
284* TranquilFury: Bando makes the ''exceedingly'' foolish mistake of pushing Nana too far the first time they meet, and she lapses into this: he even gets a flashback of Lucy looking at her like this.
285* UpbringingMakesTheHero: Despite her brutal life as a test subject, her adoptive father Kurama treated her with genuine kindness and concern. This is likely the reason why she's the only Diclonius who has a benevolent nature and didn't develop murderous impulses.
286* VitriolicBestBuds: With Nyuu; she despises Lucy for having ripped off her limbs, a battle that nearly killed her. However, she eventually warms up to Nyuu despite their first meeting, who takes her in to their home with open arms.
287* YoungerThanSheLooks: Silpelits age at about double the rate of normal humans. Nana looks 14 and is really only around seven years old, she also ACTS like her real age too.
288[[/folder]]
289
290[[folder:Nozomi]]
291[[quoteright:296:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/nozomi_97.jpg]]
292
293A 18 year old girl who's Yuka's best friend and kohai, she aspires to become a famous opera singer.
294
295Due to her father's rather... [[AbusiveDad violent]] opposition of her dream, Nozomi developed a psychological trauma that [[BringMyBrownPants makes her wet herself whenever she becomes too nervous]]. Despite this, she tries to get into a music high school, secretly training at the Maple Inn, which Yuka invited her to, during her free time and moving there permanently after getting accepted.
296----
297* AdaptedOut: Despite being a main character, she was written out of the anime.
298* BeautifulSingingVoice: Kouta and Yuka believe she has the skill to become a singer.
299* BookSmart: According to Yuka, Nozomi usually takes first place on the mock exams. Later, it's mentioned she's the third in the country at mock exams.
300* CuteMute: [[spoiler:In chapter 83, her throat gets crushed by a soldier, leaving her unable to speak until the final chapter.]]
301* ADayInTheLimelight: She has a special chapter in the manga depicting her past.
302* DreamCrushingHandicap: A {{defied|trope}} example. She has a throat defect that will eventually make her lose her voice if she strains it too much. Her father desperately tries making her give up on her dream of becoming a singer out of fear that she'll also lose her voice and possibly kill herself like her mother did. Nozomi still decides to not give up and pursues her dream anyway.
303* HimeCut: She's a borderline YamatoNadeshiko and so she has a borderline hairstyle associated with them.
304* JizzedInMyPants: When having a moment with Kouta, she thinks she peed herself again. When she checks, she realizes she didn't wet herself with pee this time...
305* PottyFailure: PlayedForDrama. Due to her father's abuse, she's developed a bladder control problem that causes her to wet herself whenever she gets too nervous. It actually happens to the extent that she has to wear diapers.
306* PursuingParentalPerils: Nozomi's mother is an opera singer who lost her voice due to a vocal cord defect, which leads to her being DrivenToSuicide. Even though her father warns her about this, Nozomi chooses to still try and become a singer.
307* TheRunaway: While she didn't really run away in a direct way like Mayu, she still kind of qualifies as an Abused Runaway.
308* SacredFirstKiss: Her first kiss is stolen by Nyu. It's a ForcedKiss.
309* ShrinkingViolet: She's very shy and soft-spoken thanks to her father's abuse.
310* TextileWorkIsFeminine: She's confident of her sewing skills.
311[[/folder]]
312
313[[folder:Piyopiyo]]
314[[quoteright:150:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/piyopiyo.png]]
315
316A baby bird that falls out of its nest, and is found and taken care of by Nyu.
317----
318* AdaptedOut: It does not appear in the anime.
319* {{Irony}}: While watching Nyu tenderly cradle Piyopiyo in her hands, Nana wonders what would happen if she knew that she had slaughtered dozens of innocent people in unimaginably gruesome ways.
320* RidiculouslyCuteCritter: It is a tiny baby bird whose delicate state immediately wins over Nyu's heart.
321* VerbalTicName: ''Piyopiyo'' is the Japanese onomatopoeia for a bird's chirping.
322[[/folder]]
323
324----
325!Diclonii Research Facility
326[[folder:Director Kakuzawa]]
327->'''Voiced by:''' Creator/KinryuArimoto (JP), Creator/AndyMcAvin (EN), Pedro D'Aguillón, Jr. (Latin American Spanish)
328[[quoteright:130:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kakuzawa_elfen_lied.png]]
329
330The director of the Diclonius research facility. He is a repulsive, power-hungry man lacking any sense of morality and will do whatever it takes to achieve his goals.
331----
332* BadBoss: As can only be expected of a top-secret research facility as insanely brutal as this one. He ''will'' kill a subordinate if they decide not to obey and his [[SexSlave disgusting treatment]] of Shirakawa makes the prospect of working for this guy in this hellhole look even less attractive. It's implied that fears of what the Diclonius could do to the human race has employees who've dealt with him simply grit their teeth and bear it. [[spoiler:Given that he is later revealed to think he is a Diclonius himself and secretly plotting to usurp humankind, you could see it as Kakuzawa lording himself over non-Diclonius as an inferior species, but considering the atrocious treatment of his supposed "fellow Diclonius" in his own facility, it seems he doesn't care ''who'' he hurts so long as he comes out on top.]]
333* TheBadGuyWins: In the anime only, he succeeds in killing Lucy. However, the story ends on a CliffHanger [[GeckoEnding of epic proportions]] due to the manga being far from finished at the time. Subverted in the manga where he is [[spoiler:killed by Lucy]] and his plans ultimately fall apart. He does however come damn close.
334* BaldOfEvil: He's actually bald and wears a wig [[spoiler:because he has horns]]. He's also the BigBad.
335* BatmanGambit: Starting immediately after the point where the anime cuts off, Kakuzawa initiates the second part of his plan: [[spoiler:a missile launch with the Diclonius virus that would spread into the Japanese population, and, later, the world; in other words, the population of Japan would have their future children Diclonius, ''without them knowing of it'']]. An attempt to actually stop this from happening does not work, and [[ThePlan the gambit]] proceeds as planned. It would have worked if it wasn't for [[spoiler:Arakawa and her knowledge of the Diclonius virus, so it gets foiled later on]]. The rest of the manga is spent attempting to make sure the scenario does not proceed into ''even worse'' territory.
336* BigBadEnsemble: He works together with the DNA Voice to destroy humanity. Kakuzawa runs the horrific research facility and is Lucy’s greatest enemy, definitely moreso in the manga, [[spoiler:at least until the DNA Voice offs him and becomes the main threat at the end of the series]].
337* BlasphemousBoast: "Not even ''{{God}}'' can stop me now!"
338* TheChessmaster: Manga only. Kakuzawa makes numerous plans to achieve his goal, from [[spoiler:Diclonius virus missiles, to his goddess daughter Anna to a male Diclonius.]] Things seem to fall into his very hands and he runs circles around those trying to stop him. If it wasn't for a combination of unforeseen circumstances, most notably [[spoiler:Arakawa's vaccine]], he would have won even after being killed.
339%%* ContemplativeBoss: Almost always.
340* DirtyOldMan: Director Kakuzawa is a very creepy rapist who misuses [[spoiler:Shirakawa]] as his sex slave and at least his youngest son is a ChildByRape. And speaking of his youngest son, [[spoiler:the Male Diclonius, he was born from Director Kakuzawa's rape of Lucy's mother and Kakuzawa wants him to impregnate his half-sister Lucy]]. Yes, this man wants a girl in her late teens to be pregnant as soon as possible. By a boy who ''[[VagueAge has]]'' to be less than 10 years old, timeline-wise. Suddenly, all the Diclonius girls being kept naked in the facility and the sexual abuse permitted for the Unknown Man makes ''a lot'' of sense.
341* DiscOneFinalBoss: He may have been killed by [[spoiler:Lucy]], but all that's left at this point is [[spoiler:her DNA Voice]].
342* EquivalentExchange: He believes that Kurama must trade [[spoiler:Mariko's life, which is Kurama's ''daughter'']] for working with him.
343-->''A human has no more than two hands. To take something, one must drop what one's holding.''
344* EvilIsHammy: He ''really'' loves to say his plans out loud.
345* EvilIsPetty: Considering he's just [[spoiler: a normal person with some genetic abnormalities]], his desire to TakeOverTheWorld with Diclonius is ultimately either a [[ItsAllAboutMe giant ego trip]] over [[AGodAmI a delusion of being something he never was]], or simply the spiteful machinations of a man [[InferioritySuperiorityComplex who knew he was nothing special.]]
346* EvilutionaryBiologist: His "diclonius" efforts. Too bad for him that pissing off the crux of his plans (Lucy) slaps him with the TooDumbToLive label.
347* FinalBoss: He is the last enemy that Lucy confronts, [[spoiler:though not the last enemy overall]].
348* GodhoodSeeker: His ultimate goal is to become the god of a Diclonius-ruled world.
349* HateSink: He is responsible for all the horror the Diclonii suffer, and the living embodiment of HumansAreTheRealMonsters.
350* HideYourOtherness: [[spoiler:He wears a wig to hide the horns in his head.]]
351* HoistByHisOwnPetard: [[spoiler:Satisfyingly killed by Lucy in the manga.]]
352* HornedHumanoid: [[spoiler:He has small horns in his head that he sees as proof that he's a Diclonius. However, Lucy reveals he's a human and his horns are just a skull deformity.]]
353* HumanAllAlong: [[spoiler:He believed he was descended from Diclonius ancestry that has been watered down by inter-breeding with humans. However, Lucy doesn't sense any Diclonius genes in him and concludes the horns in his head are a mere deformity.]]
354* IdiotBall: [[spoiler: His plans involve making it so that all children except Lucy's are born slipelits, which are sterile, thereby reducing the Earth's population to one breeding pair (Lucy and himself) plus his male Diclonius son, which will almost certainly result in extinction of the Diclonii as well even if Lucy cooperates.]]
355* LargeAndInCharge: According to the full-cast shot in the last chapter, he is taller than the rest of the cast by a notable amount.
356* MachoMasochism: Doctor Nousou has at one point developed a way to control the violent silpelites via brain chips, and, when prompted by Director Kakuzawa, demonstrates their complete obedience by ordering one of them to stab herself in the arm. Kakuzawa's reaction? He pulls his gun and shoots himself in the hand, remarking disappointedly that pain is no guarantee for obedience.
357* MedicalRapeAndImpregnate: A very creepy and disturbing example, as he [[spoiler:found, captured and impregnated Lucy's mother in order to have a Diclonius male heir that he intended to mate with Lucy, the boy's half-sister. Even when the mother manages to kill herself in captivity, he has her dissected and tries to harvest her reproductive organs and materials. To cap it off, when he tells all this to Lucy, he regards these actions as now making them related. Lucy notably and memorably disagrees with this]].
358* MoleInCharge: He half-heartedly puts up a front of wanting to protect the human race from the diclonii, the stated purpose of the research facility he runs, while really wanting the diclonii to wipe out and replace humans.
359* ANaziByAnyOtherName: His beliefs that the Diclonius are MasterRace intended to wipe out and replace humanity are eerily similar to the Nazis' beliefs of the Aryan MasterRace. It's really telling when the project that will kickstart it all is called "Lebensborn".
360* NonActionBigBad: He relies on his henchmen and Diclonii to fight for him. Best shown when [[spoiler:Lucy kills him in one shot]].
361* OnlyOneName: In contrast to the other Kakuzawas, his first name is not revealed.
362* OutlivingOnesOffspring: His son tries to capture Lucy and ends up murdered by her.
363* TheReveal: During his final confrontation with Lucy, it is made known that [[spoiler: his family were never true Diclonius, merely Humans with a minor genetic mutation who invented legends and eugenic myths to cope with the persecution they faced in medieval times.]] The strife he caused our heroes and the world takes on a whole new light.
364* SlasherSmile: Pulls off a few. Despite this most of his expressions are actually quite stoic.
365%%* StalkerWithATestTube: A rare male example.
366* TheStoic: More so in the manga. A few hammy speeches and smirks aside, he always remains calm and collect only ever showing the slightest surprise a very few times.
367* StupidEvil: [[spoiler:He taunts Lucy over what he did to her mother, which predictably results in his own defeat]].
368* TheUnfettered: His goal is to wipe out the human race, replace it with the Diclonius, and be worshiped by them as their new "[[GodhoodSeeker God]]".
369* UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans: [[spoiler:His goal is to destroy the human race and produce more Diclonii using Lucy, the only fertile female Diclonus, to replace them. He doesn't want to do this for any moral reason, though, but only so that in 100 or 200 years he can be worshipped as the god of the new species.]]
370* VillainousParentalInstinct: Subverted, despite appearing to love his daughter Anna in the manga, it is clear he only sees her as a tool for the advancement of his plans. [[spoiler:Although, it's implied he did something that returned her to her original human form after Lucy destroyed her mutated head. Ultimately, Anna is left thinking her father did care about her a little]].
371%%* WickedCultured
372[[/folder]]
373
374[[folder:Dr. Kurama]]
375->'''Voiced by:''' Osamu Hosoi (JP), Creator/JayHickman (EN), Creator/GerardoReyero (Latin American Spanish)
376[[quoteright:215:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kurama.jpg]]
377
378The chief of research of the Diclonius children in the research containment facility.
379----
380* ArchEnemy: He has the ''extremely'' dubious honor of being the human Lucy seems to hate the most - the one who's still alive, at least. He was the one who oversaw her initial capture, but more importantly he didn't keep his promise to save Aiko if Lucy would surrender, putting him on the same short list as Kouta of humans Lucy will not kill, but for '''''[[CruelMercy very]]''''' [[FateWorseThanDeath different reasons]]. Which makes it sort of fitting that towards the end of the manga, [[spoiler:Kurama accidentally shoots and nearly kills Kouta right in front of Lucy in a way similar to Aiko's death.]]
381* AnArmAndALeg: [[spoiler:Lucy cuts his arm off. It was self-defense.]]
382* BadassBookworm: A scientist who ''[[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu punches Lucy out]]'' without fear for [[AnArmAndALeg what]] she [[ColdBloodedTorture did]] to Nana.
383* BeardOfSorrow: After the TimeSkip of the manga, Kurama has grown a beard as he has spent months in a state of shock and depression [[spoiler:because of Mariko's death]].
384* BlatantLies: {{Implied|Trope}}. At the end of the manga it's revealed [[spoiler:Aiko did survive her bullet wound. It's implied he lied to Lucy that she was dead so she won't pursue her again]].
385* BrokenTears: In the manga, he has a tearful breakdown after [[spoiler:Mariko dies. And again when one of Mariko's ''clones'' dies in his arms.]]
386* ByronicHero: Kurama is a stern, no-nonsense man who is devoted to his job, in spite of the horrible atrocities that were being carried out. As the series goes on, he has plenty of sympathetic moments due to his conflicts about what he believes must be done to protect humanity from the Diclonii children and his own morals.
387* CradleOfLoneliness: [[spoiler:After one of Mariko's clones dies in his arms, Kurama keeps holding the body for days.]]
388* DeathByAdaptation: [[spoiler:He dies in the anime, but he stays alive in the manga.]]
389* TheDragon: To Director Kakuzawa in the first half of the manga, as well as in the whole anime.
390* DyingDeclarationOfLove: In the anime, [[spoiler:Kurama tells Mariko that he and her mother loved her before the bomb inside Mariko kills them both.]]
391* EasilyForgiven: He tried to strangle a newborn Mariko to death and when he couldn't do it, he had her locked up in a top-security prison for her entire life. Despite of that, Mariko almost instantly forgives her father [[spoiler:to the point she doesn't hesitate to die for him]] after he hugs her and admits he does love her after all.
392* ExcessiveMourning: [[spoiler:His immense grief over his biological daughter Mariko's death causes him to neglect his adopted daughter Nana for a while.]]
393* FinalFirstHug: [[spoiler:He embraces his daughter Mariko for the first and only time shortly before she dies protecting him from Lucy. It's even more depressing in the anime where Kurama hugs Mariko to die with her just as the bomb inside her explodes.]]
394* FondMemoriesThatCouldHaveBeen: In the anime, [[spoiler:right when the bomb inside Mariko detonates and kills them both, Kurama imagines himself, his wife and Mariko being a happy family as he realized that life could have been possible if he had accepted his Diclonius daughter.]]
395* AGlassInTheHand: Thinking about Kisaragi and her death at Lucy's hands causes him to feel such anger and angst that he breaks a glass he was holding in his hand. The bleeding in his hand doesn't compare to the pain he feels inside.
396* TheHeavy: Why does Lucy do what she does? [[spoiler:A friend (and [[OnlyFriend her only one]]) took a bullet for her not knowing Lucy could deflect it so Lucy gave herself in to try and save the friend when Kurama offers to help if she comes quietly. Later Kurama flatly informs Lucy the friend died. She now wants to make him suffer.]]
397** In the anime, [[spoiler: merely informing Lucy her friend died was enough to set her sights on Kurama. In the manga version, Kurama twists the knife by casting aspersions on the girl he killed, and saying that all this was Lucy's fault for not surrendering and the Diclonius' refusal to co-exist with Humans.]] Needless to say, this inverted accusation has no appeal for Lucy, and explains her single-minded hatred all the more.
398* IDidWhatIHadToDo: He executes baby diclonius and justifies his actions by convincing himself the babies must be killed before they grow up into murderers.
399* InterruptedSuicide: In the manga, [[spoiler:he tries to shoot himself after Mariko dies. He's stopped by Bando who gives him shelter at the beach where he also lives for several months.]]
400* LivingEmotionalCrutch: To Nana, who could only withstand all the experiments conducted on her by becoming attached to and wanting to please her "papa".
401* MoralMyopia: He hates most diclonious for their psychotic tendencies and hatred of humanity as a whole, but completely turns a blind eye to the brutal, horrific, and inhumane treatment and experimentation they endure that makes them this way.
402* NecessarilyEvil: He sacrifices children and adult women for the sake of saving the human race.
403* TheNeedsOfTheMany: He's willing to terminate innocent children and not-so-innocent adult women alike, for the sake of saving the human race.
404* NobleTopEnforcer: Unlike [[BigBad Director Kakuzawa]] who is just evil and plans to make Diclonii take over the world, Kurama participates in the research because he sincerely believes Diclonii are a threat to the world. He also does feel remorse when torturing and killing Diclonii.
405* OffingTheOffspring: Kurama was initially in charge of terminating Diclonus children because he was the only one who could do it with no signs of regret. That is, until, his own daughter Mariko turns out to be one as well. This is ultimately subverted in the anime, [[spoiler:when Kurama dies with Mariko because Mariko explodes rather than him doing anything to her. Eventually played straight-ish in the manga, though Kurama only kills a clone of Mariko and not the real article, with the clone vehemently insisting on not being treated as Mariko.]]
406* OpaqueLenses: We usually can't see his eyes through his glasses.
407* OutlivingOnesOffspring: [[spoiler:After trying to kill her own daughter several times, Kurama ultimately can't do it. Instead, he watches as Mariko is killed when the bombs implanted inside her blow up while she protects him from Lucy.]]
408* ParentalSubstitute: He is the surrogate father of Nana.
409* RedOniBlueOni: A cold and pragmatic Blue to aggressive and hot-blooded Bando's Red.
410* RevengeMyopia: Towards the end of the series, he comes at Lucy with a gun, after she promised not to attack humans anymore, for all the grief she gave him, but then who captured her, locked her up in a vault, and not only had her undergo horrific experiments, but is directly responsible for sending ''an army'' at her and killing her best and only friend in front of her eyes when she was a child, and blamed her for it?
411* ScaryShinyGlasses: He's shown with them very often.
412* SensitiveGuyAndManlyMan: Him and Bando. Though, Kurama is a BadassBookworm on par with Bando's BadassNormal.
413* SharpDressedMan: He always wears a suit, [[spoiler:except during the time of his HeroicBSOD]].
414* TheStarscream: He secretly tries to prevent Director Kakuzawa from becoming the god of Diclonii.
415* TheStoic: Initially, although [[NotSoStoic less and less as the plot progresses.]]
416* TogetherInDeath: [[spoiler:A thwarted example occurs in the manga, where he intends to die crushed by a missile with his daughter Mariko in his arms. However, both survive and then he watches Mariko blow up while protecting him from Lucy. In the anime, however, he succeeds to die with Mariko when he holds her in his arms as the bombs inside her explode.]]
417* TheUnfettered: Kurama's goal is to save the human race, even if it involves terminating innocent children and women alike.
418* VillainousRescue: In the anime, he saves Lucy from Mariko's NoHoldsBarredBeatdown.
419* WouldHitAGirl: He slaps Lucy with enough force to knock her off her feet. Given that she had just dismembered Nana, it's justified.
420* WouldHurtAChild: Considering that he's tasked with euthanizing diclonius newborns.
421[[/folder]]
422
423[[folder:Kisaragi]]
424->'''Voiced by:''' Creator/MariaYamamoto (JP), Creator/TiffanyGrant (EN), Analíz Sánchez (Latin American Spanish)
425[[quoteright:230:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kisaragi_elfen_lied.jpg]]
426
427Kurama's young, clumsy secretary who has worked for him for at least five years and admires him. She's killed by Lucy early in the series, just to mess with Kurama.
428----
429* BulletproofHumanShield: While escaping during the first episode, Lucy decapitates Kisaragi and uses her corpse to block a hail of 9mm bullets. In the manga, Kisaragi is made Lucy's human shield even ''before'' her decapitation.
430* CuteClumsyGirl: Messily deconstructed. Despite being one of the few characters with any significant dialogue in the first episode, [[spoiler: she gets her head ripped off ten minutes in]].
431* TheDitz: Deconstructed, as her clumsiness leads to her death by Lucy.
432* MisplacedKindergartenTeacher: She's akin to this; she's clearly out of her depth working in the facility she does and doesn't seem to understand the magnitude of what she's involved with, if her delayed reaction to a naked, rampaging Lucy is anything to go by. Kurama's affections aside, how she lasted as long as she did on the job before her fatal encounter with Lucy is a mystery.
433* OffWithHerHead: Courtesy of Lucy.
434%%* SurvivedTheBeginning:
435* TooDumbToLive:
436** The moment she saw the devastation that was being caused one would have expected her to realize that a noncombatant like herself should do the smart thing and get to the exit ASAP. Then again, this being [[PersonOfMassDestruction Lucy]], it wouldn't have been useful at all...
437** This is not the case in the manga version, where Kisaragi comes across Lucy before seeing any devastation and death from her, and is thus at the wrong place at the wrong time when Kurama and his guard squad arrive on the scene. Cue BulletproofHumanShield and OffWithHerHead.
438[[/folder]]
439
440[[folder:Shirakawa]]
441->'''Voiced by:''' Creator/HitomiNabatame (JP), Creator/ShelleyCaleneBlack (EN), Cony Madera (Latin American Spanish)
442[[quoteright:207:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/shirakawa_elfen_lied.jpg]]
443
444The Deputy Director of the facility under Kurama who is secretly in love with him.
445----
446* AdaptationalHeroism: Played with. The manga Shirakawa is a more ruthless and petty person who has a bad case of GreenEyedMonster when it comes to Kurama's family, admitting in her thoughts that [[spoiler:the reason she suggested the bombs be put in Mariko was more because she is Kurama's child with another woman than out of practicality]]. In the anime, Shirakawa is significantly softened up as she takes on Isobe's role as the TokenGoodTeammate of the research facility, is horrified by the idea of the bombs implanted in Mariko's body, and even tries to protect Nyu from getting gunned down when she realizes Nyu is Lucy's innocent HelplessGoodSide. That said, Anime Shirakawa [[spoiler:is not revealed to be a double-agent collecting information to thwart Director Kakuzawa's EvilPlan, either.]]
447* DiesDifferentlyInAdaptation: [[spoiler:Lucy [[HalfTheWomanSheUsedToBe rips her in two]] in the anime, in the process triggering Kouta's repressed traumatic memory of her killing Kanae the same way; in the manga, she is still the one who kills Shirakawa, but [[OffWithHerHead decapitates]] her to screw with Kurama and taunt him, similar to how she killed Kisaragi.]]
448* GirlFriday: Faithful/attracted to her boss, and despite being cold and distant [[spoiler:is TheMole in the facility meant to gain information about the potential genocidal research there]].
449* KilledMidSentence: In the anime, she [[spoiler:thinks Lucy is still in her "Nyu" personality and unwittingly brings herself in range of Lucy's vectors while trying to tell Kouta the truth about "Nyu".]]
450* TheMole: [[spoiler:Preceded the Agent in this regard, sending enough information to her superiors for them to realize the gravitas of the situation and send in the second.]]
451* NotSoStoic: In the anime, she is moved to tears when Kurama agonizes over Nana in what appeared to be her final moments.
452* RedemptionEqualsDeath: Her death in the manga: [[spoiler:after her GreenEyedMonster actions towards Mariko with some hope Mariko would be killed to have Kurama to herself, she moves past her personal agenda and makes it up to Kurama by risking her life to grab the detonator from Lucy and try to help Kurama save Mariko. Though Lucy wrecks that plan, kills Shirakawa, and seals Mariko's fate, it was a definite show of CharacterDevelopment by Shirakawa.]]
453* SubordinateExcuse: To Kurama.
454* SexSlave: In the manga, [[spoiler:she's a sex slave to Director Kakuzawa to get information from him]].
455* SexySecretary: Acts as Kurama's NumberTwo with operations and definitely has the look. Director Kakuzawa even uses her as a [[spoiler:sex slave]].
456* UnbalancedByRivalsKid: In the manga, [[spoiler:it was ''her'' idea to implant bombs within Mariko's body, not Kurama, who was unaware of it.]] The reason? Mariko is his a child from ''another'' woman.
457* UriahGambit: Sending Mariko in to fight Lucy was her idea. They were counting on Mariko winning, and even if she didn't, it wouldn't be a total loss. The Director accuses her of doing it to destroy parts of Kurama's past life so he'll let it go and move on. Her reasons for doing it are likely a combination of that, risking less human lives, [[spoiler:and trying to divert suspicion from her TheMole Status.]]
458* TooDumbToLive: In the anime, she [[spoiler:gets too close to Lucy while trying to explain to Kouta who she really is, putting herself within range of Lucy's vectors.]] It proves a fatal mistake.
459[[/folder]]
460
461[[folder:Isobe]]
462!!! Voiced by: Naoki Kinoshita (JP), Rick Piersall (EN), Creator/RicardoTejedo (Latin American Spanish)
463[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/isobe.jpg]]
464An assistant of Kurama.
465----
466* AdaptationalVillainy: Manga Isobe was a troubled individual who tried to see the differences in Diclonius. [[spoiler:His own niceness in fact is what got him killed.]] Anime Isobe not so much and comes off as another typical arrogant human.
467* AnArmAndALeg: In the manga, he tries to keep Mariko from attacking Kurama by threatening to set off another bomb when she rages at her father and regains her vectors. Mariko cuts off his arm instead and it lands too far away for him to reach the detonator.
468* AssholeVictim: Anime only, due to AdaptationalVillainy.
469* EvilMakesYouUgly: Due to AdaptationalVillainy, his entire character design was changed, who looks much less attractive than his average looking counterpart.
470* KilledMidSentence: In the anime, when Isobe attempts to shoot Nana, but he is killed by Lucy.
471-->"You're the only one left. Think of the reward--" (gets decapitated)
472* NoNameGiven: In the anime. The manga does reveal his name, but only after he died and stopped mattering as a character.
473* OffWithHisHead: [[spoiler:How Lucy (anime) and Mariko (manga) kill him.]]
474* TokenGoodTeammate: Unlike in the anime, the original manga version of Isobe is one of the nicer characters employed at the facility, balking at the use of bombs to control Mariko and showing anger on hearing of the lies Saito told her about her parents. [[spoiler:This becomes a plot point when it leads to his undoing, courtesy of Mariko.]]
475[[/folder]]
476
477[[folder:Professor Kakuzawa]]
478->'''Voiced by:''' Creator/HiroakiHirata (JP), Creator/JohnSwasey (EN), Mauricio Pérez (Latin American Spanish)
479[[quoteright:150:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/professor_kakuzawa_elfen_lied.png]]
480
481Son of Director Kakuzawa and a collegue of Kurama. He has the same goal as his father.
482----
483* AttemptedRape: On Lucy. [[spoiler:He failed.]]
484* BaldOfEvil: [[spoiler:His hair is really a wig to hide his Diclonius horns. Lucy kills him for trying to rape her.]]
485* BigBadWannabe: He plans to overturn his father and take over the world himself. [[spoiler:Lucy kills him before he can even try it.]]
486* DevilInDisguise: Literally and metaphorically: [[spoiler:His horns are hidden under a wig and nobody knows of his plans to destroy humanity.]]
487* FailedASpotCheck: It never occurred to him that the drugs he used on Nyuu had only knocked out that aspect of Lucy's split persona, ''not'' Lucy herself as he intended.
488* GodhoodSeeker: Like his father, he wants to become a god after the Diclonii rule the world.
489* HideYourOtherness: [[spoiler:He wears a wig to cover the horns on his head.]]
490* KilledMidSentence: [[spoiler:He tells Lucy he's going to rape her and wants to create a new race, only for him to be decapitated mid-sentence.]]
491* MadScientist: He wants to destroy humanity because ForScience.
492* MedicalRapeAndImpregnate: He's planning to rape and impregnate Lucy so he can produce more Diclonii children. [[spoiler:Lucy kills him before he can go through with it.]]
493* OffWithHisHead: [[spoiler:Lucy beheads him.]]
494* TheStarscream: To his father, wanting to rule the Diclonius race in his own name. He fails.
495* TooDumbToLive: His entire scheme to rape with Lucy is incredibly carelessly planned, but his fruitless appeals to her that they're on the same side when the drugs woke her from her Nyuu state were even more idiotic. Even when she's clearly in no mood to listen to a word of what he has to say, he still insists that they're destined to mate and carry out their task of wiping out the human race. That's right, even after trying to '''rape''' her, he has the audacity to insist they're allies; Lucy is quick to set the record straight with him.
496[[/folder]]
497
498[[folder:Dr. Arakawa]]
499->'''Voiced by:''' Eriko Ishihara (JP), Creator/JessicaBoone (EN), Angélica Villa (Latin American Spanish)
500[[quoteright:135:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/arakawa_elfen_lied.png]]
501
502A researcher working alongside Professor Kakuzawa to find a vaccine for the Diclonius virus.
503
504In the anime, she's basically only there for comic relief, but in the manga, she plays an extremely important role as the story progresses on.
505----
506* ActionSurvivor: At the end of the manga, she survives the riot of the [[spoiler:clone Silpelits]].
507* ChekhovsGunman: In the manga finale, [[spoiler:she ends up finally creating the Diclonius vaccine.]]
508%%* DeadpanSnarker: Again, manga only.
509* GirlishPigtails: She wore two braids in her middle school life. The boys view her as unfeminine and ugly, though.
510* IdenticalStranger: A weakened [[spoiler:Diana]] mistakes Arakawa for Nousou, probably because of their similar hair style. This actually saves her life and allows her to command [[spoiler:Diana]].
511* MadScientist: Arakawa starts out as only slightly eccentric when she has to take over his work. Being practically locked in in a basement room on a small remote island and working alone for weeks really tooks it's toll from her.
512* NerdsAreSexy: Averted in her backstory, as she was considered ugly by the boys.
513* ThePigPen: She states she hasn't taken a bath in over a week, even considering that, now that she's working in the Facility, she should take a shower ''at least'' every three days.
514* PluckyComicRelief: Early on, she's the only comedic in a series filled with {{gorn}} and dark drama.
515* RunningGag:
516-->"I'm ''never'' going to get to take a shower!"
517* ScienceHeroine: [[spoiler:Near the end, she saves the world by developing the Diclonius vaccine.]]
518* SeriouslyScruffy: She's working so hard that she never has time to take a shower.
519* SmartPeopleWearGlasses: She's a scientist who wears glasses since her adolescence.
520[[/folder]]
521
522[[folder:Saito]]
523->'''Voiced by:''' Creator/MariaYamamoto (JP), Creator/AllisonSumrall (EN), Lourdes Arruti (Latin American Spanish)
524[[quoteright:120:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/saito_elfen_lied.png]]
525
526A young researcher who is Mariko's foster mother and communicates with her per speaker and monitors. She claims to love Mariko like she's her real child, but Saito is brutally murdered by her, though she manages to blow one of Mariko's arms off.
527----
528* AdaptationalNiceGuy: Is revealed in a later manga chapter to [[AbusiveParents have fed Mariko cruel lies about her birth parents and made her think she was unwanted and willingly abandoned to live her whole life in the dark container]], which certainly did the girl's mental health no favors; making [[TheDogBitesBack Mariko coldly tricking, snubbing, and killing Saito]] a touch more [[KarmicDeath karmic]] in retrospect. The anime makes no mention of her telling such lies to Mariko, making Mariko's betrayal completely undeserved and returning Saito to a tragic character whose only crime was [[NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished falling prey to Mariko's manipulations]], giving her shades of [[spoiler:the manga version of Isobe]].
529* BewareTheNiceOnes: She seems to be a sweet and nice woman. But in the verge of death, she pushes one of Mariko's bomb buttons.
530* BitchInSheepsClothing: Manga-only. First appears to be one of the few researchers to show some kindness to the Diclonius, as she appears sweet and loves Mariko after spending so much time talking with her, being excited to see Mariko and rushing to cradle her when she falls. When Mariko unexpectedly kills her, saying she's not her mother, it cements Mariko as an evil, dangerous diclonius and Saito a victim who cared too much. After her death, Isobe learns that [[AbusiveParents Saito manipulated Mariko with the lie that neither birth parent wanted her]], when her mother definitely did, and her father made a devil's deal to keep her alive. His thoughts on the matter make it clear he doesn't believe it was something as innocent as Saito not knowing or misunderstanding, but a conscious effort [[{{Yandere}} to make Mariko have only her left as a parental figure]], and his opinion of her changes same as the reader's likely does. In hindsight it makes Mariko killing her and rejecting her as a mother more [[KarmicDeath karmic]].
531* DyingMomentOfAwesome: Despite losing the lower half of her body, thrown through a glass window, and the shock of Mariko's betrayal (not to mention surely going into ''medical'' shock), in her last moments Saito has enough strength and presence of mind to push the bomb button and blow Mariko's right arm off, making the slaughter end before it can turn into another bloodbath like Lucy's escape. Like many things, though, the manga version of this scene is colored by later reveals about her, and it's genuinely ambiguous in light of the kind of person she turned out to be whether it was a genuine act of heroism or ''spite'' out of being rejected as a parental figured.
532* GirlishPigtails: She wears two braids that gives her a girlish vibe.
533* GrievousHarmWithABody: Mariko throws her torso at the person who is about to push the button. [[HoistByHerOwnPetard Unfortunately for Mariko]], Saito is NotQuiteDead and now within arm's reach of the button herself. Maybe she should have thrown Saito's lower half instead...
534* HalfTheWomanSheUsedToBe: While Saito is tenderly holding Mariko, the latter splits her apart at the waist in an explosion of blood and guts, then her top half lobbed through a window. She's still alive for a few more seconds after, just long enough to press a button and set off one of the bombs inside of Mariko, before expiring.
535* HorribleJudgeOfCharacter: She insists she genuinely cares for Mariko, who's she's overseen for most of her time spent in the facility. Mariko however felt no such attachments in return and her first instinct is to brutally murder Saito. Realizing her fatal error in judgement, she blows off one of Mariko's arms just before she dies.
536* LikeADaughterToMe: She has been assigned to Mariko for years (possibly as long as Mariko has been in containment) and while she's never actually been in the same room as Mariko for safety reasons, they talk through speakers set up in Mariko's container and the control room. She claims to love Mariko like she's her real child, having essentially raised her and been the only human "contact" the girl had been had during her imprisonment. At first Mariko seems to also see her as a ParentalSubstitute and calls her "Mom", only for it to be [[YoureNotMyFather viciously subverted]] the first time Saito is within slicing range of Mariko's vectors. Saito's last act is to pay her back by blowing off one of Mariko's arms.
537* NotQuiteDead: After being blown in half and thrown through a window, she uses her last few seconds of life to press the button to detonate the bomb in Mariko's right arm.
538* ParentalSubstitute: Like Kurama, she becomes a surrogate parent to the diclonius she oversees, interestingly enough to Kurama's own biological daughter. Unlike him and Nana though, Saito and Mariko have never been in the same room together or even seen each other face-to-face, having only ever talked to each other in separate rooms through speakers and Mariko only knowing her as a voice in the dark. Unlike Nana, Mariko doesn't feel any real affection for her captor and kills her as soon as she sees Saito in the flesh.
539* WeHardlyKnewYe: She's killed very quickly after her introduction.
540[[/folder]]
541
542[[folder:Anna Kakuzawa]]
543[[quoteright:231:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/anna_elfen_lied.JPG]]
544The daughter of Director Kakuzawa, who is turned into a "goddess" with precognition powers.
545----
546* AntiVillain: The "Villainess in Name Only" variant. If it wasn't for her father, Anna would probably be one of the sweetest characters in the manga.
547* BlackSheep: The only member of the family who has a low intellect and no talents. Her human form only.
548* BookDumb: Was this before her father experimented on her.
549* EldritchAbomination: A massively engorge brain several tons and capable of predicting the future. Ironically more Eldritch than Abomination and ultimately she [[spoiler:returns to her normal form at the end of the manga.]]
550* EvenBadWomenLoveTheirMamas: The AntiVillain variation. She genuinely loves her father. Indeed, the reason she helps her father is out of love and a desire to be useful to him. Unfortunately the feeling is no longer mutual.
551* EvilGenius: Subverted. While a genius in her goddess state, Anna can hardly be described as evil (At least not in comparison to her father or some of the other questionable people) and only wishes to help her father out of a need to support him and prove herself. Ironically this was subverted entirely in her human form where she is neither evil nor a genius.
552%%* GenkiGirl: Her human form.
553* NakedOnArrival: Inverted. She's naked in her last appearance.
554%%* PhysicalGoddess: What her father claims.
555* RedemptionEqualsLife: Played with, in the end Anna does nothing to actually redeem herself. However at the same time out of all the antagonists she is perhaps the least evil and thus remains the only Kakuzawa to survive the end of the manga.
556* {{Seers}}: Her goddess form has precognition powers. Actually it's just very complicated and long math.
557* TomTheDarkLord: A very horrifying EldritchAbomination goddess with the name Anna.
558* UnexplainedRecovery: [[spoiler:She somehow returns into her human form after Lucy destroyed her goddess form. Though, there is an implication that her father had something to do with it.]]
559* WasOnceAMan: She was born as a sweet young girl who loved to run, but thaks to her father experiments, she transformed into a horrible creature who couldn't support her giant head [[spoiler:She recovers at the end.]]
560* WellDoneDaughterGirl: She goes through some horrific experiences because she wants to be useful and appreciated by her father.
561* WhiteSheep: The only kind person in her family.
562[[/folder]]
563
564[[folder:The Unknown Man]]
565[[quoteright:200:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/unknown_man_el.png]]
566
567A minor manga-only character, a man clad in a black trenchcoat and wide-brimmed hat, with opaque sunglasses and greasy-looking hair. At first appears relatively civil, he soon reveals his true colors as one of most horrifically evil bastards, if not ''the'' most evil, in the entire series. A brutal, heartless, [[Manga/{{Naruto}} Hidan]]-level sadist, rapist, and all-around not very nice man, he delights in causing pain and suffering, especially in Diclonius and/or teenage girls.
568----
569* AbnormalAmmo: Let's just say that heavy spiked balls coated in potent toxins isn't exactly what you'd expect a ''crossbow'' to fire.
570* AgonyBeam: A low-tech variation, in the form of a crossbow that fires spiked metal spheres coated in a toxin that causes horrible, cripplingly agonizing pain to those it hits. [[spoiler:Bites him in the ass - literally - during his fight with Bando.]]
571* AmbiguouslyHuman: [[spoiler:He's heavily implied to be the same species as Kakuzawa (a non-Diclonius horned human), however we never see him without his hat.]]
572* AttemptedRape: He tries to rape Mayu. Bando stops him.
573* AxCrazy: Perhaps the craziest. And considering the likes of Bando and Lucy, that's saying something.
574* BadassLongcoat: He wears a dark long coat, similar to [[Manga/{{Hellsing}} Alucard]].
575* CorruptedCharacterCopy: His design and attitude are clearly ripped straight from [[Manga/{{Hellsing}} Alucard]] (which is no easy feat to achieve considering that Alucard himself is a Corrupted Character Copy of [[Manga/{{Trigun}} Vash the Stampede]]) but he has none of Alucard's positive qualities, has his worst aspects flanderized, and is a slimy DirtyCoward who runs away from a BadassNormal like Bando in contrast to Alucard goading his enemies into peppering him with bullets to demonstrate his power and wanting to die at the hands of a normal human.
576* DirtyCoward: He gleefully tortures and rapes defenseless Diclonii and normal children, but runs away when he confronts [[BadassNormal Bando]].
577* EvenEvilHasStandards: He is shown disgusted at what Kakuzawa had done to [[spoiler:his daughter]]. However considering his later [[AttemptedRape actions]], it seems to be [[SubvertedTrope subverted]].
578* EvilerThanThou: Definitely worse than [[PsychoForHire Bando]] and/or [[WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds Lucy]], and arguably worse than even [[BigBad Kakuzawa Sr.]]
579* EyeScream: He tries to shoot Mayu's eye out with his crossbow to punish her for resisting him. Bando intervenes just in time.
580* NoNameGiven: This arguably just makes him worse.
581* OffWithHisHead: Courtesy of [[spoiler:Lucy]].
582* PsychoForHire: Less [[LargeHam Hammy]] than Bando, but ''much'' more sadistic.
583* RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil: He rapes Number 28 offscreen and tries to rape Mayu only for Bando to give him the beating he deserves. It's also implied that he was allowed to rape many more Silpelits by the staff of the facility.
584* {{Sadist}}: Oh ''yes''. He greatly enjoys inflicting pain on others and frequently tortures and rapes for fun.
585* TheSociopath: He gleefully rapes and mutilates Diclonii, nearly kills Wanta, and threatens Mayu with not just rape, but disfigurement.
586* SinisterShades: His sunglasses make him look like Alucard.
587* SunglassesAtNight: Like Bando and The Agent.
588[[/folder]]
589
590[[folder:Dr. Nousou]]
591[[quoteright:230:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/nousou_el.png]]
592
593The head scientist of Chief Kakuzawa after Kurama's departure.
594----
595* AbusiveDad: [[spoiler:He's the creator of over a thousand failed Mariko clones, who were the victims of his horrible experiments and were killed en masse to have their organs harvested. Even the four perfect clones he grew attached to were not spared, as he implanted mind-control devices in their heads and forced Diana to stab herself in the heart to prove her obedience. After having her device removed, Barbara makes it clear how much she hates him for torturing her and her sisters, before she slices his head off]].
596* DissonantSerenity: He performs brutally horrific experiments on Diclonii while having a calm expression all the time.
597* DudeLooksLikeALady: He has a similar face and hair style to Arakawa, just having light hair and mirrored bangs. This becomes a plot point, when Diana mistakes Arakawa for him.
598* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: As horrific as his experiments are, he really loves Alicia, Barbara, Cynthia and Diana.
599* HeelFaceDoorSlam: After the Mariko clones sacrifice themselves to protect him, he starts having second thoughts about the research facility's inhuman treatment of the Diclonii. He frees Barbara from her mind control device to give her back her free will. [[spoiler:Barbara then rips his head off as revenge for his abuse towards her and the other clones.]]
600* HeelRealization: He feels regret over his tortuous experiments after realizing he loves the clones of Mariko he created as if they were his daughters.
601* IdenticalStranger: His appearance looks very similar to Arakawa.
602* KarmicDeath: [[spoiler:He's ultimately killed by Barbara when he removed the mind-control device of her, letting her release all the hatred she felt for how he treated her and other clones so cruelly.]]
603* LongHairedPrettyBoy: He's a feminine-looking man with long hair tied back in a ponytail.
604* MorallyAmbiguousDoctorate: He's an amoral scientist who performed unethical and BodyHorror level experiments on Diclonii.
605* OralFixation: He usually has a pocky on his mouth.
606* ParentalFavoritism: [[spoiler:If the clones he created can be considered his "daughters". He loves the four perfect clones that he created, but coldly murders the failed ones and harvests their organs.]]
607* ThatsAnOrder: He orders Alicia and Barbara to let him die so they would survive and could capture Lucy. They refuse to do so. [[spoiler:While Alicia dies, Barbara manages to save him, and Lucy is captured thanks to Cynthia and the Agent.]]
608[[/folder]]
609
610[[folder:The Agent]]
611[[quoteright:230:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/unnamed_el.png]]
612
613An ambiguously looking operative that goes alongside Nousou at the assault of Maple Inn. Is the one that knocks Lucy out and brings her back to the facility.
614----
615* AntiHero: [[spoiler:She really is trying to save the world. She'll willingly sacrifice innocent lives if it means getting her job done, though.]]
616* BadassNormal: The only person to defeat Lucy. Even though it was a cheap shot.
617* {{Bifauxnen}}: The Agent was confused for a man for almost all of her appearances, but was revealed as female at the very end, where her shirt rips, and reveals her cleavage.
618* CombatPragmatist: She will use ''any'' means to win.
619* CoolShades: She wears shades to match her coolheaded personality.
620* DoubleAgent: [[spoiler:She works for the Japanese goverment and was sent to Kakuzawa as a spy.]]
621* HesitantSacrifice: [[spoiler:After she stays behind to help Dr. Arakawa escape the island, she cries before the Diclonii seemingly kill her and she says she does not want to die. She's later revealed to have survived, though.]]
622* HiddenDepths: Introduced as a replacement for the former hunters (the aforementioned Bando, and the Unknown Man), and at first acts as a quieter and less sadistic hunter. Eventually [[spoiler: she's revealed to be a government agent sent to shut the facility down, she's also quite the {{Determinator}}, and shows she's willing to die if it helps to save humanity.]]
623* NoNameGiven: Her name is never mentioned.
624* NotSoStoic: [[spoiler:Stays behind to face certain death so Arakawa can escape with the Diclonius vaccine. Starts crying as soon as Arakawa is gone.]]
625* ShootTheDog: [[spoiler:To keep up the illusion of her loyalty]], she shoots Kouta when he pulls a gun on Nousou.
626* SunglassesAtNight: Just like the rest of the 'Hunters'.
627* TheStoic: She's a very serious person and shows few emotions.
628[[/folder]]
629
630!!Diclonii and Silpelits
631[[folder:Mariko]]
632->'''Voiced by:''' Creator/TomokoKawakami (JP), Creator/LuciChristian (EN), Creator/CristinaHernandez (Latin American Spanish)
633[[quoteright:418:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/54367l.jpg]]
634
635Also known as Number 35, she is a young Silpelit girl. She is regarded as the most powerful of the Silpelits, possessing 36 vectors with an approximate range of 11 meters each in the anime (the number and range is much higher in the manga).
636
637After her mother's DeathByChildbirth, Mariko was imprisoned as an infant. Her physical impairment is seen in her atrophied limbs as she moves around in a wheelchair. Despite the environment she was raised in, she is relatively well developed psychologically (for a given degree of "psychologically"), unlike Nana. She is extremely homicidal and sadistic, and enjoys torturing and dismembering her victims. However, her personality is not blatantly evil: she is only having fun, and the pleasure she gets from it is equivalent to a child playing with toys, not really noticing the differences.
638----
639* AdaptationDyeJob: Played with. Due to weird lighting, she seems to be blonde in the anime for most of her early appearance, but in the dark lighting of the facility and again outside the funky sunset light ([[FridgeLogic which would need to contain an enormous amount of dust to have that effect, by the way]]) she's got the classic Diclonius pink hair.
640* AnArmAndALeg: Her right arm gets blown off by one of the many bombs implanted in her body. In the manga, she also loses her legs when fighting Lucy.
641* ArtificialLimbs: She gets a prosthetic arm in the anime before being sent out to hunt Nana down.
642* AxCrazy: Extreme emphasis on '''crazy'''.
643* BlankSlate: [[spoiler:In the manga, after being flattened by a huge-ass missile, Mariko temporarily takes on a Nyu-esque persona, even down to only being able to say "Myu". She snaps back to normal when Lucy shows up.]]
644* BlondeBrunetteRedhead: In the manga, she's the blonde to Nana's brunette and Lucy's redhead. The anime averts this by making them all pink-haired.
645* CallingTheOldManOut: [[spoiler:In a rather emotional scene, she berates Dr. Kurama for treating [[MoralityPet Nana]] as his daughter while allowing Mariko herself to be imprisoned in a dark and lonely room with almost zero human contact for her entire life.]]
646* CreepyChild: She strips Nana and tears off her prosthetic limbs, all while laughing like a kid that finds it fun to crush an insect.
647* CrocodileTears: [[spoiler:She starts crying in front of the man holding the phone that controls the bombs inside her body, all in order to gain his sympathy and get him to tell her the code to stop the bombs from blowing off.]]
648* CurbstompBattle: In the anime, she utterly ''dominates'' Lucy. In the manga, [[spoiler:she takes care of Lucy fairly easily there as well and it's only thanks to the cell phone timing Mariko's bombs and getting her off guard that Lucy is able to get the advantage.]]
649* CuteAndPsycho: A cute, innocent child who [[IJustWantToBeLoved just wants to be loved]], '''and''' a sadistic mass-murderer who gleefully kills anyone she can get her hands on. She laughs adorably just as she has fun hurting and humiliating Nana.
650* CuteIsEvil: Even compared to the other diclonii, her design screams cute, being a frail, dainty little girl with big eyes and a sweet face who looks like a little doll, and later gets dressed up in cute ribbons, frilled top, and skirt. Yet she is ''even more'' dangerous than the other diclonii because she has longer, more numerous vectors, and is even arguably the most AxCrazy, disregarding even the BecauseYouWereNiceToMe get-out-of-jail-free clause most seem to have.
651* DiesDifferentlyInAdaptation: In the manga, [[spoiler:Mariko pulls a HeroicSacrifice to save Kurama from Lucy, charging Lucy to use the explosion to kill them both; Lucy decapitates her before the bombs go off, but the blast still damages Lucy's horns and represses the Lucy personality, setting up the six-month TimeSkip]]. In the anime, [[spoiler:she and Kurama die together after he orders Isobe to detonate the remaining bomb inside of Mariko's body while he's hugging her]].
652* DyingDeclarationOfLove: [[spoiler:Just before the bomb inside her goes off, Mariko tells her father that she loves him.]]
653* EnfantTerrible: She's the most dangerous of the Silpelits with an extra helping of AxCrazy, who sees killing as a game. She's also about five years old.
654* EvilCripple: She has spent most of her life in isolation and has extreme atrophy in her legs, so she has to get around in a wheelchair.
655* ExplosiveLeash: Taken to an extreme. She has multiple bombs planted in her body set to go off every 30 minutes if a specific code does not get constantly transmitted. The manga reveals this was in fact [[spoiler:Shirakawa's]] suggestion, done less for pragmatism and more out of petty jealousy that [[spoiler:Kurama had a kid with someone who wasn't her]]. It was set off once when she started going out of control, and was also used to keep her under control, since she couldn't use her vectors if she was in that much pain.
656* ExtremelyProtectiveChild: [[spoiler:After Mariko realizes her father does love her, she's determined to protect him no matter what, even sacrificing her life to protect him from Lucy.]]
657* FaceOfAnAngelMindOfADemon: Mariko looks like an innocent, cute girl, but she's an AxCrazy Silpelit. This is even invoked by her in the manga, when she tries [[spoiler:to get the code from Isobe]].
658* FauxAffablyEvil: She kills and tortures people with the same cavalier attitude a giggly little girl would have in playing with her dolls and tossing them aside when they're not fun anymore. Even losing her arm doesn't seem to put a dent in her spirits for long. She also likes to look innocent and get sympathy from adults to lure them in, before she surprises them by taunting and killing them.
659* FreudianExcuse: The reason why she became evil is because she's captured in a dark cage since her birth and is left alone by her own parents (or better said, her mother died and her father Kurama left her in the hands of those who put Mariko in the dark cage). She's visibly emaciated and partially starved, has never left her container nor seen light until she is released to help the facility deal with their rogue diclonii, and the only "socialization" she's ever had is the sound of one person's voice over a speaker (who, in the manga, was not above emotionally manipulating Mariko and deliberately making her believe her parents did not love her to make Mariko more dependent on her). Unsurprisingly, Mariko has a severe LackOfEmpathy and [[IJustWantToBeLoved massive abandonment issues about her birth parents]]. In both series, as soon as she sees that she ''is'' loved by her father, [[LoveRedeems she ceases to be a villain at all]].
660* GoOutWithASmile: In the anime, as Kurama takes her for a walk, they tearfully reunite with him promising never to let her go again. [[spoiler:The bombs inside of her go off shortly afterwards, killing both of them.]]
661* GreenEyedMonster: She instantly becomes jealous when she hears Nana calling ''her'' father "Papa", feeling angry and sad that her father could raise another Diclonius girl while he left her to be imprisoned. In the anime, she was also violently jealous of Nana for being a diclonius who has friends (Kouta) and strangled her in anger.
662* HandicappedBadass: Being wheelchair-bound and having only one (real) arm doesn't stop her from curb-stomping Lucy.
663* HimeCut: Mariko has blunt bangs, chin length sidelocks, and mid-back length straight hair. It signifies her sweet and innocent facade.
664* IJustWantToBeLoved: All she ever wanted was receiving the love from her parents.
665* ImprobableAge: ''5 years old''. And the strongest Silpelit.
666* KidsAreCruel: Mariko is this to a certain extent, as her ruthless killing is more or less the Diclonius equivalent of burning ants with a magnifying glass (at least the way she treats it). Of course, [[InnocentlyInsensitive she wasn't really raised to know any better...]]
667* LackOfEmpathy: She's a borderline {{Sociopath}}.
668* LaserGuidedKarma: She throws Saito's torso at the person who is about to push the bomb button. She doesn't expect Saito is still alive at this moment and can push the button herself, resulting Mariko's loss of her right arm.
669* LightIsNotGood: Compared to [[DarkIsEvil Lucy]] and [[DarkIsNotEvil Nana]], Mariko has light hair and wears light clothing, and is ''enormously'' [[AxCrazy insane]]. Mariko is the youngest of the diclonii shown and is a child at heart, [[IJustWantToBeLoved for better]] or [[PureIsNotGood for worse]].
670* LittleMissBadass: The strongest Silpelit in the research facility is also the smallest and youngest we see in the series.
671* LoveRedeems: [[spoiler:Her father showing her affection is all that's needed for her to stop acting evil and choose to protect her father even if it costs her her life.]]
672* ManipulativeBastard: Takes after "Mommy" Saito in at least this respect in the manga. She masked her true feelings towards Saito by pretending she loved Saito as a mother same as Saito loved her as a daughter, and acting cooperative up until she is released from confinement and Saito is within range of her vectors. When she realizes the [[spoiler:bombs are going to automatically detonate and kill her no matter what she does, she turns to manipulating [[TokenGoodTeammate Isobe]] into giving her the code to stop the bombs' detonation, by using her tears and his sympathy against him]]. Makes her seem unusually intelligent and discerning for her age, especially after spending her whole life isolated in a dark container with only Saito's voice over the speakers. Aside from being raised by [[BitchInSheepsClothing Saito]], it might be in the DNA (literally) since Number 3 - the silpelit who infected Kurama and caused Mariko to be born a diclonius - notably also tricked her captors by pretending to be weaker than she was. It's much lessened in the anime where she is more upfront about her murderous intentions after her first scene.
673* NakedOnArrival: Like any other Diclonii, she's introduced completely naked, but had a helmet.
674* OneWordVocabulary: [[spoiler:When suffering temporary amnesia, the only thing she says is "Myu".]]
675* PetTheDog: In the manga, she tells [[spoiler:Nana to protect their father before going off to fight Lucy.]]
676* RaisedInALab: She was raised inside a steel container with human contact consisting of nothing more than a scientist acting as a sort of foster mother through speakers and monitors.
677* RedemptionEqualsDeath: [[spoiler:In the manga, she charges a now-quite-unhinged Lucy and gets right next to her, allowing herself to be killed just in time for the explosives implanted in her to go off. The explosion knocks Lucy's horns off and causes her to regress to Nyu, thus saving Dr. Kurama from Lucy.]]
678* {{Sadist}}: She finds enjoyment in putting Nana through torture and humiliation just because she can. She's compared to a child that makes a game out of crushing insects.
679* SlasherSmile: Like any other evil Diclonius.
680* StepfordSmiler: An extreme Type C example.
681* TogetherInDeath: [[spoiler:In the anime, she dies together with her father after he orders his subordinate to activate the bomb inside Mariko while he's holding her.]]
682* TooPowerfulToLive: She's ''the'' most powerful Silpelit ever born. It's no surprise she doesn't live past one story arc.
683* WorldsStrongestWoman: She is the strongest Silpelit in existence.
684* {{Yandere}}: Though not as bad as Lucy, she still beats the tar out of Nana in a fit of jealousy upon hearing her call Kurama "Papa". [[spoiler: In the manga, she gets over this before her death and actually tells Nana to take care of "their Papa" for her.]]
685* YoureNotMyMother: Mariko says this to Saito right before killing her.
686[[/folder]]
687
688[[folder:Number 3]]
689->'''Voiced by:''' Creator/MikakoTakahashi (JP), Creator/AllisonSumrall (EN), Hiromi Hayakawa (Latin American Spanish)
690[[quoteright:200:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/number3.png]]
691
692A minor character present in Dr. Kurama's backstory. She is mainly known for allowing Kurama to figure out how Diclonii are born.
693----
694* TheGlovesComeOff: She hides the true strength of her vectors so she can catch the scientists off-guard and escape containment.
695* NakedOnArrival: Like most other Diclonii, she is completely naked when we first see her.
696* PetTheDog: Even though she kills everyone she meets at the facility, she makes a special occasion to visit Kurama to thank him, and she spares him for showing the closest thing to sympathy she had ever seen.
697* SmallRoleBigImpact: She only appears for a brief period in Kurama's backstory, but she plays a pivotal role there. When she goes to meet Kurama, she sticks one of her vectors into his and Oohmori's head. When both of them end up siring Diclonii, Kurama finds out how they infect people with TheVirus.
698* WeHardlyKnewYe: She is killed off in the backstory after very little screentime.
699[[/folder]]
700
701[[folder:Number 28]]
702A relatively minor manga-only character, 28 is mainly known for the nauseatingly horrific fate she suffers at the hands of the Unknown Man.
703----
704* HalfTheWomanSheUsedToBe: [[spoiler:Everthing below torso amputated so she becomes portable in a bag.]]
705* MuggleBornOfMages: Despite being a Diclonius, she is unable to generate vectors. That doesn't stop the Unknown Man from torturing her anyway.
706* NakedOnArrival: Like any other Diclonii, she's introduced completely naked.
707* NoNameGiven: We only know that she's called "[[YouAreNumberSix Number 28]]".
708* PeopleJars: Is carried within a container by the unknown man, only in a much worse fashion.
709* RapeAsDrama: Courtesy of the Unknown Man.
710* TheVoiceless: She doesn't get any spoken lines before the Unknown Man first gets his hands on her, [[spoiler:and afterward she can't speak because the bastard ''ripped her vocal chords out''.]]
711[[/folder]]
712
713[[folder:Alicia, Barbara, Cynthia & Diana]]
714
715The four are the only successful clones of Mariko, created by Doctor Nousou, but they are physically older than their original. Each of them have a mind-control device inside their forehead that prevents them from going amok and makes them peaceful. Nousou has perfect control over them and they listen only to him, but sometimes they do not if they try to save his life. The clones are used to capture Lucy.
716----
717* AdaptedOut: They do not appear in the anime.
718* AlphabeticalThemeNaming: Their names start with a letter from A to D: '''A'''licia, '''B'''arbara, '''C'''ynthia and '''D'''iana. Furthermore, their names end with an A.
719* AntiVillain: Due to the mind-control devices, their evilness is surpressed and they are sweet girls who are working for the villains. [[spoiler:Barbara subverts this later, and Diana for a few seconds.]]
720* AnArmAndALeg: [[spoiler:Lucy throws stones to torture Alicia, dismembering her [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin an arm and a leg]]. Then, Lucy beheads her.]]
721* BadassAdorable: They are Mariko's clones after all, the strongest Silpelit.
722* BadassArmFold: Barbara does this a few times after [[spoiler:she's out of control]].
723* BerserkButton: Barbara does not like being addressed as Mariko, vehemently insisting that she is her own individual person.
724* BerserkerTears: [[spoiler:Barbara cries for her dead failed clone sisters when she kills Nousou.]]
725* ChekhovsGunman: Diana is demoted to stay back because of her GameBreakingInjury. She shows up later, when Arakawa is in danger.
726* CloneAngst: They are clones of Mariko. This has a terrifying effect on an already beyond-broken Kurama when he finds Cynthia, [[spoiler:who dies in his arms]], and Barbara, who claims not to be Mariko. Also subverted, due to the [[MindControlDevice Mind-Control Deviced]] they appear rather cheerful. When the MindControl is off, they [[KillAllHumans they still aren't sobbing wrecks]].
727* CoolHelmet: Each of them wear helmets similar to Lucy's, but the number of eye holes depends on the one who wears it. Alicia has one on both sides, Barbara has two, Cynthia has three, and Diana has four.
728* DefusingTheTykebomb: After his near death experience, Nousou considers whether the girls could live a normal life or not.
729* {{Determinator}}: Alicia and Barbara do not give up to save Nousou, regardless of the pain the have to feel or the danger they in there.
730* DiedInYourArmsTonight: [[spoiler:Cynthia dies in Kurama's arms, who mistakes her for Mariko.]] Coincidently, it is night when it happens.
731* DivergentCharacterEvolution: Not in terms of characterization, as they all share the same personality, either with or without MindControlDevice. But they are distinct in their roles for the plot, with each of the four girls fulfilling a different purpose to advance the story.
732* ExpendableClone: Ordering a Diana to stab herself in the heart to prove a point isn't the worst thing done.
733* GameBreakingInjury: Nousou orders Diana to stab into her heart. She gets better, thanks to a replacement heart, but this injury makes her useless for the mission to capture Lucy, that's why she stays in the labor. This is fortunate for Arakawa, who is later saved by her.
734* HalfTheWomanSheUsedToBe: [[spoiler:Cynthia is cut in half by Lucy. Not only reminds this Kouta of Kanae's death and brings his memories back, it does not kill her instantly.]]
735* HandicappedBadass:
736** [[spoiler:Cynthia manages to break one of Lucy's horns, despite being cut in half.]]
737** A weakened Diana manages to kill several [[spoiler:other Silpelits before being killed herself]].
738* HeroicSacrifice: Alicia and Barbara disobey Nousou's order to capture Lucy or run away, but they decide to save him from being crushed by a helicopter. Lucy uses the opportunity to attack them with objects, since she is out of their range. [[spoiler:Alicia gets killed by her, and Barbara still disobey Nousou and jumps in front of him to tear the helicopter above him apart, since the clones' vector's ends are weaker.]]
739* HopeSpot: Diana becomes one for Arakawa and the Agent. [[spoiler:But not for long.]]
740* InTheBack:
741** Lucy keeps attacking Alicia and Barbara from behind, who are trying to save Nousou from being crushed by a helicopter. [[spoiler:This ultimately kills Alicia.]]
742** [[spoiler:Barbara is shot in the head by Kurama from behind. He comments that she probably noticed his gun and he wonders why she didn't dodge or something.]]
743* KilledOffForReal: All four of them die during the course of the story, but under different circumstances. [[spoiler:Cynthia is cut in half and dies a few minutes later after that. Alicia is beheaded by Lucy before Cynthia finally dies. Barbara is shot in the head by Kurama. And Diana is beheaded by one of the random clone Silpelits.]]
744* MadeOfIron: They are specially modified for being able to use their vectors regardless how much pain they feel.
745* MindControlDevice: They have these in their foreheads, that prevent them from being evil. They are under Nousou's control.
746* NakedOnArrival: When they are introduced, they wear nothing but helmets.
747* NotQuiteDead: [[spoiler:Cynthia is not immediately killed after being in cut in half by Lucy. With the help of the Agent, she is able to break one of Lucy's horns. Unfortunately, Kurama finds Cynthia, mistaking her for Mariko, and she dies in his arms.]]
748* NotQuiteFlight: Barbara uses her vectors to move her in the air like she could fly. Combined with BadassArmFold, it looks cool.
749* OffWithHerHead: [[spoiler:Lucy beheads Alicia with a stone monument. Diana gets beheaded by one of the random clone Silpelits]].
750* OneWordVocabulary: Under mind-control, the only thing they can say is "Myu" (and "Papa"), just like Mariko under her temporary amnesia.
751* ReplacementGoldfish: [[spoiler:Cynthia becomes this to Kurama, despite it's only her upper half of her body. And when she's dead. Kurama gets the same reaction when he meets Barbara.]]
752* SendInTheClones: They are sent to capture Lucy.
753* SiblingTeam: They are created to capture Lucy. But because of Diana's GameBreakingInjury, the team consists only of the three when they mission starts.
754* SingleMindedTwins: They all have the same personality.
755* SlasherSmile: [[spoiler:Barbara and Diana when they are out of control.]]
756* SpyCatsuit: What Alicia, Barbara, and Cynthia wear during the mission.
757* ThisIsUnforgivable: [[spoiler:Barbara does not forgive Nousou for his experiments on the failed clones, whom she considers as sisters. Even when he apologizes for this.]]
758* TrademarkFavoriteFood: Like Nousou, they like pocky.
759* TurnedAgainstTheirMasters:
760** [[spoiler:Nousou removes Barbara's mind-control device to find out if she's really not an evil monster and does love. He's wrong and this costs his life.]]
761** [[spoiler:Arakawa does the same to Diana, though Arakawa is not aware of the purpose of those devices. Fortunately, the Agent puts them back into Diana's forehead before anything could happen.]]
762* {{Tykebomb}}: They are the research's "weapons" that are barely treated as people. Initially.
763* UndyingLoyalty:
764** Diana stabs herself into her heart with knive to prove how loyal the four are to Nousou.
765** Alicia and Barbara disobeyed Nousou's orders to save his life, even at the cost of their own. Later, Nousou tests if it's really the girls that saved him or the mind-control devices. [[spoiler:It's the latter.]]
766* WalkingSpoiler: They are Mariko's clones. Of course that's a spoiler.
767* YoungerThanTheyLook: They are only a few months old at most, but they look physically older than Mariko, being in their puberty. Since Silpelits age double as fast as humans, and clones of in general age faster than their originals, this combination justifies this trope.
768[[/folder]]
769
770[[folder:The Clone Diclonii]]
771
772A collection of 1,104 Diclonius clones of Mariko created by Nousou at the Diclonius Research Institute. Unlike their four "sisters", Alicia, Barbara, Cynthia and Diana, they are physically deformed and are mainly created for the purpose of having their organs extracted.
773----
774* AdaptedOut: They do not appear in the anime.
775* AndIMustScream: Kept in deplorable conditions for their entire lives before being killed and having their organs extracted.
776* BodyHorror: They are imperfect clones of Mariko with severe physical deformations.
777* BrownBagMask: Which hide their deformed faces.
778* TheDogBitesBack: [[spoiler:After sensing Lucy's presence, they blow up the Institute with their vectors, kill nearly all the researchers, and nearly destroy the anti-Diclonius vaccine. They are only stopped by the efforts of the Agent.]]
779* ExpendableClone: Unlike the other Diclonii at the facility, they are not given names or even [[YouAreNumberSix numbers.]] Their only purpose is to be killed for their organs.
780* ExtraEyes: Some have three or even four eyes, as seen by the holes in their masks.
781* FacialHorror: Their faces are never seen, but are so horrifically deformed that they have to be covered by cloth sacks.
782* ItCanThink: Nousou describes them with "failures without even a human countenance left", but [[spoiler:the fact that they specifically tried to destroy the anti-Diclonius vaccine suggests that they could tell what it was for.]]
783* NakedOnArrival: Noticing a pattern?
784* OrganTheft: The failed clones' organs are harvested for research and anti-Diclonius weapon development.
785-->"We have a serious need for the spinal cords of these girls."
786* PoweredByAForsakenChild: Their organs and spinal cords are used to create anti-Diclonius weapons.
787* WalkingSpoiler: Similar to Alicia, Barbara, Cynthia and Diana, in that they're Mariko's clones.
788[[/folder]]
789
790[[folder:Spoiler Character]]
791!!The Male Diclonius
792[[quoteright:200:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/male_diclonius.png]]
793
794The only male Diclonius and the second one who is not a Silpelit. He's the son of Director Kakuzawa and Lucy's mother, being Lucy's half-brother, who is specially born for impregnating her. He also has a mind-control device in his forehead and is controlled by his father.
795----
796* BrotherSisterIncest: He's born to ''impregnate'' his sister, so the pure Diclonii race won't extinguish, and Director Kakuzawa becoming god.
797* ChildByRape: Director Kakuzawa found, kidnapped, and raped Lucy's mother, so he can impregnate her. He meant the boy to be the first of many, but the mother killed herself, and efforts to harvest her unique womb failed.
798* DeathOfAChild: His own half-sister kills him when he's a mere child.
799* LongLostSibling: To his half-sister Lucy. This is justified, since Lucy was abandoned as a baby and he's born much later.
800* MercyKill: [[spoiler:Lucy kills him together with his father, who controlled him and created him for a single purpose. She feels sorry for him.]]
801* MindControlDevice: Like the Mariko clones, he has a mind-control device in his forehead that prevents him from being evil. He's under Director Kakuzawa's control.
802* NakedOnArrival: Averted. Probably because [[DoubleStandard he's not a girl]].
803* NoNameGiven: Makes you wonder if his father even bothered to give him a name. Although depending on how you interpret the text in that chapter, and the Adam & Eve symbolism, Kakuzawa may have named his son Adam.
804* OffWithHisHead: [[spoiler:How Lucy kills him.]]
805* TheOneGuy: The only male Diclonius known to exist.
806* WalkingSpoiler: A male Diclonius? Lucy's brother? The circumstances of his birth? His purpose? That's all a {{spoiler}}.
807* WeHardlyKnewYe: [[spoiler:He's killed in the same chapter where he's introduced.]]
808[[/folder]]
809
810----
811!Other characters
812[[folder:Bando]]
813->'''Voiced by:''' Creator/JojiNakata (JP), Creator/JasonDouglas (series), Creator/DavidWald (OVA) (EN), Dan Osorio (Latin American Spanish)
814[[quoteright:213:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bando.jpg]]
815
816An operative for the National Police Agency's Special Assault Team. Although he is technically human, he is as homicidal and apathetic to other people as the worst Diclonius are. He is incredibly skilled in combat and widely-regarded as a lethal and bloodthirsty soldier.
817----
818* NinetiesAntiHero: His design seems to be ripped straight from ''VideoGame/DukeNukem'', and he certainly has the personality of one.
819* AdaptationalDumbass: Zigzagged somewhat in the anime. Ironically while he was taking several levels of badass and character development in the manga, the anime decided to do the opposite. Though he gets stronger weapons and learns about keeping his distance, his fights in the anime after being mutilated usually involved him kicking his opponent while they're down (and then realizing afterwards he shouldn't get too close) and shooting his gun in the general direction of people and yelling a lot.
820* AdaptationalVillainy: While a JerkAss, Bando in the manga was a badass with redeeming qualities to him and character development. The Anime decided to get rid of anything that could make Bando likable while adding more things to hate. The end result was a character who at his best was still worse than Manga Bando at his worst.
821* AntiHero: Though unlike Kurama, he kills mostly ForTheEvulz, or {{Revenge}}.
822* AntiVillain: The Noble Variant in the manga after his character development. He's also kinda this in the anime, though arguably not as much as in the manga.
823* ArtificialLimbs: After his skirmish with Lucy, who wouldn't?
824* AxCrazy: Not only he is a self-admitted PsychoForHire, and not only he refuses to personally kill Nyu who can't defend herself, because [[BloodKnight he can't be arsed to do something so ''boring'']], at the beginning, he will smash your face if you as much as try approaching him from the back, even if you are a harmless woman. Though, only at first. He gets notably less crazy later in the manga as a part of his CharacterDevelopment.
825* BadassBoast: Offers some subtle but still cool lines in the manga and backs up every single one.
826-->"What are you surprised about stupid? Didn't I tell you that I can never die?" [[spoiler: After coming back at the final chapter of the manga after being cut in half by Lucy.]]
827-->"You dumbass! Me alone is plenty for the likes of you!" [[spoiler: Lucy mockingly tells him and Nana to come at her together. He gives this line and avoids all of her attacks and proceeds to beat the crap out of her.]]
828** He tries to give one in the anime. "You think I need a gun to kill you? I'll do it with my bare hands." Which might have been incredibly badass had he not been a broken bleeding mess on the ground whom Lucy obviously didn't see any threat and was unable to back his words up.
829* BadassNormal:
830** Takes on several Diclonius [[spoiler: including Lucy (twice) Nana and Mariko in the manga]] and holds his own using nothing but his skills and some heavy bullets and comes close to winning a few of them as well. Not even [[spoiler: [[HalfTheManHeUsedToBe getting torn in half will stop him]].]]
831** In the manga at least, he, after surviving multiple encounters with Dicolonii, learns how to dodge vectors.
832** He also nearly manages to beat Lucy in his 2nd fight with her, losing because the Unknown Man got in the way, and then because Mayu got in the way.
833** Also when facing the Unknown Man, he gets hit with one of his toxic spiked balls, and he endures the pain and rips it out despite being hooked into his skin with barbs.
834* BerserkButton:
835** Don't litter on the beach, or else.
836** Also, he can't stand pedophiles.
837* BigDamnHeroes: Manga exclusive, combined as it often is with a nice case of DynamicEntry, when the Unknown Man assaults Mayu and Nana in chapter 75, things look really bad even for this manga.
838* BloodKnight: He refuses to kill Lucy when [[HelplessGoodSide Nyu]] is in control because he can't be bothered to do something so boring.
839* ByronicHero: [[http://manga.animea.net/elfen-lied-chapter-78-page-3.html Chapter]][[http://manga.animea.net/elfen-lied-chapter-78-page-4.html 78's]] [[http://manga.animea.net/elfen-lied-chapter-78-page-5.html introduction]] drives the point home.
840* CharacterDevelopment: Bando is probably the most DynamicCharacter in the series. He goes from a SociopathicSoldier who joins the SAT to legally [[PsychoForHire kill people]] who'd [[BloodKnight give him a challenge]], to a less dangerous {{Jerkass}} who, while still treating everyone else like utter shit, will still repay people who are in his debt, and is also obsessed with having his {{Revenge}} against Lucy, to finally, a [[HiddenHeartOfGold Jerk With A Heart Of Brass]] who risks his life to stop the Unknown Man from raping Mayu in a truly badass manner, but is ''still'' obsessed with killing Lucy.
841* ChekhovsClassroom: Bando remembers the instructions given to him earlier in the episode about the 2 meter effective range of Lucy's weapon.
842* CombatPragmatist: Bando dips into CrazyPrepared territory, getting his fight with Lucy in a place where he set up, hid traps, and cleared of debris for her to throw.
843* CoolShades: Very cool.
844* CrazyPrepared:
845** After getting his ass handed to him by Lucy early on, [[spoiler:he completely cleaned up the beach in order to make sure Lucy had nothing to attack with, figured out her range of attack, and got modified Desert Eagles that fired rounds too heavy for Lucy to block or at close range knock away.]]
846** His crazy preparedness actually works against him in the manga where his [[spoiler: attempt to blind Lucy with a flash grenade and tear gas worked against him when the bright flash kept most of the gas from entering her eyes. Though even she admits that if it wasn't for the Unknown Man, he'd have won.]]
847* CurbStompBattle:
848** He gets the short end of the stick when he meets Lucy.
849** He gives one to the Unknown Man, even though he had his crossbow and Bando didn't use a gun.
850** Having been prepared this time around, his second fight with Lucy in the manga ends with him stomping her face into the ground and nearly killing her twice. Unfortunately, people like to get in the way.
851* {{Cyborg}}: He gets a prostethic arm and artificial eyes and a [[spoiler:mechanical lower half of his body]].
852* DebtDetester: It's his principle to avoid being indebted to anyone, especially to women.
853* {{Determinator}}: Through a combination of technology and sheer badassery, Bando walks off stuff that would kill most people. These include getting in order, [[spoiler: his legs shot up, one arm ripped off, the other arm snapped, both eyes gouged out, the second arm ripped off and getting bisected. In short, by the end of the manga Bando is a head and chest on life support and isn't slowing down.]]
854** Grabs hold of a spiked metal ball, which is coated in agony-inducing toxin, out of his body and baseball-pitches it straight into the ass of the guy who shot him with it.
855* DisabilitySuperpower: His prosthetic arm allowed him to remove a spiked ball from his body during his duel with the Unknown Man.
856* DontSneakUpOnMeLikeThat: Bando ''punched'' a woman with that excuse.
857* ElectronicEyes: He gets cybernetic eyes after Lucy [[EyeScream blinds him]] during their first fight.
858* EyeScream: After disabling him during their first fight, Lucy uses her vectors to gouge out his eyes. He ''did'' tell her that "the next time I see you, you're dead," so...
859* FlatWhat: His expression when [[spoiler:Lucy throws The Unknown Man's head at him]] is ''[[TheComicallySerious priceless]]''.
860%%* FreudianTrio: TheId to Nana's [[TheEgo Ego]] and Kurama's [[TheSuperego Superego]].
861* HeroicSacrifice: Saves [[spoiler: Mayu]] from Lucy during his second battle in the manga and gets [[spoiler: cut in half as a result. Unlike most examples he survives.]] It also completes Bando's character development in the manga.
862* HalfTheManHeUsedToBe: [[spoiler:Loses his lower half and his left arm (and his right one, though he lost it earlier, and It had been replaced with a cybernetic arm). He recovers, but with a cybernetic lower half (and arms).]]
863* HandCannon: Bando uses two Desert Eagles chambered in .50AE, and is actually {{justified|Trope}} in using it: Most handgun bullets bounce off the Diclonius vectors, the heavier and more powerful .50AE round will go right through at a close enough range. The only other option is to use an anti-tank sniper rifle or something equivalent in power.
864* HandicappedBadass: Blurred vision and a dysfunctional hand doesn't stop Bando from kicking extreme amounts of ass.
865* HiddenDepths: A notable example before his character development. After his recovery from his first fight with Lucy, Bando needs some body parts replaced and has to be sterilized (encounters with Vectors make human males carriers of Diiclonius genes). The prospect bothers him as he admits that he had wanted to be a father one day. Also reveals, before his supposed death, that he always wanted someone to cry for him if he ever died.
866* HitmanWithAHeart: Despite his intro as a PsychoForHire and the other times where he acts the part after, he's not all bad, specially towards Mayu.
867%%* HotBlooded
868* IOweYouMyLife: He would have died after Lucy dismembered and blinded him if Mayu haven't found him and called for help. Although he hates owing a favor, he asks Mayu to call him when she needs his help in order to repay her.
869* IntergenerationalFriendship: The young teenager Mayu often visits him at the beach and Bando has a soft spot for her big enough as to save from from the Unknown Man.
870* ItsPersonal: Lucy beats him in a fight, cuts off his arm, and crushes his eyes. He spends the rest of the series wanting revenge on her.
871* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: While he doesn't have much respect for other people and has a foul mouth, he has his moments of decency mainly towards Mayu.
872* MildlyMilitary: In the anime, Bando has done everything up from threatening other men with guns, to knocking out his own partner to just being a real jerkass overall. Averted to a significant degree in the manga. Bando may say a few threats, but never does more than that.
873* NobleDemon:
874** Bando has lines he won't cross. If he feels in someone's debt he will try to return the favor.
875** And he can't stand the Unknown Man.
876** He may be [[AxeCrazy crazy as fuck]], but doesn't like people littering on the beach.
877* NoHoldsBarredBeatdown: Beats the absolute crap out of the [[spoiler: Unknown Man]] which culminates in him shoving the [[spoiler: Unknown Man's poisoned spiked ball where the sun don't shine.]]
878* PetTheDog: Only when Bando is going through his character development. While his overall [[JerkAss attitude]] doesn't change, his actions certainly do. And by the end of the manga, its almost surprising that he was a near complete monster in the beginning. Some of the things he ends up doing is...
879** Seeing if Mayu is alright after roughing her up.
880** Saving Nana and Kurama from an enraged Mariko.
881** Preventing [[spoiler: Kurama]] from committing suicide and sheltering him.
882** Saving Mayu and Nana from the vicious unknown hunter and keeping his promise to Mayu.
883** Sacrificing himself to save Mayu from Lucy.
884** Treating Nana's wounds from the Unknown Man -knowing she couldn't go to a hospital
885** Giving the deceased Diclonius a proper burial after she's killed by the Unknown Man
886* PragmaticVillainy: Played With: he claims to clean up the beach because he's preparing for a fight with Lucy, and any and all trash can be used as a projectile. While that is true, he really does hate the litter and wants to keep the beach clean.
887%%* PsychoForHire: Before his CharacterDevelopment.
888* RedOniBlueOni: An aggressive and hot-blooded Red to Kurama's cold and pragmatic Blue.
889* SirSwearsALot: Being the tough guy that he is, Bando curses far more than anyone else in the series. What makes it even more noticeable is that all the other main and secondary characters either don't swear at all or only do it once in a while.
890%%* SmokingIsCool
891* StayingAlive: He has come back from having one of his arms torn off while the other is broken and having his eyes gouged out by means of cybernetic implants. [[spoiler:Later on he is torn in half (by the same character no less) yet returns in the end of the story healthy again (except he's half robot by this point). Somewhat jarring in that he was definitely dead the last time.]]
892* SunglassesAtNight: Partially justified, as he set up flash bombs on the beach, and he kept the glasses on, on the off chance he'd get into fight.
893* TooDumbToLive: Instead of just [[WhyDontYaJustShootHim ventilating her]], he chooses to play around with her first (a "duel"). In the ensuing fight he manages to accidentally awaken her "Lucy" persona and nearly gets killed.
894* TookALevelInBadass: While hardly weak before, Bando goes through some major changes in the manga after his [[CurbStompBattle first defeat by Lucy.]] His fights afterwards end with him utilizing the knowledge about Diclonius to his advantage, using [[CombatPragmatist several good tricks]] and remaining the only human to fight Lucy twice (and surviving) but actually holding the advantage over her in their second fight and nearly winning.
895* UnexplainedRecovery: [[spoiler:In his last appearance before the final arc, Bando is ripped in half by Lucy and apparently dies in front of Mayu and Nana. However, the last chapter reveals that he somehow survives, gets prosthetic legs, and reunites with Mayu again. The only implication of how he recovers from a fatal wound is that Kurama might have sent his body to be rebuilt.]]
896* TheUnfettered: Anything is permissible so long as he has the opportunity to kill Lucy.
897* VillainousRescue: He's a psychopath whose only goal in life is to find and kill Lucy/Nyu, [[spoiler:but when the Hunter assaults Mayu, he comes to the rescue.]]
898* WouldHitAGirl: Most notably on his introductory scene, when he viciously [[BloodFromTheMouth backhanded]] a woman who made the mistake of approaching him from behind without warning. He outwardly threatens Mayu at one point by citing this trait.
899* WouldHurtAChild: Despite [[EvenEvilHasStandards having some standards]], he is still more than willing to rough up Mayu and harrass Nana to get some information about Lucy. He also generally treats both girls like utter crap [[spoiler:when he's not saving their lives from psychotic Diclonii like Mariko or Lucy or the even more psychotic Unknown Man]].
900[[/folder]]
901
902[[folder:Kanae]]
903->'''Voiced by:''' Creator/MariaYamamoto (JP), Creator/MonicaRial (EN), Zoe Mora (Latin American Spanish)
904[[quoteright:110:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kanae_elfen_lied.png]]
905
906Kouta's little sister who died before the series starts. She was actually brutally slaughtered by a jealous Lucy, and along with his father, serves as the trigger for Kouta's TraumaInducedAmnesia.
907----
908* BloodSplatteredInnocents: During Lucy's rampage at the festival.
909* BrattyHalfPint: Kouta certainly viewed her as one, always treating her like a bother to him and not believing her wild claims, both of which he came to regret after she was killed.
910* CassandraTruth: Her wild story about a horned girl killing people with arms that came out of her head is proven true in the worst way.
911* ClingyJealousGirl: She became jealous whenever other girls showed attention towards Kouta, as seen when she kicks Yuka.
912* CollateralAngst: She was brutally murdered by Lucy in front of Kouta, and this is what results in his AngstComa and his attempted revenge against Lucy.
913* DeathByOriginStory: Her death at the hands of a jealous Lucy had a major impact on Kouta's life.
914* DeathOfAChild: She was killed by Lucy while being only a few years younger than Kouta, who was a kid at the time of her death.
915* DidNotDieThatWay: She didn't die of illness as Kouta initially remembered. She was brutally murdered by Lucy right in front of her brother and he altered the memory out of trauma.
916* HalfTheWomanSheUsedToBe: Her body is torn in half below her lower back by a young Lucy.
917* LittleMissSnarker: She was quite fond of back-talking her big brother.
918* PosthumousCharacter: She died before the series starts.
919* SmallRoleBigImpact: Her death affected much of the present story and characters into being what they were.
920[[/folder]]
921
922[[folder:Tomoo]]
923%% Do not add Asshole Victim as one of Tomoo's tropes. His actions and subsequent death were what the story was building to, and therefore he does not qualify.
924->'''Voiced by:''' Creator/ReikoTakagi (JP), Creator/ChrisPatton (EN), José Antonio Toledano (Latin American Spanish)
925[[quoteright:100:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tomoo_elfen_lied.png]]
926
927The ringleader of the children who tormented Lucy as a child. Tomoo relished in the pain she felt. After he died, he haunted her visions as a spectre to get his {{Revenge}} for what Kaede did to him.
928----
929* AdaptationalJerkass: In the anime, Tomoo mocks Lucy for her abandonment, and orders her to cry and beg him not to hurt her dog when he threatens to kill it.
930* ArchEnemy: He doesn't last long, but he's definitely one of Lucy's most personal enemies. Even after his death, Lucy has hallucinations of him taunting her.
931* AssholeVictim: Is he ever! Everything he does ultimately gets himself killed by Lucy.
932* AxCrazy: He was a violent little psychopath who murdered Lucy's dog just to ''{{troll}} her.''
933* BadPeopleAbuseAnimals: He gleefully beats Lucy's puppy to death right in front of her. [[MuggingTheMonster It was also the last thing he ever did.]]
934* BarbaricBully: He's always shown as TheBully to Lucy with calling her names like "Horns" and generally pushing her. But his sadistic side is revealed when he knocks Lucy down, kicks her puppy against a wall, and ''beats it to death while forcing her to watch''.
935* BullyBrutality: He takes his bullying to new depths of depravity when he makes Lucy watch as he beats her puppy to death, just to see if he could get a reaction.
936* CreepyChild: Ironically more so than his victim.
937* DarkIsEvil: His hair is black, and he's one of the cruellest characters in the series.
938* DeathByOriginStory: Killing Tomoo is Lucy's first major step in her StartOfDarkness.
939* EnfantTerrible: This boy would probably have grown up to be a SerialKiller if Lucy hadn't killed him.
940* EvilIsPetty: He was a twisted kid who bullied Lucy relentlessly [[FantasticRacism because of her horns]], and later bludgeoned a puppy she was caring for to death [[{{Troll}} to get a reaction from her]] and ForTheEvulz.
941* EvilOrphan: Tomoo showcases psychopathic/sociopathic behaviors you'd expect from children with the potential to become serial killers.
942* ExtremeMeleeRevenge: When Lucy gets her vectors on him, she cuts him into pieces effortlessly.
943* FlatCharacter: His defining character trait is his cruelty, and he has little else to him. His main purpose in the story is to torture Lucy and show a reason ''why'' she is the way she is.
944* ForTheEvulz: Tomoo has absolutely no reason to kill the puppy aside for his own twisted amusement.
945* GoneHorriblyRight: He killed Lucy's puppy just to see if he could get ''any'' kind of reaction out of her at all. [[UnstoppableRage He succeeded and was violently destroyed]].
946* GreaterScopeVillain: He shares this with [[spoiler:[[EnemyWithin the DNA Voice]]]], but Lucy's intense hatred of humanity, and by extension much of the tragedy in the story, can be traced all the way back to what this kid did in his horrendous treatment of her.
947* HateSink: It's clear that he's meant to be despised and give Lucy more sympathy in her backstory.
948* JerkWithAHeartOfJerk: Tomoo is absolutely a jerk and eventually surpasses this via [[BadPeopleAbuseAnimals beating Lucy's puppy to death]]. However, he seems briefly taken aback when he realizes the dog's dead. Then he gets over it and says that it died too fast.
949* JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope: He was already a repugnant jackass from the start, bullying Kaede at every opportunity he could. However, he eventually resorts to beating her puppy to death [[ForcedToWatch right in front of her]], becoming truly evil.
950* KickTheDog: The standard metaphorical moment with a literal moment. He had Lucy's puppy kicked into a wall when she kneed him, and then he beat it to death with either a rock or vase. Why? To get a reaction out of Lucy and see her horrified. [[CrossesTheLineTwice And he and his friends have the audacity to say Kaede was the monstrous one.]]
951* KidsAreCruel: Of the utter sociopathic kind.
952* NeverMyFault: Despite knowing his death was his own fault, Tomoo's first actions as a spectre is to get back at Lucy for killing him with hallucinations of people tormenting her.
953* NotSoHarmlessVillain: Downplayed as he was already a particularly cruel bully. However, he ends up as a murderer.
954* OhCrap: He gets one of these in the last moments of his life when he sees Lucy eviscerate the head of one of his friends.
955* PosthumousCharacter: He has been dead for eight years at the start of the story.
956* {{Revenge}}: Despite his death, Tomoo comes back as a spectre. Tomoo's first action is to barrage Lucy with hallucinations to [[MoralMyopia punish her for killing him]], despite his death being his own fault.
957* RiddleForTheAges:
958** How did this guy make his way to the orphanage? Given how evil he is, one would be forgiven for thinking he killed his parents.
959** Also, why exactly is he so unbelievably cruel? What compelled him to be this way?
960* SmallRoleBigImpact: He and his friends are in only one episode, and are long dead by the start of the series, but they and their actions form the reason for Lucy's StartOfDarkness and belief that HumansAreTheRealMonsters.
961* SmugSnake: He sure was having a giddy time tormenting Lucy, but when she goes ballistic, he spends the last few moments of his life pissing himself in fear of what's coming at him.
962* TheSociopath: The kid bludgeoned a puppy to death [[{{Troll}} just to make its owner feel something]] and because [[ForTheEvulz he thought it was funny]]. One would get the feeling that if Lucy hadn't killed him, he would've grown up to be a SerialKiller. He also shows a disturbing LackOfEmpathy and rampant sadism bordering the line of AxCrazy.
963* TheyLookJustLikeEveryoneElse: He looks like a perfectly normal child, despite being a violent, AxCrazy sociopath.
964* TooDumbToLive: A downplayed example. Though it's not very wise to kill a dog in front of Lucy to get a reaction out of her, especially if she has brought the dog under her wing, [[MuggingTheMonster Tomoo had no idea of Lucy's destructive powers until it was too late]], and [[NiceJobFixingItVillain it was this action that awakened these powers in the first place]].
965* {{Troll}}: Of the most horrific kind. Frustrated by Lucy's lack of reaction to his relentless bullying, this EnfantTerrible eventually resorted to brutally murdering a puppy she was taking care of. Well, Lucy certainly reacted... by violently murdering him, so [[GoneHorriblyRight the perpetrator got his wish, just not in the way he'd planned]].
966* TroublingUnchildlikeBehaviour: He's in his prepubescent years and a sociopathic little thug that killed an animal for no reason than to be a dick to the person he was bullying.
967* VengefulGhost: He comes back after his death to get back at Lucy as a spectre by tormenting her in Chapter 9 of the Manga.
968* WalkingSpoiler: His relevance to the plot is entirely associated with how Lucy began her StartOfDarkness, after which Tomoo dies painfully.
969* WeHardlyKnewYe: He and his cronies all get killed off in one chapter/episode. [[PosthumousCharacter In a flashback, at that.]] That did not stop him from coming back as a spectre to get back at her, however.
970* YourHeadASplode: After he killed Lucy's puppy, she killed him by exploding his head with her vectors. Because of this, he has a void for a head when he comes back to haunt her as revenge.
971[[/folder]]
972
973[[folder:The Orphanage Girl]]
974->'''Voiced by:''' Creator/NorikoShitaya (JP), Creator/AllisonSumrall (EN), Nycolle González (Latin American Spanish)
975[[quoteright:100:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/orphan_girl_elfen_lied.png]]
976
977A young girl that lived in the orphanage with Lucy. She told the bullies about Lucy's puppy, resulting in them beating it to death and beginning Lucy's StartOfDarkness.
978----
979* AccompliceByInaction: Regardless of whether she truly was part of the bullying or if she truly didn't know just how demented Tomoo and his gang were, the fact that she told them about Lucy's puppy when she ''explicitly'' told her it would be bad news and then did nothing to stop it after the fact (not even warning Lucy about her telling them) makes her just as guilty. And that's even assuming she really ''didn't'' have anything to do with it.
980* AmbiguousInnocence: It's never made clear if she was actually in on the plot to kill the puppy, or just told the wrong secret to the wrong people. Lucy sees her hiding a smile after she apologizes for the puppy's death, but it is possible that [[UnreliableNarrator she was imagining it.]]
981* DeathByOriginStory: Along with the rest of the orphanage kids, her death serves as part of Lucy's StartOfDarkness.
982* DeathOfAChild: She was only a child herself when Lucy blew her up into a bloody paste for getting her puppy killed.
983* EyeScream: If Lucy's hallucination of her is anything to go by, the Orphanage Girl was killed by Lucy slamming a vector through her eye.
984* GirlishPigtails: She wears her hair in two small pigtails.
985* HorribleJudgeOfCharacter: Telling the bullies about the puppy makes her this, provided she wasn't really in on the plot to hurt Lucy. What did she ''think'' they were going to do to it? In fact, Lucy had explicitly told her that the other boys would hurt it if they found out.
986* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: She's visibly horrified when she sees that the bullies beat Lucy's puppy to death. However, she could have been faking it.
987* NoNameGiven: She is never referred to by name.
988* RiddleForTheAges: Was the girl really innocent of any crime and simply made a terrible mistake? Or was it all part of their plan to torment Lucy even more? Considering she was exploded by Lucy we'll never know for sure.
989* SlasherSmile: She cracks what ''could'' be one after confessing her mistake to Lucy, suggesting that she was in on the plot. Whatever the truth, she had already signed her death warrant.
990* YourHeadASplode: Lucy blows her head off for her betrayal, along with the other children who killed her puppy.
991[[/folder]]
992
993[[folder:Hiromi Kurama]]
994->'''Voiced by:''' Creator/AkemiKanda (JP), Creator/LuciChristian (EN), Dulce Guerrero (Latin American Spanish)
995[[quoteright:120:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/hiromi_elfen_lied.png]]
996
997Kurama's wife, plus Mariko's dead mother.
998----
999* DeathByChildbirth: A cruel subversion. She survives giving birth to Mariko, but is left severely weakened and must undergo surgery to save her life. The complications of her weakened state plus the added stress of seeing Kurama try to kill their newborn daughter was what ended up causing her death.
1000* DrivenToSuicide: Subverted. Earlier in the series, Kurama remarks that she killed herself after witnessing him trying to kill Mariko. During his extended flashback, we learn she had suffered from complications due to the birth because of cervical cancer. She ultimately tries to stop Kurama from killing Mariko, begging him to spare her, causes her sutures to come undone, and ends up bleeding to death on the floor. What Kurama said about her killing herself is how he views what happened.
1001* PosthumousCharacter: She only appears in flashbacks.
1002[[/folder]]
1003
1004[[folder:Aiko Takada]]
1005->'''Voiced by:''' Creator/MariaYamamoto (JP), Creator/AllisonSumrall (EN)
1006[[quoteright:265:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/aiko_takada_8412.jpg]]
1007A young girl and the second human to ever befriend Lucy.
1008----
1009* AccidentalMurder: When her father tried to cut a painting she made for her mother with a knife, Aiko pushed him away and he ended up accidentally slashing his own throat.
1010* DeathByAdaptation: [[spoiler:While she gets shot in both versions, the manga later revealed she survived by showing a poster of her adult self. The anime doesn't include this.]]
1011* DeathByOriginStory: Her death at Kurama's hands lead to Lucy crossing the DespairEventHorizon. [[spoiler: Except that she's actually alive.]]
1012* FollowingInRelativesFootsteps: She wants to become an artist like her mother, even though her mother's art career drove her to leave the family. [[spoiler: She does grow to become a famous painter in her adulthood.]]
1013* KillTheCutie: She was just a little girl who wanted to see her mother again, only to sacrifice her life to save a new friend. [[spoiler:Subverted; she actually survived.]]
1014* MoralityPet: She's the first human whom Lucy ever wanted to protect.
1015* NiceGirl: She's the second human after Kouta to treat Lucy kindly.
1016* PosthumousCharacter: She died years before the first episode, appearing only in Lucy and Kurama's flashbacks. [[spoiler:At least in the anime. A panel in the manga's epilogue implied that Aiko ''did'' survive the gunshot and grew to adulthood, unbeknownst to Lucy.]]
1017* ReportsOfMyDeathWereGreatlyExaggerated: Kurama told Lucy that Aiko died from her bullet wound. [[spoiler: However, [[http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120514020240/elfen-lied/images/e/e8/Aiko01.JPG this scanlation]] here states that Aiko survived and grew up to become an artist like her mother.]]
1018* SmallRoleBigImpact: Even though she only appears in a flashback, she is the reason Lucy was first captured and the source of her hatred of Kurama.
1019* TakingTheBullet: She takes a bullet meant for Lucy from Kurama, which pushes Lucy over the DespairEventHorizon completely.
1020[[/folder]]
1021
1022[[folder:Mayu's parents]]
1023->'''Mayu's stepfather is voiced by:''' Hideo Watanabe (JP), Ty Mahany (EN)
1024
1025Mayu's mother remarried when Mayu was around twelve or thirteen years old, and the stepfather sexually abused Mayu.
1026----
1027* TheFaceless: Mayu's flashbacks always have their faces hidden in shadow.
1028* HateSink: Both of Mayu's parents are disgusting, vile people who only exist so the audience hates them. It says a lot that the voice actress for Mayu's mother choose to remain anonymous because of how abhorrent the character is.
1029* IHaveNoDaughter: They did not report Mayu's disappearance to the police, and Mayu's mother didn't need to think long about giving custody of Mayu to Kouta and Yuka, much to Kouta's surprise.
1030* ItsAllAboutMe: Mayu's mother, who accuses her own daughter of ''stealing'' her husband. And it's evident she got together with this bastard without Mayu's knowledge or blessing.
1031* JealousParent: When Mayu told her mother about the sexual abuse, the mother expressed ''jealousy'' of all the "attention" the stepfather gave Mayu.
1032* KarmaHoudini: Despite frequently abusing and neglecting Mayu, they receive no punishment for their actions. However, this is mainly because Mayu's mother willingly allows her to stay with Kouta and Yuka at the Maple House.
1033* LecherousStepparent: Mayu's stepfather sexually abused her.
1034* SkewedPriorities: A particularly cruel example that is definitely '''not''' PlayedForLaughs. After Mayu tells her mother what her stepfather has been doing to her, instead of showing concern or trying to help her, Mayu's mother point-blank reveals she only cares for her new husband's attention rather than her daughter's well-being. This is easily one of the biggest reasons she's so loathsome.
1035* UnnamedParent: Neither of them is called by their names and they're Mayu's parents.
1036* WhyDidYouMakeMeHitYou: Mayu told her mother about her stepfather's sexual abuse, but her mother instead hit her and became ''jealous'' of all the "attention" the stepfather gave Mayu.
1037[[/folder]]
1038
1039[[folder:Nozomi's father]]
1040[[quoteright:200:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/nozomi_father_el.png]]
1041
1042A man who violently opposes his daughter Nozomi's dream of becoming an opera singer like her deceased mother.
1043----
1044* AbusiveDad: He frequently beats Nozomi to force her to quit pursuing her singing career. He's also to blame for her urinary problems because it was her fear of his anger what caused her to lose control of her bladder.
1045* FantasyForbiddingFather: He disapproves of Nozomi's dream of becoming an opera singer, due to her being the only heir of his business. The real reason is he doesn't want her to suffer the same fate as [[spoiler:her mother, who committed suicide after losing her voice to a throat defect.]]
1046* UnnamedParent: We never get to know his name, hence he's referred to as "Nozomi's father".
1047[[/folder]]
1048
1049[[folder:Nozomi's mother]]
1050[[quoteright:180:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/nozomi_mother_el.png]]
1051
1052Nozomi's deceased mother. She was an opera singer.
1053----
1054* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler:She committed suicide after losing her voice]].
1055* MissingMom: She killed herself when Nozomi was young.
1056* UnnamedParent: Like her husband, her actual name is unknown.
1057[[/folder]]
1058
1059[[folder:Aiko's father]]
1060[[quoteright:200:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/aiko_father_el.png]]
1061
1062* AbusiveDad: He frequently beats the crap out of Aiko for drawing.
1063* FantasyForbiddingFather: He does not want Aiko to be an artist because it reminded him of her mother, who left him because of her career.
1064* UnnamedParent: Like most parents in the series, we don't know his actual name.
1065[[/folder]]
1066

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