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Revision as of 00:29, 7 January 2008

This article lists the fictional characters in the manga/anime series Elfen Lied.

Major characters

Humans

Kohta

Kohta (コウタ/耕太, Kōta, also romanized as Kouta)

He is a 18 year-old student and one of the main characters of the series. Kohta enters the story when Yuka's family rents him a closed down inn as long as he maintains it, and begins living there with Yuka while going to a university. Kohta understandably has traumatic memories from witnessing the deaths of his father and sister, late in the series revealed to be by Lucy's hand, which he has repressed, ending up in a psychiatric ward for over a year for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Due in part to his loss, Kohta is sympathetic towards girls in trouble and is extremely generous and protective to the girls around him, because he can relate to them and they remind him of his late sister. He feels guilty because the last thing he said to her was that he'd hate her for her whole life if she didn't apologize to Lucy when he didn't believe that she had actually killed so many people.

He meets Lucy in his childhood when she is burying the dead puppy and running away from the orphanage where she killed 3 children. In the anime, he was visiting his cousin with his family and decided to go to the mountain to draw, taking with him a music box he had recently purchased which played Lilium. He strikes up a conversation with her when she apparently likes the song from the music box. He finds her horns fascinating and gives her a hat to cover them up while in public. He asks her if they could be friends and spends time with her. He takes her to the zoo, telling her that he likes to look at the "weird animals." In Lucy's hallucination, she perceives this as a reason to why he was so nice to her. He lies to her about the gender of his cousin by saying that it is a boy so she wouldn't be upset or jealous. When she finds out that he lied to her, she stows away onto his train and kills his family. Before she goes to kill Yuka, he tackles her and yells at her to stop killing people.

His repressed memories are triggered when Lucy kills a whole army in front of him, afterwards singing Lilium, the song that brought them together. He is more forgiving in the anime, even kissing Lucy and stating that he still loves her and her Nyuu persona though he proclaims that he cannot bring himself to fully forgive her for the murder of his family. However, once he gets his memories back in the manga, he is truly unforgiving towards her for killing his father and sister.

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

Yuka

Yuka (ユカ)

She is Kohta's cousin around his same age and lives with him at the inn. She is in love with Kohta, and is therefore jealous of Kohta's attention to Nyuu, to the point of being very irrational. Mayu once described her as the "mother" at Kaede House, and Kohta as the "father". .

Note: Yuka's relationship with Kohta may be considered taboo or illegally incestuous by U.S. viewers, but marriage between cousins is not necessarily taboo in all cultures. Cousin marriage is legal in Japan, but is looked down upon.

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

Mayu

Mayu (マユ)

Mayu is a young teenage girl of around fourteen years old (she turns fourteen in the anime and turns thirteen in the manga). The viewer first meets Mayu when she arrives at the inn being inhabited by Kohta, Yuka and Nyu to return an umbrella she found at the beach where she met Bando, lying in the sand with his eyes gouged out and his arm ripped off from his encounter just a few minutes before with Lucy. Mayu is also the one who gets help for Bando. Mayu is also a homeless girl who subsists mostly on bread crusts from a bakery. Mayu had endured molestation by her stepfather before she ran away from home. Her own mother would not protect her, due to her being jealous over her own daughter. In the manga, it appears that Mayu either loved Bando or thought of him as a father.

Mayu's only friend until she meets Nana is a small puppy whom she refers to as Wanta, who is a stray who ran away from home and came back to Mayu after being found by his original owner when said owner turned down Mayu's offer of taking care of Wanta. Kohta and Yuka take Mayu in; in both the manga and anime, she officially transfers into their care and goes to school in their area. In the anime, Kohta states how strange it was that her parents didn't even protest and even seemed eager when they Kohta and Yuka suggested the idea of the two being her guardians.

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

Kurama

Kurama (蔵間)

He is the chief of research, aged in his mid-30's, of the diclonius children in the research containment facility. He is also the surrogate father of Nana and biological father of Mariko. His wife, Hiromi Kurama, died from Caesarean section complications shortly after she gave birth to Mariko. Although he had previously been tasked with killing all diclonius births, he falters when he must kill his own daughter. Lucy carries a deep hatred toward Kurama, stemming from his failure to save Aikon Takada (seen in the Elfen Lied OVA); however, she states that she will not kill him but will kill everything that loves him. It is revealed late in the series that the General Director of the diclonius research program kept his daughter alive, increasing Kurama's perceived debt to him. Kurama dies at the end of the anime after the explosives inside Mariko (whom he is cradling in his arms while walking away) are detonated at his command. It should be noted that right before the explosion, Kurama has a series of images flash in his mind. In them, his wife is still alive and Mariko is a normal baby, and together the images make up Kurama's idea of how life presumably would have played out if Mariko had been born normal (Mariko as a toddler, Mariko on her first day of school, etc.).

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

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

Bando

Bandō (坂東)

He is an operative in his mid-30's for the National Police Agency's Special Assault Team (SAT). Though he is fully human, he is as homicidal and apathetic to other people as the worst diclonius are. He is a hardy and effective soldier. After being maimed by Lucy and repaired with bionic, cybernetic and prosthetic implants, he escapes on a quest for revenge against her. He gets two or more Desert Eagle hand guns. In the manga he gets other weapons such as an RPG. The guns fire custom .50 Action Express rounds which are so powerful the rounds can not be blocked with vectors. But the bullets can be pushed off course at long range though; however at close range not even Lucy can stop them. He gets sidetracked several times in this quest, and ultimately receives aid from Kurama to "kill a diclonius that was coming." Bandō is driven by the will to fight and to prove his superior ability in combat, not to mention avenge the wounds he suffered at Lucy's hands. At the end of the anime he is crippled again by Lucy. In the manga his role is extended a bit more and he is shown to have a more compassionate side, such as saving Kurama, and burying the dead. He is reluctant to accept positive emotions from others, such as Mayu and Nana. While he is violent, ruthless and all too willing to kill, he takes great offense to acts of perversion, such as child molestation; when Mayu asks for his aid when she is attacked by the Unknown man (see below), Bando expresses intense disgust over the Unknown man's actions. In the manga, Bandō eventually dies while protecting Mayu from an attack by Lucy after the latter is exposed as a killer to the young girl. Lucy rips off his remaining arm and cuts him in half, then flees. While dying in Mayu's arms, Bandō reflects that he had always wanted someone to cry for him after he died, since he had isolated himself from human contact for all his life. He seems to be at peace when he dies; Mayu continues cleaning the beach where Bandō had come to live in his memory.

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

Kanae

Kanae (カナエ)

She was Kohta's younger sister between the ages of 8-10 years old. She was protective of her brother and was jealous of other girls' attentions to him. Kohta cares about her very much, but repressed much of his memory of her after Lucy murdered her on a train by ripping her torso in half. Kohta's mourning of her death makes his father come closer to the body. Although he doesn't see Kanae's body, he is quickly decapitated by Lucy anyway. In the anime, Kouta's repression of the events leads him to believe she just "got sick and died.".

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

Arakawa

Arakawa (荒川)

She is a young researcher in her mid-20's who is also Professor Kakuzawa's partner who works alongside him to create a vaccine in order to counter the threat of the Diclonius virus. She along with Kouta inadvertently discovered Professor Kakuzawa's severed head and warned the boy not to disclose anything of what he saw or heard with anybody else. Afterwards, she reported her finding to Director Kakuzawa at his compound facility, but he wouldn't let her go scot-free after seeing his son's horns. She was threatened by Chief Kakuzawa to take charge of his deceased son's research or else be killed.

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

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

Diclonius

Lucy/Nyu

Lucy (ルーシー, Rūshī) is a teenage diclonius girl around 18 years old, Lucy has four vectors with a limited range of two meters. However, she can be swift and lethal within that range, and will use any nearby objects as high velocity projectiles to kill at greater distances. She is also capable of stopping or deflecting most standard ammunition when she concentrates on the task. Lucy hates humans mainly because of how she was treated by her human peers as a child. Consequently, she discounts non-diclonii, claiming they are not real people, to the point of telling Nana that she has "not killed anyone yet". She seems to lack empathy, kills without much concern, and acts somewhat sadistically. Despite this lack of concern for human life she will not harm Kohta, crying and apologizing for killing his family. She refrains from killing in his presence, except at the end when she kills a whole army in front of him, which reminds him of his suppressed trauma.

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

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

Silpelits

Note: Silpelits are Diclonii that cannot reproduce, instead propagating by infecting humans with the Diclonius virus via their vectors. The manga also states that they age faster than humans and normal Diclonius, explaining Nana's childish antics while she has the body of a 12-14 year old. 'Silpelit' is also the name of a character of an opera by the author of the Elfenlied song, also mentioned in that song itself. Some "queen bee" diclonii who mate with humans produce silpelits, while others simply "water out" the diclonius DNA until the horns and vectors are smaller/shorter. The only Silpelit known to pass on the Diclonius virus is Number 3 (Sanban), Nana's older sister, when she comes into contact with Kurama after she breaks out, the resulting child being Number 35 (Mariko).However, Mariko is a third generation, meaning that at one original diclonius (most likely Lucy just after she got her vectors)had to have infected one of Sanban and Nana's parents (most likely the father, from what we have seen in the series)as to make them second generations.

Nana

Nana (ナナ)

Also known as Number 7, she is a young Silpelit girl who has the physical appearance of being 12-14 years old (though because Silpelits age rapidly, she is actually only about 6 years old). Her name, 'Nana', is Japanese for the number seven, the number by which she was called at the research facility ("Nana" is also a fairly common female name in Japan). Most diclonius babies are euthanized at birth in sweeps of hospital maternity wards, but Nana was one of a handful kept alive for use as a test subjects; as a result she has spent her entire life in the diclonius research facility. Nana sees Kurama as her father, whom she calls "Papa," because she needed something to keep her from going insane during the torturous experimentation, believing that she is making him proud. Kurama in turn sees her as his daughter and cares very much for her. In an attempt to recapture Lucy, Kurama sent out Nana to find her (diclonii can telepathically sense each other), then retreat until Kurama could arrive with soldiers, but Nana wanted to impress Kurama so she tried to capture Lucy herself. Lucy and Nana engaged in a brutal telekinetic battle that ended with Lucy dismembering Nana. Kurama personally came to stop Lucy and save Nana, then also disregarded Director General Kakuzawa's order to kill her by giving her new prosthetic limbs and setting her free with money to survive. Unlike many other Diclonius, because Kurama treated her with kindness, she is not homicidal or sadistic. She has the ability to temporarily disable other Diclonius' vectors by having her vectors go through their pineal gland. Although her vector power is slightly superior to Lucy's in terms of range (5 meters to Lucy's 2) and certain abilities, she lacks Lucy's sheer strength (Lucy can lift and throw many times heavier objects than Nana can), and violent nature; Nana's empathy for others does not allow her to fight as vigorously. With her vector arms, she is later able to manipulate prosthetic appendages and even throw them like a rocket punch.

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

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

Mariko

Mariko Kurama (蔵間マリコ, Kurama Mariko)

Also known as Number 35, she is a young girl described as the only surviving "third generation" Silpelit (a Silpelit born from one infected by another Silpelit, as opposed to one born from one infected by a Diclonius), and the daughter of Kurama at five years old. She is described as the most powerful of the Silpelits. During an escape attempt by Number Three (who was actually Nana's sister), Kurama was infected by her vectors and thus turned into a carrier of the diclonius virus, and his daughter was born a silpelit. In the anime she possesses 26 vectors (up to fifty in the manga), each with an approximate range of 11 meters (the number and range is much higher in the manga). Mariko was imprisoned as an infant and raised inside a steel container with human contact consisting of nothing more than a scientist acting as a sort of foster mother through speakers and monitors. Her physical impairment is seen in her atrophied limbs as she moves around in a wheelchair. It is ironic that the most sadistic and bloodthirsty of the diclonii is also the youngest and cutest.

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

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

Since Mariko possesses 26 vectors and has a wider range then Lucy (whose range is two meters) she seems to be more powerful than her. Also she was able to tear off one of Lucy's horns, leaving Lucy in possible shock, being as after their battle, Lucy is unconscious and is completely white-eyed.

In the manga she and Kurama maintain their love for each other and Mariko attempts to kill Lucy (who looks as if she will kill Kurama though it is unknown what she was planning at the time) by using her bomb as a kamikaze method. She only however manages to destroy both of Lucy's horns and return Lucy to her Nyu state. But nonetheless Kurama is agitated by her death. Voiced by: Tomoko Kawakami (Japanese), Luci Christian (English)

Number 03

Number 03 (３番, sanban)

She was a Silpelit child of around 3-4 years old whose name is her designation number given by the human scientists at the research facility, as she does not possess a personal name of her own in the series, but many call her "San Ban" or "Sanban". She appears only in episode 10 of the anime when Kurama experiences a series of flashbacks back when he became director at Chief Kakuzawa's island facility.

Kurama's flashbacks give insight on the activities the scientists were performing on Diclonius to measure the range and power of their vectors. Every day, Number 03 (Sanban) was chained up on a wall, and on a far end a machine shot small iron balls at her with increasing force. The purpose of that test was to evaluate the maximum force a Diclonius' vectors could deflect.

When the experience became too traumatic for Sanban, Kurama voiced out his protest for witnessing such inhuman activities. Afterwards, the locks on Sanban's bounds were mysteriously opened up, and she went on a killing spree until she found Kurama. Sanban had concealed the true length of her growing vectors from the research team, aiding in her escape. She immediately placed her vector on his head and thanked him in a haunting manner, before being shot dead in the head by Professor Kakuzawa with an armor piercing bullet. Several months later, Kurama's wife gave birth to a Diclonius baby (Mariko) much to Kurama's fear and astonishment. But, it made Kurama to quickly recall his near-death experience with Sanban and finally realized that the virus is passed on through the vectors.

Note: The official Elfen Lied website confirms that Sanban is Nana's older sister.

Voiced by: Mikako Takahashi (Japanese), Allison Sumrall (English)

Anna Kakuzawa

Anna Kakuzawa (角沢アンナ, Kakuzawa Anna)

Only appears in the manga. She is Chief Kakuzawa's daughter. She looks up to him in a similar fashion to Nana and Kurama's relationship. She was good at running and struggled to meet her father's expectations, for he considered her "superior" due to her Diclonius heritage. Her grandmother apparently did not agree, stating that Anna's performance was disappointing when compared to that of her brother's.

She underwent an operation on her father's request, to make her "more superior". The results of the operation have increased her mental capacity and therefore she can predict estimates of what the future may be. However the operation has turned her into a giant deformed Diclonius. Her previous self is seen in a number of flashbacks.

At the end of the manga, she is returned to her original self, some time after Kaede's death.

Number 28

A manga-only Silpelit, who was selected to undergo a monstrous surgical procedure to turn her into a portable 'Diclonius radar'. Prior to the operation, she was sexually molested by the Unknown man (see below). Her lower body from the chest down and arms were removed entirely and a device was implanted in her spine to cause her continuous pain, so she could not concentrate to lash out at the person carrying her. Her body was then encased in a metal sheath, which the Unknown man (see below) carried on his back when he went to search for Lucy. When Number 28 led him to Nana instead, the Unknown Man killed her out of petty irritation by kicking over her sheath.

Prior to the operation, Number 28 was described as having a submissive personality and her vectors had not yet developed. After the operation, despite or possibly because of her agony, she displayed far greater telepathic ability than has been demonstrated by other Silpelits or Diclonii. She was capable of transmitting a warning to Nana to flee the approach of the Unknown man, projecting an image of her own mutilated body. In the end, she also begged Nana to kill her to end her hideous suffering.

Part-Diclonius

Chief Kakuzawa

Chief Kakuzawa (角沢長官, Kakuzawa Chōkan)

He is the head of the research center at 70+ years old performing experiments on diclonius. He is from a long line of diclonius ancestry that has been watered down by inter-breeding with humans (much of this is, however, only revealed in the manga). As a result of this he has no vectors and much smaller horns on his head, which he hides under a wig. His and his son's aim is, in part, to replenish their bloodline with the diclonius they are experimenting on (of which Lucy is the first to be able to reproduce) and thus gain power as "kings" of the new race, which would wipe out humanity and replace it whole. In the manga, he even claims to desire the position of a god of the new, Diclonius-ruled world he envisions. He is the father of Anna Kakuzawa, professor Kakuzawa and one or more other male offspring.

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

Professor Kakuzawa

Professor Kakuzawa (角沢教授, Kakuzawa Kyōju)

He is the son of Chief Kakuzawa and also a watered-down diclonius with smaller horns and no vectors in his mid-30's. When he and Kurama were younger, they both went to university together and it was Kakuzawa that originally got Kurama involved in the research on Diclonius. He ends up, coincidentally, being the lecturer for a course at the university in which Kohta and Yuka are enrolled. He was the one responsible for releasing Lucy at the research center. He is later beheaded by Lucy after he abducts her and attempts to rape her.

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

Minor characters

Kisaragi (如月)

She was Kurama's personal secretary and a graduate of Tokyo University at approximately 21 years of age . She is an outright clumsy but pure hearted woman who seems to space out at work, oblivious to the situation she accidentally stumbles into it. Despite her failures, she is optimistic and has good intentions in doing anything to please Kurama. Her bumbling, airheaded, and innocent demeanor is parallel to that of Mutsumi Otohime of Love Hina. She is killed by Lucy at the start of the story. Kisaragi trips (completely oblivious of what is going on) in front of the rampaging Lucy who takes advantage of her interference to tear off her head and use her body as a shield to fend off the security team's gunfire. In the manga however, Kisaragi came across Lucy while walking down the hall. Noticing that she was covered in blood, Kisaragi approached her. Lucy used this to her advantage and took her hostage. Since Kurama's men were unable to get a clear shot of Lucy, Kurama told Kisaragi they had to sacrifice her. Kisaragi showed no real remorse for this information, saying she was happy to give her life if it meant she was helping. Kurama assured her that her death would not be meaningless, but before Kurama could tell his men to shoot, Lucy tore off Kisaragi's head. After using Kisaragi's decapitated body as a shield and killing the men, Lucy told Kurama that Kisaragi's death was meaningless, and left laughing.

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

Nozomi (ノゾミ)

She is a 15-17 year old soft-spoken and shy friend of Yuka who only appears in the manga from chapter 43 onwards. She has a bladder problem and therefore wears diapers. Kohta first encounters her while walking to the store (not realising they both know Yuka), and both are embarrassed when the wind blows her skirt up. They later meet at the inn and Nozomi is revealed to have a great talent for singing. Nozomi is the person that sings the song "Elfenlied", while teaching Nyū how to sing.

Kohta's father

He was in his mid-30's when he was killed along with his daughter, Kanae (Kohta's sister), by Lucy as a retaliation against Kohta. Upon seeing the tears of sorrow and listening over to the painful screams of a grief-stricken Kohta, she realizes with horror that she made a terrible mistake and goes on to regret it deeply.

Voiced by: Daisuke Ono (Japanese), John Swasey (English)

Tomoo (トモオ)

He was a 10 year old orphan boy living together with Lucy and several other parentless kids in a child welfare facility. He along with two other bullies constantly pick on Lucy every day primarily because of the latter's physical difference (her horns), though he also adds later on that seems weird for him to see that Lucy never displays emotions. He takes pleasure in making Lucy as miserable as possible with malice by deliberately playing mean pranks on her (like spilling milk on her backpack), calling her "horns" (a pun about her horns), subjecting her to various acts of humiliation, and physically assaulting her. When he finds out that Lucy has been taking care of a puppy, he forces her to witness a plain act of extreme cruelty by repeatedly smashing a flower vase on the dog several times just to watch her cry in order for him to quench his sick curiosity. Instead, a shocked Lucy violently snaps in a murderous rage, beheading him and his accomplices with her vectors.

Note: He, the unknown man and Bandō are the only human characters in the anime shown to express outright sadism without regret or inhibitions at all.

Voiced by: Reiko Takagi (Japanese), Chris Patton (English)

Unknown man

Only appears in the manga. Seemingly a mercenary hired by Chief Kakuzawa to hunt down Lucy. He seems to know much about the Diclonius and their limits. He is tall and wears a black coat, sunglasses and uses a crossbow that fires spiked ball projectiles; these balls are filled with a neurotoxin to cause their target immense pain. His demeanor is even more cruel than Bando's, he is insensitive, especially to women, and seems to be a sexual predator in nature - This fact is proven in a scene where he almost rapes Mayu. He protects Lucy when Bando almost defeats her in their second fight in order to ensure that the new race of Diclonius will have a progenitor; however, an instant later Lucy decapitates him and prepares to finish the fight. Amusingly enough, while the Unknown man offered to be Lucy's eyes after she was supposedly blinded, Lucy instead used his severed head as a projectile in an environment which Bando had stripped of anything else that could serve in this manner.

Saito (斎藤)

She is Mariko's foster mother in her mid-20's and one of the scientists working at Chief Kakuzawa's compound facility. Although she has never actually seen Mariko in person, every day she and the Diclonius girl have been verbally interacting with each other through the use of loud speakers. Mariko always referred to Saito as "mother" during these interactions.

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

Once an unsuspecting Saito approached close enough, the mischievous Mariko revealed her true colors responding unemotionally, "Mommy...?" When Saito answered "Yes," Mariko replies with "No, you're not." Then, she blew up the lower half of Saito's body and brutally threw the upper torso through the window of the control room to catch the operator off guard.

Mariko would have killed everyone and gone in a rampage, if it wasn't for the barely alive Saito who used her last breath to detonate the explosive in Mariko's right arm in order to subdue her by force.

Voiced by: Allison Sumrall

Aiko Takada (高田愛子, Takada Aiko)

She only appears in the Elfen Lied OVA, though her full name is never revealed in that episode. She is Lucy's 11-12 year-old friend 3 years prior to the start of the main story, and becomes the second human who has both given love and come to accept Lucy by who she is, regardless of her Diclonius condition (i.e. her horns). It is unknown as to how she came in contact with Lucy, but her first appearance implies that Lucy's predisposition for violence was involved as her uniform was soaked in blood. Unfortunately, Aiko is shot after an ambush captures Lucy and Aiko by surprise, being mistook for another Diclonius because she is wearing Lucy's hat, even though all diclonii have pink hair and Aiko's is brown. Kurama, who accompanied the police, promised Aiko's well-being in exchange for Lucy's capture. Lucy agrees to be captured, but Aiko eventually dies at the hospital of her injuries. The death of Aiko serves the final straw for Lucy to become resolved in killing deliberately every human at sight (though Kohta and those familiar with him are spared), and triggering the start of her ill-fated vendetta against Kurama, promising him that she will not kill him and instead erase everything related to him to make him suffer.

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

Voiced by: Maria Yamamoto

Isobe (磯部)

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

Voiced by: Naoki Kinoshita (Japanese), Rick Pearsall (English)

Shirakawa (白河)

She is another member of the Diclonius research and termination staff, as also Kurama's right-hand woman in her mid-30's. Though her personality on the surface reflects a business-like demeanor, she holds a secret affection and genuine concern for Kurama and on all the matters related with his mysterious past, implicitly hinted from time to time in the series. However, Kurama does not return the feelings because most of his time he focuses on attempting to find and terminate Lucy, therefore, keeping the relationship strictly professional. Her personality in the manga is mostly servile and submissive, going to such extents as letting Chief Kakuzawa to sexually abuse and play humiliation games on her (to get information from him). In the manga she has feelings for him and considers admitting it before being decapitated by Lucy. Nonetheless, her character plays a more important role in the manga than in the anime, and literally meets her demise at the hands of Lucy.

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

Hiromi Kurama (蔵間ヒロミ, Kurama Hiromi)

She is both Kurama's wife and Mariko's biological mother who was in her mid-20's before she died. She only appears in episode 10 of the anime during the series of flashbacks that Kurama recalled to relive his first experiences with the Diclonius. Prior to Mariko's birth, she was diagnosed uterine cancer during her last month of pregnancy. The doctors were forced to perform an emergency Caesarean section to save her life and the baby's, however, the operation resulted in the complete removal of her uterus leaving her in a delicate state of health due to massive blood loss. After Kurama found out the child was born a Diclonius, he told Hiromi that she (the baby) had to be disposed of. Hiromi immediately went hysterical upon hearing this, furthering aggravating her condition until she passed out.

Shortly afterwards, she walked into the nursery, drenched in blood, to find her husband there attempting to strangle their daughter. She approached him in a trance state (no doubt due to her fragile state of health and overwhelming concern about the fate of her daughter) and told him, "Why does she have to die? You always wanted to have a child, but/and I won't be able to bear you children anymore." Hiromi then tries to make Kurama promise her that he would keep their daughter (Mariko) alive, collapsing dead in front of him as a result of the strain the past events had on her body {It is to be noted, in the anime at least, she isn't shown to have commited suicide, but rather seemed to have died as a result of her failing health in attempting to eke the last promise out of her husband}.

Voiced by: Akemi Kanda (Japanese), Luci Christian (English)

Notes

1. Elfen Lied Ep. 1: Yuka greets Kohta and then says "Yuka desu... Itoko no..."「ユカです…従姉妹の…」, which quite unambiguously translates as "I'm Yuka. Your cousin."
2. Why is Romance Between Cousins Common in Anime?
3. Note: These restrictions on Lucy's vectors are not present in the manga.
4. Template:Ja icon Elfen Lied official website
5. Full name and kanji provided by "On "A Grand Finale" of vol 12". elfiniantop.
6. Elfen Lied manga; Chapter 61, page 16

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• Elfen Lied
• Lists of anime and manga characters