Hei (Darker than Black)
Hei is a male anime and manga character who features in Darker than Black.
Contents |
Biography
Hei (黒（ヘイ , pinyin: Hēi, lit. Black) was a male human born in the modern age where he was noted to had been a caring older brother to his little sister Bai. One day, during a meteor shower his sister came to be a Contractor where she gained the ability to control and change matter on a molecular level. This saw her being given the name of BK-201 to serve as a mercenary for various criminal organisations with her coming to be recruited by the Syndicate. Hei came to follow her in this field despite him hating to kill as he felt that becoming a mercenary would allow him to watch over his sister. He came to be an exceptional mercenary due to his various combat skills leading to him becoming feared amongst Contractors where he came to earn the title of the Black Reaper. During the Heaven War, he came to be appalled at the actions of his sister where he began to harbour thoughts of killing her but his love of her prevented him from going through with the act.
At first, he began working with the Syndicate as a child assassin to protect his sister Bai in South America during the Heaven's Gate war, and his goal is to find her again. During the Heaven's War, Bai went missing with the rest of Hei's team. Unknowingly to him, Bai had merged her being with Hei's, giving him her powers and the star BK-201. He continued to serve the Syndicate in hopes of one day finding out what happened in South America's Heaven's Gate, and more importantly, learn where his sister went. Hei also has a past history with the leader of the Evening Primrose and former Syndicate co-worker, Amber and hopes to find her in order to discover the truth.
For his next mission, he moved to Tokyo while taking on a new persona. As a civilian, he operated as Li Shenshun who was seemingly a good-natured Chinese exchange student who lives in an old apartment complex for foreigners and gets by with temporary part-time jobs.
Afterwards, Hei was in Vladivostok whilst seeking a meteor fragment from young Contractor Shion Pavlichenko. Hei mistook Shion for Shion's twin sister Suo during his attack. Hei overpowered attacking Contractors from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications' Section 3. Before he finished off one of them, however, their trap caused Hei to lose his powers. Hei begins taking care of now Contractor Suo and the Doll July as they return to Tokyo from Russia, telling Mao he did it because Suo reminds him of his past self. Although Hei is a strict mentor to Suo, the two manage to get along with Suo convincing him to drop his alcohol abuse if he wants her to train. Underworld member Madame Oreille tells Hei that she found the missing Yin, whom Hei says he must kill. Yin had developed a god-like alter ego, Izanami, and they were split during her brief awakening. In Tokyo, Hei learns from Section 3 of Yin's location as they need him to kill Izanami. As Yin awakened, Hei comforted the dying Suo and confronted Yin with his restored powers. He is later seen leaving the area holding Yin's body. Although Yin's fate was unknown, director Tensai Okamura suggested that it might evoke a tragic ending.
While escaping from Okinawa, they pretend to be honeymooners and are attacked by Syndicate's Contractors. Hei and Yin go to Hong Kong where Hei keeps noticing Yin's alter ego, Izanami, suggests faking her kidnapping. The Contractors are defeated by Hei after Izanami kills a woman who attacks him. Amagiri from Evening Primrose rescues them and tells Hei how dangerous Yin's alter ego is. Xin-Qi tricks Evening Primrose into attacking Hei while he assumes Amagiri's appearance and escapes with Yin. After taking down Evening Primose, Hei joins a group of Contractors to find Yin. Yin tries to make Hei kill her; he refuses, and they are separated after an explosion. Depressed by Yin's apparent death, Hei remains in a restaurant driking alcohol his hair growing up in the past time. However, Hei learns from his informant that Yin is alive.
Overview
Personality and attributes
In appearance, he was a young man with a slender build with black hair and dark blue eyes with a deadpan expression. Whilst operating as a civilian, he appeared in the persona of Li Shenshun and wore casual attire of an exchange student. However, when operating as a contractor, he wore a trench-coat and a white Pierrot-inspired mask that fully concealed his face. He came to famous among the underworld and was known as the Black Reaper (黒の死神 Kuro no Shinigami).
Whilst operating in the Syndicate, he regularly took on a number of fake identities and personas in order to accomplish his missions as well as to have a civilian life. Chief among these personalities was Li Shenshun (李舜生 (リ・シェンシュン), Ri Shengshun) where he masqueraded as a good natured timid Chinese exchange student who tries to help others though generally kept to himself. This image quickly disappeared where he took on his true persona where he was shown to be a calculating assassin.
Hei was shown to be a calculating assassin though unusually for a Contractor he did exhibit and sometimes acted upon his emotions. According to him, Contractors were skilled liars and dangerous individuals. Such a view extended to himself as he was not above pretending to be an ordinary civilian and revealing his true identity without any apparent sign of guilt. It was said that he was unlike other Contractors as they ultimately sought to look after their own lives whereas Hei still had feelings such as looking for his sister. As such, he was unusual in the sense that he sometimes still acted on his emotions.
Powers and abilities
During the course of his life, Hei came to acquire a number of life skills such as being able to cook his own meals. He was shown to be extremely skilled in martial arts and an accomplished acrobat allowing him to easily make back-flips or mid-air cartwheels. His skill allowed him to engage other Contractors even without the use of his powers.
His contract powers were especially useful because of his amazing agility, speed, endurance, dexterity, and natural strength. This allowed him to slip away from onlookers when given a short opportunity silently and without causing disruption, as if he was never there. He utilized this in his combat masterfully. He came to be extremely skilled in martial arts and was an accomplished acrobat easily able to do back-flips and mid-air cartwheels with little effort in terms of physical strain. Hei's natural abilities are so impressive that even without his contractor powers Hei is easily able to take on other contractors.
As a Contractor, he gained the power to generate and discharge electricity through conductive media. He could not discharge it through the air or through concrete. Though he was able to generate sufficiently high amounts to kill grown men or short out a building's electrical systems. Hei had shown a degree of mastery over his power that he could efficiently channel electrical currents through a wire and into a knife.
The trench coat he wore was stated to not be a fashion statement but was practical as it was bullet proof allowing him to survive multiple gunshots. He made use of a wire with a carabiner attached to the end that allowed him to anchor it to any object that it wrapped itself around. In combat, it proved useful as it could wrap around the necks of hi enemies whereupon he could deliver a lethal shock to them.
Notes
- Hei was created by Bones where he featured in the setting of the Darker than Black universe.
In other media
Television
- In Darker than Black, Hei appeared in the setting of the anime television series where he was voiced by Japanese actor Hidenobu Kiuchi and English actor Jason Liebrecht in the dubbed series.
Appearances
- Darker than Black:
External Links
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