Lucy (Elfen Lied)
Lucy is a female anime and manga character who features in Elfen Lied.
Contents |
Biography
Kaede (Japanese: 楓?) was born to a human mother that was capable of giving birth to a fully powered and reproductive Diclonius and was the true origin of the virus that spawned them. They were captured by Chief Kakuzawa with Kaede's mother being held and studied as well as forced to bear a son by him committing suicide following this point. Kaede new nothing of her origins and instead came to believe that her parents had abandoned when in actuality it was only her father who had done so. Her mother never stopped searching for her daughter in the time prior to her capture by Kakuzawa. Afterwards, she was taken in by an orphanage where she was avoided by the staff and was bullied where they called her "Oxen" due to the horns. The other children began to pick on her and told Kaede to live outside where she came to believe that the other children being miserable with the need to make others miserable as well.
As she matured, Kaede's vectors began to develop, though she had little understanding of what this meant at the time. Lucy eventually discovered a stray dog in the woods around the orphanage, whom she thought of as her first friend. Feeding the puppy on breadcrumbs left him still hungry, so she felt forced to give most of her dinner to it. During this time young Lucy, while holding her pup, sometimes heard and listened in on the singing of young Nozomi, who fled to those same mountains to hide her singing from her family, but the two never truly met during these times. When a boy named Tomoo threw milk all over her bag, a young girl saw and shouted for a teacher. Thinking of her as a new friend, Lucy, needing more food for the dog, told the girl about the puppy. However, although promising to keep it a secret, the girl soon told the boys about the puppy and its significance, and the bullies took it from the woods. After confronting Lucy in the classroom, the bullies brought in the puppy and began violently bludgeoning it to death. The girl came in to intervene, admitting to telling them about the dog, as Tomoo casually revealed. Despite her apologies and protests that she hadn't known the puppy would be hurt, she was seen by Lucy smiling behind her supposedly covered eyes. Feeling betrayed and enraged, Lucy unleashed her vectors for the first time, killing all of her tormentors in a swift, brutal manner. She then buried the dog, apologizing for not being able to protect it, and decided to go on the run. The orphanage regarded her as missing, perhaps taken away by whoever had murdered the other four children.
While burying her dog in the mountains, Kaede made the decision to go on the run, but was stopped by Kouta, a young boy on vacation who went into the hills to draw. The two formed a close bond much to the surprise and confusion of Kaede. However, these moments of happiness were not enough to stop her from following her newfound instincts and slaughtering entire families to use their houses for the night. Their time together was cut short when the Kaede's constant killings led to curfews which prevented Kōuta from seeing her. After three days, Kōuta took to sneaking out of the window for the two to meet up, and gave her a hat so she could hide her horns, oblivious as to why anyone would dislike them but wanting to help. As the final day of his vacation arrived, Kōuta and Kaede spent their whole day together and visited Nogeyuki Zoo. Kaede hoped to attend the Bonbori Matsuri festival at the Tsurugaoka Hachiman shrine with him, but was dejected to learn he had already promised to go with his cousin, believing herself to in fact be nothing more than a substitute for a girlfriend. Kaede began choking Kōuta in rage, but came to her senses seconds later and begged Kōuta to kill her if she couldn't stop her murder spree. A confused Kōuta ignored the remark and, understanding her feelings about going with someone else, lied about his cousin being a boy.
Kaede went to the Tsurugaoka Hachiman shrine that night to confess her feelings, but was shocked to find Kōuta talking to a girl, Yuka, who was crying at him having to go so soon. Kaede suffered another breakdown and experienced a dream where her victims and a manifestation of her instincts encouraged her to kill or she would forever have nothing to live for. In addition, the crowd at the carnival began to overwhelm her. Finally, Kaede surrendered to these murderous instincts and began brutally and indiscriminately killing festival-goers in what was believed to be a bombing. Kaede then departed for the Gokurakuji Train Station, intent on killing Kōuta and his family before heading back to kill Yuka. On the train, she was recognized by Kōuta's sister Kanae, who was a witness to the first killings at the festival. Kanae was cut in half, followed by the decapitation of her father. An angry and crying Kōuta then tackled Kaede to the ground and repeatedly demanded that she stop. Kaede was disturbed by the event, as she realized it was her own actions that prevented the two of them from being together.
Lucy looked for Kōta to tell him her feelings before he had to leave, but she discovered the truth upon seeing him with his female cousin Yuka. Lucy panicked and jumped to the conclusion that Kōta had been lying about everything, and like the children in her orphanage, was just pretending to be nice to her in order to tease her. Falling into a mental state, the stress of "losing" Kōta broke Lucy emotionally, and she came to the conclusion that the only way for her to survive would be to kill off the human race. Lucy then proceeded to start killing several people at the festival. Soon afterwards, she intercepted Kōta as he was leaving at the train station and killed his sister Kanae and his father. She planned to kill Yuka afterward; however, Kōta tackled her to the ground and demanded that she stop, and Kōta's horrified reaction made Lucy realize for the first time she had done something awful that she could never undo. The guilt over what she had done to Kōta would follow her the rest of her life.
Lucy proceeded to live the next five years as a runaway under the hope that she could one day apologize to Kohta, she alternatively keeps a low profile, sneaking into residential homes and killing the families inside in order to obtain a place to stay (and also partially as revenge at not being able to have a normal life herself). Three years ago, Lucy met Aiko Takada, a girl her age who suffered atrocities similar to Mayu in the series. Aiko, her only true friend besides Kōta, had run away from her father, and Lucy and Aiko then went to find Aiko's true mother. At the same time, Kurama began searching for Lucy and followed her to the museum where Aiko's mom worked. While inside, Aiko pushed Lucy out of the way of a bullet headed towards her. Lucy agreed to go with Kurama if he promised to save Aiko. Lucy was then captured by Kurama, and imprisoned in the diclonius research institute where she was subjected to inhumane medical experiments. Upon her imprisonment, Kurama informed Lucy that Aiko had died. Hearing this news, Lucy responds: "I won't kill you. One day, I'll have you experience the same thing I did. I will erase everything related to you. One day, for sure."
Overview
Personality and attributes
Kaede/Lucy's default persona is a middle ground between the personalities of Nyū and The Voice. Since others discriminated against her, Lucy is quiet, withdrawn, and guards her emotions carefully in response to the bullying from her classmates, neglect from the child welfare workers in charge of her, and the absence of her parents. Though she understood the other miserable children in the orphanage were using her to forget their misery, she is shown wondering why they have to treat her in such a way just because of her horns. The bullying left its mark on her interactions with others by leaving her puzzled about how to return the kindness. As shown with both Kouta and later Aiko Takada, she didn't know how to react to people being kind to her other than being embarrassed. She even let her emotions slip around them and became quickly thrown off when her only two friends praised her or caught her acting in any way other than calm, cool, and collected.
Powers and abilities
As a Diclonius, she was a human mutation with telekinetic abilities that manifest themselves as various invisible 'arms' that were called 'Vectors'.
Notes
- Lucy was created by Lynn Okamoto where she featured in the setting of Elfen Lied universe.
In other media
Television
- In Elfen Lied, Lucy appeared in the setting of the anime television series where she was was voiced by Japanese actress Sanae Kobayashi and by English actress Kira Vincent Davis in the dubbed series.
Appearances
- Elfen Lied:
External Links
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