Anime Girls - Duel of Duality

Recently I was subjected to the comedy/soft porn anime “Rosario + Vampire.” When the character Moka was revealed to essentially be two people I made the remark, “so we are doing the girl with one side childlike the other dangerous thing again are we?” I was asked to explain how many anime I had seen with this, because I boldly estimated a figure of roughly ONE THOUSAND!

How let us be clear here, I clearly said there must be ONE THOUSAND anime with the female characters with dual personality as a deliberate exaggeration, and my primary point is that this idea has been done before, MANY TIMES.

I did I quick search online and here is a list of anime girls with dual personalities;

Moka Akashiya from “Rosario + Vampire”
Lucy / Nyu from “Elfen Lied”
Pai Ayanokoji / The Sanjiyan from “3X3 Eyes”
Yumie / Yumiko from “Hellsing”
Harumi Chrono / Maria from “Paranoia Agent”
Koyomi Yuimachi / Yomi from “Zombie Loan”
Lady Une from “Mobile Suit Gundam Wing”
Lunch from “Dragon Ball”
Momoka Nizhizawa from “Sgt. Frog”
Sowoko Yumanka from “K-On!”
Shiro from “Deadman Wonderland”
Suzuho Hasegowa from “Magician’s Academy”
Yayu Higuchi / Nana from “Othello”
Lisette Vertorre from “Eleven Eyes”

I did not include on the list Run Elsie Jewelria (To Love-Ru) and Ranma Saotome (Ranma ½), since their metamorphisms is a purely physical one. In both examples their gender is switched, but they are still the same personality regardless of the body they are stuck in.

It should be noted that in this list I have seen only ever seen five of these anime and only two of those in their entirety. Furthermore of the three anime that I have only partially watched I never encountered two of the female character in question. In the brief time I spent looking at lists online of anime characters with split personalities I never once saw mention of Pai the Sanjiyan from “3X3 Eyes,” which in my opinion is one of the most obvious. What does this tell us? First, my basic working knowledge is not qualified to make a proper or thorough analysis on the matter under scientific standards to properly calculate an exact figure of how reoccurring this trend is. Second, even with my limited knowledge I was able to know of one very strong example that others, much more knowledgeable than myself on the subject matter, seemed to remember. Basically what I am saying is if we really wanted too we could expand this list easily.

The presented list is only fourteen, a far cry from a thousand I suppose, still enough to point out the reoccurring theme of characters with split personalities. A multiple personality disorder is too well known of a complex and too tempting a plot device to expect writers, regardless of genre, to ignore. So it only makes sense we would see this reoccurring theme in anime. We could probably just as easily compile a list just as long of females with split personalities in comic books or soap operas. However there is something more significant that was intended by my comment of “oh this again,” whilst watching “Rosario + Vampire.”

I have seen Moka’s personality split before twice, both times in anime.

I cannot say what the other eleven personalities on the list are like, but I suspect they are very different from Moka. Some of them sounded to be serious examples of the discomfort or horror of someone walking around with two or more set of thoughts and ambitions running around in their brain. While some sounded like they were very small adjustments in personality, as in, in order to have the courage to show off their true feelings the character would feel the need to don an alter ego. An alter ego is not a split personality, not really, Bruce Wayne doesn’t grapple with whether he is Batman or Bruce Wayne; he is both. Swamp Thing however did have that problem, but let’s not get too far off topic. Lunch from “Dragon Ball,” whom I have no recollection of, sounds very similar as far as basic premise, but Lunch is not a very important character I gather, she is not the female lead, or lead love interest, where as Pai Ayanokoji and Lucy / Nyu have identical story significance to Moka Akashiya.

He earned that kiss!

Pai is a Sanjiyan (Triclops) and the last of her kind. Yakumo Fujii inherits the responsibility of looking after Pai while she is in human mode. While the third eye on Pai head is closed she is young, naive, innocent... stupid, and utterly useless, hence why she needs a generic male protagonist to look after her, that is until she opens her third eye. Pai's alternative personality is the Sanjiyan, and when in her sanjiyan mode Pai shows her age (the character is suppose to be very old, like over a hundred years). The Sanjiyan is cold and ruthless; she does not care about anyone. She is no nonsense, and is very, very powerful. In order to make Yakumo not completely useless she steals his soul and turns him into a zombie. As a zombie servant to the Sanjiyan, Yakumo can survive any injury, and the writers abuse the hell out of this gimmick. Every episode of “3X3 Eyes,” Yakumo is getting the unholy hell beat out of him. On numerous occasions he is shot, gets limbs torn off, and even gets torn to pieces. It is pretty cool how Yakumo adjusts to this and becomes utterly fearless, by the third episode he is charging into battles against armed men and gigantic monsters knowing there is literally nothing they can do to him. Yakumo always gets smashed around until Pai opens her third eye and fixes everything. “3x3 Eyes,” was pretty good. 

Lucy is a Diclonii, a mutated human that has horns and four invisible/intangible physic arms that can tear people to pieces. Lucy is also a psychotic mass murderer, read more about her and “Eflen Lied,” here;   http://colinkellydreams.blogspot.ca/2012/08/the-mirror-elfen-lied.html

It is hard to forgive a mass murderer monster,
still she is still way more likable than Nyu.

However after suffering a nearly fatal gunshot wound to the head and washing up on shore and being rescued by our other two main characters Lucy is not present, she has become “Nyu.” Nyu is a functionally retarded child that perverts would love. Lucy is a ruthless murderer and Nyu is the childlike, innocent alter ego, the two extremes are a not so subtle way to show us just how damaged and tortured Lucy is. This is done in an effort to make us feel for Lucy, and they fail to do so, as far as I’m concerned in the anime, but I have high hopes for the manga which I am very slowly reading. 

Moka as a human/child.  Cute?

Moka Akashiya is a vampire, but... as long as she is wearing her rosary (it is actually an ornamental cross, but whatever) she is young, sweet and innocent, or childlike if you will. However when the cross is removed Moka turns into her true self (or other self I’m not sure which) which is more mature, more badass, and more frankly more vampire. Also her tits grow and since this is a comedy, why the hell not? But when you think about it a more serious, more mature, version of the same girl it may actually make sense that she would be more “developed.” She is more of a “woman” in this form, so a strengthening of her secondary sex characteristics actually makes sense. I’m reading into this though, the bigger boobs are obviously just a gag. 

Moka as a vampire/adult.  Sexy?

My point is this;

Pai, Nyu and human Moka are all sweet, innocent, stupid girls. While the Sanjiyan, Lucy and vampire Moka are all intelligent, powerful, dangerous women. They are all the primary female character and love interest to their generic male protagonist counterpart. They all have some “awakening” that causes their repeated transformation from one form to the other. They are all human and yet not human, and all of their human sides are weak and useless and in need of someone to protect them, while their inhuman side is a serious danger to all those around them. While the three inhuman sides of their characters are more or less unique, Pai being a mystic humanoid and last of her kind, Lucy being a desperate, angry, hunted animal, and Moka being a badass vampire, the purpose of these identities as far as the plot is concerned is the same. They are all depicted as tragic romantic characters because their inhuman side demands a lifestyle or destiny that prevents them from embracing the love they have found in their respected love interests. Meanwhile their human sides are essentially identical both in story purpose and personality. Basically the same character all three times.

Only in anime have I seen this specific character concept. So we are doing this again?

I think this is symbolic to some kind of power male fantasy; characters like Moka are a conquest relationship, a difficult woman to tame because of just how powerful she is. But I feel there is something more to be said here. The everyman that is the true protagonist in these stories is meant to be us, you know, every man  We are supposed to feel that we can tame a powerful woman, that no matter how powerful she is, she is still a sweet thing that just needs to be loved. I am sure some feminist somewhere is reading way too much into this and is completely losing her fucking mind, but this character arc is a charming one. With the exception of the most cold hearted bitches in the world everyone woman wants to be loved, just like every man.

One thing women like to hold over men’s heads is the “the boy inside,” the notion that men don’t grow up, and this appears true when you focus on the male tendency to ogle boobs, continue to love things from our childhood, and a unnecessary sense of competition, but women are just as guilty. A good number of women are guilty of being sensitive and well... childlike in their needs. Most powerful women still want someone to protect them when they are feeling weak. These are general sentiments not absolute, I am just saying even the strongest of men and women can be sensitive. Even the wisest of us can be youthful, or immature if you prefer to be judgemental. Woman who are powerful and wise... even inhuman I guess, are still women, they still want a man to do all the things a man is expected to do for them, you know, care for them, love them, and protect them.

I will probably never produce a thousand examples of female dual personality in anime, but I suspect someone other than me can think of a few more examples of female protagonist that are either identical or nearly identical to the three discussed here today. Furthermore I highly suspect we will see other characters like Moka in the future. The multiple personality disorder is just too much fun and in fiction we have the freedom to exaggerate the extremes of our characters personalities, and what better way to do that than to have one of the personalities a sweet loving girl and the other a inhuman powerhouse?

Dedicated to Peter Brown.