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Makai Senki Disgaea (魔界戦記 ディスガイア, Makai Senki Disgaea?)or Netherworld Battle Chronicle Disgaea in English is an anime based on the video game Disgaea: Hour of Darkness. While the main characters remain the same, the plot differs from the game. Makai Senki Disgaea follows the same general canon as the game, however some roles and timing of events are altered. New merchandise from the anime is also being produced. The anime is licensed by supposedly Geneon with NISA as well. Production for the English is underway, the English site is also up.
Two years ago, the Angel Trainee Flonne was sent to the Netherworld to assassinate King Krichevskoy. However, when she arrived at the Overlord's Castle, it was covered in flames. For the next two years, Flonne searched for her target, narrowing her search to a local dump. She found a coffin with Krichevskoy's emblem on it and tried to carry out the assassination. However, it turned out that it was not Krichevskoy, but his son Laharl. Learning that his father has died, Laharl set out to claim the title of Overlord for himself. Flonne and another demon by the name of Etna followed after him.
[edit] Main characters
|
Character |
Voice actor |
|
 |
Laharl |
Kaori Mizuhashi |
| Two years after the death of his father, King Krichevskoy, Laharl was awakened with the ambition to become the next Overlord of the Netherworld. Laharl is extremely self-centered and acts evil but he occasionally fails to hide his weakness, compassion. Something happened to make him decline love. |
|
 |
Etna |
Tomoe Hanba |
| Etna is Laharl's subordinate. Though she seems to serve Laharl faithfully, she has her own secret agenda. She previously served the late King Krichevskoy. She made a promise to the king. |
|
|
Flonne |
Yuko Sasamoto |
| An angel trainee and strong believer of love who is sent to the Netherworld to assassinate King Krichevskoy (only to find out that he was already deceased). When she learns of Laharl's refusal to believe in love, she becomes Laharl's follower in order to find good in him. |
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Vyers/Mid Boss |
Chihiro Suzuki |
| Self-proclaimed "rival" of Laharl. He calls himself "The Count of Beauty" (Dark Adonis in the Atlus/NISA translation) but Laharl and others refer to him simply as "Mid Boss", much to his disgust. He seems to know when and where to show up whenever Laharl is in a jam or when he simply wants to challenge Laharl, but to what purpose? |
|
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Prinnies |
Junji Majima |
| Servants who work under Etna, Prinnies are Human souls sewn into penguin-like beings with demon wings and pouches. Prinnies tend to not listen to Etna until she threatens to hurt them. |
|
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Seraph Lamington |
Junji Majima |
| Seraph Lamington is the leader of Celestia. He is the angel responsible for sending Flonne down to the Netherworld to assassinate King Krichevskoy. |
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Captain Gordon |
Nobuo Tobita |
| Captain Gordon is the 37th Defender of Earth. He has an assistant called Jennifer and a robot called Thursday with whom he explores space and assaults evil doers. |
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Jennifer |
Chiwa Saito |
| Jennifer is Captain Gordon's assistant. Smart and beautiful, she has a Ph. D and says that she created Thursday. |
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Thursday |
Yurika Ochiai |
| Thursday is a robotic member of Captain Gordon's team. It is the information station of the group, usually analysing and fixing things. It is the lesser member of the team. He can also transform into various weapons. |
|
[edit] Notable game differences
- All of the episodes take place in various regions of the Netherworld as Laharl attempts to get back to the Overlord's Castle. In the game, all episodes begin from the Overlord's Castle and Laharl travels to the different regions for various reasons (ie. crushing opposing demons)
- In the games, the first person Laharl met was Etna. In the anime, it was Flonne. Flonne even takes Etna's place as she attempts to destroy the coffin using numerous means, including bombs, rocket launchers, and a steamroller.
- Laharl's cape shape shifts in the anime. It can take the form of a shield, wings, and can grab things at long distances as well as conceal his sword. This property wasn't in the game and Laharl's wings were actually very small and not so visible.
- Gordon, Jennifer, and Thursday appear much earlier in the anime than in the game. They are also reduced to a Team Rocket-like role where they are occasionally seen doing various roles and then are sent to the sky, only to appear in another episode. In the game, they followed Laharl until the end but in the anime they left after episode 10 which is the end of the Human arc.
- Originally, a special DVD showed a trailer of what the Disgaea anime would look like. The trailer showed mainly scenes from episode 1 of the game where Laharl is awakened by Etna and he challenges Mid Boss in his castle. Also, shown were Flonne's decent into the Netherworld, Gordon piloting his ship through space, and a peculiar battle between Laharl and Baal (who is visibly absent in the current anime). However, the anime turned out to be much different from what was shown in the trailer.
- The monster that attacked Laharl in the first episode never appeared in the game. It was sketched by Takehito Harada, but was never included.
- In the anime, Laharl and Flonne learn that King Krichevskoy died by eating a dark meatbun. When the game was localized by Atlus, this was changed to a black pretzel.
- In the anime, there is a special book known as the Demonic Tome (no relation to Sacred Tome in Makai Kingdom). This book grants the holder the title of the Overlord of the Netherworld. The Tome is actually the cover itself, but it's contents contain perverted images. It is possible that this book is the same book Vulcanus discovered in the game before he took Flonne's pendant.
- In the anime, a girl by the name of Maharl claims to be Laharl's sister and wishes to claim the title of Overlord just like her older brother. This character was originally designed by Takehito Harada to be Laharl's sister, but she never appeared in the final game.
- In episode 5, Laharl, Etna, and Flonne encounter a demon slaying knight by the name of Sardia. Sardia has a running gag in which she says something only to follow up with an uncertain answer (ie. I hath slain over 2000 demons...or is that under 2000?) In the game, she only appears once when Laharl begins to eliminate all his competition. After the battle with her, she never appears again, and can be assumed deceased.
- Maderas, the demon who had stolen Etna's memories, was changed completely. In the game, Maderas was a conniving demon who used Etna's stolen memories, an embarrassing picture of Laharl, and Laharl's weaknesses against the trio to gain the title of the Overlord. In the anime, however, Maderas acts a lot more effeminate, often swaying his hips or doing the peace sign. Maderas' is the only character to have a different voice actor. However, his conniving nature is still intact. Much of the plot for the Maderas episode has changed as well. Instead, Etna's embarrassing memories have been stolen and Laharl and Flonne remain trapped in a game board for half the episode.
- The Astro Cannon in the anime is completely different from the game. Whereas the game's Astro Cannon was a giant Dark Cannon, the anime's Astro Cannon looked more high tech and used angelic energy provided by Vulcanus.
- Kurtis' Prinny form is never shown until the end on a poster for the War of the Netherworld movie. His Prinny form now looks more like a normal Prinny with Kurtis' hair rather than the green Prinny from the game.
- While the good ending of the game is accepted as the official canon for Nippon Ichi, the anime instead uses the normal ending, although Laharl spares Seraph Lamington. Also, while it was never revealed what form Flonne took after Laharl sacrificed his life, Flonne is in her Fallen Angel form at the end of the anime.
- Episode 8 involved an episode with all the Prinnies in the Netherworld congregating on an island to escape their servitude. Though this was never shown in the game, the island is believed to be Prinny Land, the place where Prinnies who are fed up with their servitude escape to. The baseball stadium where all the Prinnies are toward the end is possibly a homage to the episode in which the Prinnies challenged Laharl and the rest to a game of baseball. The Prinnies' guardian is Pringer X, who in the game was created by Etna during one of her Next Episode skits. The Prinnies also fight with fish in the anime, rather than the game's daggers and bombs.
- Unlike in the game, King Krichevskoy makes several appearances through Laharl's flashbacks. While Laharl hated his father, his flashbacks show that he may have had much more respect for him. His voice has also changed and is possibly voiced by Chihiro Suzuki this time, the voice actor of Mid Boss (in the game, King Krichevskoy's voice was reminiscent of the narrator's voice in the beginning of the game).
- Pleinair, Takehito Harada's character who has appeared in several Nippon Ichi games, is shown at the end of the final episode, although the color of her hair and clothes are different.
Spoilers end here.
[edit] Episodes
| Screenshot |
Title |
Original air date |
# |
|
|
"The Sleeping Prince of the Garbage Dump" |
4 April 2006 |
01 |
| An angel apprentice, Flonne, descends from the heavens and awakens Laharl, the demon prince who then sets on a journey to reclaim his rightful position as the Overlord of the Netherworld. |
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"Us 1 Mid-Boss 0!" |
11 April 2006 |
02 |
| As Flonne lays weakened without her pendant, Laharl, Etna, and her Prinny Squad make their toward the Overlord's Castle. |
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"Welcome to the Demon World Treasure House" |
18 April 2006 |
03 |
| The trio stay at a museum for the night. However, strange things begin to happen when one of the artifacts begin to resonate. |
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"Castle of the Nouveau Riche's Paramount Empathic Judgment" |
25 April 2006 |
04 |
| The Prinnies refuse to work unless they are paid and Laharl sets out to raid the castle of the richest demon around, who happens to be his late father's vassal! |
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"The Dungeon of Attraction... Maybe" |
2 May 2006 |
05 |
| Someone is looking to assassinate Laharl and she won't give up without a fight...maybe. |
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"Etna's Embarrassing Secret" |
9 May 2006 |
06 |
| The demon responsible for all the recent trouble appears before the three, but it turns out Etna has other plans in store. |
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"Netherworld's Sibling" |
16 May 2006 |
07 |
| A young demon girl appears and claims to be Laharl's little sister, Maharl, but something seems fishy and Laharl is set to find out, not without playing the role of an older brother first, though. |
|
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"The Prinnies' Longest Day" |
23 May 2006 |
08 |
| The prinnies start a rebellion and escape to a floating island with the main characters hot on their trail. Big Sis Prinny makes her first appearance in this episode. |
|
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"Galactic Battleship Gargantua" |
30 May 2006 |
09 |
| Laharl is officially the Overlord now, but the celebration is stopped short when the Earth Defense Force launches a surprise attack on the Netherworld, led by the galactic battleship Gargantua. |
|
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"Tomorrow's Hero is You!" |
6 June 2006 |
10 |
| The battle between our young Overlord and the EDF continues, while Kurtis' past is revealed. A third party is also revealed to be involved in the invasion of the Netherworld. |
|
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"The Night when the Red Moon Reflects" |
13 June 2006 |
11 |
| While on the way to Celestia, Gargantua ends up at a snowfield that crosses over to the red moon and the prinnies start acting strangely. |
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"Love ... At the end of the battle" |
20 June 2006 |
12 |
| Now that the trio has arrived in Celestia, it is time to settle things with the Seraph himself. What will become of Laharl, Flonne, and Etna once this is all over and what exactly is Seraph Lamington planning? |
|
[edit] Other Disgaea media
- Disgaea novels- A set of novels written by Sow Kanimiso and illustrated by Chou Niku (although they were aided by Takehito Harada in the beginning) These novels begin with a novelization of the first game and then continues the story ten years later. The novels introduce a slew of new characters including Laharl's relatives, Flonne's family, and Gordon and Jennifer's daughter. While it is unknown if the novels are considered canon, it can fit alongside Disgaea and Disgaea 2 in the canon due to the placement of the novel's plot (Disgaea 2 takes place only three years after the game, whereas the Disgaea novels are placed ten years after the first game.) Currently, there are six novels: Enter the Maoh, Revelation, Returned, On Love part 1 and part 2, and Battle of the Maoh (which also feature appearances by Zetta, Pram, Salome, and King Drake from Makai Kingdom) Laharl, Etna, and Flonne also appear in all other Nippon Ichi novels. This includes the Phantom Brave and Makai Kingdom novels. Recently, a novel for Disgaea 2 has been released.
- Disgaea manga- While not necessarily canon, the Disgaea manga illustrated by Arashi Shindo follows the basic storyline. Many events in the manga, while similar, have been altered completely and the humor is a lot more random. (ie. Laharl, Etna, and Flonne begin to believe that Mid Boss is a pedophile due to his recurring presence among the three) Many characters also appear to have different personalities (ie. on occasion, Lamington will be seen baking a cake). The art style is also very different as many of the characters appear somewhat more mature and the art is very shoujo-like. Broccoli Books released the manga in September 2006. The manga also includes a preview of the Disgaea 2 manga, which will be released in Winter 2007.
[edit] External links
