Project ARMS

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Project ARMS

Logo of Project ARMS
プロジェクトアームズ
Genre Adventure, Science Fiction, Supernatural
Manga: ARMS
Author Kyoichi Nanatsuki
Ryoji Minagawa
Publisher Flag of Japan Shogakukan
Demographic Shōnen
Magazine Flag of Japan Shōnen Sunday magazine
Flag of Malaysia Komik Remaja
Original run 1997 – 2002
Volumes 22
TV anime
Director Hajime Kamegaki
Hirotoshi Takaya
Studio TMS
Network Flag of Japan TV Tokyo
Flag of the Philippines ABS-CBN, Studio 23
Flag of MexicoFlag of ArgentinaFlag of VenezuelaFlag of ChileFlag of ColombiaCityvibe
Original run 7 April 2001 – 29 September 2001
Episodes 52

Project ARMS (プロジェクトアームズ?) is an anime and manga series that is heavily influenced by Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. The series is created by Kyoichi Nanatsuki and Ryoji Minagawa. In 1999, the manga received the Shogakukan Manga Award for shōnen.[1]

It stars a young man named Ryo Takatsuki, who at the beginning of the series believes that he was in an accident causing his right arm to be severed from his body. However, as the story progresses, it is revealed that he was actually a test subject for experiments involving genetics and an "ARMS" nanomachine implant, along with 3 other youths: Kei Karuma, Takeshi Tomoe, and Hayato Shingu. They all meet under strange circumstances and after many battles they set off on a journey to rescue Ryo's girlfriend Katsumi Akagi who is kidnapped by the Egrigori. The Egrigori are the creators of the ARMS technology.

Contents

[edit] The ARMS

The ARMS weapons are named after characters in Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland. Each of the ARMS is a weapon comprised of thousands of nanomachines and minerals that have the capability to merge with a biological being, and are capable of mimicking a lost limb (as is the case with Kei, Takeshi, Hayato, and Ryo). Further more, each "ARMS" has differing battle modes, which vary in appearance and use. Each ARMS also has several progressions of power, the last of which usually involves the ARMS covering the entire body of the user, making them look more or less like the Alice in Wonderland character they are named after. The four original ARMS weapons were Jabberwock, White Knight, White Rabbit, and Queen of Hearts. They each possess an artificial intelligence within them that is similar to the Alice in Wonderland character they are named after. The Keith Series ARMS do not have artificial intelligences within them.

[edit] Characters

[edit] Main Characters and their ARMS

Ryo Takatsuki

The main character of the anime. He seems like your regular polite and friendly teenager, but he has extraordinary hidden abilities. Ryo's parents, Iwao and Misa Takatsuki, are former mercenaries who knew he would have to combat Egrigori someday, and quietly trained him in survival techniques, martial arts, and strategy. Ryo always calmly analyzes any new situation and figures out the best solution. Ryo also has a high regard for human life and free will, and always fights for these with everything he has. Despite being cool headed most of the time and an excellent leader and strategist, Ryo is seriously disturbed by needless violence and bloodshed. Ryo is deeply in love with his girlfriend Katsumi. Ryo's ARMS is code named Jabberwock, and is concentrated mostly in Ryo's right arm. The Jabberwock AI program is a demon which only lives to destroy and is the manifestation of Alice's hate towards humanity (an unexpected side effect of this is that Ryo and the Jabberwock often feed and reinforce each others anger making them synchronize with each other more easily and thus more powerful). Most of the time Ryo keeps Jabberwock under control, but when Ryo is in danger or becomes overstressed Jabberwock can take over. Then Ryo transforms into Jabberwock's ultimate form, and the carnage begins. Only Ryo's fellow ARMS can bring him back under control (most effectively by the Queen of Hearts, the others have to beat him into submission).
The Jabberwock
The Jabberwock's capabilities are extremely varied and evolve very quickly compared to the other original ARMS units, mainly due to the fact that it has seen the most combat out of all the other ARMS units. It is also the most unstable and violent. Initially it was a powerful hand to hand weapon that could elongate, transform into a shield, and exhibited a limited ability to move on its own to protect Ryo. The Jabberwock's nano-machines also give Ryo an innate ability to heal much faster than a normal human even in his untransformed state. As time progresses and Ryo and the Jabberwock engage in more fights they develop more varied and destructive abilities. The Jabberwock's ultimate form is a hulking demonic humanoid containing nothing but pure rage and destructive force. The Jabberwock has developed so fast and evolved so many abilities that it is easier to list and describe them.
  • Compressed air cannon- This ability was first developed during the fight against the Chapel Twins Al and Jeff. It consumes raw materials like concrete or metal, converts them into crude bullets, and fires them with compressed air at extreme speeds. This ability is highly destructive and was able to severely damage and disable the personal combat cyborgs of the Chapel twins. During a full transformation matter does not have to be consumed to create bullets. The Jabberwock is able to create them internally. This is one of the most commonly used powers by Ryo.
  • Anti-ARMS nano virus- This ability is what makes the Jabberwock especially dangerous to other ARMS units. The claws of the Jabberwock contain a virus which permanently kills the nanomachines of other ARMS in a very localized area around the point of contact. This stops any and all ARMS regeneration in all forms. It can only be transmitted to another ARMS by direct physical contact.
  • Partial transformation- though originally a precursor to Ryo transforming into the Jabberwock, he has learned to control this ability. During particularly tough fights when Ryo needs his strength enhanced beyond its normal limits, his ARMS nano-machines begin to spread throughout his entire body. The nano-machines significantly reinforce his body structure making him more resistant to injury, accelerates his regeneration, and amplifies his strength, speed, and endurance far beyond what they normally are. Ryo has also shown tht the partial transformation gives him a significant resistance to toxic materials and poisons. The intentional use of this ability begins shortly after the incident at Abumisawa village when Ryo is cornered in an abandoned building by some Egrigori cyborgs and he dispatches them with ease.
  • Telekinetic immunity- developed after the fight with Cliff of the X-Army. During their fight and after sustaining severe damage, the Jabberwock evolved so that it could no longer be directly influenced by Cliff's telekinesis and then showed the ability to tear through the telekinetic shields that he erected to protect himself.
  • Temperature control- After recovering from the nanovirus introduced into his systems by Colonel Gall of the Red Caps the Jabberwock showed the ability to increase the temperature of it's body by thousands of degrees. This allowed it to breath fire, create flaming shockwaves simply by waving its hand, and essentially acted as a shield by vaporizing bullets in midair before they could even touch his body.
  • Space-time tear immunity- After the fist encounter with Keith Green the jabberwock evolved an immunity to the space-time tears he could create and showed the ability to tear through the space-time shields Green used. (Similar to Cliff)
  • Electromagnetic distortion- During the fight with Keith Silver the Jabberwock evolved the ability to create electromagnetic fields to distort and deflect the laser blasts fired by Keith Silver in his standard and ultimate forms.
  • Anti-matter production- The most dangerous ability exhibited by the Jabberwock to date. During the fight with Keith Silver in Gallows Bell the Jabberwock absorbed all the energy from Keith's most powerful laser blast and used it to create anti-matter which he used to create a massive explosion that wiped out most of Gallows Bell, dealt severe damage to Keith Silver, and created a powerful EM pulse that disabled all local electronics including Egrigori's top of the line cyborgs. In issue 11 it was stated by Dr. Samuel Tillinghast that the Jabberwock can create large quantities of anti-matter and this ability could lead to the destruction of the entire world. Though this ability currently takes too much power to use under normal circumstances.
  • Super Sonic Vibrations- This ability is acquired by the Jabberwock in issue 16 during the fight against Huey and the Successors. The sonic vibrations emitted by these mechanical men are so powerful that they cause the very atomic structure of the target to shatter and crumble. The Jabberwock at first develops counter vibrations strong enough to neutralize those of Huey and the Successors to allow itself to regenerate, but quickly adapts them into an even more powerful form that not only overpowers the vibrations of the Successors but shatters their vibration resistant bodies. The Knight warns Hayato that this new power is equal in strength to his Lance of Mistilteinn and could make it near impossible to destroy the Jabberwock should he go out of control.
  • Hyper Acceleration- This ability is gained in issue 16 during another fight against the Successors. What is notable about this power is that it is used by Ryo while the Jabberwock is dormant. Ryo sees an image of Alice that calms his and the Jabberwock's rage and convinces him to believe in his own will and not the power of the Jabberwock. This ability allows Ryo to move at speeds equal to, if not greater than, Egrigori's high speed cyborgs and the Successors. When Hayato fearfully wonders whether the Jabberwock has gained a new power the Knight says that Ryo is the one in control, is bending the Jabberwock to his will, and this power is coming from Ryo himself. Therefore, it could be said that this power is more Ryo's than the Jabberwock's.
  • Electromagnetic Rail gun- This ability is developed in volume 17 during Ryo's rematch with Keith Silver. Due to his compressed air cannon being ineffective against Silver's energy shield, it evolved to utilize the previously defensive magnetic fields used to deflect Silver's particle beams into a rail gun which uses electromagnetic induction to launch projectiles many times faster and with more destructive force than it's previous incarnation.

Hayato Shingu

He is an incredibly passionate person. He constantly lives in the moment, and can switch from rage to shock to grief all in an instant. He also has a powerful sense of justice, and will instantly leap in to protect the helpless or punish evildoers. When Hayato was seven he saw Egrigori slaughter everyone in his home village and burn it to the ground. Hayato also saw Keith murder his father and slice off Hayato's own left arm. Hayato's left arm was replaced by his ARMS. Hayato then went to live with his grandfather Juzo and learned martial arts. Haunted by his parents' deaths Hayato only lived for revenge, and he hunted down and destroyed Egrigori agents wherever he found them. After Hayato meets Ryo and his fellow ARMS he gains more self-control, self-awareness, and compassion. Eventually Hayato gives up his revenge and becomes a protector rather than a destroyer. Hayato and Kei seem to be forming a relationship as time passes. Whether this will develop into anything remains to be seen.
The Knight
Hayato's ARMS is called White Knight (or just Knight), and is concentrated in his left arm. The Knight seems to be the manifestation of Alice's will to protect. Hayato's arm transforms into multiple fighting blades and a projectile launcher for close combat. The blades produced by the Knight are the hardest substance that an ARMS can produce, however this seems to be influenced to some degree by the emotional state and skill level of Hayato. The Knight's nano-machines allow Hayato to heal injuries much faster than a normal human even in his untransformed state. White Knight's ultimate form is a powerful armored knight whose lance, the "Lance of Mistilteinn", can destroy other ARMS with an Anti-ARMS Nano-Virus, and as such, it negates the regenerative property of ARMS. During his final fight against Kou Karunagi, the knight develops the ability to allow Hayato to enter into a half-transformed state where the ARMS nano-machines spread throughout his entire body and dramatically increase all of his physical attributes (similar to the half-transformation shown by Ryo Takatsuki). In his fight against Keith Violet the Knight's Lance of Mistilteinn evolved into a vastly more powerful form. It is now a double pointed energy lance that is able to destroy ARMS nano-machines by projecting an intense energy field with every swing and was able to instantly disable Violet's Evil Eye of Balor. White Knight's secret mission is to destroy Jabberwock if it gets completely out of control, and Hayato does not want to be his best friend's executioner.

Takeshi Tomoe

He is the most unlikely hero of all the ARMS subjects. Takeshi is smart, skinny, sensitive, solitary, and timid, the classic target for high school bullies. Takeshi was constantly tormented at school, which caused his ARMS to first activate. Takeshi then became even more isolated, genuinely loathing his own body and his cowardice. After Takeshi meets Ryo and his fellow ARMS he finally realizes he is not alone. He also realizes his family and friends are what he really cares about, and that he must fight to protect them. Takeshi then becomes a brave, loyal, and powerful member of the team. Since sustaining crippling injuries at the hands of Kou Karunagi, Takeshi and the White Rabbit are currently in a dormant, cocoon-like state and are communicating with Alice while the rest of the team is fighting in Carillon Tower.
The White Rabbit
Takeshi's ARMS is called White Rabbit, and is concentrated in Takeshi's legs. Takeshi can run and jump incredibly fast, perform seemingly impossible midair maneuvers, and fly up to several hundred feet. Takeshi is also capable of performing astoundingly fast kickboxing capable of shattering concrete and high speed acrobatic manoeuvers. To put it in perspective, he was able to weave in and out of the spinning blades of two helicopters and move and attack so fast that even the Red Caps, using their telepathic abilities to anticipate his moves, couldn't keep up with him. The White Rabbit's nano-machines allow Takeshi to heal injuries much faster than a normal human. White Rabbit's ultimate form is a winged humanoid that can fly faster than the speed of sound. Like the Knight, White Rabbit is also ready to destroy Jabberwock if he gets completely out of control.

Kei Kuruma

She is the only girl of the four protagonists. Unlike the others, Kei has known about her ARMS her entire life. She was raised by the Bluemen, the organization that combats Egrigori and originally implanted ARMS in the four teens. Kei was raised and trained as an elite soldier. But because many of the Bluemen saw her as a weapon and not a person, Kei grew up extremely lonely, bitter, and even a little vicious. This all changes when Kei meets Ryo and the other ARMS subjects, the only people who truly understand Kei. With them she finally learns true friendship and teamwork. Kei and Hayato seem to be growing closer as time goes on. Whether this will develop into anything remains to be seen.
Queen of Hearts
Kei's ARMS is called the Queen Of Hearts, and is concentrated in her eyes. Kei's ARMS is an array of powerful sensors, including magnification and infrared. Kei can figure out a punch before it is thrown, or a bullet's course before it leaves the barrel, and avoid them. Kei can also activate, enhance, and deactivate the ARMS of her teammates. The Queen of Hearts' nano-machines allow Kei to heal from injuries much faster than a normal human even when not transformed. Kei has nicknamed her nano-machines her "nano-babies". The Queen Of Hearts' final form is a magnificent woman made of light. Kei is still discovering all the abilities of her ARMS. When the Queen of Hearts displayed its ultimate form for the first time in volume 10, it was able to stop and reverse the out of control transformations of the Jabberwock, Knight, and White Rabbit. In Volume 16, the Queen of Hearts evolved to gain the ability "Mirror of Aegis", which appears to be able to reflect an attack with equal or greater power than was used. In volume 18 the Queen of Hearts reveals to Kei that she holds the ultimate endgame weapon of all the ARMS units. She merely has to say the word "Destroy" and all ARMS units that descended from Alice, and even Alice herself, will be permanently deactivated which will also result in the death of all of the hosts including her friends. Whether Kei has the mental strength to actually use this ability is unknown.

[edit] The Keiths

The Keiths are a series of clones created from the base genetic material of Keith White. The Keith series of clones was endlessly experimented on to create a human being that could survive an ARMS implantation. The first to survive the implantation process was Keith Blue; however the first successful implantation was Keith Black. Following Keith Black's takeover of Egrigori, nearly all of the Keith clones were destroyed.

Keith White - Humpty Dumpty

Keith White is the original Keith. His genetic material was used as a base for all of the clones in the Keith series. Keith White was one of the founding members of Egrigori along with Doctor Samuel Tillinghast. Unlike Dr. Tillinghast, Keith White has no sense of morality or respect for human life. His only interest in humans is as research subjects. His philosophy to scientific research gives absolutely no concern to the means as long as the ends is accomplished. He had no compunctions against beating Alice when she asked to let the ARMS test subjects see the outside and only showed concern when she had been shot because he was losing a valuable research subject and key member of his research team. Even towards his own clones he showed little compassion or concern to the ones that died in Egrigori's experiments. He is killed by Keith Black shortly after the successful implantation of Black's ARMS unit. He does not resist or try to run, he simply basks in his own feeling of accomplishment as the fruition of his experiments kills him. In actuality Keith White was laying semi-dormant inside of Keith Black for 20 years and was subtly influencing him and gaining more control as time went on. It should also be noted that Keith White seemed to show slightly more mastery over Humpty Dumpty than Keith Black as he was able to compensate for Ryo's immunities and out strategise him. He also showed the ability to fly through the use of branched, wing-like structures grown from his back. The most strange of all the ARMS, appearance-wise, Humpty Dumpty takes form of a shadowy humanoid creature with long, cylindrical arms. This shadow-like exterior acts as a formidable armor, capable to absorb and nullify other ARMS attacks, and also assimilate them, thus granting control over all other ARMS powers and abilities. Ironically it is mere overconfidence in this pitch-black protective coat that brings disaster upon Keith White, as he doesn't notice the fatal damage sustained againts Keith Blue, which in the end shatters his core and renders his barrier useless. He is split in half by the Knight's lance, and in the end dies, laughing at himself while finally seeing the absurdity of his ideals.

Keith Red - Gryphon

An original ARMS prototype, one of several clones created by Egrigori's original ARMS research scientist. Keith Red is one of Keith Black's lower-ranking officers, but still holds a much higher position than many in Egrigori. The Keith series ARMS do not have artificial intelligences. Keith Red is the Egrigori's top soldier and assassin, and is extremely skilled, cunning, ruthless, and ambitious. He wants to control Jabberwock so he can achieve ultimate power and escape Egrigori's grasp. Keith Red's ARMS is called Gryphon, and is concentrated in Keith's arms. Gryphon's ultimate form is a powerful feathered humanoid with two enormous fighting blades and a destructive sonic projector, capable to break atomic cohesion with its waves. He fights againts Ryo and Hayato once, when he kills Al's brother Jeff, and developes a fierce rivalry with Jabberwock when he is injured by him. However, he met his demise at the hands of Hayato and the Knight, where he lost his arms and he was then cut in half. Before crumbling into pieces, Keith Red reveals that he's not the one who killed Hayato's father, in fact no more than a pawn in comparison with his brothers.

Keith Blue - Dormouse

An original ARMS prototype, but his ARMS implant surgery was a failure. As a child, he named himself "Edward", as he despised being called by a number and being surrounded by so many others with the same name. He desperately wanted to success in an ARMS implantation to earn himself a unique color name "Black", but his implant failed. Keith Blue has a delimiter implant that suppresses his ARMS and keeps him alive, but he is confined to a life support wheelchair. Keith Blue escaped Egrigori with the help of Doctor Tillinghast and three Bluemen agents (two of which were most likely Misa and Iwao Takatsuki), taking much of Egrigori's classified ARMS data, the original four core chips, and genetic material. Keith Blue set up his own organization, the Bluemen, to halt Egrigori's plans for world conquest. The Bluemen created the four ARMS teens in their labs. Keith Blue is very reclusive, and is only seen by his top lieutenants. He is a brilliant leader who inspires great loyalty among the Bluemen, and is especially adept at reading human nature. Keith Blue values all people, especially his Bluemen colleagues, but he will not hesitate to put them into danger if that will achieve his goals. His "color name" was given to him by Dr. Samuel Tillinghast, one of the foremost scientists of Egrigori who developed the Keith series, along with researching the lifeform "Azazel" and the ARMS technology. While for most of the series he is bound to his wheelchair and, due to his poor health conditions, he actually never fights, towards the end of the series he sacrifices himself and destroys his delimiter implant, gaining the full power of his ARMS for his one and only battle. His ARMS is named the "Dormouse", and is shown only in its full form, that of a massive, armoured humanoid covered in short, thick spikes, which can be shoot and explode violently at the slightest vibration. He is the first to challenge Keith White and his mighty Humpty Dumpty, and while unable to defeat him, he proves instrumental for his future death when he self destruct himself, damaging White's core in the process.

Keith Violet - March Hare

The only surviving woman of the Keith series, and is beautiful, smart, and amazingly powerful. Keith Violet is very different from her brothers, being neither a friend nor an enemy of the ARMS teens but an interested observer. Keith Violet's ARMS is called March Hare, and appears as a crystalline, reflective humanoid female. It has the power to manipulate and refract light, allowing it to create elaborate and incredibly realistic illusions. It does this by dispersing refractive nanomachines into the air that act similar to fiber optic filaments and can redirect, amplify, and focus light to fire lasers whose paths cannot be predicted. She calls this ability "the Evil Eye of Balor". Keith Violet prefers to be called "Violet", to indicate her gender. Keith Violet was also chosen by Keith Black to be one of his higher-ranking officers in Egrigori.

Keith Silver - Mad Hatter

He makes Hayato look calm and collected. Keith Silver doesn't just enjoy battle, he revels in it. He will gladly destroy anyone and anything so he can get his thrills, even disobeying the other Keiths and Alice. Though in his youth, Silver was named Alex and was known to be a gentle child according to his caretakers and was manipulated by Keith Black to kill them when they rebelled against Egrigori. Keith Silver's ARMS is called Mad Hatter, and emits powerful energy shields or high-temperature particle beams he calls "The Brionic Spear". Its ultimate form is a giant skeletal humanoid. After his defeat at the hands of Ryo at Gallows Bell, Silver was so seriously injured by the Jabberwock's anti-matter cannon that it prevented his left arm from returning to human form. The mad hatter also showed the ability to increase it's power levels and external temperature exponentially every time it is damaged, similar to the temperature manipulation of the Jabberwock but much more dramatic and powerful. This however proved to be a double edged sword and went out of control to where Keith Silver's surface temperature was close to that of a small star and it caused him to melt down. Keith Silver was chosen by Keith Black as the second of his higher-ranking Egrigori officers.

Keith Green - Cheshire Cat

He is a very deceptive individual. On the outside he seems to be courteous, civilized, maybe even a little wimpy. But in reality he is cunning and powerful, and enjoys slaughter as much as the other Keiths. Keith Green's ARMS is called Cheshire Cat. In its final form, it appears to be a large three tailed tiger, with rows and rows of spikes upon its back as well as jutting backwards on its tail. He can manipulate space and time, appearing and disappearing at will and causing massive destruction. In Volume 15 of the manga it shows that he does this by sending out rips in space and time, causing what is caught to be cut. In his final form, Keith Green's power remains the same as when he first uses it, although he can create significantly more space-time rips and can reach from him to any point in a 100 foot radius. He calls this technique/power his sword "Ansara", although no physical sword is seen. He can also use his powers to make almost anything simply vanish. Keith Green develops a crush on Katsumi while she is an Egrigori prisoner, and he is determined to eliminate his romantic rival Ryo. Keith Green was assigned the same rank of authority as Keith Red. Therefore, he is lower on the chain of command than Silver or Violet. James Huang's DNA was used in Keith Green's creation which explains why the two have such similar abilities. Although, according to Huang, they are not as refined or powerful. In volume 18 Green is killed by Keith Black while trying to save Katsumi. While fatally wounded, he uses the last of his strength to teleport Ryo to Katsumi, saying there was only room for Ryo in her heart.

Keith Black - Humpty Dumpty

The calculating big brother and leader of the Keiths. As a child, he and his "true brother" (the soon-to-be Keith Blue), named themselves Zero and Edward. Keith Black was originally a timid child of low self-esteem, who shared a bond with his brother, both stating that none of the many Keiths believed that they were all family. He and his brother were often picked on by the other "batches" of Keiths in Egrigori's labs. Following his brother's leave from Egrigori, Zero (as he named himself) became the first successful ARMS implant of the Keith series, thus earning him the name "Black", which ironically was the name his brother wanted. After killing Keith White, former head of Egrigori, he takes the lead as the second head of Egrigori. He is second only to the mysterious and unseen Alice. Keith has a master plan known only to himself, and he needs Jabberwock's full power to complete it. But is he trying to conquer the world, or destroy it? His powers are the ability to copy the abilities of any ARMS he comes into contact with. He showed that he had copied the abilities of both Keith Violet and Silver and in the process of fatally wounding Keith Green, gained his powers as well. But despite his considerable skills with all his abilities and his general combat prowess, Ryo proved to have the advantage in their fight as he had evolved countermeasures and devised strategies against most of Black's abilities at this point. The only weapon his ARMS has been shown using is a weapon that resembles a mix of a lance and a sword, shown in volume 15 chapter 8 (also, it reveals that he was the one who killed Hayato Shingu's family, not Keith Red like the ARMS teens originally thought). Also, what may be his ultimate form was shown a as a silhouette of a hulking humanoid. When Ryo deals a lethal blow to Black He begs Ryo to finish the job but before he can he loses control of his body to Keith White, whose essence as it were, was stored inside of Humpty Dumpty for 20 years after his death.

Alice

The greatest power in the Egrigori, progenitor of the ARMS and the unseen director of all the events surrounding the ARMS teens. Born when both Keith White and Samuel Tillinghast were in their mid-thirties, she was a child prodigy, a true genius with phenomenal knowledge. She was the first to understand and then communicate with Azazel (whom then took on the shape of Alice and learned humanity from her), and also cared deeply for the many children that Egrigori used as guinea pigs. Creator of a unique breed of blue roses, named "Blue Wish", while a prodigy she was nonetheless a mere nine-years old girl, and thus began cracking under the constant pressure of her role as a precious specimen and the monstrous treatments administered to the test subjects by her "fathers". What triggered her anger came after her tenth birthday, when with Azazel's aid she tried to escape with the children, at least to let them see what the outside world was like. This attempt failed, and she witnessed the slaughter of all the children by order of Keith White: it was during this massacre that she was mortally wounded and her full rage and hatred awakened, prompting Azazel to absorb and merge with her, thus creating the core of what would become the supercomputer Alice, Egrigori's most powerful entity, and the four original ARMS cores, each one of them a piece of her thoughts and emotions. What wasn't known until much later was that, when she merged with Azazel, Alice's mind split in two personas, those of "White Alice", that showed her positive feelings, and "Black Alice", a psychotic being driven by despair and pure hatred. While White Alice destroys herself to bring down her destructive alter-ego, Black Alice is unintentionally saved when, crumbling to death, she is briefly touched by Katsumi. Fueled by her hatred for mankind but also by a much more simple need of love, she possesses her and attempts to exterminate humanity in the form of the Bandersnatch, but is defeated by Ryo and his Jabberwock. In the end she regains her sanity, having been showed human warmth for the first time in her life, and is reborn as a fully human girl, the daughter of Ryo and Katsumi.

[edit] Supporting Characters

Katsume Akagi

Ryo's neighbor and classmate, and is very kind and compassionate. She is also extremely strong willed, and has no problems telling people when they are being idiots. Katsumi has been Ryo's closest friend since early childhood, and secretly loves him. Unknown to Katsumi herself, she is also an Egrigori experiment with a vital part to play in Egrigori's master plan. Katsumi was, in fact, one of the original ARMS-compatible embryos which is why she and Kei bear such a close resemblance to one another. However she was not given an ARMS implant for unknown reasons. After Ryo's ARMS activates, Katsumi is always beside Ryo trying to keep him calm and sane. Katsumi is taken prisoner by Egrigori in episode 11, but despite her long imprisonment she is always certain that Ryo will come for her. As of volume 18 she has seemingly been killed by the actions of Keith White and Ryo. White used Keith Green's time space jump to pull her into the path of one of Ryo's attacks. Absorberd by Alice, she is then seen alive and well when Black Alice is apparently defeated, but she is the only one to see and offer a hand to her as she crumbles to death. This brief contact leads to the implant of an ARMS core inside Katsumi's body: signs of its growing power are shown on many occasions, in the form of grisly nightmares and increasingly unstable behaviour, culminating in the massacre of a group of thugs. Katsumi's ARMS are nicknamed "Bandersnatch", and can be viewed as the Jabberwock's nemesis: at full power she transforms into an exact copy of Jabberwock, snow-white in color and capable to generate ice, as opposed to Ryo's fire: its power is exceptional, to the point of being able to freeze anything to absolute Zero and creating whiteouts with a mere thought.

Misa Takatsuki

Once the legendary mercenary soldier Laughing Panther. With her partner, Iwao Takatsuki, she was one of the Bluemen's elite soldiers. Then the couple was given their toughest mission of all: to raise the most dangerous ARMS subject as their own son. Misa adapted to her civilian life wonderfully, and even to Ryo she was nothing more than a regular stay-at-home mom. But when danger threatens her son, Misa can still haul out the heavy weaponry and kick butt with the best. Misa has extensive training in all kinds of firearms and hand-to-hand weapons. She is extremely well versed in martial arts, infiltration, and stealth combat. She has honed her skills to such a fine degree that they have become second nature to her and are now instinct. This prevents the Red Caps and other telepathic enemies from anticipating her moves. She can take down large numbers of cyborgs and advanced humans with relative ease.

Iwao Takatsuki

He is almost never seen in this series, but his effect is felt by every person in the series. Code named Silent Wolf, Iwao is one of the world's finest athletes, soldiers, and undercover agents, and a caring and protective human being. But he shrugs off his talents with a calm, disarming grace, saying he's "Just a traveling businessman." Iwao taught everything he knew to his son Ryo, and he also teaches the other characters he encounters including Kei and Hayato. Iwao left his family five years ago on "business", doing field assignments for the Bluemen all around the world. Iwao is just as, if not more, skilled as Misa. He can easily handle several high speed cyborgs and advanced humans with very little (if any) strain. Iwao has been tracking down his murderous brother Takashi Takatsuki, who has been living under the false name James Huang, for several years after Takashi sold out Abumisawa village (the ancestral home of both the Takatsuki and Shingu families) and out of a sense of familial responsibility Iwao let him escape. He has since been hunting him down to correct his mistake leading up to a climactic showdown between the two in the lower levels of Carillon tower. Takashi was able to make a very narrow escape but only after receiving very severe injuries.

Juzo Shingu

Hayato's paternal grandfather, the person who raised Hayato after his parents were killed. Though Juzo may look like just an old man, he is the master of the Shingu style martial arts and taught Hayato everything he knows about close combat. His body and mind have been honed so finely that, according to Iwao Takatsuki, in his youth Juzo was more than a match for Kou Karunagi. Juzo deeply cares for his grandson, indeed all children, but he also knows when he needs to be tough and knock some sense into these youngsters.

Koichi Kabuto

A police detective from Ryo's hometown. While investigating some bizarre incidents he discovers the ARMS teens and Egrigori. Detective Kabuto decides his oath to protect and serve the public means he must fight Egrigori, and he becomes the ARMS teens' ally. Kabuto is a smart and able detective, and helps our heroes as much as he can. But he also knows he is just human, and when he should just back off and let the ARMS teens do the fighting. Since the attack on Aisora city by the Red Caps he has joined the Bluemen and has continued to watch over the ARMS children.

Al Bowen

A kid, and an unlikely ally of the ARMS teens. Al and his twin brother Jeff were scientific geniuses, and as they grew up people persecuted them for being different. This make the twins hate all "normal" people, and determined to get revenge. Egrigori made the twins their top weapons developers, and with their remote-control cyborgs also a top combat team. When the twins try to capture the ARMS teens they get out of hand, and Egrigori murders Jeff and tries to murder Al for disobeying orders. Al then allies with the ARMS teens to get his revenge on Egrigori. In the beginning Al is extremely self-centered, always talking about how brilliant he is and how the ARMS teens are just heartless morons. But after a great deal of tough love and tender loving care he learns to trust and care about other people. The ARMS become his new family, and he uses all his knowledge and intelligence to help them. Eventually Al gets more physical in the way he handles problems.

Chun-Yan Lee

The Bluemen's number two leader, and handles the face-to-face matters that the disabled and reclusive Keith Blue cannot. She is a multi-talented wonder, equally at home in a board room, in front of a computer, and on the battlefield. She is brilliant, absolutely calm in tense situations, and with a subtle sense of humor. Like all the Bluemen she suffered terrible losses at the hands of Egrigori, and is therefore unswervingly loyal to Keith Blue and the Bluemen. She is both mother and big sister for Kei, giving her good advice and helping her to follow her heart. She seems to be forming a relationship with Detective Kabuto though whether it will develop into anything remains to be seen.

[edit] Egrigori Agents

Egrigori is an immense organization that operates in the shadows and has bases, research facilities, and agents all over the world. Due to its goal of artificially guiding and accelerating human evolution there are countless projects being worked on by Egrigori scientists at any one time. As such it has sent many of it's most promising agents and experiments to try and capture or destroy the ARMS teens and their associates. The ones listed below are most likely only a very small portion of Egrigori's arsenal.

[edit] The Crimson Triad

The Crimson triad is an elite three person special ops team composed of three experimental cyborg siblings. They earned the nickname "Crimson" from the vast quantities of blood they have spilled.

Gashure

Gashure is a hulking heavy combat cyborg, leader of the crimson triad, and a veteran warrior who enjoys using overwhelming force on his adversaries. Though primarily a close combat type cyborg, he can be fitted with a high speed chaingun arm that can do serious damage to even an ARMS unit. Despite his savagery in combat he believes in a warriors spirit and has a strange sense of honor and hates to involve civilians in a battle. Loses to Ryo when Ryo uses Jabberwock's compressed air cannon to severely damage Gashure. However, Gashure meets his end when Egrigori comes to Abumisawa to wipe it off the map and he is cut down by helicopter machinegun and missile fire while attempting to defend the civilians.

Bee

Bee is the only female member of the Crimson Triad. She is an experimental high speed cyborg. She is powered by an experimental oscillating generator which gives her the ability to fly and move at high speeds. She also has an advanced sensor package and a sensor-motor accelerator implanted in her brain that allows her to execute complex maneuvers at supersonic speeds. Her fight with Takeshi was so intense that it caused his ARMS to evolve to its current basic form in order to keep up with her. Bee meets her end in a very similar manner to Gashure.

Face

Face is a tall gangly man with a very sadistic attitude and fighting style. He is a cyborg who has had all the joints and bones in his body replaced with an extremely malleable and flexible substance. It allows him to flex his body into strange and unnatural shapes which allows him to easily outmaneuver his opponent in close combat and strike from angles that are nearly impossible to dodge. Because of the malleable nature of his body he has the ability to alter his appearance to look like anyone he wants, hence his codename. He is killed by Hayato after his ARMS evolves. Hayato pins Face to a tree with projectiles from his ARMS to prevent him from moving and then stabs him through the chest.

[edit] The X-Army

Yugo Gilbert

Also known as the "Angel", Yugo was born with extraordinary telepathic powers. She, her brother Cliff, and several others with extraordinary gifts grew up in an Egrigori lab as test subjects. Yugo and some of her companions escaped from the lab and traveled to Japan. Initially Yugo's group attacked the ARMS teens, wanting to prove their value to Egrigori, but when Egrigori became a common enemy they became allies. Yugo has a secret crush on Ryo Takatsuki, but since she knows he is devoted to Katsumi she never pushes herself on him. Yugo selflessly joins the ARMS in their quest to find Katsumi. Her telepathic abilities are among the most powerful exhibited by any character so far. During the Red Caps' assault on Aisora City she is able to simultaneously control four Red Cap failures whose minds had become completely ruined by the experiments to create them. This proved to be a double edged sword as her control over them was so powerful that she began to feel their pain and eventually mimic any injuries they sustained on her own body. She is unable to read the minds of people who have been trained to resist telepathy, people acting on instinct, or other powerful telepaths.

Cliff Gilbert

The leader of the X-army and known as the "Demon King". Instead of developing the telepathic abilities of his sister, the various abuse he suffered at the hands of the scientists in the lab caused him to violently develop extremely powerful psychokinetic abilities. Cliff is able to move and manipulate anything he wants with a mere thought, regardless of its size or mass. The only weak point in Cliff's abilities is that he can only manipulate things that he can see. Under his leadership, Cliff had the X-Army capture three of the four ARMS teens in an effort to lure out and capture Ryo Takatsuki and defeat the Jabberwock to validate his existence and the existence of his comrades in the X-Army. Unfortunately, when he used Yugos telepathic abilities to make Ryo relive Katsumi's "death" and bring out the Jabberwock he got more than he bargained for. While he initially had the advantage and was nearly able to pull the Jabberwock apart, the Jabberwock evolved a resistance to the influence of his telekinesis and led to him being severely injured before the Jabberwock could be stopped. Following this fight, he and the other members of the X-Army briefly team up with the ARMS teens to share information. Shortly afterward, as the X-Army is about to leave the city, they are confronted by the Red Caps under the command of Gauss Gall and Keith Red. Cliff tells Carol and Yugo to run while he attmpts to stop them. Unfortunately, he stands no chance against Keith Red in his fully transformed Gryphon state and ends up having the entire lower half of his body completely destroyed but stays alive long enough to say goodbye to Carol and his sister Yugo.

Carol

Also known as "Twister", Carol is the youngest member of the X-Army. She was born with latent and fairly powerful telekinetic abilities. Though her abilities are nowhere near as powerful as Cliffs, they are certainly dangerous. Carol has the ability to use her telekinesis to give anything a powerful and violent twist. This includes any object or portion of a person's body. She can easily break bones, snap necks, and twist or bend steel. During the Red Caps' invasion of Aisora City she aids Hayato, Juzo, and Al in running from the Red Caps and the rioting citizens. After the invasion Carol leaves her in the care of the Bluemen who find her a family to live with. As a final request, Yugo simply asks Carol to live and live happily.

Volf

Volf is a statuesque man covered from head to foot in rippling muscles. He is very vain about his appearance and is slightly effeminate. He also has a slight crush on Hayato Shingu (much to Hayato's disgust). His body has been genetically altered to have qualities similar to cancer cells. The cells in his body are constantly regenerating which makes him nearly impervious to injury. He can regenerate broken bones, cuts, and severed limbs in seconds. However, Volf is vulnerable to direct attacks on his nervous system and bodily functions. This is exploited by Ryo when he specifically targets places on Volf's body that affect his balance, depth perception, equilibrium, and vision. Ryo uses blunt force attacks to Volf's head to disrupt his equilibrium and momentarily stun him. To finish him off, Ryo caught Volf in a head lock and choked him until he passed out. Volf meets his end when the X-army tries to leave Aisora City. When he and Kyclops separate from the rest of the group, they are ambushed by the Red Caps, killed, and strung up from a wall.

Kyklops

Kyklops is a mute middle aged man who has been an Egrigori test subject for his entire life. As soon as he was able to, he was handed a blade and taught how to kill. He is a master of close quarters combat, using two experimental vibration knives that were able to cut through Ryo's ARMS like soft cheese. Kyklops has also undergone countless drug treatments and gene alterations to give him incredible optic powers. He can see in a large amount of the electromagnetic spectrum, including infrared, visible, ultraviolet, x-rays, and gamma rays, giving him the capability to see clearly in complete darkness, through solid objects, and across vast distances. In addition, he can modulate light waves and emit it so that he can consume anything he sees in flames. His weakness is an inability to see through mirrors. They reflect and distort light waves and even prevent him from using his heat vision because he risks lighting himself on fire. Extended use of his heat vision puts severe stress on his eyes and further use can cause severe damage to them. Kyklops meets his end when the X-Army tries to leave Aisora city and when he separates from the rest of the group with Volf, they are ambushed by the Red Caps, killed, and strung up from a wall.

[edit] The Red Caps

The Red Caps are a small army of supersoldiers created from data obtained from the creation of the X-Army and is under the direct command of General Gauss Gall, an incredibly intelligent and merciless military strategist. Each soldier in the Red Caps is a veteran soldier whose mind has been transplanted into a younger cloned body that has had extensive genetic changes done to it. All of the Red caps have the accelerated healing abilities of Volf, the super-enhanced eyesight of Kyklops, and the telepathic abilities of Yugo Gilbert. While their telepathy is nowhere near as powerful as Yugo's, it allows them to communicate with one another and predict the moves of their opponents. The telepathy has the same weaknesses however, they are unable to read the minds of people acting on instinct, other telepaths, or people who have undergone training to resist telepathy. Also, despite their ability to predict movements and their enhanced eyesight, they were unable to stop Takeshi simply because he can move far too fast for them to keep up. Colone Gauss Gall almost defeated the Jabberwock by shooting Ryo with an experimental ARMS killing nano-virus named "Venom". He then proceeded to use four failed Red Cap soldiers to attack Yugo and Kei. Yugo, however, was able to gain control of them and hold off the other Red caps until the Bluemen arrived and Ryo could reassert control of the Jabberwock and neutralize the virus. All of the Red Caps died at the same time when their artificially engineered bodies began to degrade and age at an exponential rate.

[edit] The Hounds

The Hounds are a specialized unit of non-cyborg combat soldiers. They have undergone extensive gene modifications known as the "boosting" process. The result of this process is that it gives them the physical (and some mental) attributes of the subjects to being similar to primitive man. This gives the hounds extremely acute senses, almost superhuman strength, speed, and stamina, and a strong pack-like mentality which makes it very easy for the leader of the "pack" to coordinate their movements and attacks to catch their opponents off guard. This also gives them a strong sense of loyalty towards their leader and each other. An additional ability that all hound possess is that the longer and harder they fight, the more adrenaline their body produces. This exponentially increases their strength and speed and makes them especially dangerous in prolonged fights. However this has a side effect of putting severe stress on their bodies and prolonged combat in this state will cause their bodies to overheat and eventually cause the catastrophic failure of all of their bodily functions. Most of the Hounds were stationed at the Gallows Bell facility as the personal bodyguards and enforcement squad of the Chapel children. Their superior tactic and abilities allowed them to catch the ARMS team off guard at first and they managed to capture Al, Yugo, Detective Kabuto, and Takeshi. But on their second encounter Kei, Hayato, and Ryo managed to devise a battle plan to disrupt the group tactics of the Hounds and used diluted rat poison to overwhelm the hounds by using their boosted sense of smell against them. The leader of the Hounds is a man named Stinger. He is the leader of the "pack" and all other members of the hounds default to him for orders unless otherwise told. At the height of an adrenaline induced frenzy he was able to fight evenly with Ryo in his half-transformed state. After his defeat at the hands of the Arms teens he quickly becomes very benevolent towards them. Despite being a savage fighter and very adept tactician, he is a surrogate father figure to one of the Chapel children and cares deeply for them and his fellow hounds.

[edit] Mutants

Though Egrigori has spent decades shaping and steering the path of human evolution artificially, they also seek out, capture, and study natural genetic aberrations that pop up around the world. These mutations are kept imprisoned in an isolated and heavily fortified prison complex under strict guard so they can be studied. Due to the huge problems the ARMS teens were causing, the top brass at Egrigori recruited several of the most powerful mutants from the complex to go after them in exchange for their freedom.

Kou Karunagi- Kou Karunagi (codenamed "Fang") is a hulking muscular man with an obsessive battle lust and seemingly otherworldly speed, strength, and endurance. He was the only survivor of a viral plague that wiped out his village (which might have been caused by Egrigori). His fighting skills combined with his vastly superior physical abilities put him on a level far above most of Egrigori's most advanced combat cyborgs, and was more than a match for the ARMS teens in their first encounter as evidenced by nearly killing Takeshi, physically and mentally brutalizing Hayato, and steadily overpowering Ryo. Even Kei with her ARMS eyes was unable to keep track of his movements. Though formidable, his combat strategy focuses completely around using overwhelming force to defeat his opponent. He is vulnerable to techniques and strategies that are able to redirect his attacks rather than trying to match them. This is exploited by Hayato after he was instructed in the usefulness of these techniques by Iwao Takatsuki and, combined with a partial ARMS transformation, becomes more than a match for Kou Karunagi and defeats him. However, Karunagi meets his end when James Huang (Takashi Takatsuki) uses his powers to kill him.
Lavinia- Lavinia (codenamed "the Witch") is a middle aged woman with a liking for leather biker gear and a sadistic attitude. She is descended from a long line of European witches and comes from a small village which may have been used as a test site where Egrigori introduced radioactive materials into the water supply. She is an incredibly powerful telepath similar to Yugo Gilbert except that her abilities focus mainly around creating horrifying illusions and mostrous creatures that can drive their victim to insanity or even cause actual physical harm if the victim is convinced enough of the illusion. She can also use her abilities to dig through a person's mind to find their worst memories and make the victim relive them over and over again. When she is released with James Huang and Kou Karunagi to attack the ARMS teens she takes a particular interest in Yugo Gilbert because she sees Yugo as competition and she finds Yugo's seemingly innocent appearance as particularly offensive because she knows how much blood is on Yugo's hands and it appears to have left her unscarred. She is consistently outmatched by Yugo (which confounds and angers her to no end) and is finally beaten when she tries to search Yugo's mind and cause apparitions of Cliff, the X-army, and many others to attack her and yugo causes her mental attack to rebound on her and causes similar apparitions to attack Lavinia and forces her to relive the death of her son at the hands of the people in her home village.
Takashi Takatsuki- (aka. James Huang) Takashi is the wayward brother of Iwao Takatsuki and therefore Ryo's uncle. Takashi is a mutant who inherited many advanced genetic abilities from the Takatsuki bloodline. And as such he considers himself to be a superior being in all respects. This attitude caused him to become extremely jealous of Iwao when he was named as the head of the Takatsuki family. This jealousy, combined with his superiority complex and a powerful lust for violence and self gratification lead him to betray the location of Abumisawa village (The ancestral home of both the Shingu AND Takatsuki families) to Egrigori and he fled into the underworld where he underwent many operations to change his appearance and eventually made so many enemies that he actually LET Egrigori put him into the prison complex for protection. After this Iwao vowed to hunt him down and kill him for allowing their entire village to be destroyed and at some point in the past Iwao caught up with him and blinded him. The first ability he exhibits when he is first introduced (and known as James Huang at the time) is an ability known as "remote viewing" which allows him to telepathically see anywhere on the globe and find anyone he chooses by channeling in front of a small mirror. He uses this ability to find the Blumen safehouse where the ARMS team is hoping to make a last stand. It is possible this ability manifested as a replacement for his eyes as he does not use this ability again after he regains his sight. Despite being blind, his other senses combined with his superhuman combat prowess make him more than a match for most beings with sight. Later on it is revealed that his DNA was used as a template for Keith Green and has similar abilities. However, Takashi shows much more skill in wielding his powers and can not only teleport and create space-time "blades" but he can create small tears in space-time that cause a concussive blast of force. This ability requires much more fine control than the blades and has a much higher potential for widespread damage. This ability was initially mistaken for a type of telekinesis by doctor Tillinghast. Yet another genetic gift he was bestowed with is the gene for ARMS compatibility. When he was being beaten by Keith Green in his transformed state, he produced a syringe that contained an experimental mass-produced modulated ARMS. When injected, it healed his eyes and restored his original face. In addition to the considerable regenerative ability of the ARMS, his own natural abilities were enhanced several times over and he was easily able to beat Keith Green.

[edit] Carrilon Tower

Carrilon Tower is the main base of Egrigori in America and the location of Alice. As such, it has many of the most lethal and advanced projects based there to act as a defense force. Carrilon Tower is full of traps and seems to be able to intentionally change its layout to confuse intruders. In actuality, Carrilon Tower is the cyborg body of Dr. Dewey Graham; the foremost developer of all of Egrigori's cybernetics technology and creator of the Successors

The Successors - The Successors are the absolute pinnacle of Egrigori's cybernetics technology. They are so far advanced that they no longer have any organic parts whatsoever, not even a brain. The successors were once humans who had their thought patterns and memories digitized and stored in a state-of-the-art quantum computer system that is constantly being updated. This allows them to be instantly reincarnated into new bodies should the current body they are inhabiting become too damaged to operate or is destroyed. This makes them effectively immortal as long as the main computer remains operational. When they are first encountered in volume 16, the Successors operate as the security force for Carillon tower but they reveal that they have a much greater ultimate purpose: To completely replace humanity as the dominant life form on earth. According to them, humanity has become a blight upon the earth and once Egrigori achieves its goal of eliminating humankind they will take its place. All the Successors are equipped standard with hypersonic vibration generators which break down matter at the molecular level and cause it to shatter and crumble (including ARMS technology), acceleration modules that allow them to move as fast as high speed cyborgs, and are able to instantly coordinate perfectly with each other via a wireless communication link. In Volume 17 Dr. Graham admits that he might have been wrong in his philosophies and what he did to his son. He then initiates Carilon Tower's self destruct system and erased the quantum computer backup system for the Successors. Effectively destroying their immortality and leaving them with only one life.

Though they are numerous the Successors only exhibited two main personalities

Huey- Huey is the chief of security of Carillon tower and the leader of the Successors. He was the son of Doctor Graham who was afflicted with a disease called tyndalos syndrome which caused malignant tumors to gradually consume his body and could not be cured with modern medicine. To save him Dr. Graham transferred his mind and memories into a quantum computer system. Huey is equipped with the same weapons and technology as all the other Successors but after being destroyed repeatedly by each of the separated groups in Carrilon Tower he was re-equipped with an arm mounted laser cannon in addition to his standard equipment. He is killed permanently when Dr. Dewey Graham erases his backup computer after telling him and the remaining Successors to flee the tower and live the rest of their lives however they want. He is caught in an explosion and destroyed shortly afterward.
Clark- All of the other Successors are copies of the original Major Clark Noyman. They all look the same, have the same memories and personalities, and have the same basic equipment. The original Clark was the commanding officer of Johann Horst, the leader of the Bluemen affiliated group Drakken Corps before Horst defected to the Bluemen. Oddly enough, while the Clarks are all copies of the same person, the often converse with one another as though they are separate entities.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ 小学館漫画賞：歴代受賞者 (Japanese). Shogakukan. Retrieved on 2007-08-19.

[edit] External links