Brynhildr in the Darkness

Brynhildr in the Darkness (極黒のブリュンヒルデ, Gokukoku no Buryunhirude, lit. "Extreme-Black Brynhildr") is a science fiction Japanese manga series by Lynn Okamoto that began serialization in Shueisha's seinen manga magazine Weekly Young Jump in January 2012. A television anime adaptation by Arms began airing on April 6, 2014.^[1][2] It is based on Germanic mythology.

Summary

The original manga revolves around high school boy Ryouta Murakami, who cannot forget his female childhood friend whom he let die in an accident. Feeling that he must fulfill their promise of proving the existence of aliens, he has continuously looked up at the starry sky as a member of the astronomy club. One day, a girl named Neko Kuroha who looks exactly like his childhood friend appears as a transfer student. She displays supernatural strength when saving Ryouta from a foreseen accident. It turns out that Neko is a magic user that has run away from an alien research lab. From then on Ryouta supports these magic users, hoping to live normal lives regardless of being pursued.

Characters

Astronomy Club

Ryouta Murakami (村上 良太, Murakami Ryōta)

Voiced by: Ryōta Ōsaka (Japanese), Blake Shepard^[3] (English)

The main protagonist with high intellect and a photographic memory. Ryouta has his sights set on being a researcher at NASA due to a promise he made with his beloved childhood friend Kuroneko. He is president of the astronomy club and was the only remaining member before inviting Neko and the others. After meeting the magic-users, he decides to provide shelter for them at an old observatory despite knowing that their pursuers have orders to kill whoever comes in contact with them, usually coming up with plans to have their location concealed. All the while, he is constantly looking for ways to acquire more "Death Suppressants" (DR623G), drugs which are necessary to keep the magic-users alive, and efforts in preventing the Hatching process. After the Valkyria incident, Ryouta struggles in hopes for Neko to remember the time they spent together, while the others search for their lost families and live normally. According to Nanami, Ryouta was also a subject of Vingulf's experiments himself, and possibly his photographic memory was one of its effects, but for some reason was allowed to live a normal life. However, his lifespan was greatly shortened and will soon die.

Neko Kuroha (黒羽 寧子, Kuroha Neko)

Voiced by: Risa Taneda (Japanese), Jamie Marchi^[3] (English)

Neko is the lead heroine in the series and a B-rank magic-user with the ability of telekinesis, to destroy inorganic matter as far as 12 meters. She has a striking resemblance to Ryouta's supposedly deceased childhood friend Kuroneko (クロネコ) and it is later proven that both are one and the same (a birth mark with the shape of three dots is on her upper left breast). Her research no. is 7620. Like Ryouta, she aims to find out how many constellations there are in total. When she uses her powers, part of her memories are lost; Ryouta thus refrains from having her use them as much as possible. She joins the astronomy club as its vice-president. She loves to sing, but does not do it in front of others without getting flustered. When Neko's true power is awakened, she remembers who she really is; she regains full access to her S-rank power. This allows her to use the same type of abilities as Mako, as well as her ultimate ability of creating a micro black hole which she used to defeat Mako's anti-matter, but overexerted herself at the cost of losing all her memories, including recent ones. A008 speculates Neko could be the Brynhildr, an entity which is being sought by the Institute for a yet unknown purpose. Following many mishaps, Neko re-familiarize her feelings when reading a diary she had.

Kana Tachibana (橘 佳奈, Tachibana Kana)

Voiced by: Aya Suzaki (Japanese), Christina Stroup^[3] (English)

A C-rank magic-user who had an accident while being harnessed. Her magic is the ability to see the near future when someone is about to die. Her entire body is paralyzed aside from her left hand. Kana uses a keyboard which synthesizes her voice to communicate with the outside world. Her research no. is 4010. Ryouta makes use of this to prepare in advance against those who pose a threat to Neko and the others. Kazumi states that Kana could move if she wanted to, but she refrains from doing so for unknown reasons. Kana poses as a mascot for the club. She is initially rude to Ryouta and the others, but she eventually warms up to them. She has to have her food in a liquid form to eat. After pushing the 3rd button on her harness, Kana loses her foresight ability in exchange for the ability to move at super speed, though has low stamina. Like Mizuka, Kana is actually somehow now able to foresee in more detail whenever there's going to be a serious crisis.

Kazumi Schlierenzauer (カズミ・シュリーレンツァウアー, Kazumi Shurīrentsauā)

Voiced by: M.A.O (Japanese), Emily Neves^[3] (English)

A psychology B+rank magic-user specialized in computer hacking, gathering intel, and breaking encryption keys in mere seconds. Kazumi is half-Austrian, but speaks Japanese with a Kansai dialect. Her research no. is 2670. Like Neko, Kazumi hacks in to get into high school who joins the same class and club as Ryouta and Neko. Kazumi tends to do perverted things. She gets angry when someone compares her chest size or makes fun of it. Following the act of falsely confessing to Ryouta to avoid her impending death informed by Mizuka, Kazumi proved her feelings for Ryouta afterwards, and desires to bear a child with him as living proof of her existence. It is proven that Kazumi's ranking is not indicative of her true abilities, which surpasses that of a ranked AAA. She is named after Austrian ski jumper Gregor Schlierenzauer.

Kotori Takatori (鷹鳥 小鳥, Takatori Kotori)

Voiced by: Azusa Tadokoro (Japanese), Jessica Calvello^[3] (English)

Another B-rank magic-user specialized in "teleporation," though in reality she can only swap places with other people (even resets the kinetic energy). Her research no. is 1107. Kotori is cheerful but also a klutz. She has good cooking skills and registers for the club. She was friends with another magic-user named Chie who died because she gave up her death suppressants to allow Kotori to live long enough to celebrate her birthday. The Vingulf is after Kotori as their main objective, apparently being a person that could potentially destroy the world.

She has two hidden abilities: one is dispelling magic with an entity called the Grane which prevents all powers of other magic-users, and second is "Ain Soph Aur" aka "The Light That Rules Over Life" which can only be used when the consciousness inside her harness is released, is a light that is capable of fusing the cells of all living things together at the same time once it fully covers the entire planet destroying all life. When this power is released, Kotori kills herself via ejecting to save the world. It is revealed that Kotori is one of many containers for the premature aliens, when Neko meets another Kotori.

Hatsuna Wakabayashi (若林 初菜, Wakabayashi Hatsuna)

Voiced by: Yumi Uchiyama (Japanese), Carolyn Johnson^[3] (English)

She is a fellow A-rank magic-user with a straightforward attitude who possesses the power of regeneration with the capability of restoring her body, or the body of others, from otherwise fatal injuries. Her regeneration is so effortlessly potent that she's able to regenerate from just her harness, meaning that she can only die if she doesn't take the medicine within the standard period of time or if her eject button is pressed. When she tested Ryouta's loyalty, she immediately becomes infatuated with him. She later bonds with her classmate Takaya, but soon after, she hatches. After killing Takaya, who steps in to stop her, she is sliced in half by Makina, but thanks to her healing powers, her Drasil is restored and she returns to life, saving Takaya's life as well.

Vingulf

The institute meaning "witch castle" is the Organization that unearthed aliens in Germany by gold miners and a Japanese geologist in 1910, but never made it a public discovery, instead they began their top-secret research over it ever since to accomplish God's destruction. In conclusion of World War II, they moved to Japan and gained most illegal authority.

Chisato Ichijiku (九 千怜, Ichijiku Chisato)

Voiced by: Hiroki Tōchi (Japanese), Adam Noble^[3] (English)

The chief professor in charge of the magic-user experiment. His goal is to capture and kill the escapee magic-users, seeing the B-rank magic-users as failed specimens, and create the perfect alien no matter what the sacrifices are. In college, he was successful in engineering the digestive enzyme about 'protease' which could be the source of the genetic melting. The higher-ups have him retrieve Kotori. He eventually learns how a high school boy is supporting the magic-users, but has yet to identify it's Ryouta until Mako confirms Kotori's location. Chisato's younger sister Rena whom he only shows empathy to before her death. He implanted the *Grane* into Kotori's harness, only hoping to revive the Rena that he knew, which is against the organization's intention. He later died from blocking the bullets for Mako.

Black Suit (黒服, Kurofuku, Man in Black)

Voiced by: Tatsuhisa Suzuki (Japanese), Ty Mahany^[3] (English)

A staff member at the research lab. He has an unknown backstory, but he used to feel really carefree for the magic-users, like Yuki. Chisato acknowledges him for his brilliance. He gets fired when having to failed his last chance to capture the fugitive B-rank magic-users with Mizuka's foresight, and then he is victim of an assassination attempt, but survives, although his brain been greatly injured. He was abducted from a hospital by Mina. After months of recovery, he manages to locate the magic-users' hideout, revealed to have abnormal strength to outmatch them before engage by Takaya. When Ryouta reassures Nanami's existence and learning Chisato's death, Black Suit gives up his grudge and Miki invites him to Hexenjagd.

Yuki Tsuchiya (土屋 邑貴, Tsuchiya Yuki)

A newly-appointed employee placed to work at the Vingulf research lab. Not suitable for the job however, she finds sympathy with the aliens and magic-users.

Onodera

A woman who is Chisato's replacement and acquainted with the higher-ups. She has a sadistic and nearly bipolar personality, and is also a magic-user with a harness just like that of Valkyria. It is shown that she can negate anti-matter like Mako. She seems to have a shadowy objective when deliberately sending out magic-users that are about to hatch and ensue chaos.

Makina (マキナ)

He is a son of Takachiho and the prototype of Sorcerian (the ultimate hybird of a male human and an alien chimera). Due to being imperfect, Makina's body melts if he stays too long in the outside world. His presence is more freighting than Valkyria and dislikes mankind. He appears to have a massive ability to destroy and teleport far distance places, and tries to take Neko for himself which infuriates Ryouta. Makina kills the President of the United States when holding a worldwide press conference before they announce the existence of aliens. He had an ambition to become Adam of the new world. Abusing the sudden revival of A008, he gets devoured. Makina was instrumental to Vingulf's objectives, but after his death, it was revealed that a replacement for him was prepared in advance, and that replacement was no other than Ryouta himself.

Takachiho (高千穂)

The leader of Vingulf and Ryouta's father. The reason for the deception of his supposed death has yet to be revealed. He has harvested the Sorcerian, research no. A008, the source of the Drasils and the entire reason behind the organization's existence. It was completely conscious and aware since the beginning of Vingulf, and could easily leave at any time it wanted but it waited for a Valkyria be brought to it first. Takachiho is in determination to revive Loki that gods feared.

Witches

Nanami Tokou (斗光 奈波, Tokō Nanami)

Voiced by: Manami Numakura (Japanese), Molly Searcy^[3] (English)

A unique AA+rank magic-user. She is soft-spoken, and has a taste in sugar. Her research no. is 5210. Her ability is scanning and modifying people's memories. Ryouta's observant skills impresses her. After having become friends with Neko and the club, she unfortunately melts from her harness ejected but managed to implant her consciousness within Ryouta's memory and she'll only appear occasionally or whenever Ryouta in a desperate situation and share personal intel. Overtime, she able to manifest as tangible illusions before Ryouta, such as her appearance as Aphrodite, but however, she also reveals that her consciousness is occupying a huge part of his mind, and must be deleted from his brain in order to prevent it to put his life in risk, which she does after instructing Ryouta to write down all he needed to know in order to rescue Neko in a notebook for him to memorize later.

Kikako (キカコ, Kikako)

Voiced by: Yuu Hamagashira (Japanese), Cayla Coats (English)

An AA+rank magic-user titled as the bombardment unit. Her research no. is 5010. She's a mere weapon that assassinates her targets with a strong beam fired from her mouth. Kotori ties her own hands to a pole and then switches positions with Kikako, who is later taken back to the lab. Despite Black Suit's assurances that, having succeeded in her mission, she will be spared, she is warned that harsh punishment awaits her; she is violently interrogated regarding her encounter with Kotori.

Saori (沙織, Saori)

Voiced by: Sayuri Yahagi (Japanese), Kira Vincent-Davis^[3] (English)

An AA-rank hybrid magic-user with two types of magic; she is able to slice anything within a 3 meter radius and can manipulate time by one minute although it will cause her to hang up immediately. Her research no. is 6001. As she failed to kill Neko, her harness ejected and her body melted as a result.

Freya (フレイヤー, Freya)

An AAA-rank magic-user. She possesses the power of technopathy and computer hacking similar to Kazumi, and is said to be the most powerful in that regard. Chisato gave Freya a room full of video games in exchange of her cooperation. She is now under the care of Yuki. Freya briefly engages in a battle with Kazumi.

Mizuka (瑞花, Mizuka)

The AAA-rank strongest magic-user, codename: Skadi. She has the foresight ability to see in a dream but with 100% exact accuracy as of future traveling. Like Kana, her body also suffered a massive penalty for this power and as a result she is no longer able to move or hear very well. Mizuka bonds with Yuki. In a future dream, she gives Kazumi options as to which future she wishes to choose. Using the last of her power, she melts the moment she informs Black Suit of Kotori's whereabouts.

Rie, Misaki, & Rurumi

The three magic-users that Onodera sends out to execute Black Suit taking precaution of the Valkyria incident. Rie's magic is unknown. Misaki capable of turning herself invisible, but that only affects herself, not her clothes, so she has to be naked. Rurumi controls people via a voodoo doll. They encounter Kana, surprised to see her alive and moving freely and stop Rurumi from killing her. When they infiltrate the hospital, Rurumi's harness unexpectedly hatches, and the monster devours the body of Rurumi. Kana attempts to save Rie, but gets both of her legs crushed. Believing the monster to be Rurumi, Rie sacrifices herself and allows it to devour her out of guilt. Misaki saves Kana and Kitsuka from the Drasil just before Initializer destroys the monster; Misaki's harnest is then ejected for having failed in the mission.

Valkyria

Mako Fujisaki (藤崎 真子, Fujisaki Mako)

Voiced by: Mamiko Noto (Japanese), Carli Mosier (English)

One of the strongest hybrid magic-users ever known with the S-rank called a Valkyria. She is Chisato's side-kick and the next-generation magic-user with a very complex harness. Mako's power capability is very large, with 8 different abilities. Her strongest power is to create anti-matter which is capable of destroying a whole wide-range area. She can kill anyone in her sight within just seconds by dismembering them, and also has ability to teleport, and regenerate quickly. She has a sociopathic personality with deep feelings towards Chisato. Mako is also Neko's older sister and she is very protective towards her. After a gruesome fight with Neko, she was absorbed into Neko's micro black hole and all that was left is her harness. Ryouta then tramples on Mako's Drasil, eliminating her for good.

Hrist

An SS-rank magic-user that was created by Vingulf following Mako's death, and It's said that she is the strongest Valkyria in existence. When she's still being held custody by the Vingulf in a crucifixed way, she manages to awake her teleport ability and escape, just to be recaptured by Onodera and brought back to the lab. Unlike Mako, she has a caring behavior, refusing to kill others even under coercion, but is ultimately forced to kill by Onodera when she starts ejecting witches in front of them, giving her the option of killing them instantly, or watch them have a excruciating death, with the intention of awakening her true powers and turn her into a ruthless killer.

Hexenjagd

A resistance group meaning "witch hunt" that is built by former scientists who defected from the Organization due to the threat that they posed to the Earth or God himself.

Miki (美樹, Miki)

Voiced by: Rina Satō (Japanese), Shelley Calene-Black (English)

Miki initially speaks to Ryouta via the device Neko gave him. She first appears with the objective of capturing Kotori in order to confront Chisato and destroy the *Grane* inside Kotori. Miki wears a nun's hood with a short dress and stockings. She announces that all of the magic-users must die. When Ryouta protests, Miki explains the truth about witches - that their soul now resides inside the alien called "Drasil" within their harness and that the drugs merely feed the life form, allowing the Drasil to grow until it eventually hatches and devours their human body. She tells them that they sympathize with their plight.

In the manga, Miki offers the ingredients and protocol to create the death-suppressant medicine in exchange for their assistance. Kazumi agrees to help find Kotori, but Miki promises that she will give them the formula for the drug after they destroy the *Grane*, and that she will try to spare Kotori's life if possible. After Kotori's death, she fulfills her part of the bargain and gives Ryouta access to the formula, allowing Kogorou to provide the medicine to Neko and the others.

Initializer

Voiced by: Junko Minagawa (Japanese), Meaghan Avocato^[3] (English)

He has appearance of a little boy. His real name is unknown. Initializer has ability to nullify all kinds of magic from a witch, but he has to know what magic a witch used before he could "initialize" them. However, he can only nullify a witch's magic for only 8 seconds, except during the 3-day New moon. He also can destroy a hatched drasil instantly. It is unknown how he could have such an ability.

Akane (茜, Akane)

Voiced by: Yui Kondou (Japanese), Brittany Deans (English)

A former Vingulf researcher who got wounded during Neko's escaping attempt. Hexenjagd is responsible for the magic-users' release. She gave Neko a package and entrusted her the following mission: "Save the world from utter destruction and ruin". The package contains: a letter, an alien's fertilized egg, and a communication device. Neko gave the alien sample and the communication device to Ryouta.

Others

Kogorou Hashiratani (柱谷 小五郎, Hashiratani Kogorō)

Voiced by: Kentarou Itou (Japanese), Jay Hickman (English)

Ryouta's uncle. Working as a scientist whom Ryouta entrusts to reproduce the medicine needed for the magic-users. He dislikes traveling long distances, rejecting invitations that includes going overseas, and prefers to stay in his own town. He refuse to believe in supernatural phenomena until Kana's foresight was proven or witnessing Nanami's death. Kogorou went to the same college with Chisato who he admired. Then Kogorou gets fascinated in examining the alien's fertilized egg that Ryouta had him look up on, and search for means to defend against Vingulf. The alien soon develop into an embryo. Sending a sample to America for some bait to learn the expectation Vingulf's superiority and Kogorou deduces they are owned by a mysterious Dresden national government institute when examine satellites' monitoring ranch from JAXA. He appears to become aggressive in preventing those who arrogantly want to take credit for alien discovery.

Kitsuka Hatsuda (八田 結花, Hatta Kikka)

Voiced by: Mariko Honda (Japanese), Christina Kelly (English)

A middle-school student who lives next door to Ryouta that he tutors. Kitsuka has a crush on Ryouta that he is completely oblivious to. She later becomes classmates with Kana when she starts attending middle school and befriends her after learning of her secret.

Risa Kashiwagi (リサ 柏木, Kashiwagi Risa)

Voiced by: Kana Yuki (Japanese), Nancy Novotny^[3] (English)

Ryouta's classmate. She regularly expresses how intelligent Ryouta is, even though he usually was distant to females. Risa befriends Neko the day of her transfer originally due to saving her from drowning. Seeing Neko's magic and getting into a car accident, Hatsuna heals her burned wounds.

Takaya (高屋, Takaya)

Ryouta's classmate. Takaya was first introduced when visiting the Maid café that Neko, Kazumi and Hatsuna were working at. He dropped out of the first semester because there were rumors it was a violent incident. He is good-looking, with an aggressive behavior, but actually kind-hearted. After fighting some bullies, he learns of Hatsuna's secret. He becomes fond of Hatsuna, then confessed when heard of her foretold death. However, Hatsuna's excitement at the time speeds up her hatching, and she ends up almost killing him, just to later save his life after she is restored. Despite having a kind heart, Takaya is proven to have no touch while dealing with others, because as soon as Hatsuna agrees to date him, he demands her to have sex with him instead, much to her chagrin. He deliberately joins the group afterwards.

Hirano (平野, Hirano)

Kotori's classmate. He is someone who's really fond of Kotori and shares lunch with her until her sudden transfer away. He asked Ryouta for her contact info, but fears to tell of her death.

Mina Tachibana

The long-lost older sister of Kana Tachibana, says was kidnapped ten years prior. She is a news reporter that is personally investigating Vingulf and the 'amount of children that went missing' in hopes that she will be reunited with her sister.

Examining the vast damage Valkyria caused. She suspects the story the media gave, that the damage caused by bombs (despite no sign of nuclear radioactivity), believes it to be related to Vingulf. Meeting with her fellow male reporter, the man confronts about her intention to inspect and warns her the possible danger. They learn about Black Suit confined in a hospital monitored who they believed had connections with Vingulf. Realizing this is the lead she was looking for, Mina conspires to move Black Suit out, which they succeeded. Despaired that Black Suit vanish, she silently resumes her search with little hope from a photo (Rurumi's hatching and Kana's appearance) taken at the hospital. Until Mina and Kana reunite when visiting the Maid café. As Mina tells how Kana was kidnapped, similar to Neko's case, they take a trip to Ishigaki Island along with Ryouta's class to make up for the long separation; however, Mina sacrifice herself in Kana's place by Makina.

Media

Manga

The Gokukoku no Brynhildr manga is written and illustrated by Lynn Okamoto. It began serialization in Shueisha's Weekly Young Jump on January 2012. The first tankōbon volume was released on May 18, 2012;^[4] fourteen volumes have been released as of July 17, 2015.^[5]

Anime

An anime adaptation was announced on November 11, 2013. The anime is directed by Kenichi Imazumi at studio Arms, with Yukinori Kitajima acting as head writer and Hiroaki Kurasu as chief animation director and character designer. The series premiered on April 6, 2014 on Tokyo MX and later on ytv, CTV, BS11 and AT-X. For episodes 1-9 the opening is "BRYNHILDR IN THE DARKNESS -Ver. EJECTED-" by Nao Tokisawa. From episode 10 onwards, the opening is "Virtue and Vice" by Fear, and Loathing in Las Vegas. The ending song is "Ichiban Boshi" by Risa Taneda, Aya Suzaki, MAO, & Azusa Tadokoro.

References

^[1]

External links

• Manga official website (Japanese)
• Anime official website (Japanese)
• Gokukoku no Brynhildr (manga) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia

1. ↑ "THEM Anime Reviews 4.0 - Brynhildr in the Darkness". themanime.org. Retrieved 4 September 2015.