Bando (Elfen Lied)

Bandō (坂東) is one of the antagonists of the series, Elfen Lied. He is voiced by Jouji Nakata (Japanese), and Jason Douglas (English). He is an operative in his mid-30's for the National Police Agency's Special Assault Team (SAT). Though he is fully human, he is as homicidal and apathetic to other people as the worst diclonii are. He is a hardy and effective soldier, even though he often disobeys orders so that he can indulge his need for violence.

After Lucy escapes, Bando is one of the SAT members sent to capture her. Initially, Bando only encounters the Nyu personality, but Lucy's personality soon emerges and attacks Bando. Bando initially welcomes the challenge, but quickly discovers that his MP5's 9mm bullets are almost effortlessly deflected by Lucy's vectors, and is then forced to dodge numerous heavy objects that Lucy throws at him. Ultimately, Lucy overpowers Bando and then takes great pleasure as she maims him, severing his right arm at the elbow, and breaking his left forearm so severely that his left hand is left dangling uselessly. Bando screams in pain, promising that he will never forget Lucy's face; Lucy responds by using two of her vectors' fingers to destroy his eyes, blinding him. Deciding that torturing Bando is no longer fun, Lucy decides to choke him, but her Nyu personality suddenly emerges, and she runs away. Bando, blind and bleedling profusely, is left lying on the ground, cursing and thrashing around in pain. Alerted by the noise, Mayu (who was taking shelter nearby) finds Bando and applies an improvised tourniquet on his arm stump before calling an ambulance, thus saving his life.

Back at the diclonius research facility, Bando, who is seen heavily bandaged, screams and curses as Kurama tells him that he must undergo castration surgery, since he has now been infected with the vector virus (and thus any children he fathers will be born as diclonii). Kurama explains to Bando the truth about the diclonii and their invisible vectors (hands) and their true purpose to destroy the human race.

After his initial recovery, Bando is outfitted with biomechanical implants, including bionic eyes and a highly advanced Myoelectric prosthetic hand, but escapes (by jumping through a window) before the castration operation can be performed. Seeking revenge against Lucy, he acquires two or more Desert Eagle handguns. In the manga he gets other weapons such as an RPG. The guns fire custom .50 Action Express rounds which are so powerful the rounds can not be blocked with vectors. But the bullets can be pushed off-course at long range though; however at close range, not even Lucy can stop them. He gets sidetracked several times in this quest, and ultimately receives aid from Kurama to "kill a diclonius that was coming." Bandō is driven by the will to fight and to prove his superior ability in combat, not to mention avenge the wounds he suffered at Lucy's hands.

In the last episode of the anime, Bandō is defeated again by Lucy, who simply tells him that they will never meet again before leaving him lying on the beach. It is implied that he survives, although the extent of any new injuries that Lucy may have inflicted on him is unclear.

Manga
In the manga his role is extended a bit more, and he is shown to have a more compassionate side, such as saving Kurama, and burying the dead. He is reluctant to accept positive emotions from others, such as Mayu and Nana. While he is violent, ruthless and all too willing to kill, he takes great offense to acts of perversion, such as child molestation; when Mayu asks for his aid when she is attacked by the Unknown man (see below), Bandō expresses intense disgust over the Unknown man's actions. In the manga, Bandō is severely injured while protecting Mayu from an attack by Lucy after the latter is exposed as a killer to the young girl. Lucy rips off his remaining arm and cuts him in half at the waist, then flees. While dying in Mayu's arms, Bandō reflects that he had always wanted someone to cry for him after he died, since he had isolated himself from human contact for all his life; and he now seems to be at peace. However, Bandō is in fact still alive, and Kurama later returns and takes away his body. In the final chapter, Mayu is seen cleaning the beach where Bandō had come to live in his memory when Bando returns to see Mayu, where it is shown that his lower half of his body has been fitted with bionics.