Kurama (Elfen Lied)

Kurama is the main antagonist in the anime series, Elfen Lied. He is voiced by Osamu Hosoi (Japanese), and Jay Hickman (English).

Story
He is the surrogate father of Nana and biological father of Mariko. His wife, Hiromi Kurama, died from cesarean section complications shortly after she gave birth to Mariko. Although he had previously been tasked with killing all diclonius births, he falters when he must kill his own daughter. It is soon revealed that Kurama cares deeply for Nana (who calls him "Papa") and seems to think of her as his own child. When the director orders Kurama to kill Nana, he decides to disobey him, and secretly sets Nana free with some money and a promise that they will be together again some day.

Lucy carries a deep hatred toward Kurama, stemming from his failure to save Aiko Takada (as seen in the Elfen Lied OVA); however, she states that she will not kill him but will kill everything that loves him. It is revealed late in the series that the General Director of the diclonius research program kept his daughter alive, increasing Kurama's perceived debt to him. It is also revealed that his wife Hiromi died from medical complications only because she attempted to stop Kurama from killing Mariko in her cradle, and that after watching his wife die in his arms, Kurama decided to let Mariko live.

Shocked and horrified when he sees that his newborn daughter is a diclonious, Kurama suddenly remembers an encounter a year earlier at the facility where an escaped diclonious placed one of her vectors inside his head and the head of a colleague. Although nethier of the men is apparently harmed by this action (and it is largely forgotten), the colleague's daughter is also born as a diclonious several months before Mariko (Kurama decides to kill his colleague's daughter himself). Upon seeing Mariko, Kurama then realizes that the virus that causes diclonious births is spread through the vectors, thus solving the mystery (until that point) as to why the number of diclonious births was continuing to increase.

In the final episode of the anime, as one of the series' most emotional scenes, Kurama and Mariko meet, and she realizes that he is her father. Mariko tells him that during her entire life at the institute's prison, she dreamed that one day he and her mother would come to take her home and live as a real family. She then demands to know why he abandoned her. Kurama raises his gun to shoot her but is unable to do so, and instead walks over to her and hugs her tightly. He reflects on the fact that he killed dozens of Diclonius girls in their cradles but left his own daughter to suffer in a dark prison her entire life. He then picks her up in his arms and promises they will never again be apart. He tells Nana that they can no longer be together and that she must try to have a happy life without him. As he walks away, Kurama signals an assistant to detonate the remaining bomb inside of Mariko's body. Kurama then tells Mariko that he never stopped thinking about her for a moment and that her mother loved her until the moment she died. The assistant hesitates, wondering if Kurama had been planning this all along, then activates the bomb. Hearing the bomb about to denotate, Kurama and Mariko tightly embrace; Kurama then has a brief vision of what their lives might have been like if Mariko had not been born as a diclonius (he and his wife with Mariko after her birth, feeding her in a highchair, comforting her, carrying her on his shoulders, and her first day of school). The bomb then detonates in a massive explosion, killing both of them.

Kurama survives in the manga; Mariko (worried about the safety of her father) confronts Lucy and clings to her as the bomb inside her detonates; this results in Lucy's horns being destroyed and turning back into Nyu, as well as Mariko's death. Kurama, depressed by his pathetic ability as a father, attempts to commit suicide with a nearby MP5, but is saved by Bandō. Kurama now lives in a small shed on the beach and is partially insane. He later clings to a dead body of what he thinks is his daughter, Mariko, and will not let anyone come near him (it is actually a clone). Later, Nana finds him, but he shuns her away, still clinging to the clone Mariko. Another clone Mariko shows up, and Kurama tries to embrace her too. She however attacks him and fights with Nana. When she is about to finish Nana off, Kurama shoots her in the head and regains his sanity. He then reconciles with Nana and confronts Lucy at the end, who shows a third personality and rips his arm off. However, Nana saves him. In the last chapter, he is shown with two arms (meaning he got a prosthetic as well) and is revealed to be living with Nana.