Doctor Nousou

Doctor Nousou was a minor antagonist in the series Elfen Lied, appearing only in the later manga chapters. An expert and genius in genetic engineering, he worked at the island facility of Director Kakuzawa, and at his orders, bred over one thousand clones of the most powerful Diclonius, Mariko Kurama. Only four of these were viable. Most were horribly deformed and disfigured, and led horrid short lives before being harvested for body parts. The four who met his standards were fitted with control devices and were under this influence devoted to him. An arrogant, cold, smart-ass, he had the odd (and probably dietarily unrealistic) habit of eating only pocky candy sticks. But Director Kakuzawa called Nousou to account, first sacrificing one of his four perfect clones as a test, then sending him into the field to invade Maple House and finally recover the Queen Diclonius, Lucy.

At first cocky, with his powerful clones, trained soldiers and an agent who was his personal bodyguard, Nousou invaded Maple House, mocking the mostly innocent residents and demanding to know where Lucy was. It was his Agent/bodyguard who pointed out the hornless Nyu, cowering in the corner, and Nousou realized this was Lucy, but was confused as to why she wasn't attacking. Enraged, Kouta, the love of Lucy's life, defended his home and took Nousou hostage. At first, Nousou mocked that Kouta would never shoot him in the head, so Kouta threatened instead to shoot his jaw off, a survivable but incredibly painful wound. The Agent then shot Kouta, which awoke Nyu/Lucy, who tore through the attackers, including dropping a burning helicopter on Nousou and one of his remaining clones. The clones seemed to have even greater devotion to Nousou than he thought, staying with him and trying to keep the helicopter off him, no matter what they had to sacrifice. This moved Nousou at what he thought was the end.

The Agent managed to wound and then capture Lucy. Digging through the wreckage, the Agent found Nousou and the clone Barbara. Losing the other clones had made Nousou realize he actually cared for these girls. At the hospital, he removed Barbara's controls, only to hear her tell him how much he was hated by all of them for how they were treated. In a rare sincere and serious moment, Nousou apologized before Barbara used her vectors to cut his head off. Nousou, who gained something like compassion for his charges, found that he had done so far too late, and that the devotion he saw was all the result of a control device.