| “ | You made it all the way here, but this is the end for you. This fortress will be your grave. | „ |
| ~ Black Mantle when Pocky and Rocky reach the Gorgonzola fortress. |
| “ | You came all the way here! I underestimated you, but now this is the end for you. | „ |
| ~ Black Mantle to Pocky and Rocky before his boss battle. |
Black Mantle is the main antagonist and final boss of Pocky & Rocky, known in Japan as KiKi KaiKai - Nazo no Kuro Manto -. He later returns as the main antagonist of Pocky & Rocky: Reshrined.
He is the leader of the Gorgonzola Goblins who sought to conquer Japan by brainwashing the Nopino Goblins and having the cause havoc. He is faced on stage 6, the sixth and final stage.
In Reshrined, Black Mantle's true identity is revealed to be that of the demon Gastaroth, who possessed a foreign priestess named Anna Rishta in order to gain control of her powers.
Biography[]
Past[]
In the past, the demon Gastaroth orchestrated an attack on Anna Rishta's village that resulted in her family being killed and exploited her rage over her parents' deaths to take possession of her body, giving him a host he could use to interact with the physical world. In Anna's body, Gastaroth took on the identity of Black Mantle and put a spell on the Gorgonzola Goblins to force them to serve him.
Pocky & Rocky[]
Sailing across the sea in the Gorgonzola Fortress, the Black Mantle came to Japan and sought to conquer it. As the first step of his invasion, Black Mantle visited the Nopino Goblins while they were having a midnight festival and cast a spell on them to agitate them and cause them to rampage.
Rocky, a tanuki goblin who was not affected by the spell as he was asleep when it was cast, went to get Pocky to help him figure out was wrong with the Nopino Goblins. The pair's investigation led them to uncover the invasion of the Gorgonzola Goblins, leading them to venture out to the Gorgonzola Fortress to find the Black Mantle and stop the Gorgonzola invasion.
When the pair reached the Gorgonzola Fortress, Black Mantle glimpsed their arrival through his crystal ball. He remarked that it would soon be the end for them as the pair entered inside. He would at some point tell Dr. Lee that he could experiment with Pocky and Rocky if he caught them.
After Pocky and Rocky freed the Nopino Goblins imprisoned in the fortress and fought their way through the Gorgonzola Goblins inside, they reached the chamber where Black Mantle resided. As the two entered, Black Mantle expressed that he did not expect to see them get so far, but that he would put an end to them, and began attacking them. Pocky and Rocky defeated Black Mantle, who disappeared without a trace right after, resulting in both the Nopino Goblins and the Gorgonzola Goblins being freed from his spell.
Pocky & Rocky Reshrined[]
However, the Black Mantle was able to survive by using Pocky's purification power in conjunction with his own dark powers to send his soul to the Land of the Kami. Once there, Black Mantle traveled back in time to enact a scheme to get revenge on Pocky and undo his previous defeat.
Arriving in the past at roughly the same time Pocky went with Rocky to investigate what was making the Nopino Goblins cause havoc, Black Mantle waited until just after Pocky and Rocky defeated Hellkraken before appearing and firing an attack at Rocky. Pocky dove in front of Rocky to protect him from the attack, resulting in her getting hit and dying instead.
However, Pocky's soul then rose to the Land of the Kami, where Ame-no-Uzume approached her and allowed her to take possession of her body so she could stop the Black Mantle. This allowed Pocky to travel to the underworld where she fought her way through various demons, leading Black Mantle to summon his pet Tengyu and sent it to attack her. After Pocky defeated it, she pursued Black Mantle through a gate to the future and found herself on a floating battleship in a world of various ships engaged in warfare above a burning city.
In that future world, Pocky partnered with the samurai Hotaru and confronted Black Mantle again. After Pocky demanded he show his true identity, Black Mantle threw off his cloak and revealed himself as Gastaroth, Lord of Darkness, who had taken possession of the body of foreign priestess Anna. Gastaroth then blasted Pocky off the airship, but she was saved by the Seven Gods of Fortune, who guided her to Black Mantle's fortress so she could go and stop him.
Inside the fortress, Gastaroth revealed to Anna that he was the one who had caused the destruction of her village and the deaths of her parents, before retaking control of her body and making her don the black mantle once again. After Pocky fought her way through the fortress to Black Mantle's throne room, Black Mantle fought Pocky again. Pocky was able to defeat him and knock his spirit out of Anna's body, but as a demon Gastaroth's soul still existed in the past.
The Seven Gods of Fortune then appeared and offered to bring Pocky's soul to the past so she could vanquish Gastaroth for good. Traveling within the rift in time and space where Gastaroth resided, Pocky confronted the demon one last time. Pocky fought and defeated Gastaroth, but Gastaroth attempted to use his remaining strength to inhale Pocky and the Seven Fortune Gods so he could drag them down with him. However, Uzume and Hotaru then showed up to assist Pocky and joined together with her to finally destroy Gastaroth.
Although Gastaroth was destroyed, as Anna had become one with him by being possessed by him, she began to disappear as well. However, she was saved by the Fortune Gods, who invited her to join them so she could atone for everything she had done as Black Mantle's host.
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 Villains
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KiKi KaiKai Pocky and Rocky Gorgonzola Goblins Pocky and Rocky 2 Pocky and Rocky with Becky Pocky and Rocky Reshrined | ||