NOTE: Not to be confused with the Doppelganger from Madou Monogatari.
|
“ | Well... I wonder if you can. Defeating me... I'll show you exactly what that implies! | „ |
~ Doppelganger Arle before her final battle with her other self. |
“ | Who am I? What a foolish question... I am Arle! That's all there is to it! And yet... I lost... | „ |
~ Doppelganger Arle's last words before dying. |
Doppelganger Arle, also known as Doppel for short, is the main antagonist of Puyo Puyo~n and Pocket Puyo Puyo~n.
She is the ultimate fate of the original Arle from the Madou Monogatari series. She invades the Puyo Puyo world and aims to eliminate the new Arle Nadja in order to take her place.
She was voiced by Emi Motoi in Puyo Puyo~n, and Mie Sonozaki in Puyo Puyo!! Quest.
Biography[]
Backstory[]
Doppelganger Arle was the original Arle who battled the creator. At the end of the conflict that lasted centuries, the creator was killed and the universe was completely destroyed. Satan, the only survivor, recreated the Madou world and its inhabitants. He even made a new Arle, as he had assumed that the original Arle had sacrificed herself to defeat the creator. Unfortunately, Arle had actually survived, and her shattered soul was left alone in the empty void for over five hundred years, where she was forced to watch as this new Arle created by Satan slowly took her place in the world. These events destroyed her sanity, and ultimately transformed her into Doppelganger Arle. This is based on the "Age of Rebirth" section from the official Madou Timeline.
Puyo Puyo~n[]

Doppel watching Arle entering her circus.
Doppel appears in the game as the main antagonist and final boss. She was brought to the new Madou world (aka the Puyo Puyo world) when Satan found and opened a box hidden in the archives of his library, a box believed to have been created by Doppel as an unsuccessful attempt to escape her realm. From inside the box came out Doppel, now free from the hundreds of years she spent in the emptiness of space. In order to conceal her true face and name, Doppel created a fake identity by the name of Pierrot. She then used her magic to brainwash Satan so he could serve as her circus's ringmaster. Rulue noticed this and attempted to save him, but was unsuccessful.

Satan makes Carbuncle disappear.
Under her Pierrot disguise, Doppel uses Satan to trick Carbuncle into performing in an act at the Puyo Circus, only for him to disappear following the performance. Arle goes on a search for her friend, fighting various monsters as she travels throughout the land. At the end of her journey, she encounters Pierrot, who reveals her true form and engages Arle in a battle of Puyo Puyo. Now that she had revealed her true identity, only the winner of the battle would be allowed to exist, and the loser would be erased. Fortunately, Arle manages to defeat her doppelganger, creating a paradox. Upon her defeat, Doppel firmly declares that she is the real Arle before disappearing forever. Carbuncle then returns back to Arle, and they both go home.
Other appearances[]
Pocket Puyo Puyo~n[]
“ | I'll come see you again... Arle. This time, I'll be myself. I'm sorry... and thank you... | „ |
~ Doppelganger Arle in the ending of Pocket Puyo Puyo~n. |
In the portable version of Puyo Puyo~n, their final battle reaches a happier conclusion. Arle tells Doppel that she can't replace her, because she's her own person, acknowledging them both as separate, equally valuable beings. Arle's attempts at a peaceful resolution seem to remind Doppel of her old self, as she briefly snaps back to sanity and accepts that the world now has a new, more suitable Arle. Instead of fighting her other self to the bitter end, she apologizes for her actions and promises to meet Arle again under friendlier terms.
Puyo Puyo!! Quest[]
In the gacha mobile game, Puyo Puyo!! Quest, Doppel can be summoned as Doppelganger Arle, Pierrot, Dusklight Doppelganger Arle and Valkyrie Doppelganger Arle. She has several lines of dialogue directed at the player, most of them being direct quotes from Puyo Puyo~n. She also states that the player would regret ever asking if she told them of her origins, a small allusion to her tragic past.
Appearance[]
Doppel's design is a replica of Arle's, with several differences between the two; her hair color is darker than Arle's brunette coloring, her clothing is colored red compared to Arle's blue, and her eyes are red while Arle's are yellow. Her Sega redesign is mostly based on her original Puyo Puyo~n appearance, with no real attempts to mirror Arle's Sega design. Notably, her brown hair has been kept, despite modern Arle having orange hair.

Pierrot handing out balloons to kids.
As Pierrot, Doppel wears a harlequin outfit with a pattern of red and black (or dark blue in some versions). Her hat is split in two points each ending in a white cotton ball. Her collar is flayed in six yellow pieces and tied with blue string with each ending in a cotton ball. Her shoes are yellow and end with a red ball on her right and a blue ball on her left. She obstructs her face with a white smiling mask with closed eyes. It has a red nose, pink lipstick, a green four-pointed star on the right eye, and a tear mark below the left eye.
Personality[]

Doppel contemplating her plan with the kidnapped Carbuncle.
Doppel's personality is the complete opposite of that of the kind-hearted Arle. She is driven only by hatred and envy of Arle's existence, believing herself to be the real Arle, and viewing her other self as no more than a cheap copy with no free will. She will take any risk and effort to get rid of Arle, caring little about who or what she will damage in the process, including herself. The only one she seems to cherish is Carbuncle, as she made it a part of her plan to obtain him so she could keep him as a pet the same way Arle does. Carbuncle does not seem to mind Doppel, possibly because he recognizes her as the original Arle who went on many adventures with him.
Before the incident that caused her soul to be abandoned, Doppel's personality was the same as Arle's cheerful one. After being forced to spend 500 years trapped within an empty decaying world, she has gone mad from the centuries of isolation.
Powers and Abilities[]

Doppel's mask, seen in the game's credits scene.
“ | Deny it all you like. You can't change the truth. The reality of who I truly am... | „ |
~ Dusklight Doppelganger Arle (6 stars). |
- Dark Spells: Doppel's spells noticeably take a much darker tone than her counterpart's elemental spells. Her spells are: Chaos, Abyss, Labyrinth, Eclipse, Grand Cross, and Ragnarok.
- Void Hole: Her special, a counterpart to Arle's Ruipanko spell, is called Void Hole, and works very similar to Arle's special, freezing all of the opponent's attacks for a short amount of time. Interestingly, the game also refers to Doppel's special as Arle Shield.
- Mind control: Doppel was able to mind control Satan, the creator of the Puyo universe, for the entirety of Puyo Puyo~n's story mode, only breaking her control when Arle defeats him.
Trivia[]
- All of Doppel's voice actresses throughout the series also voiced Arle in the same games.
- The initial scenario for Pocket Puyo Puyo~n was going to reveal Doppel as the other half of Arle soul that was split from the original and forgotten to time during the final events of the Madou timeline. Satan would have discovered her and invited her into his world, giving her the jester costume to grant her a new identity and keep her powers in check, as he wanted both Arles to coexist together. This was ultimately rejected as it was deemed too heavy for the more lighthearted Puyo series.
- Due to the lack of available information about the series in English, there is a common misconception in the west that Doppelganger Arle and Lilith are the same character.
External Links[]
- Arle Nadja on the Heroes Wiki
[]
![]() | ||
Classic Era (1989-2000) Modern Era (2003-Now) |