Echidna Parass is a major villainess in the manga Black Cat and its anime adaptation. While Shiki is the prominent second-in-command of the Apostles of the Star, Echidna and Doctor are eventually revealed to be Creed Diskenth's de facto right-hands and the closest things to a friend for the demented anarchist. Echidna is strongly implied to be in love with Creed, which explains why she follows him.
She was voiced by the late Atsuko Tanaka in the Japanese version, and by Stephanie Young in the English version.
Personality[]
Echidna is very courteous and polite, cordially greeting friends and foes alike and never holding grudges. But she is more importantly very cold, distant, indifferent and calculating, never losing her poise even when surprised or angered.
She is extremely devoted to Creed, with whom she appears to be in love, but by no mean blindly obedient. Echidna is perhaps the only Apostle of the Star (with the possible exception of Doctor) who dares lecturing Creed, going as far as openly criticizing his actions, though she often does so to distance herself from possible blames.
Echidna no longer values her past. She is highly dedicated to the Apostles' cause and confident, fearlessly taking on any foe. She is a quick-thinker who knows how to assess situations. She despises anyone she deems weak and never fights fairly, considering chivalry a failing, although much less so than Creed. However, deep down in her heart, she is afraid of Creed's most twisted projects, even though she never demonstrates it.
Powers and Abilities[]
Echidna's power of Tao is called Gate. She is able to create wormholes on surfaces or floating in the air, fifteen meters around her, linking distinct places and enabling her to warp people and things from one to another.
When she concentrates her ki on a Fuda (a paper talisman marked with an incantation), she can create much bigger wormholes towards locations up to five kilometres away, making them last as long as she wants. Because of this she is often tasked to transport the Apostles of the Star, or to bring "guests" where Creed wants them to. She can also open many wormholes at once and link one to several others, making her power considerably dangerous.
While Echidna never engages in all-out battles, Shiki describes her as an elite warrior equal to every Apostle; a claim she clearly fulfils. She wields a dagger and especially a gun with expert proficiency, sometimes using grenades.
Echidna's Gate power.
With her power, Echidna can strike from any side and distance, making her attacks unpredictable and nearly unavoidable without supreme reflexes. She mostly fires many bullets into one wormhole, warping them through others all around her target to strike from many sides at once and overwhelm her foe.
She could easily warp an attack that was just dodged to strike once more, or turn her enemies' attacks against them, dodging and counter-attacking in the same move. (In the anime, she warps her enemy's sword at their head.)
One can even imagine how nightmarish it would be if she were to empty a full load of bullets, and continuously harass her enemies by endlessly warping them through multiple wormholes all around them.
Echidna specializes in (under-handed) sneak attacks, usually staying out of sight and range and opening a wormhole from behind right next to her target, to land a fatal blow by surprise. Many Tao users being able to sense ki, she likely uses it to locate targets far away and to know exactly where to strike.
In the manga, Echidna only warps her hands or bullets in battle, while in the anime she often warps herself into full in wide wormholes, making her easier to spot and to stop. Also, it mistakenly shows her arm warping through many wormholes at the same time. This is certainly a downright misinterpretation, as her wormholes only warp distances and cannot duplicate anything.
Background[]
Echidna Paras' past of fame.
Before joining the Apostles of the Star, Echidna Paras was an international movie star, whose immense talent and great beauty led to the top in but a few years.
She is said to have been featured in over twenty movies and to have won many prestigious awards. Because of this, she is sometimes recognized by her enemies, who wonder why she joined a terrorist group.
Echidna's past of fame is further displayed in the anime, in which Charden and Kyoko go to the cinema to watch a romantic movie featuring her. Much later, everyone in a crowded room recognizes her immediately, when she appears to introduce them to Creed.
Role in the Manga[]
Echidna
Echidna first appears when Creed gathers every Apostle on Clarken Island before the terrorist attack on the World Conference, in which they slaughter twenty country leaders and all the soldiers protecting them.
Echidna casually sits on a car, her victims' corpses scattered around, telling Shiki that she finds her fighting style rather cruel, only to be told that she is not one to talk.
Echidna takes part in destroying several sub-organizations of Chronos, and witnesses Durham Glaster's execution, cynically stating that this is the end for him.
When Creed has the thief for hire Rinslet Walker brought to him, Echidna prevents her escape when the Chrono Numbers who hired her storm their castle, using her power to give the impression that she stabbed her. Echidna restrains Rinslet and tells her that if she tries to escape again, she would kill her for real this time, before musing that Creed will kill her no matter what.
Echidna later brings back Maro, Charden and Leon Elliott to the throne room after the Chrono Numbers escape them. Shiki demands to know everything about Creed's true goals and secret experiments on nanomachines, and Echidna seems amused by the fact that they thought Creed was only relying on Tao.
Echidna then shoots Chrono Number V Naizer Blackheimer from behind, in the heart, but he barely dodges at the last second, still critically wounded. She joins the battle against the Numbers, bringing Maro and Shiki along with her.
After the explosion, Echidna scolds Creed for overdoing and losing his arm. The following day, after Creed murders the doctor whom he coerced to take care of his wounds, he asks Echidna to search for Train Heartnet, the main protagonist and Creed's former partner. Creed resolves to destroy everything that makes Train's a bounty-hunter, delusionally persuaded that it could bring him back to his side.
Echidna ambushes Train's partners Sven Vollfield and Eve, teleporting them in a church where Creed is waiting, before telling Train and Rinslet about Creed's intentions. Echidna then returns to the church and asks why Creed has not killed Sven yet. When Train takes the Lucifer bullet that Creed destined to Sven, dooming him to a painful transformation, he and Echidna departs and join the other Apostles.
Echidna is next seen leading a squadron of the Shooting Star Unit (the Apostles of the Star's regular soldiers) into the house of the world's greatest nanotechnologist, Dr Tearyu Lunatic. Doctor and Shiki visited Dr Tearyu earlier to ask her help to build nanomachines to make Creed immortal, and Echidna came to know her final answer.
Given that Dr Tearyu refuses to work with them, Echidna (who suspected it) has Eathes transform into Dr Tearyu, who then becomes disposable. Echidna orders her soldiers to shoot Tearyu down, but she is saved by Sven, Eve and Train. Echidna witnesses the rescue and discovers first-hand Train's new ability: the devastating Rail Gun shot. Irked, Echidna tries to stab Train, but her attack is countered by Sven's prescience power and she departs, reflecting on the threat posed by the trio.
Echidna next appears when Train, Eve and two fellow bounty hunters storm the Apostles' mansion on Clarken Island. She politely greets them, prompting one of the bounty hunters to recognize her, and teleports Creed in the entrance, as the demented anarchist wants to speak with Train.
After Creed orders the remaining Apostles to kill Train and his comrades, Echidna monitors their progress in the control room. She watches Eathes departs, commenting on how Eathes now acts like a human, and watches Doctor's experiment on the Berserker nanomachines, voicing her disgust of his twisted mind games.
Later, Echidna gives orders to the soldiers of the Shooting Star Unit, while worriedly witnessing the defeat of every Apostles. After Creed joins her, they see that the Chrono Number I Sephiria Arks has sneaked into the mansion in person to challenge Creed in a duel. So Echidna brings them both in Creed's private quarters.
With most Apostles taken down, Echidna resolves to unleash the Phantom Star Brigade, despite them still being in the testing stages. She dispatches three cyborgs to deal with the Chrono Numbers VII, X, IV and VIII and goes with the other two on the mid-air bridge leading to Creed's quarters, waiting for Train, Sven and Eve.
Echidna only allows Train to pass, knowing that Creed would rather dealing with him personally, confident that none can defeat Creed who has just gained immortality. Echidna then orders the Golem Cyborg and the Flying Cyborg to dispose of Sven, Eve and Eathes, whom she labels as a traitor for he was forced to guide them.
After the cyborgs are defeated, Echidna decides to take the matter in hand and attacks Sven with a multi-sided shot. However, Sven's newfound power the Grasper Eye enables him to dodge every attack no matter where from, by slowing them down. Echidna then activates a grenade and warps it near Eve. The young girl only owes her life to Eathes, who kicks the grenade away because Eve protected him earlier from the Flying Cyborg's attack. Furious, Echidna lashes out insults, but Sven simply asks her why she does so much for a madman like Creed.
After Train defeats Creed and Leon brings them both back to the midair bridge, Echidna listens Train telling Creed that he must bear the weight of his crimes as a human. When Eve destroys Creed's nanomachines of immortality, reverting him to a mortal state, Echidna does nothing to stop her, as she confesses that she was afraid all along that Creed would become something out of her reach.
She then departs with Creed to a house in the mountains, taking care of the nearly vegetative man he has become likely for the rest of her life.
Role in the Anime[]
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Echidna as seen in the anime.
In the anime, Echidna's role and personality are quite the same, though as Creed has less secrets to hide from his Apostles, Echidna shares less with him. Also, Echidna does not need Fudas to create big holes and she can use her power to a greater extent than in the manga.
Echidna always remains by Creed's side and it is her not Doctor who accompanies him when he invades the building of the World Conference. She warps into the room of the gathering through a wormhole and introduces them to Creed, who kills them all. She later films and broadcasts worldwide his declaration and revolution and his call for Train to join him.
Echidna takes part in the showdown of the old castle, and later monitors the battle of Clarken Island like she does in the manga. However, when she comes to warn him that the Chrono Numbers arrived on the Island, Creed is busy playing the piano and focuses only on Train, barely paying her any attention.
Also when she tells him that Leon has been defeated, he answers that he never knew anyone by this name (to emphasize Eve's point that Creed does not care about him).
Echidna attacks Sephiria Arks who came to kill Creed. Their battle is seen rushed, blurry and pretty difficult to follow (perhaps to fit the tempo of Creed's piano playing), until Sephiria knocks her out, by striking her with the hilt of her sword through her own wormhole.
After Creed's defeat, Echidna brings him in a house in the mountains as in the manga to treat his wounds, but she soon sees that he is fully healed and has recovered his sanity, watching away standing on the window frame.
Creed and Echidna later redeem themselves by taking part to the final stages of the battle against the Zero Numbers, having probably teleported there with her power. She gets badly wounded when taking an attack from Mason Ordrosso, who was aiming for Creed. She laments that all she was able to do for him was to die in his place, but she is saved after the Zero Numbers are destroyed.
During the ending of the anime, she is seen living with Creed in their mountain house, as the he still anarchist is painting a landscape.she decide to leave him in mountain moving on the future.
Trivia[]
- Echidna is named after a snake-like being from Greek Mythology, said to have birthed some of the most well-known monsters.
- Keeping with her mythological theme naming, Parass is the incorrect romanization of Pallas, one of the Giants who rose against the Olympian Gods after the Titans and were defeated by deities and mortals. ' was defeated by Athena, Goddess of Wisdom and Warfare, who took his name as one of her epithets.
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 Villains
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Apostles of the Star Chronos Zero Numbers Others | ||