Diabolo (manga)
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| Diabolo | |||
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| ディアボロ | |||
| Genre | Horror, Supernatural | ||
| Manga | |||
| Author | Kaoru Ohashi Kei Kusunoki |
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| Publisher |  Shueisha |
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| Original run | 2001 – 2003 | ||
| Volumes | 3 | ||
Diabolo (ディアボロ?) is a manga by Kaoru Ohashi and Kei Kusunoki. The story takes place in Japan. The plot is very simple. There are six great spirits that serve Lucifer, each of which has a hand in destroying the world. The main characters, Ren and Rai, try to stop them while looking for their 7-year-old cousin Mio. Although in volume two we find out that Rai has fallen from grace and is indeed possessed by one of the six spirits. The book's antagonists are often 17-year-olds. It describes its plot as "The age where the ensured bend to temptation and slowly fall from human to devil."
Contents |
[edit] Characters
[edit] Main characters
- Rai
- An orphan who became friends with Ren as a young child. On his seventeenth birthday he gained the power of ultimate defense, making him invulnerable to any attack. After that, he left the orphanage to find Ren, confronting him with the knowledge of their pact with the Diabolo (memories which Ren had suppressed) and the hope that Mio might still be alive. Later, Rai reveals his secret obsession, jealousy, and love-hate relationship with Ren, who had been oblivious to these feelings all along. Rai is the more serious and solemn of the pair.
- Ren
- Rai's best friend. Through his deal with the Diabolo, he gained the power of ultimate offense, making him capable of, among other things, exploding glass bottles with just an accidental touch and creating huge holes in walls with one punch. This leads him to be very fearful of what his power can do to normal humans, causing him to only use it to save and kill the people that have fallen. Soon after Rai found him, Ren's mother went insane, trying to force Ren to sleep with her, and upon his refusal, set herself and their house on fire. After this, Ren decides to join forces with Rai to try to save others from falling to the Diabolo. Despite his extremely tragic life, Ren usually tries to find a way to be as happy as possible, providing comic relief with his naivety and ineptitude with technology.
[edit] Six Great Spirits
All six of the Great Spirits' names are taken directly from the hierarchy of hell as listed in The Grand Grimoire.
- Agliarept
- Known as 'The General'. Has the ability to read minds, discover all secrets, and at one point claims to heal in his sleep. His real name is Kyouya. Despite his rather prickly, cynical personality, Kyouya appears to have some degree of caring in him, particularly for Ren, saving his life. He admits openly to not trusting Nebiros, even trying to attack him early on. Kyouya reveals to Ren that he's the bastard son of a wealthy, dead businessman and his mistress, and he left home and his relatives after they found out about his illness. What he doesn't tell Ren is the reason he made his deal with the devil: His illness is terminal, and he joined forces with the Diabolo as a means of suicide.
- Satanachia
- Has the ability to enslave all and manipulate them at will, alive or dead. Real name is Rei. Rei is an abandoned child, and has lived in hospitals most of his life. It is alluded to that he was molested and possibly raped due to his beauty. Childlike and cheerful, with a dangerous lust for blood, Rei claims to be the most sinless of the Spirits, and also says he knows Mio. The exact reasoning he fell to the devil is unclear, but Nana admits to being the one that introduced him to the Diabolo.
- Fleurety
- The 'Lieutenant Commander'. She is the supposedly invincible queen of the night. Real name is Tsukiko, a pun on her abilities, which are only seen at night (Tsukiko means "moon child"). In her mid-teens, Tsukiko was the victim and sole survivor of a forced family suicide after her father lost his job, killing her younger brother, mother, and himself. Tsukiko survived only to next be the victim of an uncle who raped and abused her. These traumas forced her to develop disassociative identity disorder, selling her soul to the Diabolo for invulnerability and power at night.
- Sargatanas
- The 'Brigadier Major'. The Spirit of the wind, who can go anywhere and travel between dimensions. Real name is Nana. Nana is homeless and crossdresses at night to prevent other street people from taking advantage of her. She distrusts adults as they are the reason she's homeless in the first place. She harbors an unrequited crush on Rai, which Rai (as Nebiros) uses to his advantage.
- Nebiros
- The most cruel Spirit who controls premonition and pain, and is the best necromancer in hell. Rai becomes Nebiros. As Nebiros, Rai's personality is completely changed. Even the other Spirits comment on the abhorrent evil of his actions: For instance, killing teenagers who came to the cult of Heaven trying to be saved. Rai/Nebiros also forces Kyouya and most of the other Spirits to fight Ren, with the intent that each one of them would die in their battle. After the deaths of all the Spirits but himself, Rai plans to save himself by switching bodies with Ren as the world breaks.
- Lucifuge Rofocale
- Describes himself as an intelligent spirit with courage who controls all wealth and knowledge. Real name is Yuu. Yuu sends Hiromi valuable information about the Diabolo because of his crush on her, only to stab her in the back in the end, preventing her from sending condo blueprints to Ren. Nema found him first of all the Spirits, and his real body is hidden away, unable to move. He sold his soul for a holographic body, which he uses like a normal one.
[edit] Other characters
- Mio
- Ren's cousin, who disappeared when she was seven after Ren and Rai made a pact with the Devil to be strong for her safety. Though her body was never found, Ren and Rai were accused of killing her. Ren and Rai believe Mio is still alive and spend the series trying to find her.
- Hiromi
- A girl Rai and Ren "saved," bringing her to see the truth about the Diabolo after she had sold her soul to it. She drops out of school and isolates herself in her apartment with her mother, trying to help Ren and Rai defeat the Diabolo using information garnered from chat rooms and the internet. She appears to be a hikikomori, or at least have hikikomori tendencies.
