| Helen | |
|---|---|
 | |
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Full Name |
Helen |
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Kanji/Kana |
ヘレン |
Helen (ヘレン) is the oldest of the quintuplet princesses of the Pu'Awak kingdom. She is one of the catalysts that starts off the events of the Underground Empire of Yomi arc, appearing after Joe realizes that Black Ghost sent his old friends to kill him.
Appearance[]
Helen is a pale young woman with short, spiked-up blonde hair and sparkly pitch black eyes that lack visible sclerae. She can be differentiated from some of her sisters by the fact that she does not wear the traditional princess dress due to being sent out into the outside world as a spy, instead opting to wear civilian clothing. She wears a tiara composed of red gems, although it initially appears as a black band with a single gem in her earliest appearance.
She initially appears in a black dress with peach neck and shoulder ribbing when Joe rescues her, and goes through a few different fashions, including a black starfield-print dress. She ultimately settles on wearing a black starfield-print jumpsuit for the trip back down to her kingdom.
While Helen is blonde with black eyes in the color editions of the manga published through Kodansha and Fukkan, volume 9 of the "MF Comics" tankoban release oddly depicts a digitally-colored cover illustration of Helen where her hair is violet.
Personality and Relationships[]
Helen appears to be an average, friendly yet somewhat naive young woman, although she is soon plagued by trouble and suspicion over her being a double agent for Black Ghost. It is later revealed that she was mind-wiped by the Zattan to forget being a member of the Yomi Kingdom and having sisters, in order to infiltrate the outside world as a Black Ghost mole.
Joe Shimamura/009[]
She appears to develop some feelings for 009 after they meet, and sticks by him through the arc. This, for a while, noticeably agitates 003, who has unexpressed feelings for 009 and who gets upset when he pays attention to Helen.
009 is willing to defend Helen from other team members' suspicions and to call out the ethics of 004's test to see if she is a spy. But he winds up with his own doubts for a brief time, when believing she is in league with Van Vogt (this turns out to be true in a way) and seeing another "Helen" at his house.
009's exact feelings towards Helen seem to be that of compassion, as pointed out by 001 but perhaps also left up to ambiguity at the time.
Towards the end of the arc, after being shot by Van Vogt and bleeding to death, Helen insists on trying to assist 009 in taking the villain down, and grabs on to Van Vogt's leg so 009 can blast one of his arms off. She is shot again in retaliation for this, and dies alone while 009 and Van Vogt continue to fight, with her last words being a pained "0...09".
When 009 fights against Skull in the Demon God Statue and is being throttled, he sees imagery of prominent women in his life that inspires him to fight; visions of Helen, 003, and his mother, with the last being the biggest image he sees (although also hazy).
Abilities[]
Initially, Helen appears to not have any particular abilities, despite her sisters having telepathy. It is mentioned that while Vena can read her mind, Helen cannot read hers. This is revealed to be a side-effect of Helen having been mind-wiped, which wears off later in the arc, where she slowly regains her full memories and her powers.
History[]
Helen was the first to be seen of the Pu'Awak sisters and the oldest of the five. She was rescued by Joe, after he found her being attacked by a robot. He insisted on taking her with him when the team reunited, as Helen claimed that her father had been kidnapped by Black Ghost.
However, suspicions soon arose about Helen's loyalties, particularly due to 004 believing her to be a spy and due to 009 spotting another "Helen" (Dinah) when following a tip about the Mitsutomo Engineering president Van Vogt. Helen herself claimed to be an only child, and denied having any sisters.
She was later reunited with her younger sister Vena, but was initially still confused about the series of events. Vena gave the 00 cyborg team and Dr. Gilmore the location of the Yomi Kingdom, and they ventured underground.
During the trip down in Yomi, Helen became more attached to 009, much to the jealousy of 003. The group was then forcibly split into two (one lead by 009, the other by 004) as they attempted to evade Van Vogt's drill mecha.
009's group were then brainwashed by the Zattan species, causing Helen's mind to entirely blank out. Vena would later reveal that Helen had previously lost her memories due to the Zattan and Black Ghost using her as a test subject to spy on the cyborgs, which robbed Helen of her own ability to sense her sisters.
After Helen and the others in 009's group had been swallowed by a giant coelacanth and washed up onshore, Helen awoke from unconsciousness and slowly started to regain her memories. During this time, 004 and Vena were being held hostage in the coliseum. Dinah, Aphro, and Daphne telepathically informed her of the situation, and Helen managed to tell 009's group of the other cyborgs' whereabouts.
In the end, Helen wound up shot by Van Vogt, but managed to help 009 shoot one of his arms off, before being shot again, this time fatally. Her body was later cremated by 006, along with the corpses of her sisters.
Gallery[]
Notes[]
- Helen bears a passing resemblance to the Mythos cyborg Helena, who was remodeled and effectively replaced by the Artemis character in the 2001 anime. This appears to be due to Ishinomori recycling the character design due to the girls' name similarities (and likely also owing to Mythos' canon status being questionable at the time). The Tokyopop translation even changes a line spoken by Joe to allude to this, with his line of "Hey! Hang in there!" altered to be "Hey! I remember you!".