Character Information | Spoiler Warning
Name: Kimihiko Ooe (大江 公彦; Ooe Kimihiko)
Origin: MPD-PSYCHO (Manga)
Canon Point: Post-Volume 11
Age: 20
Nationality: Kimihiko is part-Japanese, part-American, but grew up in Japan.
Place of Residence: Tokyo
Job: Lecturer at OA University, manager of live house.
Family: Lucy Monostone (Father), °C (Sister), Wakana Isono Monostone / Machi Isono Monostone (Sister)
Best Friend: Shinji Nishizono
Ally: Hisashi Shimazu (1.0)
Enemies: Gakuso, Wakano Isono Monostone
Spare: Shoku Koike (unconfirmed)
Core-Power: Technopathy. Within a short range, he can control and manipulate technology. It requires concentration but can be used to access devices connected to his own, among other things.
Kimihiko Ooe is a hacker and musical producer/manager, who is very skilled with technology. While he is capable of driving people to murder and suicide by adding "Lucy" to the music he produces, he chooses not to.
A Brief Summary of MPD-Psycho
Yosuke Kobayashi, a cop, has an ordinary life. He has a girlfriend, friends, a good job... at least until a murderer he's been chasing spots him on TV. When his girlfriend is targetted by the murderer, a second personality named Shinji Nishizono comes out, kills the murder and disappears - leaving a third personality, that of Kazuhiko Amamiya, to suffer for his crime. After a journality named Toguchi hands in proof of the multiple personalities, Amamiya is placed into the hands of Machi Izono, who hires him on as a detective dealing specifically with serial killers, due to his extensive profiling skills. However, when the killers begin to turn up dead, Kazuhiko Amamiya notices something odd... they're all registered with an eyebank and have a barcode-shaped mark on their eye - just like him...
Character History
Lucy Monostone.
That's where it all started, back in the sixties and seventies. A popular musician, Lucy Monostone was a cult phenomenon in the most literal of ways. A man who preached unity in death, Lucy gathered a cult around himself.
But Lucy Monostone was more than just a popular singer. He was hinted to be something inhuman...
Lucy was the founder of the experiments on human bodies during World War 2, in an attempt to reproduce people with special genes. Endorsing the deaths of people solely so their bodies could be experimented on, he was the root of Gakuso. A psychotic murderer with a soft side, an enigma who drew people to him like a siren. Through his voice and his music, he hypnotised people to follow him - and in the end, he led them to death. In 1972, Lucy Monostone was killed as part of a mass-suicide.
The same day, his twin children were born. Kimihiko and °C were viewed by Gakuso as potential new "Lucy"s and each were at some point implanted with a part of a program that when combined with the program of Kazuhiko Amamiya would recreate the "soul" of Lucy Monostone. Gakuso intended to harness Lucy's power.
At some point, Kimihiko and °C turned against Gakuso. Slipping the net with ease, for Gakuso did not keep perfect tabs on their projects, the unaware two allied with a sample known as Shinji Nishizono. A born killer, natural and violent, Shinji Nishizono soon became a close ally of theirs, and even a friend. At some point, Kimihiko and °C became closer than siblings and began a relationship.
Unable to fight Gakuso directly, Kimihiko set up a double life. On the outside, he was a respectable man. A lecturer at nineteen and the manager of a live house before he reached at that age. He became the manager of °C's career as a singer and worked in secret against Gakuso and the rest of the world. While Kimihiko Ooe was not the type of person to mindlessly slaughter, he harnessed the killing abilities of Shinji Nishizono and Hisashi Shimazu to target the samples - the human creations of Gakuso who were implanted with the programs.
It was a slow and tenuous process. In the meantime, as °C gained popularity slowly with her voice, Kimihiko began to test the limits of 'Lucy', the power Lucy Monotone had used, using it on rabbits as a test sample. The rabbits grew hostile and began to attack one another. They killed and devoured each other as he watched, until only one remained. As °C grew more famous, Kimihiko remained by her side, watching over and assisting with the technology used on stage. The relationship between the two remained intimate and the two became somewhat well-off. They settled down together.
Directing Shimazu against the samples, Kimihiko hoped to bring the world into panic and chaos, leading it to its end, and to bring Gakuso down one step at a time. Shimazu also gave him an eye taken from the sample he had killed last; the barcoded eye which identified who the sample was. As Gakuso employed many of the samples, this barcode allowed Kimihiko to hack undetected into Gakuso's files. Meanwhile, Shimazu was detected by Gakuso due to his relentlessly obvious methods. His instability made him a liability.
At the same time, Shinji Nishizono was investigating a killer at a young sample's request. Finding from Yosuke's files that he bore the barcode on his eye, he contacted Kimihiko for information and the two arranged a meeting for the first time in a long time. While Shinji was the face of the attack on Gakuso, Kimihiko did not receive contact from him often. This was only two years after mobile phones became available at a reasonable price and Yosuke Kobayashi would have wondered at finding a mobile under his name, resulting in their contact requiring easily-traceable lines of communication. Shinji asked him to investigate Kido Haito and to meet him.
As Kimihiko headed to meet Shinji, he spotted a woman standing outside the train. It was a woman he knew. Wakana Isono, a woman who was high in Gakuso and directly related to him - although she was unaware of that at the time. He did not know that merely moments before, Zenitsu had informed her of Kimihiko being the one behind Shimazu and the hacking, nor that she had just found out who he was. Soon afterwards, he arrived to meet Shinji on the roof of a tall building. Kimihiko gave Shinji an envelope containing three things. A printout on Kido, a walkman and an audio tape that he claimed might unlock Shinji's lost memories. When Shinji suspiciously asked why, Kimihiko simply claimed it to be repayment for the aid Shinji had earlier given them. Asking him to return it and tell him what happened, he left Shinji alone to listen.
Soon after, Kimihiko gave Shimazu a file showing a very familiar face. Gakuso had long since adopted the principle of developing perfect clones of all of their samples and of some important people, to be used as spare parts and replacements in their experiments. These people fit perfectly into society, some aware, some not. Claiming that the only way to tell who was the original was to kill the spare, Kimihiko sent Shimazu after Shimazu's own alternate. Never one for indirectness, Shimazu faced his alternate at a park at night and fought.
That same night, Kido Haito was picked up by Shinji's ally Bai, who drove him to him to inform him of the truth that Kimihiko had unveiled. Kido himself was the murderer that he had thought was stalking him. He had multiple personality disorder as a result of Gakuso and his own failed development. When Kido begged him to help him, Shinji told him he would have to face it alone and left him behind. That same night, Kido confronted his alternate personality. Goaded, terrified, Kido Haito threw himself in front of a train and separated himself from the murderer in more ways than one.
It was a day or so later, on Kimihiko and °C's birthday, that Shinji ran into °C on his way to their house. She informed him that Kimihiko had gone to visit Shimazu and that the two of them had a date that afternoon. "At the place where the stars can be seen during the day". It was a mystery that she had given Kido earlier. Offering to have the three of them play together next time, she left, and Shinji slipped off to buy flowers as a birthday sentiment. It was an unfortunate decision.
The Shimazu that Kimihiko had encountered was not his ally.
Showing him Shimazu's eye, he called Wakana from the shadows. While Shimazu cooed and mocked, Wakana Isono confronted him, calling him Lucy Monostone. Shocked, disbelieving, Kimihiko denied her words but Wakana simply explained the basis of the program of which Shinji Nishizono was considered a failed experiment. The program that would allow someone to influence the death-drive of others, causing suicide, murder, war... and the end of the world. Kimihiko's desire. °C's desire. Shinji's desire. And the desire of Lucy Monostone.
As Kimihiko rejected the claim, the deranged personality of "Lucy Monostone" took control of his body, to his horror. While the Lucy program continued to spout nonsense, Kimihiko found himself trapped in his own body - aware, but unable to stop Lucy from controlling him. Wakana told Lucy that he would need to transfer to her body to gain what he wanted. Taking the gun she offered him, he pointed it to Kimihiko's head. As Kimihiko fought desperately for his own life, Lucy mockingly told him that he desired death - and Wakana told him that °C would soon follow. In his shock, Kimihiko lapsed in his fighting.
As °C waited in their special place, Kimihiko Ooe committed forced suicide.
It was not enough for Wakana. Wakana confessed to Lucy, who held onto the corpse's lost life for a few moments, that they no longer needed him. They had done without him for twenty years. The program they had developed, combined with Lucy's songs, would be enough to make a new Lucy. She wished him a happy birthday, before shooting him a second time. Shinji Nishizono arrived mere moments too late.
While Shimazu went his own way, Wakana proceeded to where °C waited. Telling her that he would never arrive, she told °C that she had not killed Kimihiko - but that she would kill her. She shot her in the throat in order for Miwa, her copy, to take her place. She died staring up at the stars during the day, her wish ungranted.
It was much later that Shinji Nishizono avenged their deaths with the murder of Hisashi Shimazu, the event that resulted in Kazuhiko Amamiya's permanent switch to control over Yosuke Kobayashi. But Lucy's legacy was far from over... even if Kimihiko Ooe no longer played a part in it.
Character Personality
At first glance, Kimihiko Ooe seems like an ordinary person.
A genius who by the age of twenty was not only running a live house but lecturing at OA University, he comes across as a peaceful and pleasant person. His appearance is a little more casual than an ordinary lecturer, his style of clothing a combination between "casual" and "rock star", and when outside he's often to be seen wearing narrow sunglasses. His attitude is, for the most part, entirely relaxed.
But the truth is far from that pleasant outer-image. In actuality, Kimihiko Ooe could be considered to be a cold person. A man who desires "death" - not for himself, but the rest of the world - is not often prone to caring for others. Indeed there are only two people that he cares for. However he is intelligent. The mask of kindness that he wears is little more than a subtle manipulation attempt.
It's shown multiple times in the manga that Kimihiko's attitude changes discretely depending on who is around. While he's alone, his posture is immaculate, his mind focused. With the original Shimazu, he slouches and smirks, entirely confident. Where possible, he will even stand while the man sits - a subtle sign of dominance - and he will avoid eye contact. With Shinji he is on equal ground, but still defers somewhat to him. With °C, he softens, becoming more open and at ease.
When it comes down to it, Kimihiko does not care easily but he does care deeply. °C and Shinji Nishizono are people he has a high level of loyalty and fondness for. They and they alone are people he would die for - or even cry for. He feels no guilt or pity for those murdered at his will or otherwise, or those who die naturally or from accidents. With anyone who is not an enemy he is friendly and kind but behind that mask of friendliness is a calculating mind who seeks to use every advantage he can. And Kimihiko Ooe will use those advantages. Once he has a view of the personality of the other person, his attitude and words will shift to catch their interests.
Kimihiko is a man used to being in control of the situation. He is a perfectionist and a workaholic, a man who keeps his house immaculately tidy and neglects sleep and food for his work. He is extremely clinical in his methods, keeping surgical gloves around the house and handling the ripped-out eye of one of Shimazu's victims with care. He is in no sense a pacifist. He simply uses tools before he will use his own hands - if he even does.
Shimazu himself points out that Kimihiko is almost poetic in one regard. His desire to see the end of everything is something he feels strongly about. The end of Gakuso, of the samples - even the end of the world. Wakana points it out to him also. The "death drive" within him is turned outwards. His desires for murder, for war, for the end of the world - he is the type of person who wants to see the world collapse and destroy itself. But he does not desire his own death nearly as much. Rather, he fears it. There are only two other people whose deaths would bother him. His beloved sister and Shinji Nishizono.
However, Kimihiko is not a man prone to random violence, to uncontrolled cruelty or reckless actions. Everything he does is calculated. Everything has meaning. When people die, they die for a cause. His attitude remains uncaring and cold right to the end. Losing control of the situation seems to be the only thing that can break his mask of calmness and only Wakana's accusations of him being Lucy Monostone rouse him to honest anger. Kimihiko is a proud person, after all.
And proud people fall the hardest...
Random Facts
- Kimihiko is left handed but has learnt to use his right to do a multitude of things.
- They have a SKULL in their bedroom.
- He moves quietly enough to avoid waking °C when he slips out of bed despite having bare wooden floors.
- He is never shown using his sister's name except to Shinji, where he says "°C".
- His eyes are never shown but there is a hint that his eye might not be barcoded in his statement to Shimazu that his spare might have the barcode.
- Kimihiko seems to have really good hearing.
- The stars have particular meaning to them.