Pandora, Science Project Turned Best Friend
Devil's Candy was created by Bikkuri and REM, it can be read on Hiveworks
Welcome back to the blog! This character might seem familiar to you if you've played River City Girls 2, as she cameos in it. The connection she has with that game goes deeper than that, as the artist known for River City Girls is in fact the artist of this series! I was really looking forward to checking out Devil's Candy based on this bit of trivia, and it totally lived up to my expectations.
Unfortunately there is some content missing from this blog. Devil's Candy's VIZ physical releases contain author's notes regarding lore. Some volumes even contain exclusive chapters! The first couple VIZ published chapters containing bonus content are free to read online, but didn't have much relevant content to the blog. If I do get my hands on more extra content, I'll be sure to update the blog accordingly!
Background
"I don't know what you want, but you're never going to get it. If you mess with me or my friends, I will crush you into the ground… as many times as it takes."
Welcome to the world of devils. While there's a broad spectrum of creatures of the night inhabiting the world like cyclops, imps, and basilisks, everyone is considered a different type of devil. You'll find a wide diversity of devils in Umbra City, especially at its beloved school Hemlock Heart University.
Considering Hemlock is home to a variety of monsters, it's far from your average school. Activities there range from fashion shows where contestants have to dodge lasers while walking down a runway, a sport where the ball is an unborn egg of a sacred being, and creating bio-engineered monsters for science projects.
That last example brings us to Kazu Decker, a wide-eyed honors student working on a biology project create life. Assisted by his sardonic bestie Nemo, they made a girl out of various corpse parts and brought her to life Frankenstein style… or at least that's what was the story. In reality, Kazu created a completely original being without any borrowed parts. He tried to replicate a previous experiment to achieve these results, which still remains a secret.
Their project was a success! They created a girl their age, easily the most humanlike being out of the rest of the students' creations. Instead of treating her like science experiment to be paraded, the two treated her more like their friend and classmate. They even got her enrolled as a student in Hemlock, as Kazu wanted to teach her about the world they live in. From that day forward, she'd be known as Pandora.
When Pandora was first created, she was an emotionless girl with a knack for violence. She was made with a brain great at absorbing information; by her second day of being alive, she started talking and gradually increased her vocabulary. Over time she comes into her own, expanding on her feelings, wants and desires, who she is and what she means to others.
While still unexpressive, she has a decidedly blunt personality and doesn't take nonsense from the bizarre happenings on campus. She's a girl of few words, mostly just speaking when necessary (or just shouting out fighting moves). She's naturally tough and has great instincts, so she developed a love for punching things. That was only solidified when she became enamored by the tokusatsu superhero Devilizer—who's secretly her gym teacher!
Despite her stoicism, she gets along with everyone. Many students come to seek her advice and recommendations on stuff after she really establishes herself in school. She just has qualities of a natural born leader.
She isn't entirely loyal to Kazu, as early on she she developed a grudge against him for calling her a "normal girl". That led to a brief phase of her not liking being bossed around, but she's since grown out of that and is now much more protective of her friends.
Pandora often gets roped into a lot of crazy shenanigans at school. It's usually just because she's in Kazu's vicinity, often begged by the spineless principle Elliot to solve his problems. Each crazy conflict she's involved in does help her learn how to be a better devil and an even better friend. Pandora and her pals get so wrapped up in their wild adventures, that they form the Save the World Club to help devils with their problems.
With a recent stellar performance in her school's sports game, she winds up becoming targeted by the Scarlet Crown Organization, a daemon mob that owns half of Umbra City. Still, she, Kazu, and their ragtag group of friends are pretty well seasoned in chaos already, and won't let them have their way with her.
Experience and Skill
Pandora hasn't been reanimated for that long, but she is a really fast learner. Gifted with exceptional reflexes and immense strength, she was quickly exposed to the utter chaos that goes on at Hemlock Heart Academy and adapts to it thanks to her no-nonsense nature and brutish strength.
She learns in the moment, like how she seamlessly copied Pia's moves during their fight—which Pia trained hard to perfect. For someone who hasn't lived for that long, she becomes shockingly smart over time. By chapter 17 she's getting better test scores than Kazu, the smartypants honors student.
Pandora hasn't been reanimated for that long, but she is a really fast learner. Gifted with exceptional reflexes and immense strength, she was quickly exposed to the utter chaos that goes on at Hemlock Heart Academy and adapts to it thanks to her no-nonsense nature and brutish strength.
She learns in the moment, like how she seamlessly copied Pia's moves during their fight—which Pia trained hard to perfect. For someone who hasn't lived for that long, she becomes shockingly smart over time. By chapter 17 she's getting better test scores than Kazu, the smartypants honors student.
Equipment
Knife
She's had this since the first day she was alive. She's pretty skilled in slicing and dicing.
She's had this since the first day she was alive. She's pretty skilled in slicing and dicing.
Safety Pin
Some aspects of Pandora were cobbled together before the assignment deadline, so in early episodes she bore an oversized safety pin in her chest holding her together. That didn't stop her from taking it out to use it as a weapon.
Some aspects of Pandora were cobbled together before the assignment deadline, so in early episodes she bore an oversized safety pin in her chest holding her together. That didn't stop her from taking it out to use it as a weapon.
Screamy Buddy
Basically an alert device to contact Kazu if she’s in trouble. If she pokes it in the eye, it and Kazu’s screamy buddy will holler, and he can use screamo-location to find her. The screams it emits are pretty disorienting.
Basically an alert device to contact Kazu if she’s in trouble. If she pokes it in the eye, it and Kazu’s screamy buddy will holler, and he can use screamo-location to find her. The screams it emits are pretty disorienting.
Trusty Shovel
A model replica from one of her favorite shows Psychokiller Steve. It even came already bloodstained!
A model replica from one of her favorite shows Psychokiller Steve. It even came already bloodstained!
Abilities
CQC
One of Pandora's innate skills is throwing hands. There isn't a specific martial art she's proficient in, but a good portion of it is influenced by her tokusatsu idol Devilizer. Fighting against other physical fighters melded her into an even more capable brawler.
One of Pandora's innate skills is throwing hands. There isn't a specific martial art she's proficient in, but a good portion of it is influenced by her tokusatsu idol Devilizer. Fighting against other physical fighters melded her into an even more capable brawler.
Superhuman Physical Characteristics
Pandora was created with inhuman strength and great reflexes. That makes her a well-rounded protector!
Pandora was created with inhuman strength and great reflexes. That makes her a well-rounded protector!
Accelerated Learning and Adaptation
Kazu wanted an organic approach for Pandora's brain development, so he gave her a blank slate of a brain and tried to reproduce how its learning process works. The result is a brain exceptional at absorbing information. So much so, that in a short amount of time she's able to communicate, write, and fight pretty well.
She learns in the moment, and this is best displayed during combat. After getting molly wopped by the daemon Pia, in their next fight she was able to replicate her moves seamlessly that took her a long time to master.
Kazu wanted an organic approach for Pandora's brain development, so he gave her a blank slate of a brain and tried to reproduce how its learning process works. The result is a brain exceptional at absorbing information. So much so, that in a short amount of time she's able to communicate, write, and fight pretty well.
She learns in the moment, and this is best displayed during combat. After getting molly wopped by the daemon Pia, in their next fight she was able to replicate her moves seamlessly that took her a long time to master.
Techniques
Burning Blood
A two-palm strike that can send people flying.
A two-palm strike that can send people flying.
Devil Hecatomb
She was stopped before she was able to perform this one. The mysterious crackling around her hand should be noted, but that's the only instance of it.
She was stopped before she was able to perform this one. The mysterious crackling around her hand should be noted, but that's the only instance of it.
Feats
Overall
- Destroyed Gyro's science project the Ultimate Woman
- She was the only participant to succeed in Hemlock Heart’s Absolute Fashion Armageddon where the other girls couldn’t get past sentinel lasers
- When Hemlock’s eggscram team the Nightmares was being dominated by the Infernos, the moment she swapped with Kazu she really boosted her team’s morale. While they weren’t able to score many points, the egg did hatch for Pandora—which is what mattered most
- Overpowered Pia, Luciferin’s bodyguard and rival to Pandora during their rematch
Strength
- Destroyed the giant bio monster the Ultimate Woman
- Punched down a door
- Smashed the body of the perfect being to pieces
- Threw a motorcycle
- Sliced Tremolo's flying ship in half—along with Tremolo himself
- Held up a giant club to stop it from hitting the ground
- Punched Pia through a wall
Speed
- Deflected the Ultimate Woman's large beam attack
- Consistently dodges a ton of lasers
- Stopped a motorcycle just as she was thrown in front of one
- Dodges Pia punching a huge hole through multiple walls
- Deflects a bunch of rapid-fire punches
- Moved in a flash to get in front of Pia
- Dodges three spears trying to skewer her at once
- She kicked so fast and rapidly that her leg left afterimages
Durability
- Hit through a wall
- Endured her fingers getting sliced off
- Survived an explosion that blew up part of the Hemlock campus
- She was hit by Pia so hard, that the ground under her cracked
- Lost a lot of blood during her first fight with Pia
- Endured a direct strike from one of Tremolo’s giant serpents. Said attack also destroyed part of the school
Scaling
The Save the World Club
Don't count Pandora's friends out, they've got some impressive feats too!
- Kazu, Nemo, and the science club survived an explosion that blew up part of the Hemlock campus
- Nemo dodged a wall-level strike
- Nemo was hit through a window
- Hitomi slapped Gyro so far away he resembled a sparkle
- Hitomi is capable of ripping a car in half
- Hitomi threw Levi into the ground so hard it cracked
- Hitomi kicked Levi in the balls so hard it caused a small explosion and shook a nearby room
- Hitomi can hold a massive club with one hand
- Clarence can move in a flash after drinking blood
- Clarence was hit into a motorcycle, destroying it
- Yahgie (wielding sentient guitar Mark Stevenson) sent Tremolo through a wall
- Yahgie's ninja construct blocked a giant laser
- Mark blew a hole through a roof
- Mark created a barrier to block a huge explosion
Scarlet Crown Organization
The main antagonistic force in the webcomic. Pandora and pals square off these criminals throughout the webcomic, who prove to be a challenge in every encounter.
Hemlock Students and Staff
Devil's Candy has an abundance of quirky side characters, and some of them are relevant to sclaing!
- Gyro's Ultimate Woman burst through a wall
- Gyro's Ultimate Woman has a beam attack that caused a huge explosion after getting deflected, sending shockwaves through the sky
- Horatio can move at blinding speeds and vibrate his body so quickly that he disrupts peoples' brainwaves
- Skeleton Ninja Sensei recovered after getting torn apart
- Echo outsped Nicodemus
Weaknesses
- Despite having accelerated learning, all things considered she’s still inexperienced and doesn't always choose her fights well
Matchup Potential
What I'm looking for the most in a Pandora matchup is another character that develops their own sense of self after being brought to life. They don't need to be Frankenstein-esque, but matching her spooky aesthetic does help. Same goes for being able to provide comedic potential, as Devil's Candy can be pretty hilarious. While I have nothing yet, I heard Devil's Candy get compared to Soul Eater in the past. Maybe there's a character there that works well? Idk.
NEXT TIME ON WCAB… whenever I feel like it
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