Mao

Mao
Introduced	Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice
Kana	マオ
Romaji	Mao
Characteristics
Age	1578
Birthday	December 3
Home	Evil Academy
Race	Demon
Class	Overlord Spawn (D3) Principal (D2) Evil Academy Dean (D4/DD2/D5) Honor Student (D6/D7)
Voice Actors
Japanese	Hiromi Hirata
English	Vic Mignogna (Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice) Landon McDonald (Disgaea 6: Defiance of Destiny)

Mao is the protagonist of Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice. He is the #1 Honor Student of Evil Academy who has never attended to class. His goal in life is to defeat his father, the Overlord and chairman of the Academy.

Profile

Appearance

Mao is a demon with pale skin, red eyes, pointy ears, round glasses, and incredibly scruffy white hair. Mao's outfit resembles that of a school uniform, with his jacket being worn more like a cape than what it actually is. His shirt is black and long-sleeved, with four golden buttons arranged 2 by 2 at the end of each of them. His jacket is red with 4 golden buttons on each side of its front opening, and is linked together near the collar by silver chains. The ends of the jacket's sleeves are black with a black pattern just above the ends, made up of a large centered circle and a rectangular band around the rest of the way. The inside of the jacket is colored magenta, and the popped collar has small, rectangular golden studs near the front. Mao wears black dress shorts underneath white shorts that flare exaggeratedly wide towards their openings for his legs. He has a black colored belt with a golden, typical-looking belt buckle. He has black socks and wears large, cartoony red shoes that resemble high-topped basketball shoes with black shoelaces and some white patterning. The bottoms of his shoes are black, and he has one gold button on each side of his shoes' exaggeratedly wide tops, coming to four in total.

His eyes typically appear to be angry, and his resting facial position tends to be a scowl. When Mao is excited or intruiged by something, his glasses will fog up and appear totally white, which is a common trope for characters with glasses in anime.

Personality

See main article: Mao/Personality.

Story

Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

See main article: Mao/Story.

Gameplay

Main article: Overlord Spawn

Mao using Vasa Aergun in Disgaea 5

Mao's class is initially called Overlord Spawn, but is later retitled Hero, among other things and Overlord in Post Game. He has high Attack and Intelligence aptitudes, as well as decent HP and SP, making him a rather powerful character. He also learns Ice spells up to Giga (Tera in AoD) making him similar to a Magic Knight.

He starts out with a Sword and can also use an Axe, Spear or a Staff. His Signature Evility is Violent Courage which increases his Attack power by 3% times the number of Enemies there are on the field.

His Unique Attacks are Blast Finger, Shine Beam and Vasa Aergun.

Blast Finger can attack a single foe and has a range of 4 (straight). During the move, Mao throws his weapon up in the air, covers his hand in green energy, and jumps over towards the foe. He then grabs the foe and unleashes the energy in a pointblank range blast. He then jumps back and grabs his weapon on its way back down. It is learned at Level 8.

Shine Beam attacks the three spaces directly a head of Mao. During the move, Mao throws his weapon up in the air and covers his hand in blue energy. He then unleashes it into several rays of energy that come at the opponents from various directions. The energy rays then rapidly change directions and grow in size, effectively shredding at the enemy until the rays cover the screen. Once it fades back, Mao catches his weapon and the enemies plummet back down to the ground. It is learned at Level 32.

Vasa Aergun has an X-shaped Area of Effect, meaning it can hit up to 5 enemies at once and has a range of 4 along with it being a Star-based attack. During the attack, Mao is covered in a white aura and rises up off the ground. Eventually, it begins to zoom out off of Mao and has him transform into a gigantic monster. In his new "Monster Mode", Mao then fires 4 streams of lightning at the foes (1 from each of his hands, and 1 from each wing), causing them to rise up off the ground. Monster Mao then begins charging energy into his mouth and then fires out a massive energy blast which incinerates his targets. The attack ends back on the map with Mao normal once again. This skill is obtained after completing 6-2 in the storyline after Mao awakens his true powers in the Heart Vault.

Quotes

Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice

• "Demons must relish solitude!"
• "To fullfill one's curiosity, a demon must do an evil turn daily!"
• "A demon must commit acts of taboo to remain cool and popular!"
• A wise demon once said, "What's your is mine, and what's mine is also mine."
• "Demons must always slap aside the hands of those begging for help!"

Disgaea 6: Defiance of Destiny

• My new Internet video channel is a big hit. Today, I plan to respond to a request by uploading a video of a Prinny dissection.
• I spare no expense when studying heroes. I'm developing a device to capture reincarnated heroes when they transfer to a new world.
• Hey, let me modify that Juice Bar machine. Heh heh heh... Oh, I won't cause any harm. I just want to make it spit out dark matter.
• I was excitedly panting as usual when some brat asked me, What breath is that? So, I clearly responded, 'Tis my breath!
• *huff* *huff* Super Reincarnation is very intriguing. I'd love to experiment with it, but I don't have a proper test subject...

Other Appearances

Disgaea 2: Dark Hero Days

Mao appears in Disgaea 2: Dark Hero Days as a playable character. To get him, you must pass a bill in the Dark Assembly and beat him. His bill is unlocked by unlocking both Mr. Champloo and Raspberyl, as well as having access to the Land of Carnage. During the battle, Mao is level 3200 and has 6 Kurtis Robots with him. Mao is also found in the Item World, where the player can ask him to grant the Magichange 2 ability onto a single monster class character. This saves trying to pass a bill for this which costs mana.

Disgaea Infinite

He also appears in the Disgaea Infinite visual novel, having been forced into working as delivery boy by Raspberyl. This leads to a continuity error, as he knows who Laharl, Etna, and Flonne are if he sees them, but when they appear in Disgaea 3, which takes place several years later chronologically, he doesn't recognize them at all. Although, due to the main character Prinny's interference, his recognition of the trio could have been a change in the timeline. The Trio's fame in the area of the Netherworld, in which the novel takes place, could also have caused Mao to know them.

Disgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten

Mao was released in Disgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten as a DLC character. In his DLC cutscenes, he apparently has taken an interest in Desco for his future experiments. However, he is constantly beaten up by Fuka (and at one time, Vulcanus) for his actions. There is also a Pirate Ship named "Getter Mao" which Mao constructed for dissecting people and is somehow powered by Super Hero Aurum.

Most of Mao's skill were changed from Disgaea 3, with the exception of Shine Beam, which added in a 'hero crown' during the initial animation, which makes him look even more like the Leo Knight in Saint Seiya. He has two different skills, replacing both Blast Finger with Evil Modification, and Vasa Aergun with Evil Transformation ; this last move is a reference to the demon fusion in the Shin Megami Tensei games.

Disgaea D2: A Brighter Darkness

Mao appears in Disgaea D2: A Brighter Darkness as a DLC character. He was released on May, 30th 2013 in Japan along with Raspberyl and Salvatore. He retains his three specials from Disgaea 3 with a visual upgrade to all of them, and no longer has a hero crown when using the skill Shine Beam.

Disgaea 5: Alliance of Vengeance

Mao returns in Disgaea 5: Alliance of Vengeance as a DLC character in a pack, along with Raspberyl, Salvatore, Almaz, Sapphire and Mettalia. He was seen in a DLC story along with Raspberyl and Salvatore "Field Trip".

He retains all of his skills from both Disgaea 3 and D2, with his skill animation Blast Finger returning back to its original animation from Disgaea 3 although he doesn't throw his weapon in the air (that's not a fist weapon) before executing the skill. He has an overload skill Astaroth Reform, which modifies all the player characters' weapons to have an increased stat of 50% for three turns.

He can execute a combination attack with Raspberyl called Ultimate Bookmark, which was one of the original skills she had in Disgaea D2.

Disgaea RPG

Mao appears in the Mao's Lab section. Mao's Lab allows you to perform 4 functions: Reincarnate, Awakening, Nether Enhancement (N.E.), and Allocate Mana. He also appears as a recurring character in events.

Mao

"He's the current Dean of Evil Academy. He has an EQ of 1.8 million and loves conducting evil research. He's also a remodeling maniac who loves to drizzle soy sauce on omelets."

Easter Mao

"Mao in his Easter costume. The Easter Eggs he made with his 1.8 Million Evil Quotient... What is he going to do with them?"

Mao XENO

"A Mao from another dimension. In his obsession for Body Sculpting, he's constantly practicing the Evil Gymnastics he invented in his spare time. His nickname is "Mao Mao"."

Evil Reborn Mao

"The result of the Super Hero's plot as Mao is consumed by his wicked heart, setting him on a path of carnage. Not even the Super Hero can stop him..."

Curator Mao

"Mao has become the curator of the Netherworld Manji Tech Expo, a dream of his since childhood. The cane he carries contains the power of a superhero."

Gallery

See main article: Mao/Gallery.

Trivia

• In Disgaea 4, the player can purchase paint schemes from the Character Painter for Mao that have the same color palettes as his heart residents such as Savvy Mao, Mao who says Dad, and Dark Mao.
• Mao's mother is never revealed..
• Mao demands to get his dry cleaning bill from his dad, and Stella in Disgaea 3: Absence of Detention.
• In Disgaea 3, Mao seems to like Caterpillar Jelly and Spider web cookies.
• During the Post-Game, Mao's stolen item, which he constantly calls 'that' is actually a Super Hero Aurum action figure.
• In Mao's concept art, it's shown that he has a crescent-shaped scar on his forehead. It can be assumed that this is a parody on Harry Potter, considering both characters share round glasses, a school environment, and an affinity for magic, but it's not always visible due to his hair and has never been mentioned. The scar is slightly visible in his default portrait in story cutscenes, his character icons in Disgaea 4 and Disgaea 5, his Makai Wars artwork and every one of his cut-ins from his debut in Disgaea 3 to his most recent appearance as a DLC in Disgaea 5.
• Mao is the only character in Disgaea 3 that unlocks their final skill through the story instead of leveling for it (similar to how Yukimaru, Fuka and Killia obtain their final skills).
• Mao is the only DLC character who previously appeared in Disgaea 4 or Disgaea D2 to have a different Cut-in Image in Disgaea 5, looking almost like the one from his original game, except with an evil grin.
• Mao's skill "Blast finger" is a reference to the Shining Gundam from Mobile Fighter G Gundam this is evident by the green color scheme of Mao's attack which is similar to the green hand of the Shining Gundam.
• Mao is a cat lover, whilst disliking dog lovers, confirmed from a quote he says in his lab in Disgaea RPG.
  • This may be a nod to Mao meaning cat in Chinese (猫 māo).
• In Japanese, Mao’s personal pronoun is “ware” (我), a very old-fashioned and formal personal pronoun normally used when speaking on behalf of a company or group.