Kouta:
Nana:
Since I seen Elfen Lied again and read the Manga I decided to propose two only characters that can qualify as NPG as rest have too many corrupting factors and/or are bog-standard/fail to other characters.
What’s The Work?
Elfen Lied is an Manga and Anime series by Lynn Okamoto that feature the romance between the Diclonius Lucy and Kouta who have a history together where it explores backstories of the two while dealing with the Diclonius Research Institution who wish to recapture her and use her as an means to wipeout humanity and replace them with the Diclonius the dominant species.
Who Are They?
Kouta
Kouta is secondary protagonist of the Elfen Lied series who is the older brother of deceased Kanae and cousin of Yuka as well as the love interest of Lucy. He originally an childhood friend of Lucy but due to an misunderstanding lead to her killing his father & sister and being traumatized from it where he unknowingly reunite with in present day as Nyu.
Nana
Nana is supporting character in the series who is adoptive daughter of Kurama and an member of the Diclonius race who unlike most isn’t hostile due to receiving enough love from Kurama that stop her from being driven into murder like Lucy or Mariko.
What Makes Them Close to Pure Good?
Admirable Standards
Elfen Lied has an lower admirable standards as heroism very little and the only ones who can outdo them is Lucy but she can’t be compared since Lucy is stronger than Nana while they can standout from Bando and Kurama which Nana is unable to compare to the two.
Kouta and Nana don’t fail to each other since Kouta just an human male while Nana is an Diclonius with vectors so they are able to standout from one another.
Admirable Acts
Kouta
While he was mostly bog-standard for most of the story with basic acts of kindness and etc he does have enough goodness zone acts to stand out so I will just list the only major important ones.
He would take in Mayu when she needed to hide from her abusive mother and stepfather the latter assaulting Mayu and Nozomi
He would also shelter Lucy/Nyu and try to keep herself from harm or discovered seeing the good in her despite being told she is dangerous, while it was originally unintentionally admirable due to memory loss but once he regains them it becomes intentionally admirable as he still did it even when he know Lucy’s true identity later on.
When the Diclonius Research Institution tried to invade the Maple Inn to retrieve Lucy he would attempt to protect everyone as while he did hold Doctor Nousou at gunpoint it was due to desperation to protect his friends from harm and only doing to pressure them to backdown as he wouldn’t pull the trigger unless he is forced to plus Nousou is far from innocent anyways so it don’t count as lethal corrupting though he was shot by Agent (an heroic antagonist) despite it.
What allows him to stand out is he is able to reform Lucy an Inconsistently Heinous Villain to change for the better as his influence on her what prevented her from completely wiping out all of humanity and prevent her from more unnecessary killing especially when he was able to make her swear to not kill her anymore until events beyond either control ruin it in the Manga where his influence on her prevented her from destroying the Earth when she got driven berserk later on and reversed it thanks to his kindess. While he was angry at Lucy it was due to it being fact she killed his father & sister in front him but was willingly gonna give her an second chance so it isn’t corrupting. In the Manga when Kurama attempted to shoot Lucy he took the bullet for her despite being angry for what she did as he couldn’t allow it to happen telling her not to be upset on it.
He would out an end to the DNA Voice who attempted to destroy the Earth after Lucy stopped where Lucy & Nyu was able to hold off the DNA Voice long enough for Kouta having to mercy kill her with an pistol while showing ton of hesitation and remorse in doing so.
Though he has a daughter resembles Yuka in final arc but it relies too much on up to the reader to decide to confirm it with details on Nyu Jr.’s mother being vague due to it heavily relying on the reader to decide that so it relies on fridge-logic.
Since he has almost no resources to work with he can’t be compared to everyone else besides Mayu who is bog-standard meaning he can stand out since his role in reforming Lucy for the better and saving the world from the DNA Voice allow him to stand out enough as without those two major acts he would’ve been bog-standard instead.
Nana
While she isn’t admirable like Lucy she did do stuff on her own to standout from her and is less powerful so it wouldn’t be an problem.
She would manage to make Kurama an anti-villain change for the better thanks to her kind behavior. She did have supporting role in helping Lucy at times whenever she is On & Off doing heroism.
When she noticed Mariko was approaching where she was she would leave the Maple Inn to prevent her newly made friends from being endangered allowing herself to go to her so no one would get harmed even when she no chances.
In the Manga she would protect her former enemy and Kurama from an vengeful Lucy trying to make Kurama to suffer and once she was Nyu again manage to convince Kurama to spare her due to Mapple Inn’s attachment to her and did promise to deal if she become Lucy again.
Later on would also attempt to protect her friends from the Unknown Man (An Pure Evil) when he attempted to do harm to them by fighting him off until he incapacitated her.
She would later attempt stop Lucy from harming others when the Unknown Man was taken down by assisting Bando to incapacitate the Diclonius Queen again.
She would manage to help redeemed Kurama suffering the loss of Mariko to recover even when he tried to push her away and would later protect him from an Mariko clone when she tried to kill them both before attempting to stop Lucy once and for that ended up backfiring that is.
Since Elfen Lied has an extremely low admirable standard her acts are more than enough to stand out.
While she did some berserk moments they were more of heating up periods due to her being pushed to the brim emotionally and calmed down back to her usual self once she cooled off and all of her clumsy moments were played for comedy so it doesn’t make her incompetent.
What Prevents Them From Being Pure Good?
Kouta
He has minor jerkish moments while his anger to Lucy is justified since she did took the lives of his father & sister, he still had some minor jerkish moments to others Yuka, Nana and some others but is an minor since he is usually kind most of the time.
Nana
She has minor lethal moments as while she is much less lethal than Lucy and other Diclonius she did try to attack and kill Lucy when she was Nyu when she wasn’t an threat to anyone though is minor since she had good intentions.
She also have minor moral moral agency issues since she has mentality of young child lacking concepts as she mistook money for firewood or lacking the concept of romance to name the few but is an minor prevention since she is able to choice to do good even though she is the member of an hostile species.
Verdict
Kouta
I say mid yes as while he had standard acts of kindness at first he would eventually do enough acts to standout such as protecting those he cared about even if he was helpless as well as reforming Lucy for the better and while he was unaware at first he would become aware of it saving it from being unintentionally admirable once he regained his memories and his act of ending the DNA Voice’s reign of terror by having to mercy kill Lucy to save the world allows him to stand out but he has an couple jerkish moments here and there preventing him from being the only PG of the series.
Nana
I say mid yes as she is able to stand out from Lucy since she did fought against her and the Unknown Man to protect others from harm and redeeming an Anti-Villain like Kurama for the better but shown to be minor lethal for trying to kill Lucy as Nyu when she wasn’t an threat to anyone and her minor moral agency issues due to lacking some concepts like money and such.