Narugami Kyoichiro

Merlock Holmes
Kyoichiro Narugami (鳴神京一郎（なるがみ きょういちろう, Narugami Kyōichirō)
Debut (Manga):	Chapter 5
Debut (Anime):	episode 5
Seiyū:	Kappei Yamaguchi
Voice actor:	Dave Mallow
Species:	"Vampire"
Classification:	Time Detective (Later Resigns, but rejoins)
Time Period:	25th Century Tama City- Japan
Gender:	Male

Merlock is a time detective.

Appearance

Merlock stands as tall as the shorter adults in the show such as Dr. Bernard Goodman, and appears as a youthful young man with slight feminine features. Being descended from vampires, he has red eyes, longer canine teeth then a humans (though only the left one tends to be drawn in most shots) and blue-tinted skin. His outfit is mostly blue and white and he almost always has a cape and often has white gloves on, it seems to be based on 16th/17th century European style. He is overall much smarter dressed compare to Flint Hammerhead's more rougher design and is overall meant to give the impression of a young charming man. Merlock and Petra end up displaying the most emotive facial expressions in the show. They also have the most variation in their character model, their facial and body features size and shape varies the most between episodes. Even his transformation into Koumori-Kyoichiro has variations between scenes within episode 32, as well as the later episode 37 when it is recreated by Ominito.

When he was under the Uglinator's control, his eyes gain a black under-shadow highlight and his eyebrows frown constantly making his expressions more evil. The pupil of his eyes also become smaller, whereas in most other instances they were more rounded to make him look friendlier.

When he is transformed into his Koumori-Kyoichiro form, his appearance changes to make him look more demonic. His fangs lengthen and become sharper while all his other teeth also become fangs. His skin darkens to a more grayish blue colour and he grows large wings. His fingers are transformed into just two digits and a thumb. His hair lengthens to a length that goes all the way down his back. He also becomes much more muscular and much bigger in size, being taller then the rest of the non-Time Shifter cast of characters. His ears also become longer and more pointy and his overall appearance takes a much more older and sinister look.

In the manga, his attire is different. He wears a magician's hat (which he looses) and a different type of cape, as well as a pair of boots.

Merlock, standing in front of a re-creation of his Bat-form created by Ominito

Merlock waking up after a nightmare

Merlock as a mosquito

Merlock while he was under the Uglinator's control

Merlock in the manga

Personality

Merlock is a proud individual who thinks highly of himself. He considers himself as both beautiful and great. In fact in the Japanese dub he often makes poetic-style rhetorical questions with short but poetic answers ("An unexpected encounter in an unexpected place? They call 'destiny'") which are intended to make him look more charming. All of which are downplayed with his fateful habit of falling randomly or having other such accidents. This includes falling into a well, being knocked off buildings, having tree branches break under him or being hit randomly by something or someone else being sent already flying through the air. He seems calm and collective otherwise, and is well mannered and polite, despite his accidents.

He stays out of Flint's way during the early episodes, though helped Sarah when she was in trouble. As the series progresses, so does his interactions with Flint's group though refuses to interfere with Flint's own mission. Still he remained Flint's ally and even refused to capture any of the Time Shifters when Bindi suggested it later on as it would interfere with Flint's mission. After the events of Episode 32, as stated in episode 34, that idea that being turned evil again would endanger the lives of Sarah, Flint and the others, but that also he risked interfering with Flint's job. He admits in episode 38 that he didn't realize being a Time detective would be such hard work.

When after the Time Shifter Change, he mistakes a comment by Sarah as her ideal man being that of a wealthy stature, to which Merlock mentions that he must be therefore her ideal man as he himself is rich.

In the manga his overall personality is more reserved, though expresses extreme annoyance at the idiotic behaviors of others. He resists Flints attempts to befriend him due to the prosecution of Vampires by humans.

Relationships

• Flint Hammerhead; Initially, Merlock is curious about Flint. However, he also begins to harbor jealous feelings since he always succumbed to events that made him look bad in front of Sarah, making Sarah pay more attention to Flint then him. After the events of Episode 32, the pair accept each other as equals and any jealous feelings towards Flint are lost.
• Sarah Goodman; He has a deep crush on Sarah, to the point of he has a habit of ignoring all other events going on to proclaim his love for her, though she never returns any of his advances.
• Tony Goodman: Merlock hardy pays attention to Tony and Tony notes how Merlock hardly pays attention to anyone but his sister.
• Bindi; In Episode 12 after meeting Bindi, Bindi when Bindi talks about her loneliness, Merlock seems to understand about loneliness. After the episode, Bindi joins Merlock as his partner. Bindi becomes easily jealous of any advances he makes on Sarah, due to her own feelings for Merlock.

Abilities

Merlock's hypnotic powers

Merlock is descended from vampires and therefore has Vampire genes in his genetic make-up. In the English version, it is not fully explained about his ancestry and it is skipped over. Merlock recovers from injuries quicker then a normal human, is able to take more of a beating and is "a little more immortal" due to his heritage, but lacks his ancestors ability to suck blood. He has strength that surpasses a normal human to the point he could knock Flint Hammerhead around in their fight, he is often seen leaping off of buildings also due to this strength. He lacks endurance and is not very athletic despite all his other abilities and this was shown in both episode 21 and episode 38.

He relies on a level of magic to back him up, having a rose which is capable of transforming into a cane. The cane fires a heat beam. It can also be used in conjunction with his cape to form a wall around someone, when the cape is pulled away their clothes have changed.

Merlock had a level of intelligence and using it to research Flint and the Time Shifters. He was able to work out Flint had a connection to the Time Shifters, but unable to decipher where Flint's strength came from. As well as being fairly intelligent, he is also strong will and was the first person in the series to manage to resist the Uglinator's skull mark (which was stronger then the Petra Stamp mark), though eventually succumbed to it anyway.

Due to his constant mishaps, most of his abilities are downplayed with slapstick humor.

Transformation

• Vampire Heritage

Merlock with the Uglinator attached to him

Merlock's Vampire heritage also allows his to change into a bat-like version of himself, referred to in the Japanese dub as "Koumori-Kyoichiro" (蝙蝠京一郎, "Bat-Kyoichiro"). This form was brought out by Uglinator's influence and is burried deep within Merlock's psyche, being only able to be brought out only by the Uglinator breaking down all of Merlock's mental controls and assuming complete control of Merlock's mind.

In this form, he grows large wings and becomes much more muscular, he has much more power then Flint himself. The Uglinator calls this Merlocks "true power". Merlock's Vampire form is dangerous, and even Merlock himself knew of this, resulting to him begging Flint to do whatever it took to stop himself from hurting anyone.

Also instead of using his normal cane, this form using a scythe for battle.

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History

Manga

He appears in Chapter 5 and is the first of the main character to encounter Coconaut. Flint arrives soon after and Merlock and he lashes out when Flint attempts to befriend his fellow Time Detective. Merlock explains his status of being a Vampire and talks of his troubles, Flint is left upset by Merlock's words and feels sympathy towards his blight.

When Coconaut is transformed to Coconaut-kon, he is whacked into the base of ships broken mast and knocked unconscious. Sarah takes care of him while Flint fights and he regains consciousness once the fight is over.

Anime

It is unknown how long Merlock had been following flint, since he was assigned to watch him from a distance. Merlock did have footage of Flint during his rescue of Talen, suggesting he had been following him for several missions prior to unveiling himself.

Merlock first appeared during episode 5, where he saves Flint and his friends in an attempt to cheer up Sarah. Afterwards he attempts to steal a kiss from her. He is prevented from doing so when Flint sneezes, sending him flying.

In episode 6 he sends a dagger to Sarah who is tied up with Flint and the others, but is then swept away by a freak wave.

In episode 8, he helps Sarah solve Lynx's riddle and is seen crawling away to avoid being seen (and the only time his exit wasn't because he fell victim to random accidents).

In episode 9 he uses his shadow to create a arrow with his body to point Sarah, Getalong, Pterry and Tony in the right direction. The house owner then causes him to fall through the roof of the house.

Merlock's first major role in a episode was episode 12, where he saves and protects Bindi from Petra and finally introduces his name and Time Detective status. Bindi joins him from here on in as his partner.

In episode 14 he reports his findings to Jillian Grey on Flint and the Time-Shifters. Later, while standing on top of the Time Bureau building, he is knocked off the building by Petra, disguised as Miss Iknow and her two henchmen.

He continues to study Flint, though does not go out on missions for a while. He is next seen in episode 18, where his work kept him from noticing Bindi. Bindi runs off and falls into Petras hands. He attempts to rescue her and when Flint tries to fight Bindi, Merlock prevents Flint from fighting her. He lets Bindi drain all of his energy as Bindi-con. When she falls down, he manages to pull the last of his strength to go to her and ensure her importance to him. He then collapses, causing Bindi to transform into Bindi master, who then heals him. Bindi returns with him back home int he 25th century, where he recovers. After Flint and his friend visit, he explains his heritage to them.

After this, he returns to watching flint, and occasionally helping him, though is not so hidden as he was before. This time, his flattery and pursuit of Sarah is met with Bindi's disapproval, who now ends up being the reason for many of his random accidents.

This changes when in episode 32, the Uglinator takes over his mind, causing him to push Bindi and his friends away and become Uglinator's puppet. He challenges Flint to a fight, with the hope of willing Sarah's admiration. Flint refuses to fight, but Merlock does not, and attacks ruthlessly. However, all the fighting does is turn Sarah against his actions, she runs into the arena and slaps him in the face, then cries on his chest begging for Merlock to return to being a Time Detective. This breaks him out of the control. However, this does not stop Uglinator, who leaps onto Merlock's head and takes full control of Merlock, bringing out his Vampire heritage. Now, stronger then ever, Merlock attacks. Flint is once again reluctant to fight, until Bindi Master defends Flint and asks he fight to bring Merlock back to his sense.

After whacking Merlock in the head with Rocky Hammerhead, the control loosens enough for Merlock to make a plea for Flint to destroy him so he could not harm anyone further. Realizing this is his chance, Getalong fires his love beam into the crowd, loosening the control over everyone. With Uglinator weakened, Flint hits him on the head one last time, causes Uglinator to let go. Merlock returns to his human form.

Plagued by the nightmare of the events and worried about the danger of Uglinator controlling him, Merlock quits the Time Bureau in episode 33. However, he then promptly returns to save Sarah once again in Episode 34 (though saves Tony this time by mistake). Petra takes Bindi again. In episode 35, he attempts to save her, but Petra retreats. When the Masked Man makes his move in episode 36, Flint went alone to save Bindi and Petra. But as Flint's friends, Merlock amongst them, watched Flint struggle without the ability to be sent useful aid. Seeing Flint struggle reignites Merlock's motives as a Time Detective and he attempts to go and aid Flint.. At first he lands himself in the wrong Timeline. He escapes from the predicament he landed himself in and begins to fall through Time and Space, before landing in the Underworld.

He begins to cry as he notes how his random falls finally proved a useful purpose, though this ends quickly when he realizes he has 3 of Ominito's illusions surrounding him. He is there when Flint faces off against Ominito, when Petra and Bindi are rescued Merlock and Bindi are finally reunited. Their victory is short lived as entire group are helpless when the Masked Man then attacks.

Merlock aids Flint in the final episode of the series, and after the events of episode 39, despite being knocked around himself trying to protect Flint and the beaten Getalong. After the Dark ord's defeat, he is last seen riding alongside Flint and the others while they chase after Petra.

Etymology

His Japanese name is a play on words meaning "will be observed today" (なるがみきょういちろう), a nod to how he originally was assigned to merely observe Flint and his friends. This ends up creating a pun when he introduces himself, as his introduction roughly translates to something along the lines of "I will be observed today of the Time-Space Bureau".

His family name of "Narugami" alone means "Playful/smiling God/Lord" and likely refers to his flirtatious nature.

"Kyoichiro" is a male name and is constructed of "ichiro" (meaning "first son"), this indicates he is his parents eldest son. "kyo" which on its own can be read as "today". However, the name itself has no significant meaning otherwise.

The Japanese title used for him by Tony and Sarah is "Narugami-kun"（鳴神京一郎君）. It is used for young males.

Aside from Flint and Bindi who refer to him by his given name, the rest of the cast refer to him by his last name. In Japan this signals none of them are particularly close, despite the fact he address them by their given names ("Sora", "Tokio", etc), which indicates he himself considers them close to him.

Merlock's English name is an obvious play on Sherlock Holmes.

Trivia

• Technically, Merlock would be classified as a Dhampire, however the series does not state this. In the Japanese version, Tony calls him a "Vampire" when he questions the chances of a normal human joining the Time Police. Whenever his race is brought up, he is always referred to as "vampire".
• In episode 30, when changed into a mosquito he suddenly gains the urge to suck blood (written in Japanese as a word pun on "kiss"). He sucks Dino and Mite's blood, but is left ill by it.
• The English version also makes out that Merlock cannot sing, however, in the Japanese version he can and even on rare occasions made his voice take a sing-song tone to make him seem more charming to Sarah.
• Merlock Holmes and the Dark Lord have many parallels to each other; The most obvious being the rose/staff both characters used but there are many other minors ones.
• Though the title for episode 32 suggests Merlock's transformation is a form of "bad transformation", like Dino and Mite's transformations it is never out right stated to be one.
• His leap animation is repeated in episodes 20, 26 and 32. Episode 32 is slightly altered due to Merlock being controlled to by the Uglinator. This is one of the few repeated animations that appears in several episodes outside of Petra and Flint's time travelling animations.