Giriko (ギリコ) is a foul-mouthed psychopathic "Demon Lethal Weapon" (魔凶器, Makyōki) who originally serves the witch Arachne Gorgon in the Soul Eater series. He is an expert Enchanter, golem maker, and can even make them in the midst of combat. It is also suggested that Giriko is one of the first weapons ever in existence, having a loyal relationship to Arachne and living for 800 years, the same time Arachne had first started to construct Demon Weapons.
Personality
Giriko, who first appeared to be a nice person, under the false name of Sou but he quickly showed his true colors. Giriko is far from refined and is highly uncooperative with the majority of people. He's extremely rude, not caring who he offends and because of this he's prone to starting arguments, just expecting a fight, in order to prove himself the better. He lives for such fighting, liking to give in regularly to his destructive urges. By using his enchanter powers he managed to swap his memories with his children, over the time waiting for Arachne to revive he has lived more than 30 lives.
Although he is a weapon like Tsubaki or Soul, he openly states his hatred for Shibusen, claiming that he wants to follow his own path, rather than be used by a meister.
He has also shown a particular fondness for most kinds of alcohol, being rarely seen without a bottle in one of his hands.
Appearance
Giriko has a bland tan skin tone and has a varied types of piercings, along with a metal necklace. His eyes and hair color are that of a calm brown. His hair spikes, in several places, like a series of blades. Like Soul, he has sharp teeth.
Giriko, typically, wears blue-green jeans, a white sleeveless collar shirt, black boots, and Brown enchanter's gloves that extends halfway between his elbows and his shoulder with the cuff folded over. As of joining Arachnophobia, the only recognizable difference in his wardrobe is the addition of a fur-trimmed jacket.
During the Salvage Chapter, his body was destroyed by the blow he received from Maka Albarn. It was then revealed that he had prepared a new body for himself. His appearance was similar to his male form with the exception of his hair, which in fact, turns into chainsaws in reference to his weapon form.
His soul has a sharp chain wrapped around it and numerous other instances of mechanisms, due primarily to his chainsaw weapon form.
In his weapon form he is a chainsaw large enough to be wielded by a golem.
Relationships
Justin Law
Both Giriko and Justin Law quickly develop a rivalry with each other, as the two have very conflicting ideas, to the extent that Giriko quickly begins calling Justin "Father" (a joke at the fact that Justin dresses like a Catholic priest). These feelings are further intensified by the equality in the two's level of power, resulting in their conflicts always concluding in a draw.
Later circumstances have put the two upon the same side but this has done little to temper their issues, as arguments are still a common occurrence between the pair.
Arachne
Giriko has sided with Arachne mostly to satisfy his desire to fight and his significant hate for the values of Shibusen. However, despite these seemingly self-serving reasons, Giriko was willing to keep himself concealed during the 800 years of her absence.
Mosquito
They don't often see eye to eye with each other and are relatively prone to fighting amongst themselves, due to the contrasting ways of the two's individual mannerisms. Mosquito is a rather refined character, holding etiquette and loyalty in the highest regard, which is in stark opposition to Giriko's own apparent irresponsible attitude.
Abilities
Expert Combatant: Giriko is one of the few true Autonomous weapons found within the series, which means that he relies even more upon the transformation of parts of his body into his respective weapon form in order to fight. Giriko takes the form of a chain saw in his weapon form and as such, his attacks center around the use of the chain saw blade on various parts of his body. These techniques usually focus upon the involvement of his legs in the conduction of Saw Foot, which due to its gearing system to restrict the amount of force delivered, has become one of his most versatile abilities. So much so, that he can use it as a method of fast transport, through manipulating the saw blades as a pair of motor powered roller blades. He can also use the chain that these blades are attached to, for defensive measures due to its construction of reinforced metal. He is able to be up to par with a Deathscythe such as Justin Law, Outclass Soul within a wide Margin, and gain the upper-hand with his battle with Maka in the Sloth Chapter.
Enchanting: Giriko is noted for being the creator of the Oldest Golem, suggesting that he was the first to conduct these manufacturing techniques, which has resulted in him being highly adept in their usage. Not only can he conceivably construct the most powerful versions of golems displayed but he has also demonstrated the capability to quickly adapt to various materials for production, including snow.
In his last fight against Maka in the Salvage chapter, Giriko is revealed to even be able to create golems out of human bodies, such as when he explained that the previous Giriko that Maka recently destroyed was really his old body that he had turned into a golem because it was no longer any good to him. This type of golem seems to be more advanced than the usual golems he and the other Enchanters usually create due to it still having Giriko's personality, consciousness, and being able to use all of his weapon abilities to where Maka was fooled into thinking that she had successfully killed the real Giriko. He has also shown that he is able to create numerous accurate copies of himself in mere moments, using the same method, which he can use to conceal his actions, or to escape the battlefield without being chased by the opponent.
Consciousness Transferring: The reason Giriko manage to live 800 years was due his unique ability of transferring his consciousness from one body to another, always his own son/daughter, with he raises specifically for this purpose.The method in which he does this is unknown, though, it may be a result of his skills in enchanting.
Techniques
Stand Alone Techniques
- Saw Foot (鋸脚, Nokoashi): One of Giriko's most basic attacks. This attack allows him to trigger the saws on his foot, moving them at very high speeds. Then attacking his target with a kick, inflicting severe damage due to the force of his kick and the shredding of the rapid blades. The blades on his foot move at such incredible speeds, the sparks sometimes make it seem as if the blades on the chain are larger than they are. He applies a gear-shift system with this attack to determine it's relative strength, the higher the gear the stronger the attack is. The attacks most basic form is First Gear (1速, Ichisoku), which although strong enough to force the majority of opponents to either block or avoid, isn't enough to damage Crona's hardened Black Blood.
By increasing the level of strength of the attack to Second Gear (2速, Nisoku), even defensive abilities, such as the Black Blood, afford little to no protection.
Examples of Third Gear (3速, Sansoku), the highest level demonstrated so far, are extremely rare but when conducted display enough power to stop even the force of an avalanche with very little trouble.
This ability can be used in a less offensive manner, that still has battle potential, by also using the saw blades as a pair of motor powered roller blades to move much faster than normal.
- Saw Foot Third Gear: Tide of Atrocious Killing (鋸脚３速・虐殺風潮, Nokoashi Sansoku: Gyakusatsu Fūchō): An extremely powerful downwards vertical kick, preformed after firstly raising a single leg directly upwards and initiating Third Gear, that results in not only shredding the intended target but also the entire immediate area surrounding them. Known as "Triple Speed Saw Leg: Total Destruction Current" in the English Dub.
- Reverse Rotation (逆回転, Gyakukaiten): A supplementary technique used by Giriko. Through a simple verbal command, Giriko is able to instantaneously reverse the direction in which the saw chain portion of his demon weapon form rotates. Doing so, in conjunction with his Saw Foot in particular, allows him to abruptly alter the direction of his subsequent movement. This not only assists in situations where it's imperative that Giriko avoids an opponent's attack, but also adds a degree of unpredictability to his own, further enhancing their already potent lethality.
This was aptly demonstrated during his first encounter with the death scythe Justin Law, where after his initial downwards kick was blocked, he resorted to reversing the direction of his chain, which had been previously rotated so as to increase the inflicted damage. The resulting sudden upwards acceleration, brought his other leg rapidly rising towards his target's vulnerable neck, as the respective foot had already dropped beneath Justin's guard. Only the well trained reactions of the death scythe, prevented injury on this particular occasion but even so, the margin for error was almost non-existent. Given its intended destination, if the attack had connected, it would have surely proven fatal.
- Chains: An unnamed passive ability that allows Giriko to cause the chain associated with his chainsaw weapon form to appear upon specific parts of his body to act like a sort of chainmail armor. As the chain is constructed much like its real life counterpart, it is highly reinforced and durable; this means it is capable of completely preventing the damage inflicted by even high-level attacks, including those conducted by a death scythe such as Justin Law's Holy Jūji-Shūtō.
It appears that the chain itself acts according to Giriko's will, rather than being completely independent, resulting in it requiring time to wrap around the intended section of his body. Even though this process only takes mere moments, during that time large quantities of Giriko's body are left largely undefended, still leaving an opening for opponents to cause damage.
Due to the current circumstances involved with the ability's demonstration, it is unknown if the chain is continuously in motion or not.
Story
Eight centuries prior to the events of Soul Eater, Giriko helped his mistress Arachne go into hiding by placing her soul within a construct that later came to be known as the Oldest Golem. Taking residence in Loew village, transferring his memories into his children for over thirty generations, Giriko bided his time for Arachne to regain enough of her potency so they can no longer hide in the shadows. But the unexpected revival of Asura quicken Arachne's restoration with Giriko finally able to act on his build-up centuries old rage.
When Maka, Soul and Crona are sent to investigate the Oldest Golem's sudden rampage, Giriko lures them to deep into the local forest. With Soul the only one to know something is off with him, Giriko reveals his true intentions as he transforms into his weapon form for the Oldest Golem to use. Though his faltering sanity resulted in his defeat, Giriko succeeded in releasing Arachne and nearly killed Crona where it not for intervention by Justin Law prior to the villain falling back. Since then, Giriko and other Enchanters acted in Arachne's name by first attempting to get Brew. When the DMWA infiltrate Baba Yaga's Castle, Arachnophobia's base of operations, his inability to remember peoples' facings keeping him from exposing Maka, Giriko ends up being drugged by the Thompson Sisters and comes to by the time the DMWA students completed their mission.
However, found by a maddened Justin, Giriko ends up working for Noah. When the DWMA students later embark on a mission to venture into the Book of Eibon to save Death the Kid, Giriko is given the opportunity to avenge Arachne.
Confronting the heroes in the Sloth chapter, Giriko spirits Maka into the book's Envy chapter to take his time in killing her. He finds them in the "Sloth" chapter and kicks Soul to the side and then throws Maka on the bed with the intention to violently rape her. But when Maka doesn't show any emotion to this, Giriko screams in her face in anger and just plans to gut Maka when Soul kicks him off of her in time. Due to her experience in the "Envy" chapter, Maka barely puts up a fight at the beginning of the fight, until Soul decides to challenge Giriko one-on-one. Unfortunately, Giriko still manages to get the upper hand on Soul, since he doesn't have much experience fighting without a meister, and badly injures him by grabbing his arms and using his Saw Foot to cut away at his torso while manically laughing before he kicked the injured Death Scythe towards Maka. After Maka gets her confidence back after seeing Soul still attempting to fight Giriko, she and the Enchanter go at it again. Even with a new-found resolve, Giriko still manages to keep Maka on the defensive until Soul used his song, "Adagio of the Soul" to nullify Giriko's soul wavelength to the point where he ends up in a trance-like state long enough for Maka to use Demon Hunter to kill him until he surprises Maka and attacks her from behind. He then explains that what they had killed was really his old body that he had turned into a golem because it was no good and it was worn out caused he messed around with it to much. The new body he now has was developed from an embryo to its adult stage by Brew with all of his old memories intact. To his disappointment, Giriko doesn't like the fact that he's now a "A big-titted female", but he still continues fighting nonetheless.
A now female Giriko laughs at an injured Maka as she gets back up as he violently launches an assault on her, while shouting on about how to he going to take his time tormenting her and nonsense like looking at "the huge towering saw between his legs" before he remembers that he's a girl now. Soul attempts to use "Adagio of the Soul" song once more, but Giriko's soul wavelength has become so powerful now that he's unleashing all of his stored-up anger, that Soul's piano explodes and sends him flying across the black room. With a non-stop assault of multiple saws created from his pony-tails and a powered-up version of Saw Foot Third Gear: Tide of Atrocious Killing, Giriko severely injures Maka to the point where she can't even stand or even lift her arms as the Enchanter grabs her head as he tells Maka that he's tired of waiting and wants to kill her now. Soul partially transforms back to kick Giriko away, but Giriko shouts to him that this is a fight between girls and that he doesn't want to listen to the opinion of a prick like him. Just when Giriko finally decides that he going to kill Maka by strangling her and was about to, his own body begins to undergo soul rejection as Maka discovers that the cause of it is that Giriko's soul isn't able to hold 800 years of bloodlust anymore since a soul isn't able to hold that much in the first place, even if it's new. Giriko still tries to get close to Maka so he can kill her, but he is so blind with rage that he doesn't realize that Maka is trying to get his soul to explode by taunting him and telling him to go rest on the many chairs in the "Sloth" chapter. The moment Giriko shouts at Maka the sentence, "You pisses me off!!" was the final nail in the coffin as his soul explodes from the pressure, leaving the Enchanter's now-lifeless body slumped down with a disturbing smile on his face.
Anime
In the anime, Giriko survives after Arachne's death, and is last seen alongside Mosquito in the ending credits.
Trivia
- Giriko is not very good at remembering faces, as seen when he doesn't recognize Maka when she infiltrates Arachne's castle with the other Shibusen students.
- Giriko is the creator of the Oldest Golem.
- In the anime, Giriko uses his real name when he first meets Maka, Soul, and Crona, rather than the alias "Sou".
- The name 'Giriko' comes from the 'giriko' resin powder used in Kyūdō. However, it is more likely that Giriko's name comes from an anagram of the Japanese word for 'saw' (ノコギリ Nokogiri ギリコ Giriko).
- Part of Giriko's appearance appears to be partly based off of Apple Shinoda from Atsushi Ōkubo earlier series B. Ichi.
- Giriko's attire resembles that of a lumberjack.
- His Japanese voice actor Nobutoshi Canna also voiced Kabuto Yakushi and Nnoitra Gilga
- His English voice actor J. Michael Tatum also voiced Zarbon, Scar, Nagi Kengamine, and Damon.