Deunan Knute

Deunan Knute (デュナン・ナッツ, Dyunan Nattsu^?) is a character and the main protagonist from the science fiction manga Appleseed and its adaptations in anime. Along with her partner Briareos Hecatonchires, she is one of ESWAT's most important members. Known for her tendency to anger and lack of patience, Deunan is still widely appreciated by her partners for her professionalism and acumen. In the OVAs she is voiced Masako Katsuki in Japanese and Larissa Murray in English. In the films, she is voiced by Ai Kobayashi in Japanese, Jessica Straus in the English dub of the first film and Luci Christian in the sequel and the Blu-ray edition of the first film.

Background

Before Appleseed, Deunan's father died of the illness before the war.

As an ESWAT member, Deunan is a specialist in weapons handling, explosive devices manipulations, hand-to-hand combat, and an excellent Landmate pilot. According to the Appleseed Databook, she is trained to be ambidextrous. In the original manga, Briareos was a cyborg before Deunan arrived at Olympus, and she was temporarily blinded in one eye in Volume 4, due to a training accident.

The following data is from the 2004 Movie adaptation.

The daughter of Carl and Dr. Gilliam Knute she is considered a highly skilled warrior and spent almost her entire life fighting in a war that is, for the most part, over. It wasn't until she was captured in the middle of a ruined city by an ESWAT (Extra-Special Weapons and Advanced Tactics) team led by Hitomi and her former lover Briareos, that she was finally evacuated from the Badlands. When she arrived in Olympus, the change of environment was severe, but it was a greater shock to her to find out that Briareos had lost over 75% of his original body during the last Global War and was now a cyborg.

The day after she is brought to the city of Olympus, Deunan learns that over half of the population of the city are artificial humans called Bioroids. She also finds out that her new friend, Hitomi, is one herself. Deunan also discovers that other people are looking for her, mostly because she possesses, without knowing it, the secret of "Appleseed". The Appleseed data was given to Deunan by her mother inside a pendant just before her death at the hands of the military. The situation puts Deunan into conflict with the powerful Olympus Regular Army (ORA), composed 100% of humans, and under the command of General Uranus and Colonel Hades.

In other media

Japanese singer Lina Ohta's music video for "Puzzle-Riddle" features Deunan in a brief 'solo'. Puzzle-Riddle was used as the music track for the credits in Appleseed Ex Machina.