Mesaanya (Dragon Knight II)

Mesaanya or Messanya (メサーニャ) is a misandrist evil witch who is the antagonist and final boss of the 1990 erotic fantasy role-playing video game Dragon Knight II. Mesaanya is a heir to the long-gone Witch Clan (魔女の一族) and, unknown to the protagonist, actually also one of the his (and the player's) party members: a supposed good priestess named Sophia (ソフィア). She was voiced by Yumi Nakatani as Mesaanya and by Sumi Shimamoto as Sophia.

Story

The game's protagonist, young womanizing swordsman named Takeru Yamato, had just defeated the demonic Dragon Knights in the first game when he meets a burly merchant named Baan, After winning a drinking bet, Baan sends him to deliver a magic book to a small town of Phoenix, which Takeru finds oddly populated mostly by cute young girls. But after Takeru stayed overnight at the Phoenix inn to wait for Baan, he finds out all the town's girls have suddenly mysteriously disappeared. It turns out to be a curse of the witch who secretly reigns over the town.

The game's story as narrated in the intro of Knights of Xentar (English version of the sequel. Dragon Knight III)

The town's elder tells him the legend how 300 years ago the control over the area of Phoenix was once divided between the two rival demon clans, the male-only clan of the Dragon Knights, and the female-only Witches, who ruled over it from their respective huge stone towers while keeping each other in check. But eventually they went to war, and after three days and nights of the terrible and devastating battle both sides seemed to have destroyed each other. The Dragon Knights' tower was collapsed by the immense magic of the Witches, but the Witches own tower has remained standing, and the town of Phoenix was rebuilt between it and the now-leveled other tower. Three years ago, a sorceress named Mesaanya came to Phoenix as a healer and then gradually earned the trust of the townspeople before showing her true nature. It turned out that Mesaanya is a mostly-human descendant of the Witches who, because of what happened centuries ago ago, now has a burning hatred for all men, including the mortals. Mesaanya's takeover put most of the people to flight, leaving only few old and weak men and young girls who loved Phoenix too much to leave. The town's Elder went to Mesaanya to beg her to leave the townsfolk alone, and and she agreed but under a list of commandments, one of which was that the men and women would never get together, after which she did retire herself to the Witch Tower on the edge of the village. But this however would of course spell doom for Phoenix in long term anyway. Furthermore, the girls want the boys around again. Now the Elder's own granddaughter Kate has recently fell in love with a boy named Pietro who just arrived to marry her. The Elder, who cares for her daughter, looked for a way to rid themselves of Mesaanya. He thought he found the solution when a traveling Baan told him of an ancient book containing various seals that can dispel evil souls of monsters, and this was the very book that was just delivered by Takeru. However, the omnipresent Mesaanya, who was listening to this conversation, shows herself through a painting and steals the book. Mesaanya reveals she had all the daughters of the village kidnapped and turned into an army of monsters in the tower. Mesaanya is convinced such a book like that could never defeat her anyway, finding the "pathetic" attempt very funny in its futility, but challenges them to go and try if they want so as to toy with the humans. Takeru reluctantly agrees to the Elder's desperate plea for help and goes to save the town.

Takeru begins collecting the lost scriptures that are scattered all over the tower to use them to at very least break the curses cast over each girl. This works, and the maidens begin return to their original form and freed from Mesaanya's power one by one, and the wounded Pietro (who had first went to fight Mesaanya and did not return) is also wounded and rescued. Takeru is soon joined by the arrived Baan, who says his reason to explore the tower is to find clues about a legendary magical ore from the area that will make him rich. Later they meet a mysterious young woman and are stricken by her beauty. She says she is priestess named Sophia and she came after hear rumors of the quest by Takeru and Baan, and so she decided to help them with knowledge of holy magic in the service of God as to make Mesaanya pay for the "unforgivable" use of magic for evil. There is a lot of humorous banter between the three, and Baan seems to like Sophia in particular. Mesaanya herself makes repeated appearances to taunt Takeru and Baan. In response to Takeru's demands to lift the curse and leave the town, she not only refuses but outright plays with her enemies, even leaves them gifts to help progress through the tower. She also appears together with the visions of Kate, undressing her and saying she can now do whatever she wants with the girl as punishment for breaking her law. The party explores the tower and learns the history and lore of the Witches (such as how they were abducting humans to experiment on them and turn their body parts into ingredients). They find out how Mesaanya named herself after the Queen of Witches ("Mesaanya-sama") who perished in the battle 300 years ago. In the Witches' library they also discover the the legend of the magical metal is true, and this ore was made by the Dragon Knights to make the invincible set of weapons against the Witches: the Genji Armor that can withstand any spell, and the Falcon Sword that can annihilate not only the body but the very essence of any evil being, including an immortal soul.

Mesaanya was initially is believed to (as she promised) await them in her throne room on the top floor of the tower. But even when they reach there, Mesaanya is nowhere to be found, and Kate also remains missing. At first they even consider she really just left. But when they discover the Dragon's Knights' superweapon, which was hidden deep underground under their former tower, Sophia, who was supposed to be their trusted companion, suddenly turns her face to Takeru with a laugh. Finally, the Witch reveals herself and her true identity: Sophia, who was fighting together with them until then, was she, Queen Mesaanya! Convinced of her invincibility, she explains the entire plot. Baan, revealed to be a grandson of Dragon Knight, is blasted away and nearly killed by Mesaanya, but then a miracle happens as the sword and the armor levitate over to Takeru, who at this point is revealed as a son of God (which is further explored in the sequel). Meesanya is astonished seeing Takeru's body quickly wrapped in the armor and the decisive fight between the two began. After a hard fight, Takeru wins and Mesaanya's threat is ended forever as she vanishes with a piercing scream. Once she is gone, the townspeople ask their young young hero to stay with them, but Takeru decides to leave Phoenix to his further adventures as they no longer need him in this now-peaceful town (breaking many girls' hearts, but Takeru visits them again in the sequel).

Character

"Men, remember: I will never forgive. Humans, know my true power. And bow down in front of me again!"

Mesaanya in her true character is extremely high-and-mighty in her sense of total superiority over any human, especially the obsessively despised males ("foolish humans - worse, men!"), even gleefully comparing Takeru and Baan to mere buzzing flies and saying they are her "playmates" break her boredom when she first meets them in the tower. She loves showing up in the very grand and theatrical way, often doing the ojou-sama type laugh, and after personally murdering the town's resident magician even actually signed it with "I'm sorry. Hohohoho! Mesaanya" written with his own blood. She says she was going to send the monster-girls to kill their male relatives as to punish them in the most cruel way, and sexually abuses the helpless Kate just to taunt Takeru more. Mesaanya indeed has immense powers, including effortlessly stealing the book from Takeru and turnin the girls into monsters when she appeared in their dreams. When Nezumi talks about having hearing of her talking to herself (and so is about to blow her cover), Mesaanya (as Sophia) kills him by just putiing her gaze upon him, the deed about which she boasts at the end. She actually proclaims herself to the reincarnated Queen Mesaanya, but this sounds debatable as the original Mesaanya apparently had her soul totally obliterated by the Genji Sword 300 years ago (unless perhaps she just died by any other means during the battle). During the final duel, her attacks are still able to inflict damage on Takeru even when he is wearing the Genji Armor.

Unlike the regular Witches, Mesaanya has mostly human head (with just large fangs) but she retains their very voluptuous forms, her attributes accented by a provocatively cut traditional costume of the Witches (uniform-like according to the backstory illustration) and cosmetics completing her vamp-style sexiness as opposed to that of the more or less innocent teenage girls of Phoenix. The vanity is typical for the Witches (as the party notes as they the tower's find locations such as beauty salons that were used by the demons 300 years ago, "after all they were women"), but Mesaanya is of course not doing it to attract the lust of men (very much unlike her own ancestor Queen Mesaanya who had mated with a mortal) but at most to tease them more. Her beauty is not lost on human males and females who often comment on it while talking to Takeru, who finds himself even unconsciously thinking aloud of Mesaanya's sexy body (such as her hips) when flirting with Bunny (after they do have sex, Bunny jokingly invites Takeru to "discuss Mesaanya" with her again). When they go through Mesaanya's personal quarters, Takeru and Baan start envisioning her naked until the embarrassed Sophia tells them to cut it out. Sophia with her also mature body is an object of amorous attention by the party and the others, such as when the very old but still lecherous Elder proposes to share his house with her and she answers she can defend herself with her magic if needed. When Sophia lands on Takeru's face after they fall through a trap door, he rather crudely complaints her for her "so round and soft" buttocks, instantly earning him a hard blow from Baan who himself is romantically interested in Sophia and does things like awkwardly trying to have her shower with him (without success, with Sophia excusing herself in how she supposedly only cleans herself with holy water).

Sophia turns into Mesaanya

On the other hand, Mesaanya's Sophia persona is excessively polite and innocent, seemingly very caring of "Takeru-san and Baan-san" and constantly apologising to people. On the other hand, it is Sophia who kills Nezumi (and then ironically comments that such a deed cannot be forgiven). And like almost every woman Takeru meets, Mesaanya too did fall with Takeru, even as she perhaps could not fully admit it even to herself. After Mesaanya is slain, Kate confesses to Takeru that, after Mesaanya possessed her body, they gained a connection of minds that allowed Kate to know Mesaanya's thoughts. Kate thus learned how the witch has slowly gained respect for Takeru that eventually evolved into her deeper feelings for him that she kept suppressing due to her vengeful grudge against men. Kate says this was why Mesaanya did not try to kill Takeru outright when she blasted Baan: just like the demon part of Baan allowed him to survive the attack, it was the human part of Mesaanya that brought her to demise. Kate goes on to say she believes that while the evil body and soul of Mesaanya has been destroyed, Mesaanya's (Sophia's?) pure heart still lives within her. She then asks the astonished Takeru to make love to her, and thus in a way fulfil Mesaanya's supposed deep-seated wish. (It can be only guessed how their story could have ended if Mesaanya was more true to herself. Especially since Takeru was in fact the one who vanquished the Dragon Knight Clan and thus achieved her actual revenge...)

Gallery

Dragon Knight V

Mesaanya also returned as a raid boss in the now-defunct mobile game Dragon Knight V, in which she could appear in multiple instances of herself in the same fight. These 'clones' were variously colored (including different hair colors) and paired with powerful dragons of the matching colors. She was also redesigned to wield a magic staff with a demon skull on top (similar to the skull-themed jewelry between her breasts). Defeating Mesaanya(s) was giving a chance to get Kate as a playable character.

External links

• Dragon Knight II at the English Wikipedia