Evillious Chronicles is a Japanese multimedia fantasy series created by the musician and Vocaloid producer mothy (also known as Akuno-P). Beginning with the 2008 Vocaloid songs "The Daughter of Evil" and "The Servant of Evil", the series developed into an interconnected narrative told through songs, albums, novels, manga and other media. Its stories are primarily set in the fictional world of Evillious and incorporate recurring characters, locations and mythological elements across different periods of its fictional history. The novels from the franchise were the first literary example of Vocaloid novels.
History
Origins The origins of the Evillious Chronicles are tied to Vocaloid culture in 2008. Its creator, the musician and Vocaloid producer mothy, began composing Vocaloid music after becoming interested in the works being uploaded to Nico Nico Douga. In a 2010 interview with BARKS, mothy said that he had previously played bass in a university band but had not composed music himself. After encountering Vocaloid through Nico Nico Douga, he became interested in producing songs and chose Kagamine Rin and Len, which had recently been released, rather than Hatsune Miku due to the latter already being extensively used by other publishers at the time. His first song was "Ten Minute Love" which was sung by Kagamine Rin.
In a 2015 interview with Music Natalie, he recalled that when he started he had no expectation that he would continue the project for many years, describing it as something he had initially undertaken for personal enjoyment rather than revenue, especially since, according to him, profiting off of Vocaloid songs was uncommon at the time he had started. His first Vocaloid releases were relatively independent experiments. According to his 2010 BARKS interview, his first three songs were primarily attempts to explore what he could do with Vocaloid, and they attracted comparatively little attention. Thus, he subsequently decided to make a song with the audience in mind, which led to the creation of "The Daughter of Evil", the first song in the series. Mothy stated that his initial musical inspiration for his songs were tied to his affinity for viking metal, which prompted him to introduce folklore, mythology and fantasy in his songs. According to him, what influenced his narratives were also the novels written by Yasutaka Tsutsui due to their twists and their unrealism. Another stated inspiration was the Vocaloid song "Saihate" by Kobayashi Onyx.
Beginning
"The Daughter of Evil" was uploaded to Nico Nico Douga on 6 April 2008. Mothy later described its creation in a series of posts on his personal blog which, at the time, was named the heavenly yard. According to his account, the initial idea came from a line he wanted to have Kagamine Rin speak: "Oh-ho-ho-ho, kneel before me." He then developed the character and song around that line. Furthermore, he added that at the time the tool he used was Windows Movie Maker and that his initial goal was to reach
1,000 views.
The song was originally conceived as a self-contained story rather than as the beginning of a large fictional universe, confirming in his Natalie interview that he had not yet conceived the extensive interconnected history that would later become Evillious Chronicles. "The Daughter of Evil" was followed on 29 April 2008 by "The Servant of Evil" , which presented a complementary perspective on the story. The two songs were subsequently followed by "Regret Message", further expanding the narrative.
Despite initial low expectations, the popularity of these songs encouraged mothy to continue developing their characters and setting.
Expansion Mothy has identified "Evil Food Eater Conchita", released in 2009, as an important turning point. He explained that he had become interested in the idea different stories could secretly share the same setting and fictional universe. He decided that connecting "Daughter of Evil" with "Evil Food Eater Conchita" could encourage listeners to imagine connections between the works and create their own theories and encourage viewers to analyze the media they consumed. From this point, the separate stories increasingly developed into a shared, complex, interconnected fictional setting. On the same year, his first major album, Evils Theater, was released in 2009 for the price of ¥1,000, which included a 16-pages booklet and 11 tracks from the series. By this time the franchise expanded furthermore in its canon. This took the form of new songs, numerous derivative works such as parodies, interpretation music videos, fan-made music videos, cover songs, and novels, comics, and illustrations have been published on other sharing sites. The transition from a songs-only medium to the development of prose material became particularly remarkful with the publication of The Daughter of Evil: Clôture of Yellow in 2010. The novel was written by mothy himself and expanded upon material that could not be presented within the original song format. Mothy later explained that the limitations of a song had left substantial material from the original story unused, and that the opportunity to novelize the work allowed him to incorporate some of this material. The success of "The Daughter of Evil" also led to adaptations outside recorded music. A stage production based on the song was performed in January 2010. In 2011 mothy started to write the sequel to the "Seven Deadly Sins" series, named "Seven Endings", inspired by the The Seven Deadly Sins and the Four Last Things painting by Hieronymus Bosch. A report from 2013 stated how the "Daughter of Evil" franchise had sold 800,000 copies and that a book-type drama CD was on its way for release. The novel soon after got serialized and its success (by that time, in 2014, it had sold 1 million copies) brought to the creation of an official manga, produced by the mangaka Ichika. On 13 September 2013 "MIKU-Pack 03" featured the musical piece "Evil Food Eater Conchita", part of the series. In 2013, the official Hatsune Miku/Piapro blog announced a Nendoroid Petite Hatsune Miku Selection completely based on Allen and Riliane from the Pride arc. By 2017 PHP reported that The Daughter of Evil: Clôture of Yellow had sold 1.25 million copies, and also called the "Master of the Heavenly Yard" novel the narrative conclusion of the novel series. In 2021, Hanmoto, a major Japanese book database and publishing industry network, stated that due to fan requests piling up, new prints were announced. A retrospective article on the role of KAITO in Vocaloid music identified Evillious Chronicles as part of the so-called "project-based" genre, mentioning KAITO's role in the Evillious Chronicles song named "Judgement of Corruption", and stating how the song contributed to KAITO's history due to the fact it retained popularity for a prolonged time. The musical latest re-run was March 13–17, 2024 at Kokumin Kyosai Coop Hall/Space Zero in Tokyo. In July 2024, Good Smile Company announced full Nendoroids of Rin as the Daughter of Evil and Len as the Servant of Evil.
This early approach to the development of the Evillious Chronicles was initially additive rather than centrally planned. Mothy later described his early method as creating an individual song and then developing further stories from that song. He compared this directly with his later approach, which started following the "Akutoku no Judgment" arc, in which he begins with an overall conception of the story and then designs individual songs around it.
Plot
Original sin arc The earliest events take place in the First Period, one of the worldlines of the series. Scientists create the Second Period, a virtual reality intended to preserve humanity, but eventually introduce Hereditary Evil Raiser (H.E.R) Syndrome after its inhabitants and technology become too advanced. Among the scientists is Behemo Barisol, a traumatized individual who is also isolated for his gender expression, who creates an avatar named Levia Barisol, modelled after an ideal version of himself. As the Second Period becomes infected by a phenomenon called "Malice" (Which is the H.E.R introduced before), Levia investigates its origin and discovers that it comes from the First Period. After secretly becoming infected herself, she is persuaded by Seth Twiright, a fellow scientist, to cross dimensions and kill Behemo, whom Seth claims is the source of the Malice. Levia realizes that Seth is manipulating her to take her place and make her succumb to "Malice", and instead rescues Behemo, bringing him into the Second Period and barring Seth's entry into the ship.
As the Second Period approaches destruction, the scientists prepare to evacuate aboard the spaceship Climb One. Seventy-two scientists depart, but Seth secretly boards the ship and manipulates Lich Arklow into killing most of the crew. Climb One eventually crashes on Earth after an ideological crash in the ship turns physical, killing the remaining scientists, except for Seth and a female engineer named Luna Hazuki, and trapping their spirit data within the ship; the disaster also introduces magic into the world, which is just advanced technology from the Second Period. Some of the scientists are reincarnated as supernatural beings under the lead of Held, who reincarnates in a tree known as the "Millennium Tree", while the spirits of Levia and Behemo remain within Climb One. The people of Levianta later discover the ship and worship it as the sacred artifact Sin and create a theocratic society around it after hearing the voices of the twins.
Seth subsequently creates artificial humans afflicted with HER Syndrome, known as the Ghoul Children, including Meta Salmhofer, Kiril Clockworker, and Irina Clockworker. In Levianta, Queen Merry-Go-Round, who is made to believe by the trapped Levia and Behemo to be their daughter, learns that the world will eventually be destroyed unless they are reincarnated as humans. Project "Ma" is thus established to create such reincarnations. Eve Zvezda is selected as its first candidate due to her magical powers and is manipulated by Adam Moonlit, who is himself being influenced by Seth Twiright. Eve becomes pregnant with twins, Cain and Abel, but the children are stillborn, causing the first Ma experiment to fail. Eve and Adam subsequently flee to Held's Forest in the country of Elphegort, where they marry. Seth later becomes head of Project Ma and recruits Meta Salmhofer as its next candidate. Meta successfully gives birth to the twins Hänsel and Gretel, but escapes with them, causing the experiment to be declared another failure and Seth being fired. Meta is later murdered by Eve Moonlit, who is suffering from trauma and delusions, and Hänsel and Gretel are adopted by Eve and Adam Moonlit, whom crossed path after the forest spirit Michaela (formerly "Michael") tried to help Eve find fruits having fallen in love with her.