furumizu Tatsuoki
Introduced in episode four ("Movement"), though initially spotted in news footage earlier on, Furumizu Tatsuoki is the head of the NSWF and a primary series antagonist. Known as "Father" to the Neo-genes and the children under adoptive care of the NSWF, Furumizu is considered an eccentric recluse by those in the media. Unbeknownst to the general public, there is a much darker edge to Furumizu's agency; he indulges in vast genetic research for personal gain.
Furumizu's goal is simple: he wishes to genetically engineer the perfect "mother" so that he can be reborn again. Furumizu's obsession with being reborn stems from his inability to have children. He saw his father (who was apparently brilliant) as being perfect in every way and as such, blamed his own physical flaws (particularly infertility) on being born from a "bad mother". Furumizu believes that if he can engineer the perfect woman, he will in turn be reborn as the "perfect man" he should have been all along.
The Neo-gene women working in the NSWF (including characters like Reina, Shiori and Nora) are all products of Furumizu's genetic experiments, attempts to create the perfect "mother". The Neo-genes were engineered to be perfect in every way — highly intelligent, physically brilliant and capable of wielding the latest in sophisticated weaponry. Each Neo-gene is biologically sired by Furumizu and each donates eggs to the Neo-gene project in order to create the next generation of Neo-genes. Furumizu won't stop his research until he creates his perfect mother. Tozawa explains the NSWF family quite extensively in episode fifteen:
These NSWF 'sisters' aren't just people with chosen genes. They also supply genes of their own, as mothers. In some pretty messed-up inbreeding. Basically, the 'sisters' all have genes from the same father, and that father's genes are used with the next generation of sisters too. So, to this guy, the sisters are his daughters, wives AND granddaughters. From what I can tell, this guy is 'Father'...
Of all the Neo-gene sisters, Furumizu places the most hope in Soho Reina.The cool Reina is everything her father wishes for her to be and he dotes on her considerably. As the most promising Neo-gene, Furumizu allowed her to work at Douji Industries in the joint NSWF/Douji Witchblade research project six years ago. What Furumizu didn't count on however, was Reina's curiosity about sexual interaction (due to her sheltered upbringing). Reina used this time to not only research the Witchblade, but to seduce Takayama with the intention of using him to father a child. Furumizu found this disgusting:
Reina was so foolish. A mother, delivering her own child... How primitive...
He considered the daughter conceived through Reina and Takayama's union to be flawed and primitive, unworthy of her mother's genetic material. The only thing that kept Furumizu from dismissing Reina from his family entirely was her apparent ability to equip the Witchblade during this period. After Reina attempted to escape with the weapon, Furumizu sent the other Cloneblades to retrieve her. This sparked the Great Earthquake, with the Witchblade reacting to the Cloneblade threat and blowing up a considerable portion of Tokyo. Reina was taken back to the NSWF and the daughter she'd given birth to was lost in the chaos.
The disaster worked out fairly well for Furumizu. Although he lost the Witchblade, he regained his lost daughter — the one with the ability to equip the glorious weapon and to continue research into her own technologies. Furumizu brought Reina back into the NSWF, fitted her with a Cloneblade and gave her plenty of space to work on her research over the six years that followed.
While in the present he seems to be quite forgiving of Reina's "betrayal" of her genetic goal, it becomes apparent that Furumizu only tolerates her insubordination because of her ability to equip the Witchblade. He watches over her simply because he believes she has been "chosen", not because he trusts her again. Takayama touches on this in episode seven:
Few are compatible with the Witchblade. He wouldn't let her go easily.
After the Witchblade resurfaces and Furumizu has Masane examined, he discovers that Reina's compatibility with the weapon is almost nil. At this point, Furumizu and Reina seem to go their separate ways. Reina wants to get to know the daughter she lost all those years ago, while Furumizu no longer finds himself interested in Reina (or the Witchblade). Instead, he begins to focus his attention on her other biological daughter, Maria, a second-generation Neo-gene. In Maria he sees all of Reina's brilliance and few of her faults. Furumizu hopes that Maria can surpass her mother and become the perfect woman he has been seeking.
Even after Maria murders Reina in episode fifteen (something Furumizu facilitated by revealing their genetic connection to the unstable Maria), Furumizu seems disinterested in Reina's ultimate fate. He is far more concerned with getting Maria ready for her destiny. What Furumizu doesn't count on is considerable insubordination from Maria too.
When Maria learns that Furumizu only dotes on her because he wants to use her as nothing more than a device useful to his own rebirth, she organises a coup. Maria seizes control of the NSWF in episode nineteen and brutally attacks her father. Nishida then reveals to Furumizu what she'd been holding back from him all along — it was his genetic material that was preventing the Neo-gene project from moving forward. So flawed was his DNA that Nishida intentionally opted not to use it in the newest generation of Neo-genes. In his dying moments, Furumizu wails about the loss of his "mother" as he tries to ingest the vials of Neo-gene material. Maria finishes him off with clinical precision and takes control of the NSWF.
Furumizu is defeated by one of the girls he sought to use, blinded by his own hubris.
relationship
Furumizu and Reina have a complicated relationship, though much of it seems understated or simply unsaid. Furumizu is a destructive man defined by his selfishness and misogynistic approach to genetic development. All the women in Furumizu's life were designed to serve his purposes and, for much of her life, Reina was just another of the many potential mothers in her father's Neo-gene harem. Only Reina always had more curiosity than her sisters, a greater desire to challenge herself and those around her. This is what eventually divides the pair: Reina's independent need to know more and Furumizu's inability to control her.
We aren't exposed to Reina's childhood or how Furumizu had her raised, but she was clearly isolated and fed facts over emotion. While she was genetically hand-picked to be intelligent and physically capable, her complete lack of human understanding seems to stem from a childhood free of love. Even as an adult, Reina has difficulty understanding concepts of affection and compassion. This is illustrated quite clearly in the discussion Furumizu has with Reina after she declares that she has found something that fascinates her more than the Witchblade (her child).
Furumizu: And after all that, the Witchblade chose you.
Reina: And that is why you think of me as cute.
Furumizu: There is no parent who would not adore a chosen child.
Reina: Adore? What sort of emotion might that be?
As Takayama mentions when discussing Reina with Masane, her life was sheltered and she knew nothing of sex or relationships. Furumizu appears to have intentionally kept the Neo-genes uninformed about these areas of human interaction. After all, the Neo-genes are designed only to be of use to him and he firmly believes that natural conception/childbirth are archaic concepts. Furumizu designed Reina, arranged for her creation, had her trained to be brilliant — then he threw her into the real world without a social clue.
Reina seems to hold no real emotional attachment to her father, perhaps owing to her general inability to process affection. Or potentially, she feels nothing for the man. It's true that Reina holds back on embracing her father and doggedly refuses to bow down to him, which suggests that (at least in the present) she continues their relationship based on routine alone.
Furumizu on the other hand, lavishes both rhetoric and adoration on Reina, holding her above the other Neo-genes. This apparent affection is not based on genuine parental love or even admiration of Reina's clear talents. As with so much of Furumizu's characterisation, his adoration of Reina can be linked back to his own agenda. He loves what Reina could potentially give him — the means to his own rebirth. Furumizu is absurdly egotistical, everything he does is based on his own selfish desires (in this case, being reborn). Reina is simply the tool best suited to this job, something he firmly believes after she is shown to be able to wield the Witchblade. Furumizu loves Reina's perfection and what it could mean to him, nothing more and nothing less.
When Reina can no longer equip the blade (and the "imperfect" Masane is shown to be compatible), Furumizu begins to lose interest in his formerly perfect daughter. He was capable of overlooking her transgression with Takayama (read: Rihoko) because it was easy to dismiss and it had no real impact on her genetic perfection. When Reina is no longer compatible with the Witchblade, in Furumizu's eyes it proves that she is no longer a viable method to rebirth. This realisation coincides with Reina's rediscovery of Rihoko and her own disinterest in continuing the charade with her father.
It suits both parties then, when Reina tells her father she's found something that interests her more than achieving his goals. In episode ten the pair have their last scene together which closes with Reina telling Furumizu:
Please use other sisters for the Witchblade. I'll be leaving your side for a while. Goodbye, Father.
Furumizu seemingly has the last laugh however, when he tells Maria that Reina is her biological mother. Whether or not he did this with the intention of upsetting or harming Reina is debatable. He appears to have cared more about satisfying Maria than anything else, the potential impact it would have on Reina was a trivial matter in comparison. While Furumizu was aware of Maria's mental instability to a certain degree, it seems doubtful that he could have predicted that she would seek out her mother before turning to matricide. It appears that Furumizu simply did not care about Maria's impact on Reina — no longer the perfect daughter, Reina all but ceased to exist in her father's world. Loosing Maria on Reina was his final act of disinterest, having truly replaced mother with daughter. In the end both Furumizu and Reina are destroyed by the little monster they helped create.
Arguably most of the misery in the series can be tied back to Furumizu and his selfish desire to be reborn. Reina, while held in high esteem and lavished with affection by her father, is one of many characters to fall victim to Furumizu's hubris. When the pair part ways, Reina does not act out or try to win back her father's love. Instead, she continues on the path she has always known — one of personal curiosity and emotional fortitude. Furumizu was a neglectful and abusive father, but in Reina he did truly create a wonderful being (even if it took her a lifetime to realise her own capacity to love).