Leonardo Watch (レオナルド・ウォッチ, Reonarudo Wocchi) is the main protagonist of the series. He is a self-proclaimed photojournalist who came to Hellsalem's Lot to help his younger sister, Michella Watch. Upon visiting Hellsalem's Lot, an entity known as Riga El Menuhyut gave him the All-Seeing Eyes of the Gods at the cost of his younger sister's eyesight. Afterwards, Leo joined the crimefighting organization known as Libra and began aiding them in their fight against the Blood Breeds. He tends to be bullied by Zapp and his lack of fighting skills usually puts him in danger, especially against those who covet his power.
He is voiced by Ryōta Ōsaka in the vcomic, Daisuke Sakaguchi in the anime, and Aaron Dismuke in the anime's English dub. He is portrayed by Saku Momose in the stage play.
Leo is a shorter-than-average, fair-skinned young adult, standing below most other members of Libra in terms of height. He has messy, maroon-colored hair that goes out in many angles, with a few bangs long enough to cover his eyes. He wears a long sleeve, bi-colored shirt, with a unique collar that widens around the base of his neck, and covers most of it. The shirt has a black collar and sleeves with a yellow body (blue and white in the anime, respectively). Around his neck sits his signature goggles, which are black with yellow-orange tinted lens. He wears a pair of dark blue pants, along with round blue sneakers that have white and orange highlights.
In place of his human eyes, Leo has the All-Seeing Eyes of the Gods. These eyes appear extremely mechanical and glow bright blue.
Personality
Leo is a decidedly-normal young man and can be somewhat of a coward, easily intimidated by the bizarre nature of Hellsalem's Lot. Though, he bears an adventurous and courageous side as well, growing less cowardly as he gets used to his new home. He tends to express his emotions openly, whether they be excitement at something new and enjoyable, fear of the insanity and dangers of Hellsalem's lot or annoyance at Zapp's negligent and irresponsible attitude. Guilt-stricken that he was not courageous enough to speak up and prevent his sister's sight from being taken, Leo is determined to uncover the secrets of his All-Seeing Eyes and try to find a way to restore his sister's sight.
He is a very kind person, as he works very hard to earn money to support his sister but refuses to be paid by Libra more than he feels he deserves and takes a second job as a pizza delivery man to cover the fees. In addition, he quickly becomes friends with a mushroom monster in episode 6 despite the common prejudice humans have towards monsters from Hellsalem's Lot. He even offers to meet him at a specific time any day he can to buy him burgers as his friend had been conned and forced to pay quadruple the amount of money needed to pay for the soda since monsters weren't allowed into the burger establishment.
While he lacks the combat skills of his fellow Libra members, he is quite clever and quick to adapt to situations. Michella fondly calls him her "Tortoise Knight", because Leo never runs away even if he freezes up and cannot move, even if he is at a loss, and will endure until the moment he can take a step forward.
Despite having the powers of the All-Seeing Eyes of the Gods, he refuses to use them for his own benefit. When an arrogant tourist beats Leo and takes his wallet, Leo refuses to use his eyes to attack the aggressor. Despite having access to a large number of weapons that could've easily killed the man, Leo later tries to confront him with nothing more than an stun baton, which would not kill the man but only hurt him, demonstrating Leo's pacifistic nature and kind heart.
He is usually partnered with Zapp Renfro, and is typically forced to put up with the man's shenanigans, often voicing his displeasure towards them.
History
Leonardo Watch is the eldest son of the Watch family and the older brother of Michella Watch. After the advent of Hellsalem's Lot, Leo's family began travelling to the city to see if they could find a cure for Michella's inability to walk.[1]
Six months before the events of the series, Leo was taking pictures of Michella at Hellsalem's Lot when the being Riga El Menuhyut appeared before the siblings bearing the All Seeing Eyes of God, and asked which of the siblings were "the one who sees through to the end" and "the one who does not see". Despite realizing that "the one who does not see" would lose their eyesight, Leo was unable to react to the entity's presence. Michella then selflessly offers up her own eyesight so that Leo may receive the Eyes of the Gods.[2]
Leo was struck with recurrent episodes of severe convulsions and vomiting for the first week after the implantation, and afterward took another two weeks to get used to the overwhelming and overlapping amount of information provided by the eyes.
Powers and Abilities
Unique Abilities
All-Seeing Eyes of the Gods upon activation
All-Seeing Eyes of the Gods (神々の義眼,Kamigami no Gigan?): An artifact implanted and given to him by a mysterious entity at the cost of his sister Michella's sight. Leo now has heightened visual senses, allowing him to see fast movements normally impossible for human eyes to follow, or minute details with great clarity. The eyes are also equipped with a self-restoration function such that over time, they will heal themselves of any damage sustained. Most importantly, his eyes see 'The Truth' of the world. This allows him to see past world-altering illusions along, with perceiving an individual's unique aura. His eyes are especially effective in identifying Blood Breeds -- if Leo stares at a Blood Breed for a certain amount of time, he is able to see their "true name", but only if their heart is present. Using the power of his eyes however has its limits, as they overheat upon prolonged use of their abilities.
Plain Eyeballs
Plain Eyeballs (平眼球,Hira Gankyū?): Leo induces nauseating hallucinations on his opponents. In the manga, this technique is unnamed and Leo simply commands his opponents' eyes to obey him.
Vision Manipulation: Leo can also manipulate the vision of others, including that of machinery such as Aligura's monster truck, and force them to move in the direction he wants them to, or see through another individual's eyes and even witness past events that they have seen. He is also able to use his eyes to track the individual aura of a person, as he was able to find Philip Lenore's brain and track it by matching its aura with Philip's.
Vision Transmission (視野転送,Shiya Tensō?): Leo projects what he sees into the minds of others, effectively sharing his sight with them.
Vision Shuffle (視野混交,Shaffuru?): Leo alters the vision of those around him by shuffling their field of visions.
Relationships
Michella Watch
To be added.
Klaus von Reinherz
To be added.
Zapp Renfro
To be added.
Sonic Speed Monkey
To be added.
Steven A. Starphase
To be added.
Chain Sumeragi
To be added.
Vivian
To be added.
Zed O'Brien
To be added.
Gilbert F. Altstein
To be added.
Blitz T. Abrams
To be added.
K.K.
To be added.
Dog Hummer
To be added.
Deldro Brody
To be added.
Riel
To be added.
Amagranoff Luozontam Ouv Lee Nej
To be added.
Toby McLachlan
To be added.
Riga El Menuhyut
To be added.
Femt
To be added.
Aligura
To be added.
Dr. Gamimotz
To be added.
Luciana Estevez
To be added.
White
White was created for the Blood Blockade Battlefront anime and does not exist in the manga. In the anime, her budding friendship with Leo is one of the key plot points of the first season.
Black
To be added.
Development
Creation
Mangaka Yasuhiro Nightow claimed that Leo was the one who get role to "watch" Hellsalem's Lot with the perspective of an ordinary citizen, which inspired his last name, Watch. In a further analysis he claims it is important role for the place a place that has many abnormal person and things. His characterization as a self-proclaimed reporter was inspired by Peter Parker from the 2002 film Spider-Man.
Anime director Rie Matsumoto found issues with adapting the Blood Blockade Battlefront manga due to its narrative lacking an overreaching structure. As a result, she used Leonardo's and Michella's relationship as a basis in the first anime adaptation. This led to the creation of the siblings White and Black, who would meet Leonardo as friends and be involved in a conflict in the adaptation's climax. Yasuhiro Nightow give his approval when heard of this storyline.
The character is voiced by Ryōta Ōsaka in the vcomic, Daisuke Sakaguchi in the anime series and Aaron Dismuke in the English dub. Sakaguchi recalls being excited when learning of role of a Leonardo due to how attractive is the city from Blood Blockade Battlefront. Owing to his character having multiple lines, Sakaguchi noted his work was challenging and thus wanted to give and outstanding performance. He compared Leonardo with the viewer in the way the story told to both of them and thus found interesting this work. He further commented that while the series might be solid, there are some comical scenes that he wanted to appeal to the audience.
He is nineteen years old, and his birthday is May 14th, making him a Taurus.
Leo's short height and baggy clothing make him appear younger then he is, making him the butt of "too young" jokes that he blatantly ignores. He does acknowledge it in Episode 10.5 of the anime, when the radio show host mistakes him for a student and Leo corrects him and says he is an officer.
The sound that Leo's eyes make upon activating is similar to the door-opening sound from the video game Dead Space.
When asked if he were to summarize Leo with one sentence, Nightow said that Leo is "the one who sees".
Dead Links • Hellsalem's Lot Police Department • Gargambino family • Gel-Shepherds • Goldust Edison Inc. • Kuzumi gang • League of High Order Spirituals • Libra • Majestic Liberation Front • Namejiri gang • Slime Up Both Worlds • Snakebite Clan • The Trade Show for Unidentified Outlaw Organizations • The Screaming Reverse Executioners Society • Thirteen Kings • Valhalla Dynamics • Von Reinherz family • Werewolf Bureau
