Sylvia Christel

Sylvia Christel
kana	シルヴィア・クリステル
romaji	Shiruvia Kurisuteru
Age	27 years old
Nationality	Scandinavian
Family	Daughter of Mrs. Christel Ex-wife of Henry Cooldown Former sister-in-law of Travis Touchdown and Jeane Mother of Jeane
Occupation	Ranking agent for the United Assassins Association
First appearance	No More Heroes (2007)
Voiced by	Paula Tiso

Sylvia Christel (シルヴィア・クリステル, Shiruvia Kurisuteru) is a character in both installments of the No More Heroes video game series. She is introduced as the 24-year-old ranking agent for the United Assassins Association, and the wife of Henry Cooldown. Christel is of Scandinavian descent, although she speaks using a French accent. Described in official literature as "mysterious" and "cold," she provides ranks and sets up Ranking Battles for UAA members. Sylvia Christel was based on American actress Scarlett Johansson, while her name is an allusion to European adult actress Sylvia Kristel.

Name

Although most official source material spells Christel's name as "Sylvia," the subtitles and credits of No More Heroes spell it "Silvia." Assuming the correct spelling is the former, this discrepancy could have been caused by the phonetic approach taken to the game's localization. It would have been impossible to determine which was the correct spelling from the written kana alone, as both variations are spelled the same in the katakana "Shiruvia."

Biography

No More Heroes

Sylvia Christel meets Travis Touchdown in the Death Match bar of Santa Destroy, where she ushers him into joining the United Assassins Association, so long as he can qualify by killing the eleventh ranked assassin, Helter-Skelter. Touchdown succeeds, and after moving on and slaying the tenth ranked assassin, Death Metal, Touchdown proposes that if he reaches first rank, Christel will have sex with him. To this, Christel nonchalantly says "Maybe, maybe not."

No More Heroes concept art of Sylvia Christel.

Though she is evidently married, Christel continually flirts with Touchdown in a somewhat sadistic way, and even threatens to kill him if he ever makes her jealous. She accompanies Touchdown to his Ranking Battle against Harvey Moiseiwitsch Volodarskii, which she passionately dubs a date. After killing Volodarskii, Touchdown and Christel even share a kiss. Alternatively, if the player is killed in this Ranking Battle, Sylvia concernedly cries out Travis' name.

This change of heart towards Touchdown continues through his next Ranking Battle against Speed Buster, where in a cellphone call she shows legitimate concern towards his safety, telling him to come back safely, as opposed to pessimistically giving her usual percentage estimate of how likely Touchdown is to die. After the conclusion of Touchdown's match with Bad Girl, however, Christel does not appear to greet him with the disposal crew Talbot and Weller, as she had after the preceding nine matches. Touchdown soon learns by calling the UAA phone number given to him by Christel that the number actually belongs to Sylvia's mother, and that the UAA does not exist, being a ploy Christel, a professional con artist, has used on many others before Touchdown to exploit their finances. Mrs. Christel persuades Touchdown to finish what he started and go through with the final "Ranking Battle" anyways, before which Sylvia calls him one last time, confessing that despite his stupidity, ignorance and uncouth attitude, she has fallen in love with him. Although she doesn't greet him after his final battle, it is revealed that Christel was in fact watching from a distance. Touchdown later learns that she had married his estranged twin brother Henry "about 10 years ago" during their college years (though since Sylvia is only 24, she would have had to have been in college and married to Henry when she was 14).

No More Heroes 2

Sylvia Christel appears in No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle, set three years after the conclusion of the first game. By this time, Travis Touchdown is seeking revenge for the death of his best friend, Bishop Shidux, and rejoins the UAA with this principal purpose.

Here, Sylvia's love-hate relationship grows even stronger with him and she apparently shows legitimate concern towards him. Sylvia's changing personality is much evident in this game, at first showing care and important advice to Travis one second, then becoming a complete ice queen the next. She also assists Travis in exacting his revenge for the murder of his best friend, Bishop, by notifying him of who killed Bishop and that the number one assassin was behind the hit. Although Sylvia points out on more than one occasion that assassins are supposed to kill one another, as stated by the rules of the UAA, it is revealed that she stopped Travis and Henry from killing one another, contradicting herself for Travis's sake.

She also seems to be crazy about fashion, as she is constantly changing her hairstyle throughout the game. She also cares much about beauty and health, in some occasion she is seen working out. Travis and Sylvia fight over the rules of the UAA on multiple occasions, as shown in the fights with Ryuji and Captain Vladimir, yet they both can't seem to stay away from each other, no matter how much they disagree. It is revealed at the end of the game that Sylvia is in fact the narrator of the game. This could mean that Travis did actually destroy the UAA, she quit, or the UAA had no more funds to keep it running due to Jasper's (and subsequently, Pizza Batt's) destruction.

Mysteries

Some possibly unexplained mysteries concerning Sylvia were introduced in the second game, least of which was her promise to Shinobu in return for her defeating two ranked assassins for Travis. More glaringly, hints to what sounds like her indestructibility are to be found. When Shinobu threatens to kill her if she were to break her promise, Sylvia casually tells her, "You cannot kill me, silly." Additionally, upon Travis' ascension to 2nd Rank, Travis accidentally seared Sylvia's hand with his beam katana, yet she doesn't even flinch.

Trading cards

Sylvia Christel appears on seven trading cards in the Design Materials set of No More Heroes. These are No. 101, No. 102, No. 103, No. 131, No. 132, No. 133 and No. 150.

Quotes

• "But just a taste. This time, you'll get the five course meal."
• "Go any higher and I'll kill you myself!"
• "You cannot kill me, silly."
• "Travis... My No More Hero."

External links

• playsylvia blog