Louis Hartmann

Name: Louis Hartmann

Species: Human

Gender: Male

Occupation: Detective, head of the Hartmann Detective Agency

Likes: Comics (especially those featuring monsters and heroes)

Beliefs: Does not believe in superstition or non-human beings, insists that all incidents are rooted in reality

Catchphrase: “Cases happen in the real world!”

Voice Actor (Anime): Mariya Ise

Louis Hartmann is one of the central protagonists in the anime version of Arne no Jikenbo.

He does not appear in the original game and is an anime-original character created specifically for the adaptation.

Louis lives in the village of Bluemoonstadt with his father, who runs the Hartmann Detective Agency.

After his father is killed in a string of murders attributed to the “Gravedigging Vampire,” Louis inherits both the agency and his father’s mission.

He decides to personally track down the culprit and bring them to justice.

While he is a fan of comics filled with monsters and heroes, his own life pushes him toward a hard-edged realism.

Following his father’s death in a case involving a supposed non-human perpetrator, Louis comes to believe that “monsters and heroes do not exist.”

He insists that all incidents have rational explanations and takes pride in his sharp, cool-headed powers of observation.

This keen observational skill is something even Arne Neuntöte acknowledges.

In the story, Louis stands out as a grounded realist in a world where the supernatural is far more real than he wants to admit.

Louis combines youthful enthusiasm for heroic fiction with a stubbornly rational worldview.

He loves comics featuring wolfmen, monsters, and superheroes, yet refuses to accept such beings as real.

His repeated line, “Cases happen in the real world!”, perfectly sums up his attitude.

He believes that human motives, not curses or monsters, explain crimes.

Despite loudly proclaiming that he does not believe in non-human beings, his stance is more nuanced than simple denial.

He operates with the principle that he will believe what he personally witnesses with his own eyes.

This becomes clearer when he encounters genuine supernatural phenomena.

Once confronted with undeniable proof, he reluctantly admits he may have to reconsider his beliefs.

In the anime, Louis is positioned as one of three main protagonists alongside characters such as Arne Neuntöte and Lynn Reinweiß.

Promotional material and the opening theme highlight him heavily, giving the impression that he will remain a long-term main character.

He serves as the grounded detective figure in Bluemoonstadt, taking over his father’s role after the tragedy.

His detective agency becomes the base from which he investigates the “Gravedigging Vampire” murders.

Louis’s arc explores themes of belief, revenge, and what it means to face the kind of “monsters” he used to only see in comics.

He is initially convinced that the culprit is a human criminal hiding behind superstition and fear.

Through his investigation, he is drawn into a confrontation not just with a supposed vampire, but with a witch and her creations.

His determination to expose the truth and capture the criminal himself drives him into the center of the story’s first major case.

Although Louis is an anime-original character, his existence was hinted at before the anime’s key visual was officially revealed.

On July 23, 2024, an announcement teasing him was posted on the official account.

After the anime adaptation was announced, a project titled “Louis’s Case Files” was released.

In this project, multiple puzzle-style mysteries are presented as cases that Louis brings in and solves together with the audience.

The format allows fans to “work alongside” Louis as he tackles requests and unravels various cases.

This interactive element helps viewers understand his way of thinking and his style as a detective.

One of these puzzles, “Marie’s Mansion,” features Marie, a medium with actual spiritual abilities.

When Louis witnesses Marie’s powers in action, he hesitantly comments, “I might have no choice but to believe…”

This reaction reveals that his disbelief in non-human beings is not absolute dogma.

Instead, his true belief is closer to “I believe what I see with my own eyes.”

The project also serves a very practical purpose for fans of the original game.

Because Louis does not exist in the game, “Louis’s Case Files” helps original fans get used to him before the anime airs.

By letting fans enjoy puzzles while interacting with Louis’s personality and logic, the project smooths his introduction.

As a result, his presence in the actual anime feels more natural and easier for existing fans to accept.

The first episode (Teil 1) contains crucial developments for Louis’s character.

The story revolves around the string of “Gravedigging Vampire” murders that claimed his father’s life.

The episode invokes the proverb:

“Wer anderen eine Grube gräbt, fällt selbst hinein.”

In English: “He who digs a grave for others falls into it himself.”

As the case unfolds, Louis uncovers the truth behind the so‑called Gravedigging Vampire.

He ultimately confronts not a simple vampire, but a witch and her golem servant.

During this confrontation, Louis is gravely wounded by the witch’s golem.

The injury he suffers is fatal, leaving him with no means of escape or survival.

He dies there, without being able to continue fighting.

The narrative makes it clear that Louis’s life ends at this point.

After his death, his corpse is manipulated and controlled by Amy, who uses his body as a puppet.

This strongly implies he is unequivocally dead, not merely unconscious or injured.

Before his death, Louis declares:

“Vampires exist. Witches and golems exist.

And he… Arne Neuntöte is a ‘hero’…”

This marks a dramatic shift in his worldview.

The boy who insisted that monsters and heroes do not exist finally acknowledges both.

Despite being promoted as a “triple protagonist,” Louis dies within the first major arc.

Many viewers felt misled, calling this twist a kind of “fake protagonist” move.

After the case is resolved, Arne and his assistant Lynn Reinweiß leave the village where Louis lived.

The story then transitions to other incidents taken on by the Arne Detective Agency.

Lynn closes the episode with a comment about how one case at the Arne Detective Agency has been solved, but many more difficult cases await.

This underlines how Louis’s story is only one chapter in a larger series of mysteries.

Louis’s life and screen time are notably short, but his arc is packed with impact.

He embodies a type of character who often meets a tragic or pitiful end in mystery and horror narratives.

Compared to similar characters, there is an argument that Louis actually receives one of the “happier” tragic endings.

He finally witnesses the kinds of monsters and heroes he used to enjoy only in comics.

He also sees his father’s killer defeated, achieving what can be viewed as a form of revenge.

From this angle, some argue that Louis dies with a measure of fulfillment.

However, this interpretation is not universal.

Some viewers question whether he truly wanted the culprit to be killed, based on his line, “I will catch the culprit with my own hands.”

Depending on how you read that line, Louis might have been seeking justice rather than death for the perpetrator.

That nuance raises doubts about whether the outcome matched his own ideals.

There is also the detail that Louis himself does not personally deliver the final blow.

His body is controlled posthumously, and the physical act of revenge is carried out through a corpse rather than his living will.

From his perspective, he dies without knowing for sure whether his revenge succeeds.

Because of this, some fans argue that we cannot say for certain that he died truly satisfied.

The story deliberately leaves this question open.

Whether Louis’s end was “happy” or not ultimately remains something only he would know.

When rewatching the opening (OP) after knowing Louis’s fate, several visual clues stand out.

These details suggest his death and transformation were foreshadowed early on.

First, Louis appears in the OP as a corpse manipulated by Amy, mirroring the events of the story.

This is a subtle nod that his body will be controlled by someone else.

Second, in a shot where Louis stands alongside Arne Neuntöte and Lynn Reinweiß, he is placed in the brightest position.

Yet, strangely, Louis casts no shadow despite standing in the light.

This missing shadow strongly hints that Louis is no longer among the living.

It visually marks him as out of step with reality, even before the viewer knows why.

Third, Louis’s dance movements in the OP resemble the choreography from “Thriller,” a dance famously associated with zombies.

This playful, eerie reference hints at his eventual status as a dead man.

In later versions of the OP, Louis appears explicitly in a zombie-like form.

He disappears from certain group scenes where he once appeared while alive, reinforcing the idea that his role has shifted to that of an undead figure.

These visual hints reward viewers who pay close attention.

They tie Louis’s grim fate into the opening sequence, blending storytelling with stylish foreshadowing.

Louis is occasionally referred to with more casual honorifics in dialogue and fan discussions.

Common variants include:

“Louis-kun” (a familiar, younger-male address, often rendered simply as “Louis” in English contexts)

“Louis-san” (a more polite form of address, often just “Mr. Louis” or again simply “Louis” in English)

In English discussions, these nuances are usually dropped.

Most fans simply call him Louis or Louis Hartmann.