An anime adaptation produced by Xebec began airing on April 2, 2009, and finished airing on September 24, 2009. On February 11, 2010, NIS America announced it would release the anime series in North America. Nine OVAs were also broadcast in Japan, airing from July 24, 2009 to March 25, 2010.
Oz Vessalius 
is the fifteen-year-old protagonist. He has blond hair and green eyes. He is from the prestigious Vessalius family. His father, Zai, is the reigning lord. His mother was killed by the Nightray family; despite this, he retains a bright, optimistic, and energetic personality. The story of Pandora Hearts begins when Oz turns fifteen. During the ceremony to celebrate his legal adulthood, Oz is dragged into the Abyss for the ‘sin of his existence’. There, he meets a young girl named Alice who turns out to be a Chain – a monster born in the Abyss. Oz makes a contract with her so they can both escape the abyss. Upon returning to the real world, he discovers that 10 years have passed. In order to find out what exactly his ‘sin’ is, he decides to work under Xerxes Break as part of Pandora. During this, it is shown that when he was young, he worked hard to gain praise and recognition from his father. However, he discovered that his father hated him to the point of not wanting to touch him. After experiencing this, Oz began to think that there is no guaranteed thing in the world. He thought of himself as weak. He decided that, in order to protect people, he should at least remain an obedient child and let harm come his way. After traveling into the Cheshire Cat’s lair, Oz meets Jack Vessalius and becomes his ‘medium’. Jack eventually speaks at Pandora’s headquarters and the public hail Oz as a ‘hero’. Oz finds that he can swap control of his body with Jack if he calls hard enough and may sometimes even see snippets of Jack’s memories. According to himself he is quite skilled with the sword, particularly in self-defense. However, he has very little real experience in fighting. Oz likes cute, younger girls and flirts with them frequently. He once wished to marry Sharon when they first met. Oz, himself, thinks of Alice as his precious someone, calling her his “sun”. He believes that Alice is the reason that he can still smile.
Jack tells Oz that he has the “right” or “prerequisite” over Alice’s powers and that a seal won’t restrain Alice’s powers any longer, giving Oz the ability to use B-Rabbit’s power, even without Alice’s permission or Gil’s help. Oz proves it when he is able to stop Alice’s B-Rabbit’s power temporarily on his own; another instance is when Oz is almost kidnapped by the Baskervilles at Lutwidge, and a more recent one is when he was able to summon B-Rabbit’s scythe to fight his assailants in Sablier’s illusion, despite the fact he had never used a scythe before. According to Lotti, Oz was supposed to be the vessel for the sake of hiding the existence of Jack Vessalius and should the vessel be broken, Jack’s existence will be brought to light and the further warping of Abyss’s will, who seeks him, will most probably interfere with the real world. Later, Oz reunites with Gilbert and immediately meets with the person behind Oz’s homicidal nature: Zai Vessalius , his father. it is said that Oz had a desire to destroy everything until Alice stopped him. According to Break, Oz may not be the real Oz Vessalius, as during his birth, Oz’s father took him away: it is suspected he might have done something to him or exchanged him with another baby. This is proven true when it is revealed that his body was Jack’s all along, and that he (Oz) is the true B-rabbit.
Alice 
is heroine of the story with a height of 150 cm. Alice first appears as a chain that persuades Oz to form a contract with her in the Abyss. In fact, she is actually the infamous B-Rabbit (Blood-stained Black Rabbit), the most powerful chain in the Abyss. Alice’s goal is to find her lost memories, which plays a major role in the story. In human form, Alice has long dark brown hair with two side plaits. She has a huge appetite and loves meat especially. She is hotheaded and loud-spoken and says what she thinks without regard to the consequences. Despite this, she has a soft side, especially when Oz is involved. She hates when Oz leaves her alone, but to hide it she usually says, “I’m in a contract with you. You are my manservant, and as a manservant, what were you thinking, leaving me behind!?” or she just hits Oz and says, “Shut up”.
It also appears that she cares for Oz’s well-being, that she considers his health when using her powers. She bites his cheeks to make him feel better, copying a picture Sharon showed her thinking it was biting instead of a kiss. Also, in episode 20, she tells Sharon, who threatens her to tell her what she has on her mind, that she felt left out and ignored when Oz went to talk with Break without her and when he was happy to see his sister. Alice senses Oz is upset. Thinking that the biting was still a kiss (sort of), she bites him several times, pushing him to the floor to bite his ear that begins to bleed.
She was in Sablier when the city was dragged into the Abyss. Alice wanted to forget about that event, because it was a very painful one. In her memories we see Jack Vessalius, the hero of 100 years ago. It is revealed that she’s actually Lacie’s daughter. Lacie was impregnated by Levi Baskerville before being cast into the Abyss as a sacrifice for the ceremony of the new ‘Glen’ and Levi’s experiment, to gain the power of the Abyss through a vessel, Lacie’s child. While in the Abyss, Lacie gave birth to ‘twins’, Alice and Alice (Also referred to Alyss by fans to avoid confusion, though it is not official) who would be merged with the Core of the Abyss and called The Will of the Abyss by Levi. Alice is not the real B-Rabbit; Oz is the true B-Rabbit and was originally a stuffed animal that Alice was very close to and kept when imprisoned. After Jack began the Tragedy of Sablier he came to Alice’s tower to ask the Intention of the Abyss for more power. Alice refuses to allow Jack and the Intention to destroy the world and sever the chains and thus commits suicide stabbing herself with a pair of scissors. She only is “alive” in the present timeline because her body fused with B-Rabbit’s power, thus “becoming” B-Rabbit.
Gilbert Nightray 
also known as Gil or Raven. He is Oz’s best friend and loyal servant. Oz is his most important person, for whom he is willing to sacrifice anything; this protectiveness is compounded by the fact that he was brainwashed by Miranda Barma to protect Jack Vessalius (and therefore Oz, who is his medium) even if it means killing. When Gil is drunk, he reverts to his fourteen-year-old self, an insecure crybaby. He cares deeply about the hat that Ada gave him. He is a great cook, terrified of cats, unable to quit smoking in eight attempts, and constantly afraid that as Oz grows, he will be left behind.
Gil is shown to have become close to Alice, despite his constant arguing with her. Though at first wanting to kill her. Gil saves Alice when she falls down in a small rockslide later.
Gil was Glen’s servant 100 years ago in order to fulfill his duty of being the next Glen after Oswald, and he is also a Baskerville, due to his ability to be greatly wounded, but not killed. He was nearly killed by Jack and in order to save him, his brother Vincent opened a path to the Abyss. (It is later revealed that Gil was killed in order to serve as Glen’s new vessel, and when Vincent interrupted the ceremony the Tragedy occurred.) He was taken in as a servant by the current Vessalius family fifteen years ago, after he was discovered injured and amnesiac in the Vessalius gardens. He came to be Oz’s closest friend, and was invited to be a part of the boy’s coming-of-age ceremony. During the ceremony, Zwei uses her chain Doldum to control his body and forces him to attack Oz. After he regains consciousness, he recognizes one of the Baskervilles as Oz’s father and when Oz attacks the man with a sword, Gilbert takes the wound and falls unconscious.
Gil remains loyal to Oz during his time in the Abyss. Shortly after the ceremony, he is approached by Xerxes Break who arranges his adoption into the Nightray family in exchange for inside information on the family’s doings. He views this as a betrayal, since the Nightrays are the prime suspects in the assassination of Oz’s mother, but he agrees to join the family when he learns that contracting their chain ‘Raven’ might give him the power to rescue Oz. He trains in gunmanship and eventually kills the Nightray family before the chain deems him worthy to contract with it.
Once he obtains the chain, he takes the name Raven and goes to work for Break as a member of Pandora. When Oz returns from the Abyss, Gil is the first one at his side. Initially, Oz is unaware that ‘Raven’ is Gil, but during the second battle with Zwei his true identity is revealed. Gilbert uses his chain’s power to bind B-Rabbit, keeping Alice in her human form and preventing Oz’s seal from moving when they are not in battle.
It is shown in Retrace 45 that he has always had the right to make the contract with Raven, which leads him to gaining the chain. It is also said that Gilbert had been poisoned on a targeted attack against the Nightrays by a mysterious headhunter. Gil has gotten all of his memories back of Sablier and the Tragedy from 100 years ago, his true master is Glen, whose soul lies within Leo, and Gilbert shot Oz by Glen’s commands, however he broke free and burn down his own arm.
anime @ west regional library 