Darno Blancmanche is the head of the Blancmanche Company and the father of Mint.
Appearance[]
Similar to his daughter, Darno has lightly blue colored, short hair and the family's animal-like ears. He wears an ornate black suit with gold flares down the middle and a red sash by his waist. Beneath, he wears a white, high collar vest with adorning jewelry.
History[]
Galaxy Angel[]
Sometime before the start of the series, Darno's financial efforts solidified himself, his family, and his company in wealthy notoriety. However, he began to value his company more and wanted his daughter to succeed him and soon had a falling out with her as she had other intentions for her future.
Darno is encountered on the Elsior's journey back to Transbaal to reach the White Moon where it docked by the Blancmanche's homeplanet to have one more resupply. In any route that wasn't Mint's, Darno personally contacted Tact to ask why he thinks his daughter refused to contact him back and Tact could answer that she simply didn't want to see him where Darno admits the fractured family relationship between himself and his daughter. In Mint's route, Darno arranged for her daughter's forcible return home during resupply and Tact comes down to the family's mansion to confront the problem himself. Darno offered Tact military assets and a hefty sum of money and thought that he would be successful in exchanging them for his daughter's safety at home. Instead, Tact both accepts his offer and Mint's return, which surprises him. Tact's insistence and previous conversations with Mint allowed him to see the obvious lack of communication from both parties and eased the tensions enough for Darno to contemplate the worthwhile man his daughter had found and allows her to leave.
Galaxy Angel II[]
It can be presumed that even if Mint was not the chosen heroine in the first series to repair her family relationship, she would eventually repair it on her own by the 4 year timeskip where she succeeds her father in the family business. Mint retired from the Moon Angel Wing to act as the manager for her company's branch that operated in the NEUE universe.
Personality[]
He is somewhat ruthless and seems to believe that the end justifies the means; for example, Mint makes a remark that Darno frequently uses sycophants like Vincent to move ahead in the business world, and in the Tact and Mint storyline, he is not above drugging Mint (by having it slipped in her tea) to bring Mint back home. In fact, at one point Mint explains to Tact that the reason Darno supported Mint's decision to join the Angel Troupe is because since the Angel Troupe works for the White Moon, Mint could therefore use the position to extend the Blancmanche corporation's connections to the White Moon (which would be very powerful connections indeed, since the White Moon holds Lost Technology and Shatoyarn-sama). He also gives a somewhat scary and intimidating aura to talk to; after Tact converses with him over the communications channel, Tact is amazed at how intimidating Darno is and sarcastically remarks that if Mint grew up with someone like him, that must have been an "amazing household."
Darno is actually a telepath as well, as Mint reveals to Tact in a conversation. However, Darno, like Mint, is only able to read surface thoughts, and he tends to jump to hasty conclusions about Mint based only on what he reads on the surface. That is because he is unable to read feelings. He can, for instance, read that Mint wants something, but not why she wants it, and he usually then intervenes without Mint's permission.
It can be inferred that calm and clear thinking is the trait that Darno values most, for two reasons. One, in the Tact and Mint storyline, he was willing to forbid Mint from leaving the house as a punishment, but mostly because (at least in Darno's admittedly biased opinion) Mint was supposedly "not thinking calmly." Two, when he finally acknowledges in the same storyline that Mint has grown up, the most telltale sign of Mint's maturity (at least to Darno) is that this is the first time Mint has voiced her thoughts clearly to him.
He has trouble being affectionate or even admitting his feelings about anything, which unfortunately causes problems because Mint initially believed Darno thought Mint to be of no importance. Even when the Steward explains that Darno actually keeps all Mint's important pictures and in fact loves Mint very much, Darno tries (in vain) to shut the Steward up and hide this to avoid looking like he has affectionate feelings.