The Cain Saga (1992-2004) by Kaori Yuki consists of Godchild and its prequel Count Cain. It follows the story of a young nobleman named Cain who is forced to become an Earl upon the untimely death of his father. He assumes the role of head of the Hargreaves, a noble family with a dark past. With Riff, his faithful servant, and Mary-Weather, his 10-year-old adopted sister, Cain investigates the mysterious crimes that seem to follow him wherever he goes. In this way, he acts as a sort of Sherlock Holmes as he solves the various crimes in the streets of London. It is set in 19th-century England, and is overflowing with classic Gothic imagery: foggy London streets, candlelit mansions, secret passageways, crypts, crumbling family estates, and lavish ballrooms that hide sinister secrets. Cain Hargreaves is heir to a noble line, but one riddled with scandal, madness, and murder. The decaying aristocracy and rot beneath high society reflect the Gothic obsession with appearances versus hidden corruption. 

Central to Godchild is the horrific legacy of Cain's father, of murder, incest, and human experiments, who represents the ultimate Gothic patriarch. Alexis Hargreaves rules over a secret organization called Delilah that conducts experiments to revive the dead, creating "deadly dolls" or resurrected corpses surviving on the fresh blood and organs of others. They also have some sort of supernatural power. Cain is not just fighting crime—he’s trying to escape the shadows of his bloodline and escape his inherited sin. These murders are patterned after fairy tales, tragic suicides, or grotesque medical experiments that lean into Gothic excess, such as lace, blood, roses, and shadow. All of these deaths eventually end in some experiment tied to eugenics and surgical experimentation. This encapsulates the gothic fascination with science and modernity. Alexis Hargreaves performs experiments not for healing, but to reshape life and death out of fear of the unknown and unfamiliarity of death. This is the manga's "mad scientist" like Frankenstein, who is attempting to overcome death.