Cal Kolter

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Cal Kolter
Cal Kolter
Names
English
  • Shoichi Kusanagi
Japanese
Japaneseくさなぎ しょういち
Base草薙 翔一
Furiganaくさなぎ しょういち
RōmajiKusanagi Shōichi
Personal
Gender
  • Male
Relatives
Unnamed younger brother
  • Career
Occupation
  • Hacker
  • Food truck owner
Appearances
Anime debutYu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS episode 0011: "Link into the VRAINS"
Appears in
Anime
Voice actors
JapaneseSubaru Kimura
Kolter, Cal

Shoichi Kusanagi (くさなぎ しょういち, Kusanagi Shōichi) is a character appearing in the Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS anime. Operating out of a food truck called Café Nagi, which doubles as his and Yusaku's base of operations, Shoichi is an ally of Yusaku Fujiki in his fight against the Knights of Hanoi, with integral knowledge of the LINK VRAINS.

Design

Appearance

Shoichi is a young man with fair skin and grey eyes. His purple hair comes to the base of his neck, and it has multiple small bangs brushed over to hide his forehead, and he also sports a small goatee. Shoichi dresses simply, wearing a brown trench coat over a purple hoodie with a bronze zipper and light blue shirt, and teal pants tucked into burgundy boots with prominent black soles.

Personality

Shoichi is a rather friendly individual. He's shown to be sympathetic towards Yusaku and hopes he can one day enjoy Dueling again. He also regrets dragging him into the fight against the Knights of Hanoi.

Behind his friendly easy-going nature, Shoichi harbors an intense anger and hatred towards the Hanoi Project just like Yusaku, though he doesn't actively show it unless triggered enough, like when he listened to Akira Zaizen talk about the possibility of Aoi being kidnapped. Shoichi angrily said that Akira doesn't know the horrible trauma he felt.

Abilities

Being the owner of a food truck, Shoichi is a capable cook; he was seen cooking hotdogs.[1]

Like Yusaku, he's a talented hacker. He was able to get information about SOL Technologies' activities and helped Yusaku capture Ai in the latter's Duel Disk. He was also able to figure out that Aoi Zaizen is "Blue Angel". On several occasions, he has hacked surveillance camera's in both LINK VRAINS and the real world alike with little effort. He is noted to be the one responsible for erasing the footage of Playmaker.[2][3]

Biography

History

Shoichi's younger brother was kidnapped for the Hanoi Project in the past. Even though his brother was rescued, he still suffered intense PTSD that he apparently never recovered from, prompting Shoichi and Yusaku to fight against the Knights of Hanoi, whom they believed to be responsible for the incident, to get revenge.[1]

Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS

Shoichi and Yusaku discussed SOL Technologies and Hanoi's recent movements. Shoichi told Yusaku about the Data Storm and that it could help Yusaku enjoy Dueling again. He also mentioned SOL was looking for an AI on the run and that they were planning a full scan of LINK VRAINS to find it. Hearing this, Yusaku came up with a plan to capture the AI and use it as a trump card against Hanoi and closed Café Nagi, despite Shoichi protesting that he was expecting customers that night. The two hackers managed to capture Ai into Yusaku's Duel Disk during an attack from the Knights of Hanoi.[1] Shoichi was surprised when a Data Storm occurred when "Playmaker" challenged a knight. He was worried when Yusaku was sucked into a Data Storm tornado, and was relieved when Yusaku won the Duel.[4]

Shoichi and Yusaku spent the next few days trying to figure out Ai's programming, but Shoichi struggled to understand the complicated algorithms that Ai was made out of. He then suggested to come up with a name for the A.I., to which Yusaku decided to name it "Ai", a pun on "eye". He was also impressed that the card data Yusaku obtained from the Data Storm was becoming a physical card. Trying to scan footage from "Ai's" memories caused the Knights of Hanoi's leader to track them down, however Shoichi shut down Café Nagi's power before they were found.[5] The next day Shoichi gave Yusaku the "Decode Talker" card that had finished materializing before he went to LINk VRAINS to fight a supposed Knight of Hanoi that appeared.[6] When the Knight turned out to be Go Onizuka, a program that prevents Playmaker from logging out was activated by SOL Technology. Shoichi worked on an escape route for Yusaku, but Yusaku refused to use it. After the Duel ended, Shoichi scolded Yusaku for not using the escape route, but also suggested that they could recruit Go for their fight against Hanoi.[7]

Shoichi discovered that the real identity of the famous idol "Blue Angel" is Aoi Zaizen, a classmate of Yusaku. He thought about Yusaku meeting Aoi so they could get closer to Akira Zaizen in order to get more information about SOL Technologies regarding his brother and Yusaku's memories, however he also doubted the plan would work because of Yusaku's poor social skills. A few days later, he was shocked when Playmaker and Blue Angel began a Duel before getting interrupted by a customer.[8]

After the Duel concluded and Aoi was put in a coma, Shoichi hacked into the hospital's records to find out about Aoi's condition. Ai protested that hacking into the hospital was a crime, to which Shoichi casually said that hacking already was a crime in the first place. Ai explained that Aoi had been infected by a virus from Hanoi's card and the only ones with the anti-virus were Hanoi themselves. "Blue Angel" appeared claiming that she wanted a rematch against Playmaker. Shoichi knew right away that she was an impostor and instructed Yusaku to ignore her because it was clearly a trap, but Yusaku went into LINK VRAINS anyways because he felt it was his responsibility to save Aoi.[9] Revolver's appearance and subsequent manipulation of LINK VRAINS caused Shoichi's cameras to go offline, though he was briefly able to use SOL's cameras and later Ghost Girl's. He was displeased when Ghost Girl's camera stopped recording, making him unable to watch anything inside LINK VRAINS.[10] To watch the Duel, Shoichi used the bugs in the Knights of Hanoi's program that created the Data Storm to open a path for Ghost Girl to enter the Data Storm; she had her cameras record the Duel between Playmaker and Revolver, allowing Shoichi to watch it.[2]

Shoichi was glad that Playmaker won against Revolver and carried him after he logged out since the former took a lot of strain during his Duel. Since Yusaku was interested what became of Aoi, Shoichi went to show she was recovering. Yusaku fell asleep and Ai commented how lazy he was, but Shoichi claimed heroes needed to rest. Ai started bragging, so Shoichi went to analyze what kind of program he ate from Revolver. Realizing Shoichi would look into his "private parts", Ai called him a pervert and refused to say anything. Once Yusaku woke up, Shoichi sensed he was thinking what Revolver told about Ai. Since they did not know how to prove if Ai was actually alive, Ai claimed it, indeed, was alive. Ai used the program he obtained from Revolver to recover his body back. However, Ai's size didn't impress Yusaku and Shoichi, who tried to analyze if Ai regained some of his memories, even if Ai wanted them to be excited that he regained his body.[3]

A few days later Emma Bessho ran into Café Nagi, but neither she nor Shoichi recognized the other as "Ghost Girl" or "Playmaker's assistant". Emma ordered a coffee and two chilli dogs and mentioned she was interested in Dueling Playmaker, causing Shoichi to wonder what kind of Duelist she is. Yusaku noted that Shoichi looked exhausted, to which Shoichi said that he was tired from spening all night deleting "Playmaker" files and videos that people constantly post on the network. Yusaku offered to help him with the clean up, and in doing so he inadvertently deleted a big scoop that would've revealed everything Playmaker and Shoichi know involving Ai and the Knights of Hanoi.[11]

During the night, Shoichi called Yusaku to come to his food truck and showed him an encrypted message on an internet forum, sent to him from Ghost Girl. Shoichi explained he had created a program to navigate her to enter the Data Storm during the Duel with Revolver. The two read how she demanded a Duel from Playmaker, with Ai as wager. Yusaku accepted, stating that she offered a backdoor to SOL Technologies' data bank, and Shoichi confirmed that fact, showing she did send a bit of the data as proof. Yusaku asked of Shoichi to reply that Playmaker would accept her challenge. Ghost Girl soon entered LINK VRAINS, and Yusaku went to do the same. Shoichi wondered if Yusaku would really go and Duel her, since she could've set another trap. Yusaku claimed he had to uncover the truth behind the incident, hoped in the data bank there was some information about Knights of Hanoi, and sensed some determination in Ghost Girl, despite her weaknesses. Shoichi watched as Ghost Girl and Playmaker confronted each other, and wished of the latter to acquire the backdoor. Seeing how well Ghost Girl made her moves, Shoichi wished that Playmaker would be careful of her.[12] While watching the Duel, Shoichi was baffled how complex the Duel was, being unable to predict the outcome. After Playmaker won and obtained the program, Shoichi went to analyze it. He believed he could crack the code, and noticed Yusaku was sleeping once more.[13]

Shoichi showed his analysis of Ghost Girl's program to Yusaku: the backdoor entrance to the SOL Technologies' mother computer, whose schematics looked like a maze. Shoichi and Yusaku were nevertheless impressed by Ghost Girl, who managed to hack and find this. Shoichi promised to be ready when the school was over, and Yusaku would be able to infiltrate the network the following night. On that night, Shoichi showed the location of the data bank, warning that the path to it was filled with traps. However, he did make countermeasures against them, and Yusaku praised him for such speed. After Yusaku went into the LINK VRAINS, Shoichi programmed an artificial device for Playmaker to hold onto to avoid traps, with a rope to prevent him from being detected, and gave directions to Playmaker where to go to. As security traps were set to stop Playmaker, Shoichi programmed a "Sphere Kuriboh" as a decoy. After Playmaker passed Area A, Shoichi saw there was a Data Storm. He wanted to give up, due to all the danger, but thought the Data Storm wouldn't be as harmful if Playmaker continued on.[14]

After Playmaker defeated Prototype Ai-A, Shoichi navigated him to the data bank.[15] Shoichi watched as Playmaker confronted Akira, and wished the former would obtain the data. As Akira claimed he would set things straight with the data, Shoichi and Playmaker became furious, saying Akira understood nothing about them.[16] Shoichi watched the Duel, and was furious to be reminded that his brother was a part of the Hanoi Project. He was also shocked to hear SOL Technologies' data bank contained the name of the mastermind behind the project.[17] Shoichi was frustrated to see Playmaker could not attack, and Akira would win the next turn. Later, Playmaker defeated Akira and logged out, Shoichi praised him for acquiring the data. The two hacked into Ai, and found out the Hanoi Project's leader was Dr. Kiyoshi Kogami, an employee from SOL Technologies, who alone worked on the project in secrecy. The two concluded SOL Technologies covered up the incident, else the company's reputation would've been ruined. Ai doubted the man could have done this on his own, and thought Akira was involved, but Shoichi reminded him Akira, back then, was 16 and was not employed at SOL Technologies. Shoichi and Yusaku failed to find the project's goal, but most shockingly, they discovered Dr. Kogami died seven years ago.[18]

References

  1. a b c Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS episode 0011: "Link into the VRAINS"
  2. a b Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS episode 01111: "Neutralized"
  3. a b Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS episode 01212: "Link the Circuit"
  4. Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS episode 0022: "Seize the Wind!"
  5. Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS episode 0033: "Contact"
  6. Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS episode 0044: "Pain and Gain"
  7. Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS episode 0055: "Down for the Count"
  8. Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS episode 0066: "True Blue"
  9. Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS episode 0077: "Fallen Angel"
  10. Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS episode 01010: "Eye of the Storm"
  11. Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS episode 01313: "Playback"
  12. Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS episode 01414: "An Invitation"
  13. Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS episode 01515: "Camouflaged Chaos"
  14. Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS episode 01616: "Hack Attack"
  15. Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS episode 01717: "Blue's Back"
  16. Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS episode 01818: "Dueling for Answers"
  17. Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS episode 01919: "The Lost Incident"
  18. Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS episode 02020: "A Piece of the Puzzle"