Kariya Masaki (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
netting_nettles) wrote2013-04-01 12:16 am
netting_nettles) wrote2013-04-01 12:16 am
Character Background
Kariya Masaki is an orphan – and one of relatively recent mint, at that. At the age of eleven, after what seems to have been an unremarkable childhood, Masaki was abandoned by his father at the Sun Garden orphanage. His family had been the victim of a financially ruinous scam and presumably was no longer capable of caring for the boy. Yet they also appear not to have kept in contact with their son after giving him up, and so Masaki’s loss of his parents acted as a kind of double shattering of his capacity to trust: Not only had his family been broken up by another party’s deception, but his own relatives seemed to have betrayed him in turn.
The child that arrived at Sun Garden was thus a deeply withdrawn and suspicious one. He failed to make friends or form ties in his new home, despite Sun Garden being a welcoming enough place. Instead, Masaki drew in on himself and took up constant solo practice of his favorite sport, soccer.
As it happened, however, Sun Garden had a very storied history when it came to that particular game: The orphanage’s previous sponsor, ten years prior, had used its children to test the physically-enhancing power of an alien meteorite and, in a (very convoluted) attempt to overthrow the Japanese government, had them impersonate teams of soccer-playing aliens from outer space. Its current head at the time of Masaki’s arrival was none other than that man’s daughter, Kira Hitomiko, who had coached a team of normal students to put a stop to her father’s schemes. (This series is really silly, what can I say?)
Hitomiko therefore took a personal interest in Masaki’s one apparent love and arranged for him to attend middle school at Raimon Jr. High – where many of her own former players had come from and where her old team’s captain, Endou Mamoru, now coached. Endou and the Raimon squad readily accepted Masaki onto the team.
Unfortunately, however, there was a ridiculous plot going on at present-day Raimon, as well. Namely, a mysterious organization known as Fifth Sector had taken complete control of the management of Japanese youth soccer, going so far as to secretly dictate the final scores of matches and taking harsh, punitive measures against those who defied its orders. One of Fifth Sector’s primary tools in controlling schools’ teams was the use of SEEDs – students to whom it offered elite training in exchange for their allegiance and help in infiltrating teams. At the time of Masaki’s arrival, Raimon was busy mounting a rebellion against these practices. It had already won several matches against Fifth Sector’s orders and was working its way towards the national championship. It had also already been the target of an attempt to break up the team by introducing a SEED into it.
The mixture of bad attitude and high-level playing skills that Masaki came into Raimon with sent the worst possible signal to some of its players, as a result. Masaki was a loner, not clicking with the team socially and sticking to rough, solo plays on the field. He wasn’t opposed to pushing around his teammates and even took to manipulating the other players on the team so as to turn them against another student who played the same position as him, Kirino Ranmaru. It was probably only natural that Kirino came to suspect Masaki of being a SEED – and equally natural that, when confronted with the accusation, Masaki refused to deny it. (Though, in point of fact, he didn’t even know what SEEDs were.)
With the resulting strife in Raimon’s defensive line, the first real game Masaki played in soon turned against them. The defenders’ inability to cooperate cost Raimon the lead in the match’s first half, but, after being placed on the bench for a stretch, Kirino became able to see through his suspicions about Masaki. Despite his stand-offish and bullying behavior, the other boy was at least earnestly trying to win. Kirino even managed to convince Masaki to cooperate on a team play that required his particular skill-set…and, though they remained far from overtly friendly, their reconciliation turned the tide of the match in favor of Raimon.
Masaki finally began to integrate into his new school’s team following this incident. Though he remained defensive and not above playing pranks on his teammates, his ability to function as part of the group quickly grew. Later episodes show him increasingly joining his skills with those of the rest of the team as they advance through the youth tournament finals: instructing them on how to move on icy terrain they’re forced to play on, helping devise new combination plays, and eventually even participating in such plays himself. This increasing comfort with others on the field has been slow to translate into friendliness off of it, but the boy’s initial, harshly exclusive attitude has still faded to a great extent.
By the time Raimon manages to fight their way through and win the Holy Road finals, putting an end to Fifth Sector while becoming national champions, Kariya is fully integrated as a member of the team. The squad gets some off time afterwards as school goes into summer break...only to be confronted by a new foe upon their return: Protocol Omega, a time-traveling group from the future, seeking to erase soccer from history. (See? I told you it was silly.)
Kariya is initially side-lined from the fight against Protocol Omega when a majority of the team first has their histories altered and then falls victim to a mind-control device, causing them to lose interest in soccer. After being freed from the device's influence, he joins back up with the team as they travel to vastly different time periods (Three Kingdoms era China, Bakumatsu period Japan, and finally the Jurassic period). But, in the end, his most important decisions involve stepping aside for the greater good of the team: first when he gives up his spot among the time-traveling group to Kirino, who was distressed at finding himself sidelined, and later when he lets Tove, a boy they encountered in the Jurassic period, take his place as a defender in the main starting line-up. He returns to play later on, however, when Raimon and Protocol Omega team up against a group of young mutants in a series of matches to decide the fate of future Earth. Despite initially bickering with the Protocol players on his team, they manage to come out of their match victorious and set the two sides up for a final, tie-breaking confrontation.
(Kariya only appears incidentally in GO!'s third season, remaining at Raimon with most of the rest of the team after only three of their players are selected for the Japanese national squad.)
The child that arrived at Sun Garden was thus a deeply withdrawn and suspicious one. He failed to make friends or form ties in his new home, despite Sun Garden being a welcoming enough place. Instead, Masaki drew in on himself and took up constant solo practice of his favorite sport, soccer.
As it happened, however, Sun Garden had a very storied history when it came to that particular game: The orphanage’s previous sponsor, ten years prior, had used its children to test the physically-enhancing power of an alien meteorite and, in a (very convoluted) attempt to overthrow the Japanese government, had them impersonate teams of soccer-playing aliens from outer space. Its current head at the time of Masaki’s arrival was none other than that man’s daughter, Kira Hitomiko, who had coached a team of normal students to put a stop to her father’s schemes. (This series is really silly, what can I say?)
Hitomiko therefore took a personal interest in Masaki’s one apparent love and arranged for him to attend middle school at Raimon Jr. High – where many of her own former players had come from and where her old team’s captain, Endou Mamoru, now coached. Endou and the Raimon squad readily accepted Masaki onto the team.
Unfortunately, however, there was a ridiculous plot going on at present-day Raimon, as well. Namely, a mysterious organization known as Fifth Sector had taken complete control of the management of Japanese youth soccer, going so far as to secretly dictate the final scores of matches and taking harsh, punitive measures against those who defied its orders. One of Fifth Sector’s primary tools in controlling schools’ teams was the use of SEEDs – students to whom it offered elite training in exchange for their allegiance and help in infiltrating teams. At the time of Masaki’s arrival, Raimon was busy mounting a rebellion against these practices. It had already won several matches against Fifth Sector’s orders and was working its way towards the national championship. It had also already been the target of an attempt to break up the team by introducing a SEED into it.
The mixture of bad attitude and high-level playing skills that Masaki came into Raimon with sent the worst possible signal to some of its players, as a result. Masaki was a loner, not clicking with the team socially and sticking to rough, solo plays on the field. He wasn’t opposed to pushing around his teammates and even took to manipulating the other players on the team so as to turn them against another student who played the same position as him, Kirino Ranmaru. It was probably only natural that Kirino came to suspect Masaki of being a SEED – and equally natural that, when confronted with the accusation, Masaki refused to deny it. (Though, in point of fact, he didn’t even know what SEEDs were.)
With the resulting strife in Raimon’s defensive line, the first real game Masaki played in soon turned against them. The defenders’ inability to cooperate cost Raimon the lead in the match’s first half, but, after being placed on the bench for a stretch, Kirino became able to see through his suspicions about Masaki. Despite his stand-offish and bullying behavior, the other boy was at least earnestly trying to win. Kirino even managed to convince Masaki to cooperate on a team play that required his particular skill-set…and, though they remained far from overtly friendly, their reconciliation turned the tide of the match in favor of Raimon.
Masaki finally began to integrate into his new school’s team following this incident. Though he remained defensive and not above playing pranks on his teammates, his ability to function as part of the group quickly grew. Later episodes show him increasingly joining his skills with those of the rest of the team as they advance through the youth tournament finals: instructing them on how to move on icy terrain they’re forced to play on, helping devise new combination plays, and eventually even participating in such plays himself. This increasing comfort with others on the field has been slow to translate into friendliness off of it, but the boy’s initial, harshly exclusive attitude has still faded to a great extent.
By the time Raimon manages to fight their way through and win the Holy Road finals, putting an end to Fifth Sector while becoming national champions, Kariya is fully integrated as a member of the team. The squad gets some off time afterwards as school goes into summer break...only to be confronted by a new foe upon their return: Protocol Omega, a time-traveling group from the future, seeking to erase soccer from history. (See? I told you it was silly.)
Kariya is initially side-lined from the fight against Protocol Omega when a majority of the team first has their histories altered and then falls victim to a mind-control device, causing them to lose interest in soccer. After being freed from the device's influence, he joins back up with the team as they travel to vastly different time periods (Three Kingdoms era China, Bakumatsu period Japan, and finally the Jurassic period). But, in the end, his most important decisions involve stepping aside for the greater good of the team: first when he gives up his spot among the time-traveling group to Kirino, who was distressed at finding himself sidelined, and later when he lets Tove, a boy they encountered in the Jurassic period, take his place as a defender in the main starting line-up. He returns to play later on, however, when Raimon and Protocol Omega team up against a group of young mutants in a series of matches to decide the fate of future Earth. Despite initially bickering with the Protocol players on his team, they manage to come out of their match victorious and set the two sides up for a final, tie-breaking confrontation.
(Kariya only appears incidentally in GO!'s third season, remaining at Raimon with most of the rest of the team after only three of their players are selected for the Japanese national squad.)