Masaru Kouen

Masaru Kouen (紅炎勝 Kouen Masaru lit. "Red Flame Victory"), often referred to as Border's Red Flame (ボーダーの赤い炎 Bōdā no Akai Honō), is the main male protagonist of Trigger On and a student working as a Border Agent as part of the Shinoda Faction. He acts as both the Attacker and leader of the Kouen Unit.

Appearance


As a child, Masaru has been described as being rather short for his age, and even among those around his own age at times dwarfed him. Even those who were average-sized could at times find themselves several inches taller than him. He was also very skinny, to the point that his gi seemd to hang off him at times. His hair was rather the same as it appears when he is a teenager, but it was also much shorter and seemed a bit rounder around the edges. Many features, however, remain the same when he is a teenager, most notably being his overall olive complexion, as well as his red eyes and oddly shaped hair.

As a teenager, much older and as a member of Border, Masaru has filled out some, with a decent amount of muscle mass, while at the same time maintaining his thin figure. His hair has grown out a bit, but is still in the overall same style, and his body appears to be much more trained, evidence of his years of training and battling Neighbors (specifically Trion soldiers before the start of the series). When doing officially work for Border, and having his Trion body be active, Masaru wears a uniform that is rather vastly different from the other Border uniforms that have been shown in the series (a theme that appears throughout the entirety of his team), and this uniform overall fits more of his main combat style and preferred movement options. It takes the form of a simple white gi, with a black belt tied around the waist to keep it secure. The sleeves have been rolled up a great deal, exposing his lower arm, wrists, and hands. He seems to allow his pants to droop down fully, only revealing the main part of his feet, and only the front part of that. On the gi's left side, a Border icon is placed there, symbolizing the organization which employs him, in the place of a traditional school's symbol, icon, or other such identifying features. He wears a large amount of training bandages for use while in combat, mostly located around his fists, wrists, and parts of his feet, the ones in that area acting as shoes, as he wears none in his Border uniform. His fingers are also exposed, along with his toes, giving him a greater sense of manuverabilty. In fact, the manuverabilty factor is the main one that was considered when designing his specialized Trion body.

This is not, however, the only outfit that Masaru wears throughout the series. The second-most-common, seen when he is attending school, is a simple schoolboy's outfit, in a manner that one sees all over Japan. It is a navy blue in color, albeit complemented by the shoes that he is wearing, which are a mostly red color (of a similar shade to his hair), with white accents that add a bit of contrast, and the soles themselves are a pure black, as most shoes are. The collar on his school uniform is typically unbuttoned, and he wears nothing resembling a tie. He has rolled back the sleeves for this outfit as well, and his hands are fully exposed. He doesn't appear to wear any training bandages with this outfit, though they could be located on his chest or still remain on his feet, but are covered up by the shoes that he wears, though this remains unconfirmed. His other 'civilian' outfit is comparatively more simple, consisting of a simple black hoodie with a white inner section (visible from the actual hood, which he is almost never seen wearing), that also has a simple central pocket located around the stomach area. This is complimented by simple black or dark navy blue jeans, and the same shoes that he appears to wear while at school. This is the first of two outfits that he wears when not on-mission or at school, or any other similar function.

The second is a bit more formal, and appears to consist of a large red sweater that he keeps fully unrolled, not rolling back the sleeves in the slightest. There is a large white color, with a blue trim, that also features a series of buttons running down the center of it, that are also white in color, only distinguished from the main color by their outline. There is also an odd sort of symbol directly to the side of this color, of the same color scheme and in the shape of what appears to be a four-leafed clover. This is one of the few outfits where Masaru appears to wear an undershirt, in this case a light blue dress shirt, which remains mostly invisible, save for the collar, which also peaks over the main color of the sweater itself, though much like his school uniform, it is unbuttoned. He also dons simple grayish-green shorts that reach to about the ends of his knees, leaving the rest of his legs bare. He wears simple, dark navy blue socks that are somewhat short, covered up mostly by what appear to be a pair of red crocs, albeit with another black sole area present. Masaru also has a swimsuit of sorts that almost never appears, save for training. It is pure red, and is complimented by vibrant orange flame designs along the sides, living up to his surname.

In fact, much of Masaru's appearance seems to have a 'flame' or 'red' theme in general, and others have even described his aura as that of a raging fire, willing to protect its flames, and also willing to destroy anyone who would hurt them.

Personality
Little is known about Masaru's personality as a child, though he has been described as a constantly energic boy who loved to improve himself and discover new ways to fight with others. He had a strict honor system, never attacking a beaten down opponent, and was always the first to help a downed opponent off the mat and up into the fighting once again. This changed radically when his dojo was attacked and destroyed completely during the First Large-Scale Invasion, killing all those inside. After this, Masaru lapsed into a deep depression for at least seven months, refusing contact with the outside world and generally avoiding other humans altogether. However, after he heard about Border and its mission to eradicate the Neighbors who came to attack the city, Masaru regained his drive, registering immediatley and taking on the personality that he displays proudly today.

In the present time, the first thing most people notice about Masaru is his incredible fighting spirit. He's a boy who lives for fighting and will do anything to improve himself against his opponents. Unlike before, however, Masaru now has only a limited interest in fighting other humans, preferring to battle Trion soldiers or humanoid Neighbors themselves, and he treats battles with fellow humans as something of a trivial matter, something that he does for fun, but doesn't entirely focus on. He steadfastly refuses to utilize his Trigger(s) in a fight with anything besides Neighbors and their ilk, as he still retains a heavy honor system, and believes that fighting in such a manner with regular humans would make him out to be a coward who was unwilling to fight his own battles. Masaru is something of a massive otaku when it comes to the art of Neighbor-fighting, always trying out the newest developed Triggers (even if the results are disastrous), and is always brainstorming new techniques to use against them, mostly involving the stretching of his Trigger's capabilities to the absolute limit, as he believes that is the one way to improve himself in battle. Despite his love of fighting them, Masaru does not hate Neighbors, per-say, but rather regards them as 'strong opponents', that he can beat to get stronger, and therefore he derives enjoyment from fighting them. He seems to have something of a sixth sense when it comes to the intentions of a Neighbor that he is facing down, as he was able to tell instantly that Exoria had no desire to fight or attack humans at all during their first meeting, while also identifying the invaders from Skia as killers the moment he saw them. He often waits for the Neighbor or Trion soldier to attack first, as he doesn't want to destroy or defeat them if they have other motives in mind, but will do his best should they make the first strike. He believes that true men communicate when their fists clash, and his attempts at friendly bouts are often misenterpreted by people encountering them for the first time, usually creating a somewhat awkward situation.

Masaru is also something of an ignoramus, and it is a well-known fact that things such as school and similar pursuits are far from his strong point. He will always prefer to train and fight, and therefore allows such things as knowledge to pass him by a bit more than he should allow them to. He still manages to keep on top of things at school (just barely), and will often enlist his unit's help when it comes to studying and other such things related to school life. He seems to enjoy school, however, regarding it as the best social interaction he can have outside of when working directly with Border, and he has a near-perfect attendence record (not counting excused abscenses due to the likes of a Neighbor attack). He is an incredibly naive person, and will often fall for tricks or scams quite easily, leaving his friends to help him with the process of avoiding such things. However, he is also extremly skilled at reading people, being decent at understanding their intentions and what they're hiding. This is often described as his own talent at reading Neighbors applied to people, though at a much smaller scale than usual. Despite his usual appearance as a rather naive, childlike, and relentlessly positive person, Masaru can at times demonstrate a surprising amount of sarcasm and wit, if only for brief bursts and always for comedic effect, usually shocking those present and resulting in a funny moment of sorts. He also seems to show a decent amount of strategic wit, coming up with basic but at times oddly complex strategies in order to take advantage of the opponent. These are generally incredibly random, and the enemies are surprised because of this.

He cares deeply for his friends, especially those who are a part of his unit, and he will do anything within his power to defend them, even if it means sacrificing himself for them, and he'll take any amount of damage if it means that they can get away from a situation safely. While this is generally not too much of a problem, given the Trion body that Masaru is in whenever they're actually on-mission, he still holds the same principles even when in his regular form, and will act the same way, leading to him putting his life on the line multiple times even when the possiblity of his death is a very, very real thing. Masaru also seems to not have any concept of giving up in the first place, and it generally takes several failures before he can be convinced that an approach will not work. If one of his friends or allies does take damage, however, Masaru's anger is unleashed. Matching the flame symbolism of his name, Masaru's rage is almost akin to a volcano erupting, and he won't cool down until the object of his anger is defeated, or retreats, or is dealt with in some other way. When he finally manages to cool down, it takes him a decent amount of time to fully regain his senses, and he is always exhausted afterwards, usually because of the amount of energy he has expended while eliminating the object of his anger, mostly because he holds nothing back when attacking in this state, no matter what will eventually happen. It is also worthy of note that in this state, Masaru won't back down against his opponent, no matter what occurs.

He also has a seemingly bottomless stomach, willling to eat anything edible if he's hungry enough, and has something of a small sweet tooth.

Trivia

 * His appearance is based on the character of Sekai Kamiki from the anime series Gundam Build Fighters Try.