Kyousuke Nanbu

Template:Infobox character

Kyosuke Nanbu (Template:Lang, 南部響介 in kanji)is a fictional character in the Super Robot Wars series. In canon, he pilots the Alt Eisen Riese, and is joined by his girlfriend, Excellen Browning, who pilots the Rein Weiss Ritter.

Kyosuke's surname, Nanbu, is possibly derived from Kijiro Nambu, a Japanese firearms manufacturer, or the Nambu Pistol.

Appearances

Kyosuke appears in the following games:

• Super Robot Wars Compact 2 Part 1 - Protagonist
• Super Robot Wars Compact 2 Part 2 - Minor appearance
• Super Robot Wars Compact 2 Part 3 - Protagonist
• Super Robot Wars Impact - Protagonist
• Super Robot Taisen: Original Generation - Protagonist, with own selectable storyline, or playable character, depending on the player's choice
• Super Robot Taisen: Original Generation 2 - Protagonist
• Super Robot Wars Original Generations - Protagonist and/or playable character
• Super Robot Wars Original Generation Gaiden - Playable character
• Another Century's Episode R - Playable Character
• 2nd Super Robot Wars Original Generation - Playable character

Kyosuke also appears in the following anime:

• Super Robot Wars Original Generation: The Animation
• Super Robot Wars Original Generation: Divine Wars
• Super Robot Wars Original Generation: The Inspector

Theme Music

• Koutetsu no Beowulf (Steel Beowulf; retitled Beowulf in the North American localization of Original Generation 2) - Default theme music in all appearances

Personality And Traits

22-year old Kyosuke Nanbu is usually quiet and keeps things to himself. To everyone else, he seems to be cold, reserved, unemotional and extremely apathetic towards just about anything - the polar opposite of his girlfriend, Excellen Browning. Calm and able to make quick, excellent decisions, Kyosuke is also an extremely skilled pilot, as he's the only person to actually pilot the Alt Eisen effectively. However, there are times when he breaks away from his stoicism on the battlefield, leading to an unexpected, hot-blooded personality. Kyosuke is known to have a bad habit of gambling, often referring to a battle as a big bet, with his and his opponent's life as the ante. He frequents the phrase, "I don't mind betting on tough odds." Though he doesn't display it, he cares deeply for Excellen, even if he ignores her affection at times (additionally, Toshiyuki Morikawa and Yuko Mizutani, Kyosuke and Excellen's respective voice actors, also played characters that were close to each other in Tekkaman Blade).

In battle, Kyosuke is a tanker, and will usually rush into battle head-on into enemy units. Coupled along with his combat skills and the specifications of the Alt Eisen/Alt Eisen Riese, he can come out of battles with the least amount of damage to his machine, making him a formidable pilot.

There are two characters that share appearance and personalities based on Kyosuke:

• The original male protagonist for Namco x Capcom, Reiji Arisu, a deeply reserved agent for the Shinra Organization, who is aided by a flirtatious "mystic fox" called Xiaomu. Namco x Capcom also happens to be directed by the same person who directed Super Robot Wars Impact, where Kyosuke is the male protagonist.
• Mugen no Frontier: Super Robot Wars OG Saga for the Nintendo DS features Haken Browning, a bounty hunter whose attacks includes the use of playing cards. The naming of Haken's techniques also reference various poker hands.

History

Original Generation Timeline

Kyosuke Nanbu was involved in a shuttle crash during his youth that killed everyone on board, except for him and one other passenger, whom he shielded from the flaming debris. After this incident, he's inherited a form of bizarre, inhuman luck that's been keeping him alive. The next example of this luck occurred in Original Generation, after joining the Earth Federation Army: while he was doing test runs for the Wildraubtier, the machine gets destroyed during its transformation sequence. Kyosuke comes out alive, with only a few broken ribs. Sanger Zonvolt, leader of the ATX Team, recruits him and he becomes acquainted with fellow team members Brooklyn Luckfield and Excellen Browning. Little did he know, was that Excellen would eventually reveal herself to be the other surviving passenger in the shuttle crash. This prompted her to start a relationship with him, although the timing couldn't have been worse, as the Divine Crusaders declared war against the Earth Federation. He would later become the leader of the ATX Team after Sanger's defection to the Divine Crusaders.

Kyosuke would create many rivalries against notable pilots Ryusei Date of the SRX Team in Original Generation and Axel Almer of the Shadow-Mirror in Original Generation 2 (incidentally, the voice actors for Kyosuke (Toshiyuki Morikawa) and Axel Almer (Nobutoshi Kanna) also play rivals/arch-enemies in Berserk). His scuffles with Axel were so intense that the Alt Eisen was almost destroyed (again, due to his luck, Kyosuke survives), thanks to Axel and his Soulgain. This allowed Dr. Marion Radom, the creator behind the Alt Eisen, to upgrade his machine into the balanced Alt Eisen Riese. When the Einst began their scheme to recreate the Earth, they turned their attention to the pilot, for he would be the new Adam, alongside their artificially-created clone, Einst Alchemie, who was made in accordance to the data they had gather on Excellen, and act as Eve. To have him comply with their wishes, they brainwashed Excellen and had her turn against him. However, Kyosuke breaks their control over her and are able to defeat the Einst, with the help of their various allies and friends.

In the Shadow-Mirror universe, the Kyosuke Nanbu of that dimension, under the codename Beowulf, pilots the Gespenst MK III, similar to the Original Generation universe Alt Eisen Riese, but blue in colour with some additional abilities such as regeneration capabilities and over powered energy output. What's signficantly different about this Kyosuke Nanbu is that he possesses some form of strength that can be said to be near demonic in nature, which is entirely opposite to the Original Generation universe Kyosuke's inhuman luck. Beowulf only appears in the prologue of Original Generation 2, where he leads his squad of Gespenst MK IIs, the Beowulves, to fight against the Shadow-Mirror's coup d'état. While he was thought that while having demonic power, he is the same and heroic Kyosuke, Original Generations reveal that Kyosuke of the Shadow Mirror universe is in fact also a ruthless, sadistic man hell bent on destroying and rebuilding the world. He is also shown with Einst face markings, hinting that he might have been possessed by the Einsts, and speaks with a slow, dejected speech style. In the anime Super Robot Wars Original Generation: The Inspectors, it is revealed that Kyosuke of the Shadow-Mirror universe murdered the universe's SRX Team in cold blood. In the very same anime, after Stern Neue Regisseur's defeat, Beowulf successfully made a jump to the OG universe and attempts to recreate that universe like he did with the Shadow Mirror, but the combination of the might of EFA and Axel Almer managed to kill him for good (despite Axel seemingly killed in process).

Original Generation Gaiden

Following the previous war, Kyosuke continues to lead the ATX Team until the VTX-001 Bartolls suddenly ran amock, attacked and abducted many civilians, including some of the Aggressors. Eventually reuniting with his allies, Kyosuke rallied them to the Hellgate Facility, where they successfully rescued Kusuha Mizuha, Arado Balanga and Seolla Schweizer. When attacking the core of the facility, Kyosuke encountered Lamia Loveless, placed inside a lone Bartoll unit. Kyosuke encouraged her to break free from system's control and she did, and in the same time, he forcefully pulled her from the cockpit.

Unfortunately, Kyosuke let his guard down and talked a bit with Lamia, when suddenly a shot was directed to his hand, causing him to throw her away out of the reach of the others. Kyosuke was extremely distraught on this, thinking that Lamia perished and he completely failed to save her. He joined the attack on Lamia's supposed murderer, Wilhelm von Juergen, also the mastermind behind the ODE Incident, but before he could destroy him, Duminuss emerges and slays Juergen. Thus, Kyosuke was forced to retreat.

With advice from Brooklyn Luckfield, Kyosuke attempted to stay strong and focuses himself on leading his friends. He broke down once more quickly enough, after encountering Lamia again, who turned out to be alive, but seemed to be under control of the ODE under Duminuss. Eventually Kyosuke decided it's time to fulfill his past promise for real unlike last time, should Lamia lose her mind again, he'll personally kill her. While trying to gather his friends, Kyosuke was reunited with two people he also thought to be dead: Axel Almer and Alchemie. Contrary to what he thought, Axel ended up rescuing Lamia and restored her personality to the Lamia that fought with the EFA, and Alchemie supported that Axel has changed, thus Kyosuke put aside his record of rivalry with Axel and promises to one day repay his debts for helping him rescuing Lamia.

Another Century's Episode: R

According to his story in the game, after the events of Original Generation Gaiden, both Kyosuke and Ryusei were caught in a dimensional loop, alongside Masaki Andoh, who were lost after the events of the second half of Masou Kishin: The Lord of Elementals. The three teamed up to find their way home from the universe, along with a group of pilots from various series. They managed to find a way to return home in the end, but unlike Masaki who was transported back into the OG universe, Kyosuke and Ryusei have been implied to be thrown off into a different universe...

2nd Super Robot Wars Original Generation

It turns out however that Kyosuke was thrown into La Gias, only separated with Masaki and eventually encounters Ryuune Zoldark along with the pilot of Elemental Lord of Fire, Hwang Yang Long, and eventually reunites Ryusei himself. Along the way, Kyosuke helps Ryuune and Yang Long solve the civil war in Langran Kingdom, although it ended with the death of General Karx Zan Valfarbia. After reuniting with the other summoned pilots of Hiryuu Custom and Hagane, Kyosuke is sent back to Earth.

However, he didn't have time to rest. Upon returning to Earth, he found out that Earth is under siege of the Guests, along with other invading factions such as the Ruina and the Baral Garden residents. Once again Kyosuke takes on the battlefield, although nothing major happening, except eventually reuniting with Axel and Alchemie (and later his friends from La Gias). Kyosuke also forms a friendship with the android of Idealant Project, Ariel Org, who pilots a robot similar to his Alt Eisen Riese, the Flickerei Geist, and even formed a combination attack together.

He quickly came to clash with Ariel's brother Duvan Org, who has absorbed Alchemie in an attempt to increase his power further. Working together with Axel, Excellen and Ariel, Kyosuke managed to save Alchemie, and Duvan was shortly betrayed and killed by Eldy Mitte. At the end of the game, Kyosuke drafts Ariel into the ATX Team, while he also supports the efforts to solve Ariel's short lifespan problem.

Trivia

• The chief reason of Kyosuke ending up as Beowulf in the Shadow Mirror Universe was mostly cited that Kyosuke had no truly close companion or significant other to stand by his side; in the main universe, this position is filled by Excellen, but in the Shadow Mirror Universe, Excellen did not survive the plane crash, was revived as Lemon Browning and was no longer by Kyosuke's side. Without a companion to counterbalance his stoic and professional attitude, the Shadow Mirror version of Kyosuke devolves into Beowulf and all his Einst influences.