Sousuke Sagara

Sousuke Sagara
Full Metal Panic! character
File:Fmp sagara.jpg Sousuke being confronted by Eri Kagurazaka over the possession of his Steyr SPP submachine gun in his bag
First appearance	"The Guy I Kinda Like is a Sergeant"
Created by	Shoji Gatoh
In-universe information
Alias	Kashim, Isegar Sousuke, Sousky Seagal, Urzu 7
Relatives	Unknown Mother and Father (Deceased) Andrei Kalinin (father-figure) General Majhid (adopted father)

Sousuke Sagara (相良宗介, Sagara Sōsuke) is a fictional character and main protagonist in the light novel, manga, and anime series Full Metal Panic!. He was portrayed by Tomokazu Seki in the original anime and by Chris Patton in the English dub.

Overview

Sousuke is an approximately 17 year old sergeant within the paramilitary counter-terrorist force, Mithril. He is a member of the SRT (Special Response Team) of the Western Pacific Battle Group "Tuatha de Danaan" aboard the assault submarine of the same name under the command of Captain Teletha Tessa Testarossa. His call sign is Urzu-7 and his ID number is B-3128, and operates as team pointman as an Arm Slave specialist.

Sousuke is of Japanese descent, but has no clear nationality. His exact date of birth is also unknown. He has black hair and grey eyes, as well as a small, visible cross-shaped scar on his left chin. He is literate and fluent in both English and Japanese. He can also speak some Russian and Persian as well as several local Afghan dialects fluently. He was raised as a Muslim, but doesn't follow strict interpretations of Sharia law like the people who raised him. He is once depicted worrying more about Ramadan than Christmas in the 6th book, but his consideration is depicted on a pure combat basis ("It was a time when Soviet soldiers would lower their guard"). On a daily life basis, Sousuke is depicted as a secular character. He is shown eating pork and his refusal of alcohol is made, again, on a pure combat efficiency basis, and he clearly shows a genuine distaste for the stuff in "The Second Raid". He is capable of reciting the Qur'an from memory, probably due to his infancy in a Muslim country, but finds classical Japanese literature, poetry and history extremely difficult to comprehend.

In addition to being a capable Arm Slave pilot, Sousuke is a specialist in Arm Slave operations and maintenance, improvised explosives, small arms, survival training, anti-armor combat, trap setting and camouflage. Additionally, he is proficient in logistics, demolitions, breach and forced entry, covert intrusion, and hand to hand combat. His background and experience as a guerrilla fighter, and later a mercenary soldier has made him much more sensitive and knowledgeable about tactics and methods more commonly used by guerrillas than government trained regulars.

Sousuke is unfortunately not very good at social interaction off the battlefield. He constantly causes many problems for Kaname Chidori due to his military nature. Even in school he carries a gun with him although it is loaded with non-lethal rounds. He is also very bad at blending in with normal members of society due to his nature. That is, he has no readily available "civil" concepts about life, like entertainment or anything recreational and tends to horribly misinterpret the actions of people around him. This is shown throughout the main series when Sousuke is guarding Chidori at Jindai High, and Fumoffu! focuses mainly on this aspect. This part of his personality is indeed one of the main sources of the series' humor.

Sousuke harbors deep feelings for Kaname Chidori, however he conceals them from her due to his inability to express them. At the end of Full Metal Panic! The Second Raid, both Sousuke and Chidori have realized that they like each other, but are unable to tell each other. In the novel, A Dancing Very Merry Christmas, Sousuke realizes that he loves Chidori, but is still unable to find the courage to tell her.

Sousuke was known under various identities, such as Sousuke Seagal (temporarily), Isegar Sousuke and during his time in Afghanistan (Helmajistan in the anime), he was known as Kashim (only two characters refer to him as Kashim, one being Gauron and the other is Zaied, a former comrade from his Afghan days).

Character History

Sousuke Sagara was saved as a child from a crashed Boeing 747 jetliner in the North Pacific by then Spetznaz officer, Andrei Kalinin. His age at this time was approximately 2 or 3 years old. The Soviet nuclear submarine's rescue action was unauthorized, and later officially denied. Officially there was no Soviet involvement, and thus no rescue operation nor survivors. Kalinin's efforts to locate living relatives of the child also failed, as no record of a passenger named "Sagara" existed. It remains unknown if Sagara is the maiden name of Sousuke's mother, or the name written upon the child's clothing is the child's real name. According to the Full Metal Panic! anime's first season, his birthday is 07/07/1984.

From there, Sousuke was taken into the Soviet state child care system as an orphan. He was later taken into a KGB training program for child soldiers. At (approximately) age 8, Sousuke was trained as an assassin and deployed into Afghanistan (Helmajistan in the anime) to assassinate a local leader of the local resistance army. He failed to assassinate his target, and instead was adopted by the man he was sent to kill, General Majhid, who named him Kashim. He became part of the resistance army, fighting against the invading Soviet forces. He learned the use of small arms and basic survival techniques during this time as a guerrilla fighter.

Raised as a guerrilla fighter, he became a skilled AS pilot and soldier. During this time, the Soviet offensive grew in magnitude with the fresh success of the new Arm Slaves. In the early stages of the war, Kalinin's forces capture Sousuke. Sousuke and Kalinin are reunited for the first time, eventually leading to Kalinin's decision to desert the Soviet army. Kalinin gives specialized Spetznaz training to Sousuke, from which Sousuke learns Japanese and some Russian.

Following the defeat against the Soviet army, Sousuke becomes a mercenary eventually escaping the country with Kalinin. However, they were separated afterwards in Cambodia. Sousuke has since been involved with most of the wars in the Middle East, collectively called the Fifth Middle East War. He built a solid reputation as a soldier during this period, gaining a group of friends. He spent five years as a soldier for hire, further building his combat and survival skills.

Sousuke was eventually scouted and invited to become a Mithril operative. While showing unspectacular skills at the training camp, his actions in the line of fire with an Rk-92 Savage convinced Melissa Mao to include him in the elite SRT unit. It is at Mithril that he is reunited for the second time with Kalinin, this time his commanding officer. As an SRT member he is trained to operate the M9 Gernsback Arm Slave, serving as pointman.

The story of Full Metal Panic! follows Sousuke's active duty with Mithril. In the Siberian tundra, an extraction operation of personnel from a secured research facility was detected and attacked by a mixed force of a Hind Gunship Helicopter and Rk-92 Savages. Sousuke’s performance in an M-9E was directly responsible for securing the survivor for extraction.

As the first person to operate it, Sousuke becomes the only Mithril pilot able to use the ARX-7 Arbalest. This increases his importance within the organization from a mere sergeant to the only soldier who can pilot an Arm Slave equipped with a Lambda Driver. His current mission to protect Chidori forces him to cope with an unfamiliar and peaceful lifestyle, forcing many awkward and comical situations. His over-protectiveness usually annoys Chidori to no end but later in the story, they grow fond of each other and express their feelings for each other.

Initially, Sousuke was confused with the Lambda Driver-equipped ARX-7 Arbalest and its quirky A.I., nicknamed "Al". Because of its unreliability in the field and his own internal conflicts, he came to despise the AS. However, Sousuke later resolved his own issues and came to accept the Arbalest and put up with Al. Since then, he has been able to utilize the Lambda Driver at will by concentrating. However, this could not save him from the power of the Belial arm slave piloted by Leonard Testarossa and the Arbalest has since been destroyed. Following the kidnapping of Kaname Chidori and the destruction of Mithril he has become very unstable and will stop at nothing to rescue Chidori.

In the novel, Continuing On My Own, Sousuke tells Chidori that he likes her, but he's afraid because he fears the gulf that exists between them, since she is a Whispered. At the end of the novel, Chidori is kidnapped by Leonard Testarossa, and Sousuke embarks on a mission to save her. In the novel, Get Together and Make My Day, Sousuke fails to rescue Chidori, but manages to speak with her over a radio as she is being taken away on a helicopter. In this conversation they finally express their feelings of love towards each other. Sousuke promises to save her no matter what and Chidori promises to wait "for years, even hundreds of years" for Sousuke -- they both promise to kiss the moment they are reunited.

In the most recent novel, Approaching Nick of Time, he travels into Soviet territory with Tessa in order to uncover more information about how the Whispereds originated. Leonard also heads to the Soviet facility Sousuke and Tessa are traveling to, with Chidori in tow. At the facility, named Yamsk 11, Chidori's mind is taken over by a personality named Sophia, who appears to be a "Whisperer" who imparts the Black Technology knowledge to the Whispereds. Under Sophia's control Chidori, Sousuke, and Tessa are shown an illusion of Chidori shooting and killing the other two. Leonard and Sophia leave Yamsk 11 to go to Merida Island, where Amalgam has built a device to utilize a final ability of the Whispereds.

Trivia

• The character name closely resembles that of Sanosuke Sagara from Rurouni Kenshin. Moreover, his scar resembles that of Kenshin Himura from the same series. It is unknown, yet unlikely, whether these similarities are coincidences. Seki Tomokazu also voices both Sousuke and Sanosuke on the CD versions of each manga.

• Sousuke bears a strong resemblance, both in temperament and appearance, to Heero Yuy from Mobile Suit Gundam Wing. The two finally met in the video game Super Robot Wars W, and became comfortable enough with one another to share fruit-flavored rations. Heero himself comments on their similarities ("to think another human being like me would be here..."), and eventually becomes something of a senpai to Sousuke, helping him to overcome his uneasiness and insecurities to continue fighting to protect the things important to him.

External links

• Fansite