Masahiro Takenaka

Masahiro TakenakaImage Gallery

Masahiro Takenaka
Name	Masahiro Takenaka
Nihongo	竹中正洋
Information
Gender	Male
Age	45
Height	178 centimeters
Affiliates	Ibraha
Affiliation	Hezbollah
Former Affiliation	Japanese Red Army Red Army Faction
Weapon	CZ 75 pistol
Race/Nationality	Japanese
Status	Alive
First Appearance
Manga	Chapter 16: Goat, Jihad, Rock'N Roll Part 1
Anime	Episode 11: Lock'n Load Revolution
Anime Voice
Japanese Voice	Katsuhiko Sasaki
English Voice	Fred Henderson
Image Gallery

Masahiro Takenaka (竹中正洋（たけなかまさひろ） Takenaka Masahiro) is a former Japanese New Left activist who committed terrorist acts in Japan and fled the country, eventually joining Hezbollah when he took refuge in Lebanon.

Appearance

Takenaka is an older Japanese man with pale skin and short, receding black hair. He is 178 centimeters tall (or 5'10") and was born on August 15, 1950, being 45 years old. He wears a green military uniform with combat boots, and he is frequently seen smoking cigarettes. He wields a CZ 75 pistol for a weapon.

Personality

Takenaka is calm, personable, reasonable and is great at keeping his cool. He is able to look at different viewpoints, which allows him to think ahead and plan. However, he sometimes acts with recklessness in regards to himself, as he ended up answering Rock's questions about himself rather than vice versa.

History

Takenaka was born in Adachi City, Tokyo, Japan. In his youth, he had been a member of the Japanese New Left as part of the student movement, joining the Red Army Faction and engaging in protests against the JNR, as well as clashing with riot police and even engaging in terrorism. When more people stopped protesting and supporting violence, he was disappointed that the communist movement in Japan declined since the people involved had stopped fighting because their lives became more comfortable. Sometime after the Red Army Faction's split, he joined the Japanese Red Army splinter group.

Beginning in the early 1970s, Takenaka committed a number of terrorist acts, including the 1970 bombing incident at Asahi Heavy Industrial Co.'s head office, the 1972 Yokosuka Airport shooting incident, the 1972 kidnapping of an Araki Co. branch manager, the hijacking of a Japan Air Lines flight in 1975, the murder of Japanese nationals in Jakarta in 1976, a 1977 shooting incident at an embassy in Japan, and an unspecified incident in 1978. At some point, he was arrested by Japanese police and charged with murder, using explosives and resisting arrest. Escaping his imprisonment and wanted by Japanese police, Takenaka fled to the Beqaa Valley in Lebanon and joined Hezbollah, eventually becoming a staff member. He has remarked that he did not stop fighting for a people's universal revolution because stopping the fight would mean that his beliefs would all be a lie if he just gave up.

Goat, Jihad, Rock'N Roll

When Rock and Revy went to deliver the documents given to them by Chang to the CIA agents on Basilan Island, Takenaka and Ibraha waited in a hotel for further instructions to seize the documents. Ibraha said that he was in no mood to judge the failure of their comrades after the Hezbollah fighters' attack on the Lagoon Company office failed. In response, Takenaka, being a Marxist, quoted Mao Tse-tung by claiming that Ibraha underestimated the enemy as mere gangsters after Hezbollah's failed attempt to get the documents in Roanapur. Ibraha replied that he did not care about words from an atheist, making Takenaka remind him that he himself was atheist, to which Ibraha responded that he was his comrade. The ex-JRA member calmly recommended that they schedule their terror plot to happen sooner, which Ibraha disagreed with since the U.S. FBI was already surveilling them. Thinking for a bit, Takenaka said that of the five enemy delivery parties, the enemy would most likely have the real documents on a sea route, and he volunteered to take them on and departed. Before Takenaka left, Ibraha remarked that their plot to attack a Manhattan subway system with lethal gas would take inspiration from Takenaka's countrymen, but Takenaka reminded him that he quit being Japanese over 20 years ago.

As Hezbollah and the NPULF arranged their sea attack on the Lagoon Company, Takenaka ordered a subordinate to continue the flank. Looking at his watch, he realized that his flight was going to take off soon, departing to the airport. There, he received a phone call and learned that the other four parties had no documents, pleased that his intuition was correct and continued to finish his pursuit of the Lagoon Company. Sitting down and smoking a cigarette, he met a fellow Japanese man and offered him a light for a cigarette, correctly guessing that the salaryman was Japanese due to the way that he held out his hand and bowed. Sitting down next to Takenaka, the tourist commented that he was going on vacation to Phuket (or Cebu Island in the anime). Still relaxing, Takenaka joked that it was quite the unusual place to go on vacation with his family, making the salaryman chuckle. Smiling, the tourist thought that he recognized Takenaka and met him before, but the latter pretended that people often mistook him for Yasuo Daichi (or Ken Takakura in the anime), leaving and remarking to himself that he would only be recognized from a wanted poster.

Takenaka posing as a Triad affiliate

At night, Revy and Rock disembarked the Black Lagoon onto a smaller raft and sailed to Basilan Island after escaping the flank. At the Abu Sayyaf training camp there, Takenaka called Ibraha, who was enraged that the former went to the camp since his plan to confront the enemy could possibly jeopardize the terror plan. Speaking in excitement, Takenaka declared that they would certainly trick the enemy and disagreed with Ibraha's seriousness, joking that all of life was a game. Immediately, Ibraha hung up the phone in fury, surprising Takenaka. Continuing his plan to get the documents, he ordered an Abu Sayyaf fighter to scatter their units and avoid any clashes with government forces. At the rendezvous point in an abandoned village at dawn, he pretended to be a Triad intermediary and said the password that Revy was given. Revy then revealed to him that there was a second password in case Hezbollah intercepted the first one. Immediately, they engaged in a gunfight in which Takenaka had his men fight Revy while he successfully abducted Rock to interrogate him. When he returned to the training camp with the captured pirate, he discovered that Rock's briefcase was empty, but the ex-salaryman calmly answered that he had no idea about it.

To loosen up tension with Rock, Takenaka brought him into a small house as Ibraha stood by. Takenaka, recognizing Rock as a fellow Japanese man, asked him how Japan and its scenery were, trying to relate to him. When he asked Rock why he became a criminal like him, the latter rejected the comparison, saying that they were different and that he knew what the Red Army Faction and Japanese Red Army did in his former country. Annoyed by the slowness of the interrogation, Ibraha angrily interrupted them and pointed a gun at Rock's head, warning him to reveal the documents' location or he would blow his head off. Takenaka then told Rock a story about a man who preached to people, who showed great interest and even promised to fight with him, but then those same people lost interest after their lives became comfortable. Elaborating, the man continued to preach and informed a curious child that he continued to preach and fight since he gambled his life on his beliefs, stating that his whole life would be a lie if he abandoned his conviction. Finishing the story, Takenaka remarked that the true difference between himself and Rock was that the former had a purpose in life. Ibraha asked Takenaka if they should torture Rock, but the latter assured his comrade that it would not be necessary since Rock was not a soldier, adding that they could give the pirate a trial and execute him the next morning if he still refused to talk.

At night after sunset, Revy attacked the base with Shenhua, killing several guerrillas. Nearby, Ibraha impatiently argued with Takenaka about who had the documents since the other teams were reported to be decoys. When Takenaka said that they should have heard a report from the enemy about the woman arriving with the documents, both men realized that Revy had returned to attack them. As she exited the house, Revy saw Takenaka with a couple of men and shot at them, prompting Takenaka to fall onto the ground and pretend that he was dead. As Rock left, he and Takenaka exchanged one last look with each other as fellow Japanese men, and Revy yelled at Rock to hurry up. Immediately after smiling at Rock's departure, Takenaka, Ibraha and their men chased Leigharch's Jeep in vehicles. During the pursuit as the two women successfully killed several fighters, Ibraha tried to tell their men to continue their chase, but Takenaka purposefully drove their vehicle off the road to avoid certain death at the hands of Revy.

Takenaka and Ibraha arguing

To the side of the road close to the demilitarized zone, Ibraha argued with Takenaka that they needed to continue, and the latter argued that Ibraha was blinded by his ideals even though their forces were outmatched by Revy and Shenhua's skills. As the two fought for the radio, Ibraha reminded Takenaka that the former's reason for fighting was to avenge his son's murder in 1987 by the Israeli military, which had backing from the United States of America. When Ibraha demanded him to answer coherently for his own reasons to fight, Takenaka shot him since he saw his comrade as being emotionally compromised by his son's murder. Upon getting the radio, Takenaka radioed the remaining men to return to base and not pursue beyond the demilitarized zone, gloomily admitting to himself that Ibraha was a good friend.

Later the next day, Takenaka appeared in an airport speaking by phone about the plans for another attack. As he sat down, he saw the Japanese tourist whom he met two days earlier, telling the Japanese tourist that his "trip" was bad since he got into a fight with an old friend. Trying to console him, the tourist assured him that there would always be a next time, with Takenaka smiling in agreement. When the tourist asked him what he did for a living, Takenaka walked away and remarked that he had not known for a while but finally realized that his occupation was an "enemy of the state."

Trivia

• Takenaka's background and story is partially based on the life of Kōzō Okamoto, a Japanese Red Army member who collaborated with the PFLP-EO and later sought refuge in Lebanon.
• In a worst characters contest, among both female readers and readers in their 20s, Takenaka ranked 10th.
• In a popularity contest during the 10th manga collection release, Masahiro Takenaka ranked 21st with 57 votes.
• In a popularity contest during the 12th manga collection release, Masahiro Takenaka ranked 15th with 146 votes.