Ginkai

Ginkai (ギンカイ) is a character in Medarot Damashii. An user of Death Medarots, he is Kokuryuu's #1 associate and the first person he turns to when it comes to testing new hardware and enacting his schemes. He quickly becomes one of Ikki and Metabee's most persistent adversary, antagonizing the pair with an ever-changing array of Death Medarots. On the surface, Ginkai appears to be the archetypical Death Medarotter, being a bully unconcerned with fair play and eager to brutalize his opponents far beyond what is expected in the course of Robattles.

However, it wasn't always this way. As a young child, Ginkai loved Medarots and used his talents to protect less skilled Medarotters from bullies, but a dispute with his partner Bayonet lead him down a dark path. Beneath his cruel exterior are flashes of uncertainty in Kokuryu's ruthless practices, and hints that Ginkai want more out of his Medarots than mindless weapons. It comes to a head when a series of events leads to Ginkai renewing with his long-lost sense of honor and making amends with his old friend. Following his redemption, he becomes an unlikely ally for Ikki and friends, and develop feelings for Kikuhime.

As a Death Medarotter, Ginkai uses a number of models before eventually settling on Unitris. After Unitris' destruction, he switches to Arcbeetle-Dash.

In the anime

-->Voice Actors: Eiji Takemoto, Phil McCordic (EN)

Early life

When very young, Ginkai wanted his own Medarot but as family was poor, he was told by his father that he'd get one by filling a book with pictures of them. One day, while doing so, a gust of wind blew away his drawings and some were run over by a passing car. As an apology, the driver gifted him a Kabuto First Medal. ("Fiery Arc-Dash")

The Medal was eventually inserted into a Bayonet. Ginkai and his Medarot provided to be a formidable duo, so much that other children ostracized Ginkai due to being tired of losing against him. Despite this, Ginkai took action when he saw other kids being bullied by a stronger Medarotter and had Bayonet defeat the bully's Medarot. Now admired by his fellow kids, Ginkai gave robattle tips, and credited his victory to the teamwork between him and Bayonet ("Stand Up! Ginkai"). However, their relationship wasn't always a smooth one and Ginkai grew irritated with his Medarot's 'tude. This reached a critical point when, on the night prior to the finale of an official Robattle tournament, the two had a dispute over a video game and Ginkai had enough, deactivating Bayonet, burying his medal in the forest and giving away his parts to his coussin. However, as he had no other Medarot, Ginkai was forced to forfeit the tournament.

While sulking, he was approached by Kokuryuu, who presented to him Gun Desperado and pitched his Death Medarots by explaining that not only are they far stronger than regular Medarot, but are also completely obedient. He was intrigued by Kokuryuu's offer, who told him he could keep Gun Desperado on one condition: be his friend. ("Kokuryuu Strikes Back")

As a Death Medarotter

After getting his Death Medal delivered, Ginkai made himself known. While Kikuhime and The Screws were toying with the new Medarotch advance, Ginkai had Gun-Desperado attack Peppercat out of nowhere and took her medal hostage in exchange for having Kikuhime find the strongest Medarotter in town. Kikuhime went to Ikki for help and despite being unimpressed with his new opponent, Ginkai threw Peppercat's medal aside. In the ensuing battle with Ikki, Gun Desperado easily defeated Metabee.

Ginkai reported his victory to Kokuryuu, who was satisfied with the outcome and revealed to him that Death Medarots lack emotion. Later, Ginkai and Gun Desperado threatened Arika and Brass, but Ikki arrived to the rescue, having upgraded Metabee with new Saikachis parts. This time, Metabee defeated the Death Medarot using his Medachange ability and an embarassed Ginkai promised this wouldn't be the last Ikki and Metabee would see of him ("Roar! A New Type of Metabee")

At Kokuryu's residence, Ginkai was present when Kikuhime offered to leak information about Ikki and Metabee, and was incensed when she asked to be rewarded with a battery for Peppercat in exchange for the information. After The Screws left, he asked Kokuryu if a Death Medarot battery wasn't too much for a Medarot. When Kokuryu only answered with a sly smile, Ginkai thought to himself Kokuryu did a terrible thing. Later, he and Kokuryu ambushed Ikki and Metabee while they were walking home and challenged them to a battle with a new Death Medarot, Tankdunk. However, Ikki and Metabee, who had promised Nae they would avoid fighting with Death Medarots until she had made necessary adjustments on the Sakaichis parts, refused. Not satisfied with the answer, Ginkai and Kokuryu had Tankdunk terrorize innocent Medarotters at the playgrounds until Ikki and Metabee revealed themselves, even destroying several Medals. They eventually spotted their targets, but Ginkai did not join Kokuryu when he chased the duo to Nae's workshop ("The Forbidden Battle!").

While enjoying ice cream, Ginkai had his treat splaterred on his face when a distracted Ikki accidentally bumped into him. Thinking Ikki had deliberately provoked him, he chased him across town with his Death Medarot, Robin-Arch. The battle eventually transferred to the front of the Ginjyo Corporation office, where Ginkai was shocked when Metabee destroyed Robin-Arch. ("Delirious Delivery")

When Ikki won the chance to appear on the popular Charge!! Kids Show, Ginkai discussed the matter with Kokuryu . Kokuryu hatched a plan to demonstrate the power of Death Medarot by having Ginkai interrupt the program and issue a challenge to Ikki with his new model Nessage. Nessage won the battle, but Ikki demanded a rematch for the next airing. Later, at the playgrounds, Kikuhime tried to curtail favors with Ginkai by massaging his back and praising his Robattling skills, but he refused her "assistance". Kikuhime then saw Ikki and Metabee discussing their strategy for the upcoming battle and tried to leak it to Ginkai, but this only irritated him. The next day, Ginkai showed up to the rematch and was perplexed when Ikki and Metabee employed a technique that allowed them to defeat Nessage ("Robattle in the pool!")

Running late to home after a meeting, Ginkai and his Kiri Kinzam were ambushed by the Mystery Medarotter and Dorcus, who easily destroyed the Death Medarot. Later, Ginkai tested the new model Unitris at the bowling alley and approved of his performance. After Kokuryu told him he could keep it, Kikuhime entered the place and told them Ikki was bringing Metabee to the beach without having recharged his battery. Finding this the perfect opportunity to ambush Metabee, Ginkai had Kikuhime lead him to his location.

At the beach, Ginkai had Kikuhime lure Ikki to him and engaged him in battle, easily overpowering Metabee due to him running out of energy. However, as Ikki carried Metabee out of attack range, Ginkai had Unitris disengage. The Mystery Medarotter appeared again and challenged him to battle. While he put up a fight, Ginkai was able to use Excise's thermography feature to predict Dorcus's ambush and defeat him. The event lead to The Mysterious Medarotter abandoning Dorcus for Excise. Ikki wanted to rematch Ginkai and, after being told his location by Iwanoi, met him at the bowling alley. Ginkai accepted the offer but was surprised by the arrival of the The Mystery Medarotter, who was told to defeat Ikki as part of the condition to acquire Excise. ("The Bond Between Warriors, Part One")

Excise and Unitris double-teamed Metabee, defeating him. Later, Ginkai discussed The Mystery Medarotter's destruction of several Death Medarots with Kokuryu, mentioning that he was suprised he let Excise trash Momokawa's Gairot even though Momokawa is their friend. Kokuryu replied he doesn't need friends but powerful Medarotters who will display the strength of the Death Medarots and that any Death Medarot defeated in battle is only worthy of being scrapped, an answer that visibly disconcerted Ginkai.

Eventually, Ginkai challenged The Mystery Medarotter to a Robattle out of his personal volition. However, their battle was interrupted when Ikki walked in and challenged The Mystery Medarotter to show him it was wrong to abandon Dorcus. Ginkai had Unitris focus his attack on Metabee, chasing him inside a building under construction. Ikki noticed Unitris was right in front of an exposed circuit wire and warned Ginkai of it, but Ginkai arrogantly dismissed the advice and had Unitris step forward, which short-circuited him immediately and embarassed Ginkai. ("The Bond Between Warriors, Part Two")

To capture the runaway Blossomail, Kokuryu enlisted Ginkai's help and had Excise and Unitris attack it at the same time. When they were unable to do so, Kokuryu proved to be satisfied with his new model's performance and walked away. However, Ginkai thought he could take Blossomail. His attack failed and the attempt made Blossomail focus on Unitris as a worthy opponent it would attack until his ultimate destruction. Ginkai ran to the bowling alley and called Kokuryu for help, but Kokuryu responded he was too busy and that the best solution to stop Blossomail's rampage was simply to let it destroy Unitris, an answer he did not accept.

Inside the bowling alley, Blossomail continued its assault on Unitris and eventually ejected its medal. Ginkai managed to lock Blossomail inside a vending machine and ran away carrying Unitris to Nae's repair shop, begging for help. He accompagnied Nae when she went to the bowling alley and witness Blossomail being deactivated by its failsafe mechanism. ("Red Devil Rampage!")

Ginkai saw that The Screws were lost en-route to Dr. Medarot's lab and offered to give them a ride them here in exchange for letting him enter the lab. Once inside, Ginkai had Unitris record footage of Arcbeetle-Dash and Tyrrellbeetle, which he forwarded to Kokuryuu. After he was done, he had The Screws steal the Saikachis parts and covered them by challenging Metabee (currently in Arcbeetle-Dash's body) to a Robattle. Dr. Medarot let the battle play out as he felt it would be a perfect test for Arcbeetle-Dash, and had security drag Ginkai away once when he lost the battle.

At the metro station, him and Kokuryuu held the stolen parts and dared Ikki to have a 2v1 Robattle to get them back. They lost, but Kokuryuu reneged on the agreement and carried the parts to throw them at an incoming train. This made Ginkai visibly uncomfortable, and he pleaded Kokuryuu to not go through with the deed. Fortunately, Metabee's parts were saved at the last minute by Peppercat. ("The Stolen Metabee")

Ginkai had a meltdown when his sister accidentally deleted his save file in a game he was close to finishing. Honey accidentally recorded the incident while she was recovering a balloon for a child and Ginkai kidnapped her, intending to erase her memory. Metabee rescued Honey and escaped into the sewers, but unknowingly, Ginkai had planted a tracking device inside Honey and waited outside a manhole to capture them again with Unitris. The ensuing battle took them to the back of a truck, where they accidentaly got locked inside. Ginkai realized the limitation of Death Medarots when his Medarotch couldn't acknowledge orders to stop the battle. Eventually, Nae and Ikki managed to stop the vehicle and Ginkai revealed why he tried to erase Honey's memory. They both agreed to keep his secret, but didn't notice that journalists were on the scene and had recorded his confession for all to hear. ("[[The Honey Rescue Operation ]]")

Change of heart

Following a dispute with his sister, Ginkai remembered his friendship with Bayonet. When he overheard Ikki discussing a Robattle tournament held by the Medarot Company, he became interested and participated under the alias of "Masked-Q". While Ikki and his friends saw through the disguise, they allowed him to compete and Ginkai surprised everyone by playing within the rules of the competition. As he kept winning battles, Ginkai realized he got more out of respecting the spirit of Robattle than he ever did using Death Medarots. Eventually, he ascended to the final and confronted Ikki, taking this opportunity to reveal his real identity, to the shock of The Screws. His Unitris gained the upper hand during the ensuing battle, but the confrontation was interrupted when Kokuryuu appeared with Blossomail. Ignoring Ginkai's appeal to the rules of the competition, Kokuryuu had Blossomail assault Metabee. Ginkai again tried to plead with Kokuryuu, but the later rebuffed him and responded he expected any friend of his to obey his orders. Realizing Kokuryuu was not his friend, Ginkai had Unitris defend Metabee. As such, Kokuryuu vowed to make him pay. ("Stand Up, Ginkai!")

Ginkai is happy to get his old friend back

Unitris was badly damaged in the ensuing fight. After The Mystery Medarotter drove off Blossomail, Dr. Medarot offered to split the price of the competition (Arcbeetle-Dash and Tyrrellbeetle) between the two finalists due to the interuption but Ikki declined, saying Ginkai was about to beat him fair and square. Ginkai took Unitris to Nae's repair shop but Nae found he was irreversibly damaged. Stricken with grief, Ginkai buried Unitris in the hills. Reflecting on his recent action, Ginkai found himself overwhelmed by the situation he found himself in, but he was met by the Mystery Medarotter. The stranger assured him that having proven himself to be a honorable Medarotter after all, Ginkai was free to robattle as he pleased without picking a side in the ongoing conflict between Medarots and Death Medarots. However, Ginkai still wasn't sure what he believed in.

The next day, he saw Ikki engage in a fist fight with Metabee to restore his memories, as the damage caused by Blossomail gave him amnesia. This reminded Ginkai of his own fights with Bayonet and this inspired him to go to the forest to dig up Bayonet's medal. After he did so, Kokuryu showed up and promised him to finish their previous Robattle. At home, Ginkai tried to find Bayonet's parts but his sister reminded him he had given them away. Putting the Medal in Arcbeetle-Dash instead, Ginkai was happy when Bayonet came back online and apologized to him, but Bayonet quickly forgave him, being pleased to see a proud man like Ginkai ask for forgiveness. Telling Bayonet that he would now be known as "Arc-Dash", Ginkai explained that he had to fight a powerful and unscrupulous opponent, but Arc-Dash was ready to take on the challenge. Both then headed off to fight Kokuryu.

In the forest, Ginkai and Arc-Dash battled Kokuryu and Blossomail but were outmatched. The Mystery Medarotter and Dorcus arrived to the rescue and the former asked Ginkai to let him borrow Tyrrellbeetle, which he reluctantly did. Both were surprised to see an option called "Combine" appeared on their Medarotch and agreed to use it, fusing the two Medarots into the powerful Masterbeetle. Masterbeetle was powerful enough to knock out Blossomail and Ginkai thanked the Mystery Medarotter for his help, giving him Tyrrellbeetle. Later, Ginkai saw Ikki struggle to fix Metabee (who had his memories blocked off due to the damage he received from Blossomail) and had Arc-Dash piledrive him, restoring Metabee to his usual self. ("Kokuryuu Strikes Back")

As a Medarotter

Ginkai practiced target shooting with Arc-Dash. Ikki still wasn't fully convinced of his good intentions and challenged him to a robattle. However, when Ikki's parents noticed he had flunked his latest math test, they forbade him from doing robattles and Ikki had to find increasingly strained reasons to avoid his fight with Ginkai. Eventually, when Ikki's attempt to cheat on his next test unwittingly lead to Momokawa and his squadron Gairot to attack Nae's workshop, Ginkai heard the commotion and defended it with Arc-Dash, defeating the attackers. This made Nae to remark that Ginkai was truly looking to fight fairly and hearing this inspired Ikki to come clean about his attempts to cheat on the test. After getting a good grade on the test, Ikki was allowed to robattle again and went to Ginkai to start the fight he promised, which he welcomed. ("The Cheating Operation")

Ginkai watched over the battle between Tateyama and Wakaba. When Tateyama tried to call Ikki for help, Ginkai took away his Medanet Pad and told him he should conclude his Robattle fair and square, something Tateyama took to heart. However, when Wakaba had her Medarot keep pouncing on Comadog after he had been immobilized, Ginkai had Arc-Dash defeat Wakaba's Put-Cat. In response, Wakaba swore revenge.

Later, Kikuhime begged for Ginkai's left-over Death Medarot part. He invited her to his house but after she entered it, Wakaba reappeared with her new Death Medarot Ambiguous 2 and immediately started a fight, making a mess of his home. The battle eventually went outside, where Kokuryuu, still deeply resentful over Ginkai's betrayal, appeared with Excise. Kikuhime warned Ikki and Arika about the battle but Ginkai refused their help, saying it would be dishonorable to not conclude the battle as he started it. Eventually, Ambiguous 2 finished off Arc-Dash and Ginkai was reassured by Ikki that if he kept fighting Kokuryu and the Death Medarots, he would not be alone ("Protect a Man's Pride!")

Seeing Ikki feeling down after being falsely incriminated by the Death Medarot Company, Ginkai gave him a pep talk. Later, when Nae broadcasted footage of Metabee being dogpiled by Kokuryu's Death Medarotter, Ginkai summoned other people watching to come to Ikki's aid in the baseball stadium. Many followed him and his action pressured Kokuryuu to stop his attack. ("Expose the Trick!")

Ginkai was engaged in a losing battle with Banshou when Ikki stepped in, allowing Ginkai to pick up a damaged Arc-Dash ("Dorcus's Miracle"). After seeing Tateyama abandoned Comadog for Unitris, Ginkai confronted him and Wakaba over it. When Wakaba tried to destroy Comadog for trying to stop her from interfering in a fight between Tateyama and Ikki, Ginkai appeared to save Comadog and Wakaba walked away than picking a fight with him. After the battle concluded, he explained to Tateyama what Comadog had done for him. ("Wakaba's Temptation"). While lazing around with Ikki and Arika, Ginkai had flashbacks to their early encounters ("Burn, Fiery Soul!").

When Kikuhime's Peppercat was being bullied by Hanabishi and Kintora's Death Medarots, Ginkai stepped in and had Arc-Dash blast them away. Kikuhime asked him why he helped her, to which he brushed the accident off by saying he only intervened because he saw people in need, though he couldn't help but blush when Kikuhime thanked him. Later, he was invited by Nae for a mock battle with Ikki as part of her Robattle lesson. ("Do or Die for Iwanoi the Man")

Other appearances

Ginkai is a card in the Medarot OCG, added in the Booster vol. 2 pack.

Notes

• Like most of the new characters in Medarot Damashii, Ginkai is named after a sake brand, continuing the alcoholic theme naming from Medarot 2.

Image gallery

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  Model sheet

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  As the "Masked Q"

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  As a young child

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  As a toddler

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  Medarot OCG card