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mobage_manual
Introduction:
Welcome to Recommending Characters! In this section of the blog, I’ll be making an overview of a certain character from one of the franchises I’m into once every two weeks, as well as highlighting their best and most important moments in canon, in hopes that it’ll make the readers interested both in the character and in the game itself!
The character I’ve decided to focus on today is Gray Reverse, from Helios Rising Heroes. Unlike Promise of Wizard, featured in the last entry, HeliosR is a game I’ve gotten into recently, and although I’ve read most of the events as of writing this, I’m not as confident on my knowledge of it, so I hope it’s still a good read regardless!
Gray Reverse is a 13th generation rookie from the East Sector, as well as the oldest member from said generation at 25 years old as a result of him failing the tryouts to become a hero twice in the past. His unusual hobbies (gaming, anime, collecting figurines, etc) and anxious personality made him an easy target for bullies during his time at the Helios Academy (including Asch, one of his current mentors), which only made him more closed off, but he’s aiming to become a hero to overcome his weak self. However, it seems like him passing the tryouts this time wasn’t completely due to his own abilities… But before digging further into it, let’s start with a general overview of his character!
Profile and General Overview:
“​​No, no, please don't say that... I'm the one in the way, not you... I'm so sorry…”
As mentioned before, Gray is a hero assigned to the East Sector. He was born on June 6th, making him a Gemini, and he’s 1,82m tall, placing him as the second tallest rookie behind Gast. His voice actor is Nobuhiko Okamoto, whose other works in mobages include Shino (Promise of Wizard) and Floyd Leech (Twisted Wonderland). Other details on his profile include his family (father, sister, brother, and his pet dog, Buddy) as well as his favorite food (cupcakes) and his dislike of violence. Regarding his characteristics and abilities as a Hero, Gray’s hero rank is ‘A’ like all the rookies, the lowest one. His Substance, named ‘Madness Mist’, allows him to create fog in which to hide, proving useful for tactics such as sneak attacks. He also uses knives on the offense, although he’s reluctant to use them at first (and any confrontation whatsoever), which was also the reason why he’d failed the tryouts before…
… Until this time, after using a drug handed to him via messages in-game, he was able to pass them and enter HELIOS as a hero. However, this came with a side-effect: combined with his trauma from the multiple years of bullying, an alter based off the confident persona he put on while gaming was born, named Jet, whose main objective is, to put it simply, to get back at Asch for all the trouble he’s caused for Gray in the past. Gray is completely unaware of this, however, until Chapter 3 of the Main Story, which is what we’ll dive into next!
Stories:
Main Story Highlight
Like the Dawning Light; Part 1, Chapter 3: Evening Calm
“I thought there was nothing more I could do… I thought I’d reached the limits of my strength, and I’d resigned myself to that...
But if there’s still a way… Then I don’t want to give up… No matter how pitiable it might be, I want to cling on to it!”
The third chapter of HeliosR’s Main Story, although serving as an introductory arc to the East Sector as a whole, focuses its main conflict on Gray. Still a bit distant from the team because of his anxiety and Asch being in the same sector as him (which only worsens the first point), Gray is reluctant to share things about himself, even to Billy and Jay, his other teammates. Over the course of the chapter, however, many things are revealed about him, as well as his newfound strength as he becomes more comfortable fighting, so I believe this is the Main Story chapter that represents Gray the most!
Event Highlights
Escape the Prison!
“To get back at him... I will just have to repay him with kindness and become stronger than he is, become a better "hero" than him…”
If Chapter 3 of the Main Story already seemed heartbreaking enough regarding Gray’s backstory, Escape the Prison! takes it to another level – seeking to reach a better understanding with Jet, Gray tries to venture into his alter’s mental world to meet up with him and talk, only to get trapped inside after an unexpected outcome, which leads Asch to go after him as instructed by Victor. A rather emotional event story that will surely resound with any reader who has experienced bullying and the complicated feelings that go along with forgiveness and moving on.
Wondrous Christmas Carol
“... For me...this is just how ‘Christmas’ was all the time…”
HeliosR’s first Christmas event is also a somewhat bittersweet one. In this story, a Substance coming from a Christmas carol frequently played through Green East has made its residents hate anything related to Christmas, including our fellow heroes… Except Gray and Jay, who will work together to solve it. However, the reasons why the two have not been affected is a little surprising... But all’s well that ends well, and it has some heartwarming moments between the East Sector members, too!
HEROES IN THE CARTOON
“…If I’m not afraid of being laughed at, then I can speak freely about the things I love.
… Yeah, that’s right. I’m just going to go out there and be myself…!”
If the other two events have been a bit too sad for your liking, don’t worry! HEROES IN THE CARTOON is a happier story which features Gray being invited as a guest to the Comic Fan Festa, the most notorious comic convention in New Million. Of course, it doesn’t go without its share of troubles, as the request also involves public speaking (something Gray has never been fond of), but it also shows how much Gray has grown to accept his own hobbies and likings, both as a person and as a hero.
Other Events:
For more information on Jet: Heroes with Dirty Faces. Although the focus of the story is mainly on Jay, it’s one of the few events in which I’d say Jet gets to shine more than Gray does, offering his own point of view on his existence and how it affects Gray’s situation, all revealed after getting accidentally involved in a shady deal in the world of gaming…
If you want to see Gray making friends at HELIOS: ROCK OUT HEROES! After failing an assignment on the topic of helping people, Junior reaches out to Gray and decides to help him become more confident to help him clear it… Which involves creating a band for a one night show! Another good story to see how much Gray has grown over his admission into HELIOS as a Hero and the friends he’s made along the way.
Fun-facts:
His username on the Helios Channel might look like a random combination of numbers (@47772444), but it actually spells his name if you were to type it out on an old phone! (4 = g, 777 = r, 2 = a, 444 = i).
Jet’s username, seen occasionally, also uses a similar pattern, except it involves the order of the letters in the alphabet (7 = g, 18 = r, 1 = a, 25 = y)... and ‘reversing’ it (@521817).
It’s referenced through a few stories that he is good at drawing, helping out others like Jacqueline or Junior with a few projects.
He took on various jobs in the time after failing the try outs, all the way from ordinary things like part-time jobs to earning money through professional gaming tournaments!
He has a driver license, and usually picked up his younger siblings from school in the time when he was studying between tryouts.
Closing thoughts:
This time, it was even harder to narrow the events down, as HeliosR’s events tend to be much more character-focussed than Mahoyaku’s events are. With that being said, it was still fun to talk about another of my favorites. As many readers might be, it’s definitely not easy to get through certain environments like school when your interests aren’t what the majority of people like or consider “normal”, so I think Gray’s story of becoming a hero can be inspiring as it shows how, even though he’s still facing adversities in the present day, he never gave up.
I also want to announce that from now on, I’ll be holding monthly-ish polls to decide which characters I should cover next! These will be held through Google Forms, starting with the first poll here! There’s still one more character I’ve prepared beforehand, though (which is stated in the poll), so I hope you can look forward to her entry as well before getting to your requests!
The first poll can be found here and will be open until August 27th. This poll will also be linked in the blog’s sticky post! Please fill it out!
Credits:
Main Story, Wondrous Christmas Carol, HEROES IN THE CARTOON quotes taken from Lark @ fleetingmelody's translations.
Escape the Prison! quote taken from mana @ kozvme's translation.
