mobage_manual | Recommending Characters #6: Dino Albani (HELIOS Rising Heroes)

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!

October’s first entry, as well as HeliosR’s second character feature in this blog is none other than Dino Albani, winner of the latest poll! Coincidentally, Dino is my second favorite character right behind Gray, featured all the way back in August, so finding out the results was a pleasant surprise for me!

Dino Albani is one of West Sector’s mentors, who joined them later in the story due to certain circumstances, and who in turn wasn’t present since the very beginning of the game, being added to the character roster a few months after its release. Along with Brad and Keith, he was once a member of the 10th generation of rookies in a group led by Jay, as well as 11th generation’s Oscar and Asch’s mentor shortly after. However, after moving to the notorious Anti-Eclipse unit, something happened that changed his fate forever… Without teasing anything else, let’s move over to his profile!

Profile and General Overview:

“Eating pizza makes you happy, so eating it together is surely fun. That's right, pizza can save the world! Love And Peace...☆”

Like I mentioned in the introduction, Dino is one of West Sector’s mentors alongside Keith. He is 28 years old, born on March 23rd (making him an Aries), and he’s 1,83m tall, same height as the tallest rookie (Gast), but still on the shorter half of the mentors alongside Asch and Marion. His voice actor is Kenichi Suzumura, who doesn’t have any other prominent roles in mobage, but who still voices characters in other anime franchises. Other details on his profile include his family (grandparents), one of his hobbies (playing catch, though he’s also pretty fond of teleshopping), as well as his favorite food (pizza) and his dislike of silence. Regarding his characteristics as a hero, Dino’s hero rank is AAA, second highest, and his Substance, named ‘Werewolf’, is pretty self explanatory – it grants him the ability of lycanthropic transformation. He also excels at martial arts and general close range combat…

… Which is how the other heroes at HELIOS recognized him as the infamous ‘Zero’, one of Eclipse’s strongest combat fighters, 4 years after his disappearance after HELIOS and Eclipse’s closest battle yet – ‘Lost Zero’. Those are the same years his former classmate, Keith, spent searching for him, finally finding him shortly after getting assigned as a mentor over at West… And that inspired the first Main Story chapter released after the game’s release, which is what we’ll tackle next!

Stories:

Main Story Highlight:

Like the Dawning Light; Part 1, Chapter 5: New Dawn

“P-please… Brad…

I want… I want you to kill me...

There’s...no place for me to go back to now...

I’m begging you… I don’t want to live like this…”

Ah, Chapter 5, the first Main Story chapter that doesn’t focus on a specific sector, but rather on a character or set of characters, and as you can probably guess, this one focuses on Dino, as well as his former classmates, Keith and Brad. After being captured by HELIOS, they begin to wonder why Dino turned against them, until a certain fight awakens Dino’s memories, victim of brainwashing by Eclipse. With it seemingly undone, the other heroes are relieved. That is, until he’s suddenly missing from his cell room… Just like many other chapters, many things are revealed here, including the long teased Zero from previous chapters, and if you weren’t a fan of these three, commonly referred to as ‘Miracle Trio’, this will surely make you one! However, this one is a little rough, and doesn’t show that much of Dino as his true self, so event stories are also a must read!

Event Highlights:

A Sweet Spell with a Side of Chocolate

“I don't think there's any harm in saying you like something when you actually like it.”

Although this event is focused mainly on Faith, Dino also makes a very prominent appearance, as well as his first appearance ever in any HeliosR events since his addition to the main cast. After an incident with some Substance-affected chocolates Faith ate that make him reply that he ‘loves’ and ‘likes’ everything, West Sector is doing everything in their hand to successfully prepare for the Valentine’s Day LOM around the corner. This situation inspires conflicting feelings from Dino, which only get accentuated further until the actual day… This event is my personal favorite out of the entire HeliosR story, so I obviously had to include it!

Cheer Go Home Run!

“... That’s what I don’t like, it was annoying.

That’s why you think you don’t know him well. He always puts other people’s needs before his own…”

Finally, Dino’s very first event banner! Following Junior’s invitation to throw a ceremonial pitch at a Tiger Jets’ match, a baseball team. Dino is eager to teach him how to throw to make it worth it. However, just a few days before the match, Dino starts acting strange, and it all points to certain calls he’s been receiving and taking throughout the days, even if he admits that everything is fine... An event that finally tackles one of his biggest "flaws", if the conflict in Valentines wasn't enough for you!

Other Events:

For more on Dino and his family: Best Day Ever! Wedding Operation. Although this event focuses way much more on the two West Sector rookies, Dino and his grandparents do make an important appearance, which can be a refreshing insight although they’re not featured much.

For more of Miracle Trio’s antics: Rising Hero (Part 1) and Fight out Vivid Colors. Both events are good options to see more of the Miracle Trio together. The first one is more focused on Dino and Brad, with both of them competing in a cooking show, while the second one is more focused on Dino and Keith, event in which they fight over participating on an activity as a sector or not… but that thankfully ends well!

Fun-facts:

Despite his love of pizza and his surname suggesting otherwise, Dino is not actually of Italian descent, as his biological family is unknown. He simply took his grandparents’ surname after they took him in.
Like I stated on his profile overview, he’s insanely athletic, beating most of the heroes not just at physical combat, but also at running or stamina. This likely has to do with his Substance.

Closing Thoughts

All in all, despite his first rocky appearance that might have confused some readers at first, Dino has his heart on his sleeve, as much as he tries to hide whenever he’s troubled by something, and that’s exactly what makes him lovable – not just by the fans, of course, but also by many of the characters (even Asch, who tends to be rude to everyone). He’s simply a person that thinks a lot of others, which I love him for!

From the time I started writing this entry to when it was actually time to publish it, Dino’s latest focus event, Fight out vivid colors! was released, which I thought was funny, but also worried me since I didn’t know if a translation would come out in time for me to review the event, haha… Thankfully, it did, so the entry was able to be completed in time!

… And as stated in the last post as well as in the pinned post, you can now vote for the next characters you want to see featured here, in the 2nd Poll! It will be open until October 8th, and it’ll decide most of the characters for November and a bit of December. Please make sure to vote!

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