mobage_manual | Recommending Characters #14: Akira Otori (HELIOS Rising Heroes)

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!

Long time no HeliosR! Well, it hasn’t even been that long, but since a lot of things have been happening in its Main Story with the release of the latest entry, Chapter 14, it feels like it’s been a while since I last wrote anything for the franchise. I suppose that’s what happens when the franchises aren’t evenly spread in the schedule…

Today, I’m introducing a new sector with the character featured in this entry: Akira Otori! He’s one of the newest rookies in the South Sector, and has a lot of passion and energy for the profession. However, things haven’t always been like that for him, which is more than evident when you look at his shared past with Will and Ren, his childhood friend and cousin, respectively (together, they’re also called ‘Rainbow Trio’). But before getting to the reason why, let’s take a look at his profile first!

Profile & General Overview

“Alright! My first day as a hero has finally come! I'm at max voltage!”

Like I mentioned before, Akira Otori is one of the rookies in the South Sector alongside Will. He is 18 years old, born on July 1st (making him a Cancer) and he’s 1,75m tall, the same height as his cousin, Ren. His voice actor is Toshiyuki Toyonaga, whose other roles in mobages include Homare Arisugawa (A3!) or Nayuta Yatonokami (Paradox Live). Other details in his profile include his family besides Ren, one of his hobbies (bouldering, though it has yet to appear as a major plot point in any story) as well as his favorite food (hot dogs). His passion makes him eager to become powerful as soon as possible…

… However, you wouldn’t have been able to guess he became a hero in the end, when he claimed to hate them just a few years before the events of the game. Following the murder of Ren’s family, Akira’s family took him in, leading to some neglect on their part for the redhead which ended up in him getting involved with a gang lead by Gast, until he almost fell victim to a fire – which he survived thanks to the help of a hero. Since then, he’s been working hard to become one, until he finally entered HELIOS as a rookie, which is also the beginning of the Main Story!

Stories

Main Story Highlight

Like the Dawning Light; Part 1, Chapter 1: Sunrise Colors

Will! Fight together with me!

Fightin’ alongside your friends is what a hero does, right?

Being the “poster boy” of the game, I was between quite a few different options for this section, as there’s more than one chapter of the Main Story that focuses on Akira, but in the end, I choose the first story he (and the rest of the South sector) ever appear on – Sunrise Colors. This chapter follows a number of conflicts that serve as an introduction to the franchise, mainly Akira’s, who wants to get strong fast and prove one of his mentors, Brad, wrong, who is all about patience and not getting involved, pissing him off in return. Once again, there are multiple options if you want to see Akira in the Main Story, and this is just one of them! And of course, there’s also the event stories.

Event Stories

HAPPY NEW YEARS SHOW!

“I've been so obsessed about surpassing Brad that I didn't look up other people's plans…

Hey, doesn't this mean that someone has already done all the things I prepared until now? Was my idea that standard?”

After being selected to appear in the New Year's program that features heroes from HELIOS every year, Akira is determined to make his appearance a success, trying to follow on his mentor’s footsteps while meddling between Will and Gast’s conflictive relationship… but will he manage to stay true to himself in the meantime? New Year’s events aren’t uncommon in mobage, but HeliosR provides a nice twist with this event, which oddly enough, remains as one of the only official banners for Akira up until today.

Other side heroes - Good Bye -

“When I decided I'd become a hero and right after I joined HELIOS, I thought that stuff was irrelevant to me.”

While the Other side heroes events were mainly released to showcase what the other heroes in HELIOS were doing during the events of Sing in the Darkness, 12th Robins’ Main Story, this event in particular serves as a lead up to the most recent Main Story entry, which focuses primarily on Gast, but also provides some insight into Akira’s gangster past, including his perspective change on heroes and his actual profession, much before the events of the game.