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Manga
Arc (Anime)
Sho Kamui
Kaumi Sho
Vital statistics
Title Sho Kamui
Japanese Name {{{japanese name}}}
Gender Male
Race Hybird Human/Dinosaur Man
Age presumably 20 years
Affiliation Getter Team

Dinosaur Empire

Voice Actor(s) Arihiro Mukaino (anime)
Status Alive (as of last pages of the manga, Anime)

Sho Kamui is one of Getter Arc's pilots, the one in control of Unit 2 and Getter Kirik formation. He's not a "true" human but a hybrid of human and dinosaur, genetically engineered by Dinosaur Empire in attempt to cure their race's fatal vulnerability to Getter Rays. Furthermore, Kamui's dinosaur part of DNA comes from noone else than Emperor Gore himself, thus making him former Saurian emperor's genetic son and prince of the Dinosaur Empire. This heritage plays an important part later in story.

Appearance[]

Kamui resembles a well built human with short blond hair, but features reptilian traits including scales on cheeks and nose, and red eyes that don't look quite human. Small scales on his forehead form semblance of a crown, same as one Emperor Gore III has. Until very late in the story Kamui is always seen wearing the Saotome Institute's standard pilot suit with helmet similar to the one worn by Hayato Jin.

While Kamui's facial features can be considered handsome (as far as Ken Ishikawa's way of stylizing human faces goes), in-story reptilian elements of his appearance give him an aura of "uncanny valley", unnerving many pure humans around him.

Personality[]

Kamui maintains attitude of a cold, no-nonsense professional, always obeying orders to a letter and having little patience for those who don't take their responsibilities seriously. He is used to hiding his actual feelings, but occasionally the mask slips and emotions get a hold on Kamui, which usually results in bursts of wrath. He seems to be much quicker to anger in the anime.

To humans around him, Kamui is aloof and stern. While everyone recognizes his prowess, people in the Saotome research institute see him not as a fellow comrade but as monster to be unleashed on their enemies, not helped by Kamui's eerily non-human appearance. This is a sensitive topic for Kamui, and he's known to give a brutal beatdown to those who stared at him for too long or questioned his genetic heritage. Such acts of violence granted Kamui grim reputation among Saotome lab's personnel and only solidified mutual alienation. Even when Kamui finally met an equal match in Takuma, they didn't get along well, and in the end, they became an effective team - but not true friends (at least from Kamui's perspective and if we don't consider the epilogue of the anime).

In a stark contrast, citizens of Dinosaur Empire treat Kamui as their beacon of hope that someday their kind won't need to hide from deadly Getter Rays. Kamui clearly sees himself as Saurian rather than human or in-between, and takes future of his people as his personal responsibility. He values lives of Saurians greatly, but still has no close companions in their ranks, or at least none that are shown. (Anime changed that by making Gettersaurus' pilots his childhood friends and, apparently, partners in conspiracy against Emperor Gore III)

This being said, Kamui is not incapable of forming emotional bonds. In fact, there's a person he's strongly attached to - it's his human mother. Kamui's innermost desire is just to have a peaceful life with her. However, this is about to change with all the things Kamui witnesses and decisions he makes.

Abilities[]

Kamui possesses strength, speed, agility and durability far exceeding those of a regular human. Only Takuma, himself a superhuman, was able to match him in a single combat. As a pilot, Kamui is top-grade. Before Takuma and Baku were recruited, he was the only one among the cadre of Getter pilots fit for piloting Arc, and even piloted it alone when situation required. Even then, later he's seen piloting an even more powerful super robot, with no apparent difficulty.

Due to being half-human, Kamui is much more resistant to Getter Rays than any full-blooded Saurian (and even many full-blooded humans), as piloting Arc doesn't seem to affect him at all. There are still limits to his adaptivity, as the meltdown of old Saotome lab's main Getter reactor was speculated to not harm Takuma or Baku, but outright kill Kamui (and indeed, in the anime leaking Getter radiation rendered him barely able to pilot Kirik). Again, being half-Saurian, Kamui easily survives being exposed to heat that would incapacitate or kill even exceptional humans such as Takuma.

Finally, Kamui is a natural-born leader and his skills in politics are exceptional, as he ultimately managed to wrestle control over the Dinosaur Empire from his older half-brother.

History[]

Kamui was born to a human mother, kidnapped by Dinosaur Empire and artificially impregnated with then long-dead Emperor Gore's genetic material, sometime around second open confrontation between Saurians and humans. Other half-Saurian hybrids were all born with flaws and died at very early age, but Kamui was a success, a perfectly healthy boy who would later prove to inherit strong traits of both humans and reptiles.

Nonetheless, when the war was ending, Professor Han received an order to "dispose of" test subjects - that is, to kill Kamui, his mother and other captured human women. Han couldn't bring himself to do that, and actually got away with this - any Saurian authorities who issued that order, or could enforce it, perished in the final battle. After Empress Jatego's death Gore III took the throne, and Prof. Han managed to convince the new emperor that Kamui and his mother should be allowed to live.

Kamui spent his early years in the submarine/subterranean fortress of Dinosaur Empire, living with his mother and being mentored by Prof. Han. However, as time passed by, Gore III grew more and more paranoid that Kamui might one day overthrow him; even though boy wasn't a full-blooded Saurian, laws of Dinosaur Empire classified him as son of old Emperor Gore, and more importantly - as someone who could contend for the throne. Kamui was already well-known and well-liked among Empire's population, and Gore III knew it too well. However, before Gore III could plot against Kamui, Hayato Jin negotiated a secret truce between humankind and Saurians. Hayato and Han agreed that it would be best if Hayato took Kamui to Saotome Institute, where he would be safe from his older brother.

Thus a new chapter in Kamui's life started; now part of pilot cadre of Saotome Institute, he learned to operate Getter Robo, and when Getter Arc was completed, only Kamui was deemed fit to pilot it. However, his relationships with fellow pilots and other personnel were strained at best; after a number of interpersonal conflicts that resulted in (very one-sided) fights, common people learned to fear Kamui. Eventually two more pilots for Arc were recruited, but Kamui almost instantly got into conflict with Takuma, and remained vitriolic for some time afterwards (though Takuma got over it pretty soon and very apparently treated Kamui as friend). As of Baku Yamagishi, Kamui never had much interaction with him. Despite all of this, the new trio soon learned to cooperate and became full-blooded Getter Team.

After a while, Getter Arc was sent to Dinosaur Empire with a secret task: to protect Saurian (and human) scientists as they are finishing the time machine, that will allow Getter to attack Andromeda Country in their own time and space. It's when Takuma and Baku, through luck and a bit of wits, learned of Kamui's origins and Gore III's paranoia, from Prof. Han. Meanwhile resident Emperor arranged a meeting with Kamui, first reassuring him that his human mother is safe, then proceeded to give Kamui his own secret task. Gore III believed that truce is temporary and there can be no real peace between Saurians and humans; thus he planned to succeed where his father and Jatego failed. Kamui would play a pivotal role in this plan: he was supposed to act as mole in Saotome Institute, and in the eve of Dinosaur invasion Gore III wanted him to sabotage Getter units, thus leaving humans without their most potent anti-Saurian weapon. For this, Kamui was promised to be risen to rank of marshal and given a resort where he and his mother could live. It is unknown whether Gore III would keep this promise (having Kamui's mother around was too convenient for blackmailing him), or what Kamui actually thought about this affair, and if he was going to act according to Gore III's plan.

Eventually time machine was completed, and Getter Arc got sent into the future along with Gettersaurus. Then trio learned the truth behind Andromedans' attack: Andromeda Country was fighting a losing war against mankind of the future, and merely tried to prevent being wiped out by conquering or destroying Earth in the past. Musashi Tomoe, revived by Getter Rays as commander of "relatively small" army, explained to Takuma, Kamui and Baku that future they're in is where Getter Emperor is leading human race to universal domination, wiping out other sapient lifeforms in the process. Shocked by future humans' display of brutality, Kamui realized one more unsettling thing: in this future, there were no traces of Saurians.

Musashi needed Arc's crew to aid him in the attack on Andromedans' stronghold. With vastly superior firepower and cadre of Getter Robots that dwarfed even Arc, humans of the future would effortlessly win, but one detail threatened to turn this victory into a catastrophe. On board of Andromedan capital ship were few people from Earth's past, and Musashi believed that if his men would kill them, it could cause a massive disturbance in the time-space continuum. To exclude possibility of such turn of events, Musashi wanted other travellers from the past - i.e. Getter Arc team - to take care of those Earthlings. Realizing they must be Carter McDonald and his henchmen, Takuma agreed, and Getter Arc was guided to their exact location within the space fortress.

Eventually, Arc found a gate protected by impregnable barrier; their targets were right behind it, activating their time machine for the last time. The only way to get them was for someone to enter a narrow passway, reach the control panel on the other side of the gate and open it for Arc. Musashi insisted that Kamui should do this task: temperature outside was too high for Takuma or Baku to handle. Knowing well that noone else can do it, Kamui ejected himself from Arc and proceeded through the passway.

As he entered the hall with time machine, Kamui was approached by McDonald. Revealing himself and his henchmen to be the last surviving members of Hyakki Empire, McDonald made it clear that they don't plan to escape using the time machine; instead, they're sending back in time the weapon that, if only it was completed, could vanquish Getter - the uniquely powerful mecha Bug. McDonald asked Kamui to finish its development using resources of Dinosaur Empire, and use it to wipe out Getter and humankind. Realizing that this is the only way to protect Saurians and prevent this future he witnessed, Kamui agreed. Then, McDonald handled over to him a tooth in which all the information needed to complete Bug was encrypted.

(After this, manga and anime take different turns. In manga, remaining Hyakki open the gate and let Arc in, then let Takuma crush them like bugs. Kamui boards Arc, and before General Komei self-destructs the ship, they escape through the collapsing time machine. Whereas in the anime McDonald departs to fight Arc using recovered Uzahra, while Kamui is forcibly ejected from the ship into space and recovered by Gettersaurus, then they enter a time machine.)

One way or another, Kamui managed to make it back to Dinosaur Empire of the present. Now hell-bent on completing Bug, eradicating humankind and returning Earth to Saurians, he faced the last obstacle: his brother. To fulfill his task, Kamui needed all the resources of Dinosaur Empire and no superior to answer to, who could meddle with his plans. So Gore III's paranoia has finally paid off: one day he woke up in his bed surrounded by armed Saurians, then out of their ranks stepped Kamui and explained that his coup d'etat already succeeded and the only thing Gore III has left to do is to step aside and formally transfer supreme authority to Kamui.

We last see Emperor Kamui piloting Bug in the (one-sided) fight with Takuma in Getter Arc. Then Shin Getter Robo G erupts from the ground behind Arc, and Kamui's reaction makes it apparent that he anticipated this. This is where manga ends.

In the epilogue for the Anime, The Dinosaur Empire eventually inhabit themselves on planet Mars, with Kamui arrested for his failures, while implying that he was defeated by Takuma/Arc in spite of the Hyakki Empire's efforts on the BUG. It was until both Takuma and Baku freed Kamui from his prison, and confronting a Getter-like being upon their escape.

Gallery[]

Character Designs[]

Manga pages[]

Anime Screencaps[]

Getter Robo Arc (Anime)[]

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