Colonel Yusuke Watarase

Colonel Yusuke Watarase is a JGSDF Chemical School Lieutenant Colonel in the Japanese Self Defense Force (JSDF) and the main protagonist of the 1996 film "Gamera 2: Attack of Legion". He is portrayed and voice by actor Toshiyuki Nagashima. In the english dub he is voiced by American actor Jay Hickman. 
== History ==
==== Gamera 2: Attack of Legion ====
In 1997, when mysterious meteors from outer space unexpectedly show up and crash land near Lake Shikotsu in Hokkaido, and in its aftermath a strange aurora appears in the night sky over the area. The Japanese Self Defense Force begins sending out troops to locate and contain the meteors. Colonel Yusuke Watarase and his right hand First Lieutenant Hanatani immediately head towards the scene, and are both shocked to find out that the teams couldn't even located the meteors, except for the crater impact, which made the Colonel suspicious and fearful that these might not be any ordinary meteors. His fears and suspicions were soon proven correct when a hostile, vicious, hive-minded insectoid alien race called the Legion began their invasion of Earth, having no intentions of peacefully coexisting with humanity whatsoever. 
Five days after the meteor impact, a subway train in Sapporo is attacked by the same type of creature that was seen in the brewery. In addition, a gigantic flower erupts from the buildings in the center of town. The Sapporo police rescue several survivors of the attack and close the subway off, but Colonel Watarase's platoon arrives on the scene to take over the situation. Curiously, some of the subway passengers were spared while others were brutally killed by the creatures, seemingly at random. Colonel Watarase and his men travel into the subway and witness several of the creatures crawling around the tunnels, which Watarase describes as neither crustaceans nor insects. Midori Honami proposes that the creatures, or "Colony," are in a symbiotic relationship with the plant, or "Pod," and they both arrived together from outer space in the meteor shower. She compares them to leafcutter ants, which cultivate a fungus in order to maintain their nest. In this case, the Colony breaks down silicon and feeds it to the Pod, which gives off high amounts of oxygen. Colonel Watarase himself attends a meeting of JSDF personnel to discuss their findings, and at this meeting it is determined and from his observations is that the alien creatures cannot possibly co-exist with humanity, and that they must be destroyed immediately and at once before they can destroy all of mankind.
The JSDF prepares to destroy the Pod, which is now in flower, by planting explosives on its roots in the subway, assuming that the blast will be amplified by the heightened oxygen levels and completely destroy it. Honami herself believes that the Colony must spread to other worlds by making the Pod launch a seed into outer space, and convinces Obitsu to run a simulation using NTT's computers showing the projected damage should the Pod seed. To their horror, the simulation shows that everything in a six mile radius would be wiped out by the explosion produced when the Pod seeds. Obitsu tells Honami that they should run, but she points out that they would never be able to outrun that explosion.
As the JSDF prepares to blow up the Pod, Gamera himself suddenly reawakens and surfaces from the Sanriku coast and flies straight toward Sapporo. Colonel Watarase and Hanatani are both present when Gamera himself unexpectedly arrives and inhales the increased oxygen around the Pod, then blasts it with a particularly powerful plasma fireball, disabling it. Everyone present including Watarase himself all watches as Gamera then approaches the Pod and uproots it, throws it aside, then destroys it with another fireball. Just as Gamera seems victorious, thousands of the vicious alien creatures pour out of the subway tunnels and climb onto him, biting through his flesh. As Colonel Watarase and Hanatani watch the creatures swarm over Gamera, Hanatani quotes a passage from the Bible: "And he asked him, 'What is thy name?' And he answered saying, 'My name is Legion, for we are many.'" Gamera struggles unsuccessfully against the creatures covering him, and finally collapses to the ground. However, several of the creatures are distracted by a nearby electrical transformer and climb off of Gamera and onto it. Gamera seizes the opportunity and flies back to the ocean, dislodging the rest of the creatures on his skin. Shortly afterward, a gigantic winged creature bursts from the ground and flies away. F-15J fighter jets are scrambled to shoot the monster down, and successfully strike it with missiles over the Tsugaru Strait. However, only a severed wing is recovered, and the monster is still unaccounted for. Several carcasses of the smaller creatures are located on the beach near where Gamera plunged back into the ocean. One of the carcasses is dissected, from which it is determined that the creature move through the use of pressurized gas in their limbs in place of muscles. Watarase and Obitsu meet with Honami at her home to discuss the ecology of the creatures, which are now being called "Symbiotic Legion." They determine that the Legion communicate through the use of electromagnetic waves. Watarase shows the others that all of the subway passengers who were killed by the Legion were carrying electronic devices such as pagers and radios. They come to the conclusion that the Legion must see any electrical signals which interfere with their communication as a threat, explaining why they would attack humans carrying such electronic devices and why they swarmed off of Gamera to climb onto an electrical transformer. This also means, they realize, that the Legion must be directly drawn to large cities due to the highly dense concentration of electromagnetic waves.
True to their prediction, a second Pod appears in Sendai. Due to Sendai's much warmer and hotter climate, the Pod flowers much faster and is preparing to seed before the JSDF even has time to respond. Colonel Watarse himself travels to the city along with his men. Evacuation of the city begins immediately, with civilians boarding helicopters at a nearby airfield just outside the city. Honami herself is escorted to one of the choppers, but before she boards it Gamera is seen flying overhead. As he approaches Sendai, two colossal spear-tipped claws burst from the ground and knock him from the sky. The civilians panic and begin rushing into the helicopters, knocking down a young woman on crutches. Honami and the girl's friend help her into the helicopter, and they all watch through a window as the gigantic Mother Legion (their queen and progenitor of the Legion species) emerges from underground and attacks Gamera. When Honami sees the friend of the girl she helped watching the battle and clutching a magatama, she realizes that she is Asagi Kusanagi, the girl who communicated with Gamera, and the one who was chosen as priestess and interpeter for Gamera. One of the helicopters at the airfield takes off, but the other one is unable take off due to the shaking of the ground caused by the monsters. Gamera tries his hardest to hold the Mother Legion back and allow the military transport helicopter to safely take off, with his enemy stabbing through his shell with her lethal sharp and serrated tipped legs. The helicopter finally takes off and escapes, but Mother Legion herself is determined to hold Gamera off long enough for the Pod to launch its seed. The horn on her head splits open and fires a beam which obliterates surrounding buildings and blasts off a corner of Gamera's shell. Gamera is severely wounded by Legion's assault and collapses to the ground. With her enemy defeated, Mother Legion burrows underground and vanishes. Gamera weakly gets back to his feet and limps into downtown Sendai to try and stop the Pod. He is briefly spotted by Colonel Watarase who looks on at Gamera with both sadness and concern in his eyes. Gamera knocks the Pod on its side and throws himself in front of it just as it launches its seed, triggering an explosion that reduces the majority of Sendai to a crater. Amid the ruins, Gamera sits lifeless, appearing to have perished in the explosion. Colonel Watarase and his men in the meantime do all they can to save and rescue as many survivors that had survived the devastating attack.
The JSDF convenes a meeting with Watarase and Honami to discuss further countermeasures. Honami says that after failing twice to fire their seed into space, the Legion will be desperate and likely head to Tokyo next. With Gamera no longer around to stop the Legion, the JSDF sets up a defense line outside of Tokyo in an attempt to preempt their arrival. Honami brings Asagi to an airport so she can fly home, but Asagi insists that Gamera is not dead and won't let the Legion win. Honami decides to go with Asagi to the ruins of Sendai, where many people have gathered around Gamera's body. Meanwhile, the Mother Legion appears at Ashikaga. Despite the JSDF's all-out assault from both air and land, their attacks fail to harm the monster which easily breaks through the first defense line as she makes her way to Tokyo, and nears the second defense line, situated in the centre of the city. Back in Sendai, the congregated people begin to pray for Gamera to return, and as if answering that prayer golden light begins to swirl into the air around Gamera. The energy takes the form of a magatama before flowing into Gamera's body. Asagi's magatama shatters in her hand just as Gamera awakens and takes flight. As Gamera approaches Mother Legion's location, Hanatani tells the division chief that they need to support Gamera as he cannot stand alone against the Mother Legion and her Soldiers. Gamera lands and spits plasma fireballs at Mother Legion, who deflects them with her interference wave claws. Gamera tries to attack Mother Legion, but is once again wounded by her microwave beam and outmatched against her greater size and strength. Finally, the division chief gives the order for the remaining troops to support Gamera and open fire on Legion. Artillery strikes Mother Legion's claws, severing some of them and disabling her ability to block Gamera's fireballs.
Obitsu puts into motion his own plan to stop the Soldier Legion from affecting the battle. He convinces an NTT substation in the area to begin broadcasting, causing the Soldier Legion swarm to be attracted to the power lines just outside the station. Obitsu arrives at the station and tries to evacuate the employee working there, but they are both unfortunately menaced by a single Soldier Legion which has made its way inside. Fortunately, Colonel Watarase himself arrives and kills the lone Soldier Legion with his handgun and helps the others successfully escape the station. Once they reach a safe distance, Colonel Watarase immediately uses his radio to give the order for nearby attack helicopters to open fire. The military helicopters successfully launch missiles at the congregated Legion on the power lines, wiping them all out.Colonel Watarase and everyone present then watches as Gamera grabs Mother Legion's horn and with all of his strength tears it off. The queen Mother Legion shrieks and collapses to the ground, but her eyes suddenly turn red and she suddenly gets back up, now fully enraged. From the area where her horn once was she begins firing red strands of energy which penetrate Gamera's body and burn him. The Mother Legion continues assaulting Gamera and breaks through the final defense line. Before his enemy can reach Tokyo, Gamera summons a huge amount of energy into himself and begins to glow brightly. Suddenly, the shell over Gamera's abdomen opens and from it he fires an extremely powerful beam of plasma which hurls towards and reduces the queen Mother Legion to dust in a single strike. As the sun rises, the victorious Gamera takes flight while the JSDF looks on. The JSDF finally declares the operation successful and celebrates, with Colonel Watarase himself thanking Gamera with a salute as a sign of gratitude.
== Personality ==
Colonel Yusuke is a calm, wise, and reasonable authority figure. Like many soldiers in the JSDF, Colonel Yusuke cares a great deal about helping to evacuate as many innocent civilians away from a kaiju battlefield. He is also seen as a father to his own men. He is also willing to even risk his own life in certain situations, such as when takes on a Symbiotic Legion soldier by himself, with nothing more than a pistol and a radio. He wins. 
Unlike many military commanders who see Gamera as an enemy, Colonel Watarase is different. Colonel Watarase sees Gamera as a reliable, dependable, trustworthy, respectable, and honorable ally, even if most of his superiors disagree with him. Colonel Watarase's respect and admiration for Gamera is shown when he saves Gamera's life by using a nearby power station to lure the Legion swarm away, and he later salutes Gamera even after the Legion alien invaders and their queen Mother Legion have been successfully defeated.
It is also shown and heavily implied that he has strong romantic feelings for Midori Honami as he cares very much for her well being, as shown when he protected her from harm when the queen Mother Legion bursts out of the ground at Hokkaido.
== Memorable Quotes ==
== Gallery ==
== Trivia ==
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