Yūichirō Sawamura

Yūichirō Sawamura (kanji: 澤村 雄一郎, transliteration: Sawamura Yūichirō) is the posthumous overarching protagonist of 's 2011 film , loosely based on the 1979-1980 manga series . He is the husband of Ryoko Matsuzaki, the father of the film's protagonist Umi Matsuzaki as well as Sora Matsuzaki and Riku Matsuzaki, the son in law of Hana Matsuzaki, the temporary adopted father of the film's deuteragonist Shun Kazama.
In the original Japanese version, he was voiced by who voiced Shun in the same film and Arren in Tales from Earthsea. In English, he was voiced by who also voiced Robert Langdon, Mr. Fantastic in Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 and Jim Raynor in Star Craft and Star Craft II.
==Biography==
===Life===
He was a sailor who fell in love with Ryoko Matsuzaki and married against her parents wishes due to him being a sailor. A close friend of sailors Yoshio Onodera and Hiroshi Tachibana, they all took a photograph together, each having a copy of it. Eventually the Tachibana died at sea while his son was alive and their other relatives died in a shipping accident, Yūichirō took Tachibana's son in and registered him as his own son so that he wouldn't end up in an orphanage.
However, due to frequently being at sea and his wife being pregnant with their daughter Umi Matsuzaki and busy with school, Yūichirō gave Tachibana's son to Akio Kazama and his wife, who mistook him as Yūichirō's biological son and lost their own child recently. They named their adopted son Shun Kazama. Yūichirō had two other children with Ryoko over the years: a daughter Sora Matsuzaki and a son Riku Matsuzaki. They all lived together in a second floor apartment where he taught Umi to raise his U and W flags, which represented safe voyages. Umi raised the two flags on the balcony whenever he was out at sea, and took them down when he came back. Sawamura eventually was assigned to a supply ship in the Korean War, then Umi continued to raise his flags when he was at sea. One day, Sawamura died when his ship hit into a mine. Much to the sadness of his family, particularly Umi, who still raised his flags on their balcony every day.
===Posthumous activities===
Despite dying, the effects of his life could still be felt. When Ryoko, Umi, Sora and Riku moved to the Matsuzaki residence Coquelicot Manor in , Umi was sad due to their being no place to hang up the U and W flags. As a result, Umi's grandfather, Sawamura's father in law, built a flagpole in their garden. While Umi grew up raising her flags everyday, she learned to cook breakfast and dinner, do the laundry and her homework efficiently in a day, Shun grew up with Akio Kazama and his wife who told Shun Sawamura was his real father. Umi and Shun eventually enrolled to Conan Academy where Shun became best friends with Shiro Mizunuma, the class president, and became the editor of the Latin Quarter Newspaper, situated in the Latin Quarter Clubhouse. On his way to school via his father's tug, Shun would frequently see Umi's flags as he passed by their house. Umi herself became known as "The Girl who Raises Flags" in her school. Though Umi herself wouldn't spot Shun on his father's tug as they passed by the Matsuzaki residence. He is mentioned several times in this time period, as Umi's grandmother Hana is sad over the fact that Umi can't get over the death of her father. When the Latin Quarter is voted by its members to be demolished, Shun and Shiro decide to make an anti-demolition campaign, with Shun jumping into a large pool of water to advertise it, pictures were taken of this event and sold at 30 Yen.
Eventually, Shun is invited by Umi to a farewell party for their border Miki Hokuto. There Umi shows Shun a pictures of her family, with portraits of Sawamura and Umi's late grandfather. One picture showed Sawamura with two other men. Shun, who had a copy of the same picture left to him by Sawamura when he gave Shun to the Kazamas. Umi also explains to Shun why she raises her flags everyday. As a result of the apparent revelation that Umi and Shun having the same father, which Shun talked to Akio once again about and checked at City Hall, meant they were siblings, Shun and Umi decided to break up. That night, Umi dreams her mother never left home as she actually left to America. 
She also dreams her father came home due to her flags leading him back. In the dream, Sawamura embraces Umi and tells her how big she has grown and how he will be staying for a long time. Umi later wakes up and does her daily routine. However, Umi later tells Shun about how even if they were siblings, it wouldn't change the fact that she still loved him, which made Shun tell Umi the same thing about him. When Umi's mother Ryoko Matsuzaki returns to the Matsuzaki residence after a trip to America, Umi asks her Ryoko if Shun is her sibling, leading to her Ryoko explaining why Shun was brought to the Kazamas. At the end of the film, Akio tells Shun to bring Umi to the harbor as one of the three men in the photo, Yoshi Onodera, was about to leave Japan. Umi and Shun arrive to meet Yoshio who sees them both and recognizes Umi as the daughter of Sawamura, and Shun as the son of Hiroshi Tachibana. Yoshio reveals that he was friends with both Hiroshi Tachibana and Yūichirō Sawamura as he pulls his copy of the photo of them together. Yoshio tells Umi and Shun that he has never been so happy before as he feels like his old friends are with him again. In English, he tells them that Sawamura and Tachibana would be proud of their legacy of their children. With all three satisfied, Yoshio shakes hands with Umi and Shun as the two of them depart. With the final realization that they aren't siblings, Umi looks at Shun affectionately, much to his embarrassment when Akio winks at him after. The two glance at each other once more as they head back to the harbor, implying their relationship continues. Umi continues her practice of raising her flags everyday as she looks into the harbor, she hears a horn, which made her smile.
==Trivia== 
*In the original manga that was never translated to English, Umi also raises her flags in remembrance to him while her mother is in America. However, it's only said that he disappeared at sea rather than died at sea.
*He bears a striking resemblance to Shun Kazama, particularly his facial features. The clothing he wears in Umi's dream is very similar to what Shun wears when he edits his newspapers with the plain white buttoned shirt and brown pants. The Japanese version also has him voiced by Shun's voice actor himself. These elements of his character were likely done to trick the audience into believing that Shun is Sawamura's son. Of course, the ending reveals this not to be the case.
*Etymology:
** "雄" (yū) - "hero" or "manly".
**"一" (ichi) - "one".
**"郎" (rō) - "son".
**"澤" (sawa) - "marsh".
** "村" (mura) - "town" or "village".
**Fittingly, as a sailor, his daughter's name Umi (海) means "sea" or "ocean". Her nickname Meru "メール" is also a transliteration of the French word Mer, meaning "sea" and "ocean" as well.
==External Links==
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