Courier

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## Courier

### Aliases

• 日本語 *Hakobiya* (運び屋)
 • Takoyaki guy (by the Swindler)• Shit guy (by the Sister)

## Biographical Information

### Cause of Death

(Buying time for Brother and Sister to escape) Fatigue and bleeding

## Debuts

### Manga Debut

*Akudama Drive Comicalize* Volume 1, Chapter 1

## Other Adaptations

### Stage Actor

Jin Aoki

**The Courier** (運び屋, *Hakobiya*) is a main character of *Akudama Drive*.

## Background

The Courier transports things as requested in exchange for money. He transports illicit and contraband items (such as bombs, drugs, etc.) to locations as requested by dubious figures (i.e., gang members, etc.). Due to this, he is wanted by the new Kansai government.

It's later revealed he's been taking these jobs presumably since he was very young. An older woman took him in, but one day, a stranger broke into the place this person was in and is implied to have shot and killed her. This incident also seems to be the origin of his robotic arm since he lost his original hand when defending against a gunshot of the Man. The stranger was riding on the bike that would later become Courier's bike.

## Appearance

The Courier is a tall fair-skinned man with neck-length purple hair the bangs of which are swept to the right side and purple eyes, who appears not to be particularly expressive and he is mostly displayed with a serious or nonchalant expression.

He wears a grey hoodie underneath a black biker jacket, black biker jeans and black boots with grey soles, along with light grey earrings and a small light grey bag attached to his leg via a strap. His right arm appears to be robotic.

## Personality

The Courier has confidence in his work and is somewhat of a workaholic. He doesn't speak often, but when he does, he has the right words for the situation.

He tends to keep quiet in any given situation, or can be said to be a "man of few words." He only responds to things if needed or wanted. He tries to keep things with people around him as a part of work purposes only and prefers to keep it professional.

The Courier appears to be not social with others and is mostly seen to be alone and lighting a cigarette.

## History

### Past

The Courier appeared to live inside a small house or apartment with a woman who took care of him and fed him. From his childhood, the Courier was shown to work on completing requests by transporting things around the city in exchange for money. One day, he was also shown obtaining a tip from one of his customers in the form of a coin tossed in his direction, which he picked up from the ground.

One day after returning from his work, he found that the woman had been killed by a stranger who broke into the house. The latter shot his gun at him, and during that incident, the Courier lost his hand. In that scene, the bike that would later become Courier's was visible inside the living room.

He later became known as an Akudama at Kansai city who eventually earned an estimated sentence of 745 years, making him one of the most wanted criminals in the city.

### The ¥500 Coin

One day, after an Ordinary Person left her work, she decided to stop at a takoyaki stand where she ran into the Courier with his bike. At the takoyaki stand, he accidentally dropped a ¥500 coin when paying. The Ordinary Person followed the Courier wanting to return it but failed to do so as he replied that "dropped money is bad luck" and left her behind.

### The Black Cat

After leaving the takoyaki stand, the Courier went on to complete one of his missions. Upon completing the request, he received a new request to rescue the Cutthroat from his execution with a total reward of ¥100,000,000. In order to complete it, he was to fight many police robots, cause disarray at the Police Station and secretly deliver a case to the Cutthroat once he was rescued. When he arrived at the Police Station, he met the Doctor, Hacker, Brawler and later the Ordinary Person once again, along with a Black Cat. She recognized him, leading the other Akudama to assume she was his girlfriend, but he claimed she was no one and pointed his gun to her, at which she introduced herself as the "Swindler".

Once they had met up, a tank came out firing missiles from the Central Elevator Hall causing the floor to collapse in the underground prison where they met another Akudama, the Hoodlum, a lower-class criminal who joined them upon hearing about the mission to interrupt the Cutthroat's execution in exchange for a ridiculously large sum of money.

### Shinkansen Raid

Once the execution was successfully interrupted and as everyone was finally safe, the Courier revealed his other request: to deliver the case to the Cutthroat. The latter gladly opened it, and suddenly bomb necklaces had been installed around all the present Akudama's necks, including the Courier.

The Black Cat that had been rescued by the Swindler began to talk, revealing itself to be a robot controlled by an anonymous mastermind who planned to force the Akudama to participate in a raid at the Shinkansen, a sacred place found in Kansai to test them and see everyone's potential during this first phase of their plan. The mastermind proceeded, as they had completed the first part of their mission, to pay the Courier along with the rest of the group a total of ¥100,000,000 each, sent to their seal e-payment, claiming that if the group successfully raided the Shinkansen they would get a total of ¥1,000,000,000.

With the help of the Brawler and Hacker, the Akudama were able to steal a flying bus, inside of which they grouped together to travel to their destination, decided by the anonymous mastermind. Inside the bus, the Doctor offered him to "have a go" in exchange for a cigarette, which he refused, before the Cutthroat, revealing a strong liking of anything red, pressed all the red emergency buttons, causing the bus to gain maximum speed and crash on Seven-Star Hotel *Geisha and Dancing Girls*.

Having survived the crash, the Akudama were attacked by the police, but fought them off and killed them. Considering the hotel a proper hideout, the Black Cat revealed the details of its plan to the Akudama. The mastermind intended to "steal" cargo from the Kyushu Plant, currently at the Kansai station to be transported to Kanto. As they discussed the plan, two Executioners arrived at their room and began to fight them.

The Courier started to fight the Execution Division Master while the Brawler fought the Execution Division Apprentice. The Courier struggled against the Master, but the Brawler eventually came to his aid, allowing him to use his bike to cause a massive explosion, allowing the group to successfully escape the Executioners and hide at the Abandoned Factory. At the Factory, the Black Cat assigned the Courier to meet the rest of the Akudama once they had reached the station to proceed to Kanto.

Initiating phase two, the Courier was left with a special task unlike the other two groups who had to infiltrate the Execution Division HQ and open the Shinkansen's wagon from the inside. With his bike, the Courier helped the Black Cat get inside the Shinkansen and meet the rest of the Akudama right before it departed.

Inside the Shinkansen, the two Executioners showed up once again, trying to stop them one last time. The Courier, who wanted to retrieve his bike from the back of the train, fought back along with the Brawler, Hoodlum and Doctor in order to proceed with their mission. When the Swindler, Hacker and the Black Cat reach the final car, they were stopped by a robot that was guarding the Vault. With the help of the Courier's bike's lazers, however, the robot was destroyed. He then used grappling hooks to retrieve the Brawler and Hoodlum, and the lazers once more to separate the Executioners from his group. Having successfully fought them off, the Akudama finally reached the Vault, at which point the Black Cat disintegrated, leaving behind a key. They used it to open the Vault, in which they found two children, a brother and a sister, as such completing the second phase.

### Expo Park Escape

The Akudama successfully finished the Shinkansen Raid and rescued the two children known as Brother and Sister, who revealed themselves to be the masterminds behind the Black Cat.

Outside the Shinkansen, the group stopped and rested at the Abandoned Ward 3, waiting for the rain to stop, having left the Hacker behind. Early in the morning, the Swindler talked to the Courier, saying that she wanted to take the children all the way to Expo Park and would not give up even if it meant putting her life on the line. As they spoke, the Swindler remembered she still had the Courier's ¥500 yen coin and tried to give it back again, but he replied with the same answer as before, which annoyed her, as the coin was the reason she was even there in the first place.

Outside Kansai, the Akudama arrived at the North Side of the Fortification wall where they encountered the Master once again. The Courier, only caring about carrying out his request no matter the cost, tried to protect the children by getting them on his bike before being attacked by the Master, forcing him to fight him along the other Akudama. They eventually left the Brawler and Hoodlum to fight him on their own, and the Courier and the rest headed to the Expo Park.

Arriving at the Expo Park, they found a rocket ship, which the children explained they were planning to board to escape the Earth. As the preparations began, the Doctor revealed herself as a traitor, and allowed Executioners to ambush the Akudama. In the midst of the fight and panic, the Brother surrendered, but first pushed the Swindler and Sister inside the rocket, letting it launch to prevent the latter from being captured. It was later revealed that before giving himself up to the Executioners, the Brother made one last request to the Courier, to find her Sister ad give her his most valuable gift, a charm he always carried around.

### New Request: the Brother's rescue

Back at Kansai City, the Courier, with the mission to find Sister, eventually headed to the Kansai garbage dump where he found the Swindler and Sister being attacked by a group of punks. The Swindler, despite having fought back two of them, was about to lose the battle to the last one alive, whom the Courier shot, saving her and the Sister's lives. Having taken them to a safe place and waited for the Swindler to wake up, he completed his request, and then tried to leave, only to be followed by the Swindler who begged him to help them rescue the Brother once again. He was not interested, but the Swindler remembered that in an earlier conversation, the Courier had mentioned only caring about his purpose, and claimed that this was hers, successfully convincing him.

In order to progress with their rescue mission, the Swindler sent a message to all of Kansai city claiming she planned to conquer Kansai in 12 hours along with all the Akudama. This successfully caused havoc and, infiltrating the Execution Department HQ, the Swindler, Courier and Sister proceeded with their mission to ambush the roof. They were interrupted by the Cutthroat, who chased down the Swindler, but the Courier carried on and he was eventually joined by the Swindler, who had killed the Cutthroat to escape him, again. Having wasted time because of him, however, they reached the roof too late and saw the Brother be taken away by the Apprentice and her Junior.

Carrying the Swindler and Sister, the Courier lunged his bike in the air to run after them. They tried to interrupt them at the Kansai station, but were in turn interrupted by the Doctor and Hoodlum, who wanted to take the Brother for themselves. The Courier shot the Hoodlum in the hand in order to protect the Swindler from him, and turned to shoot the Junior, whom the Doctor was using to trap the Apprentice into following her orders, but she sprayed him with medicine she had in hand, making him fall to the floor. He was paralyzed, but eventually managed to shoot the Apprentice's sword off her hand to keep her from killing the Swindler and Hoodlum at the Doctor's order. The entire scene was interrupted by a crowd rushing into the station and then the Shinkansen and, as the Brother was taken inside as well, the Courier went back to his bike and encouraged the Swindler and Sister to go in with him.

Under the effect of the Decontamination Zone, the Courier relived the happiest memory from his childhood, one in which he ate takoyaki next to a woman who took care of him, but it was followed by a story from his childhood in which he lost his right hand. Along with the Swindler, he repetitively relived the scene in which he met her, except in its first iteration, he never dropped the ¥500 coin. As the Swindler travelled around their pasts, they collided once again with, this time, him accepting the ¥500 after dropping it at the takoyaki stand, making her happy he finally took it. The two of them ended up fixating on the coin, however, and as both simultaneously claimed the other "had a rotten mouth", they finally woke up. The Hacker's drone reactivated from the Swindler's backpack and explained to the two of them Kanto's brainwashing system, the Decontamination Zone. As they spoke, the Swindler realized the Sister and Brother were nowhere to be seen and rushed out of the Vault only to find the Quantum Supercomputer and the mind of Kanto itself, the Brother and Sister. Recklessly, Swindler tried to reach them only to be hit with a gravitational wave defense program protecting the Quantum Supercomputer and the children. The Hacker, claiming with a smile that all of them were nothing but selfish, decided to come to her aid by attempting to reach the children from inside the Quantum Supercomputer, allowing the Swindler to reach them from the outside, sacrificing his data in the process. Waiting behind, the Courier asked the Hacker, from his drone, if he enjoyed his game. Having successfully rescued the children, the latter gifted the Swindler a "Gift of the Afterlife". She laughed, saying that such a gift was meant for people who were passing away, but the Hacker stopped responding, and she decided to get going with the Courier and the children. Ignoring the others, inside the Shinkansen, the Courier complained that "without solid ground, bikes are just a pretty toy", which annoyed the Swindler.

### Legacy

The Shinkansen was destroyed by Executioners, interrupting it on its way inside Kansai. The Swindler was hurt in the leg and the Courier in the hand, but along with the children, they hid underneath the rubble. Having gotten on top of him to hide from a scanning robot, the Swindler pinned him down and claimed the ¥500 coin had the power to change it all, convincing an unwilling Courier to accept the coin and a final job: taking the children to Shikoku. Leaving the Swindler behind to distract the Executioners, he helped the Brother and Sister one last time as they escaped Kansai while being hunted by Executioners. They were interrupted at the Police Station, but the Courier fought back and drove off with the children.

Escaping Kansai City, the Courier, chased by a drone, helped the Brother and Sister reach Shikoku. About to reach their destination, the Courier decided to stop due to his injuries. He forced the children to run on their own, not without giving the Brother the ¥500 coin in memory of the Swindler and what she believed it could do, and stayed behind to try and distract or destroy the drone. He was unsuccesful at first, but due to the Hacker's "Gift of the Afterlife", the power went out in Kansai and in the drone, allowing him to use up the last of his strength, as well as his own prosthetic arm, to shoot in its direction. Knowing he had succeeded, he died with a smile on his face.

## Relationships

### Swindler

The Courier first ran into the Ordinary Person by accident when he dropped a coin at a takoyaki stall. She tried to give it back to him, but he refused, claiming that "dropped money is bad luck". As time goes on, she continues to try to give it back, and he continues to refuse it.

The Swindler has a friendly attitude towards the Courier, often seen trying to start a conversation, even small talk, with him, despite his visible lack of interest in it. He often surprises her by answering her when she thought he'd ignore her, but his answers are usually short, and rather dismissive.

The Courier's feelings towards the Swindler are unclear, but he winds up saving her in Episode 8, although it turns out he had a job requiring him to meet with her. When she faints, he brings her to a safe place and waits for her to wake up, at which point he claims that she is "quite the Akudama to have killed two". His job done, he immediately tries to leave, but the Swindler brings up that this is "where she belongs", which appears to touch him.

Under the effect of the Decontamination Zone, the Swindler and Courier are linked by the dropped coin. They are brought back to reality when the both of them claim that the other "has a rotten mouth" at the same time. The Courier references that saying later on, after the destruction of the Shinkansen. As they hide from drones searching for them through the rubble, the Swindler gets on top of him to request one last mission from him. He immediately asks her to get off him, but she insists, and by bringing up what the coin meant to her, manages to convince him to save the Brother and Sister in her stead.

### Sister

The Courier winds up saving the Sister and Swindler from punks at the garbage dump and brings the two of them to safety while the latter is unconscious. She eventually convinces him to help the Sister reunite with her brother. The Sister calls him "shit guy" in reference to his habit of saying "shit" every other sentence and defends the Swindler when she feels like he speaks too rudely to her, which appears to annoy him, but he does not care for it much. Even when the Swindler runs off, being chased by the Cutthroat, the Courier continues with his mission, carrying the sister to his bike.

In Episode 12, seeing the Brother discourage his sister from staying hopeful appears to upset the Courier, who turns his head to avoid looking at them. Convinced by the Swindler to help the two of them once more, he ends up being the one to bring the Brother and Sister to safety, going as far as sacrificing his life to ensure their safety.

## Abilities and Equipment

**Driving skills:** Befitting of his name, the Courier has a genius driving sense. His true strength primarily comes from his bike, which was shown to possess several highly futuristic weapons, equipment and implements within it that grant him an enormous edge in combat. The bike is showcased to have an incredibly powerful concentrated beam laser, which is strong enough to pierce through reinforced armor and is apparently strong enough to slice in half an entire train. The bike has also shown to have grappling hooks that can be used to scale through buildings and traverse through mountainy or urban areas with little trouble. With his bike and his driving skills the Courirer can quickly arrive to almost any destination required.

**Marksmanship and fighting skills:** The Courier owns a futuristic revolver with a barrel shroud which he carries in his jacket. Although the Courier can defend himself in hand to hand combat, he is not much of a hand to hand brawler, so he prefers to fight from a distance with weapons and tends not to get involved at all unless absolutely necessary. He is also good at evading hand to hand attacks from skilled opponents such as the Execution Division Apprentice, but struggles against the Execution Division Master.

**Metal arm:** The Courier has a full metal prosthetic left arm which gives him an edge in close range hand to hand combat. He uses it to block heavy blows from the Master and it even allows him to block and hold his energy weapon, when it would have cut through his flesh. He winds up using his prosthetic arm to aim his bike's otherwise broken lazer in Episode 12, succesfully so, although it ends up breaking it.

**Sense of duty:** Most importantly, though, the Courier is extremely efficient at his job. He insists on never failing and goes through with anything so long as he already accepted the mission. Under the effect of the Decontamination Zone, he recalls having been this way ever since he was a child. His immense will power allowed him to become the best at his job to the point where he can say with confidence that he has never once failed.

## Gallery

### Illustrations

Promotional artwork of the Courier and Cutthroat by original character desiger Rui KomatsuzakiIllustration of the Courier drawn by character designer and animation director Cindy YamauchiDoodle of the Courier by character designer and animation director Cindy YamauchiAnime of the Year Winner Illustration by Hakamii featuring the Courier, Brother, Sister and the SwindlerIllustration of the Courier drawn by manga artist Rokurou OgakiIllustration of the Courier and Swindler by manga artist Rokurou Ogaki in celebration of the stage playIllustration of the Courier drawn by manga artist Rokurou Ogaki for Volume 2
### Anime

The Courier in Episode 1The Cutthroat putting the bomb necklace on the Courier's neck in Episode 1The Courier in Episode 8The Courier in Episode 12
## Trivia

* The Courier has a habit of clicking his tongue.
	+ He also has a habit of calling others "shithead".
* His favorite food is takoyaki, a common street food in Japan. When the Swindler points out his liking of the dish, he says it “tastes better than other shitty food. But just barely.”
* The Courier has the same age, height, and three sizes as the Cutthroat.
* Renta! hosted a popularity poll in December 2020, in which Courier ranked 2nd with 2773 votes to his name.
* His Japanese name, 運び屋, *Hakobiya*, literally translates to "carrier".
	+ A courier is a company or employee of a company that transports commercial packages and documents.

* A figure of the Courier was announced by Union Creative in December 2020 and released in August 2021 for ¥13,200.
	+ The Courier is currently the only character from *Akudama Drive* to have an official figure.
* The Courier bears many similarities with main character Zoichi Kanoe from the 2004 manga *BioMega* by Tsutomu Nihei, which is, much like *Akudama Drive*, an action/cyberpunk story. The Courier and Zoichi look similar in appearance, both own a powerful motorcycle, have a stoic personality, and use a hand pistol.

## References

1. ↑ This character's gender was confirmed in the official manga adaptation. (Courier) (Brawler) (Hacker) (Cutthroat)
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 The Courier's character profile (日本語)
3. ↑ Akudama Drive, Episode 1 - "Seven"
4. ↑ Akudama Drive, Episode 11 - "War Games"
5. ↑ Illustration of the Courier posted by Cindy Yamauchi on her Twitter
6. ↑ Doodle of the Courier posted by Cindy Yamauchi on her Twitter
7. ↑ Illustrations of the cast posted by Rokurou Ogaki on his Twitter
8. ↑ Rokurou Ogaki's Tweet featuring an illustration of the Swindler and Courier
9. ↑ Rokurou Ogaki's Tweet featuring an illustration of the Courier published on his birthday
10. ↑ Renta! popularity poll - December 2020 (日本語)
11. ↑ Courier figure listing on Union Creative's official website (日本語)