Kazu Iida

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*I say to you what I told my superiors in Japan before they busted me down. I don't fight simply because someone tells me to.*- Kazu, "Second Birthday"

## Kazu Iida

* Suit
* Casual
* Holon
* Ether

## Basic Information

### Aliases

Kazoo (by Cammie)
Shogun (callsign)
 Washout Iida (by Anno)

### Relatives

Toshiro Iida (father)
Zariku Iida (mother)

### Affiliation

The Polity* ESU
* The Vanguard (formerly)

### Rank

Sergeant (formerly)
Cook (formerly)

## Media

### Voice Actor

Kōichi Yamadera

**Kazu Iida** is a character in Rooster Teeth's *gen:LOCK*. A rough, unwieldy military operative from Japan, he arrived at the Anvil as part of the Experimental Science Unit's gen:LOCK program alongside Julian Chase and several others, having passed the "Weller Test".

Kazu was later killed during the recapture of The Anvil when a Nemesis clone impales his Holon.

Kazu's Holon was destroyed when Renegade ramed Odin.

## Appearance

Kazu is a very tall, broad-shouldered, and muscular man of Japanese descent. He has almost shoulder-length black hair held back in a topknot by a red band, hollowed cheeks, and slight stubble surrounding a rough goatee.

In his civilian attire, he wears a leather kutte with various logos and designs on it, with red detailing on the back, lower chest, and obliques. He wears black finger-less gloves, a large black belt, charcoal cargo pants, and a black t-shirt. His only jewelry is a pair of black plugs in each of his earlobes.

His Experimental Science Unit armored bodysuit is black and red and has a glowing ESU logo on the chest. Over his legs, he wears a pair of combat pants with satchels strapped to both hips. He wears his leather kutte over the torso section of his armor, and over his left arm, he dons an armored pauldron that hinges at the elbow to a bracer on his left forearm. The pauldron also has a glowing white ESU logo on it. He wears a pair of knee-high reinforced combat boots, plated with metal at the heels and toes. After Kazu's Holon was upgraded, it was stated to be based on "RoboShogun" which is presumably a character from a children's franchise.

In the Game Siege Kazu appears as a samurai with a glowing sword.

## Personality

Kazu is known to be rebellious, insubordinate, and something of a standout. His rebellious attitude cost him the respect and trust of his unit, who was very supportive of having him transferred to the Anvil simply to be rid of him. He's shown to enjoy playing the guitar, smoking, and simply screwing around, doing things such as flipping a spatula into the air while on kitchen duty. Kazu is that protective of that guitar, chastising Caliban for handling it roughly upon his arrival at the Anvil. Despite his Japanese heritage, he finds manga to be "childish" and claims he himself has not read manga since he was a child - a statement Cameron takes offense to. However, upon seeing the upgrades to his Holon by Cammie at the RTASA base, Kazu is overjoyed at seeing how his Holon's improved armor are based on RoboShogun; a manga character who was a favorite of Kazu's at the age of ten years old.

In battle, Kazu is very hot-blooded and fearless, and he does not hesitate to attack Rob Sinclair's impersonator when the opportunity arises. However, this comes at the cost of wit and quick-thinking, as his inexperience with his combat gear leads him to accidentally slamming into a wall and be stepped on in his enthusiasm. His straightforward approach is reflected in his combat style. It mainly focuses on constant attacks with brute force and being willing to pick up any random object in arm's reach to hit his enemy with it, despite his finesse in swordsmanship. Despite this, Kazu will not fight if he does not want to, and he has no problem disobeying orders because of it, showing that he highly values his independence.

Despite his chastisement of Cammie for her supposedly childish interest in manga, he has a preference for rock music and enjoys baseball. He uses his love for baseball as a training exercise upon connecting and being uploaded into his Holon, preferring it to football. Kazu also can be somewhat mischievous, as seen when he plays his guitar to wake up Cammie after she sleeps in and dedicates his music to "late-night gaming addicts". He also nearly makes a sexual quip based on Valentina Romanyszyn's unintentional innuendo. Kazu doesn't care about making spars a fair and honorable competition as he uses Chase's offered hand to deliver a cheap shot, and when Cammie is pried off him after uncontrollably punching his head, he laughs and calls her excessive aggression "great". During his first training exercise as a gen:LOCK recruit, Kazu grabs an eliminated Cammie and uses her as a shield to get closer to his goal. During his sparring sessions with Chase, Kazu is shown to provoke his team leader by any means possible to draw out the fight simply for his own amusement. Doing this usually amasses a substantial amount of collateral damage - something for which Leon August chastises him during their missions.

Even though he was relegated to mess duties in his old unit as a punishment, Kazu voluntarily cooks breakfast for the gen:LOCK team, suggesting that cooking is something he enjoys.

Kazu is quite fond of beer, considering drinking it his preferred method for celebration and moaning for it after a long day of training with his teammates. Although, he does wish he'd be able to drink it somewhere away from the military base.

## Profile

The following information accompanies Iida's profile in the Character Reveal Teaser #3:

NAME: IIDA, KAZU
RANK: SERGEANT
FORMER ASSIGNMENT: MOBILE ARMOR GUNNER
DETAIL REPORT:
VANGUARD JG████ REPEATED
DISCIPLINARY INFRACTIONS DEMOTED
ON ████ TO MESS DUTY WITH UNIT VG ████

## Abilities

### gen:LOCK Compatibility

Kazu is one of the few people in the world capable of undergoing gen:LOCK. By having his mind digitized, he can be placed inside a Holon and operate it as if it were his own body, giving him a much greater degree of control than traditional pilots.

### gen:LOCK Phase 2

By taking the gen:LOCK connection a step further, Kazu is able to enhance his capabilities within his Holon by melding his digitized consciousness with that of another Holon pilot. He first accomplishes that feat with Valentina. In this enhanced state, Kazu is able to overtake all surrounding enemies by combining his brutal swordsmanship with the grace and precision of Valentina's dance and marksmanship capabilities.

### Combat

Kazu is skilled in hand-to-hand combat, being able to spar with Chase and Yaz on equal grounds. He prefers a straightforward style that uses brute force to deliver devastating strikes and throws, being willing to pick up random objects like cars and poles to use as melee weapons and projectiles. In his Holon, Kazu was able to grab a Spider Tank by one of its legs to slam it into another tank, and jump to grab a low-flying Union Fighter and slam to the ground. His close combat abilities contributed to the gen:LOCK team defeating Nemesis twice.

Kazu's combat abilities are further enhanced by his ESU bodysuit and a powered exoskeleton arm given by Doctor Weller who believes it would suit him. While rushing at a group of Union soldiers, Kazu is able to react to the Union soldiers' aiming and block their bullets with his exoskeleton arm. Kazu also incapacitates three Union soldiers in quick succession with his striking, and then slides under a Union soldier and incapacitates him with a suplex from behind.

### Swordsmanship

Kazu is shown to have effective yet brutal control over the sword that his Holon is equipped with, tearing apart enemy mechs, infrastructure, and more with ease.

### Holon

Owing to Kazu's preference for close combat, his Holon is equipped with bulkier armor and a pair of swords in "The Best Defense". In "It Never Rains...", his Holon's armor load is increased even further. His swords have been replaced with a single hooked greatsword, capable of collapsing both the handle and blade in on itself to allow for easier storage. He also receives a shotgun to afford him a little range without offsetting his close-quarter fighting style.

## Trivia

* Kazu is the only character who does not speak English as a primary language. Instead, most of his dialogue is translated through subtitles. In-universe, thanks to technological advancements, his words are shown to be translated in real-time into English (and Russian Cyrillic underneath it) on Valentina's MR overlay; the reverse is presumably true.
* Kazu's callsign "Shogun" refers to the title given to the military dictators who ruled Japan from 1185 to 1868 (with exceptions) on behalf of the emperor.
	+ Given that Kazu admits to having been a fan of the "RoboShogun" manga as a child, this likely also contributed to his callsign.
* Kazu's guitar case has a sticker on it reminiscent of Achievement Hunter's ACHIEVE line of merchandise.
* Kazu's voice actor is the same who played the Japanese voice of "Sword Art Online"'s Akihiko Kyaba who was a master scientist in Full Dive VR tech.