Masa Shimamoto

**Character**Gallery

Masa Shimamoto

* Season 3
* Season 2
* Season 1

Background information

**First episode**
Sequence Break

**Latest episode**
The End

**Voice**
Brendan Barry-Cotter

Character information

**Other names**
Lucks' Golden Boy (Marco)Arrogant Edgy Jerk (Belle, when angry at him)Ronin\_48 (Alias, seen in Lucks' files in No Clip) Red Ronin (Alias, seen in Lucks' files in No Clip)  Okami (Alias, seen in Lucks' files in No Clip)

**Age**
28

**Occupation**
MD-5 leader

**Home**
Silica City

**Allies**
Tari(Inactive IRL)Sofia PorterLamar WilliamsTheo(Inactive IRL)BelleLucinia Porter

**Enemies**
Lucks (archenemy and former boss, deceased) Belle Fontiere (Formerly)Marco(rivalry) Evelyn(secondary)James Sheridan(Deceased)

**Likes**
Safety and securityProtecting his friendsBattle Blaze

**Dislikes**
His friends in dangerDerek Lucks(At the time but really cared about him)MurderJames Sheridan

**Fate**
Lost Meta Runner arm in explosion, Alive with MD-5

**Quote**
That ability to go inside games, that lets you see things others CAN'T, right? You... you have a LOT to learn... but we DEFINITELY have a place here for you

**Masa Shimamoto** is the tritagonist of *Meta Runner* and the leader of MD-5. As the leader of the group of MD-5 he is the one who usually spearhead all operations and also plans for the group. He also is a very combat instinctive person as he has amazing reflexes along with one of the best gameplay expertises as well too.
He usually treats his friends with respect though his relationships with others varied and changed time to time. He was allies with Lucks back in the TASCorp days but after Lucinia’s incident he became stricter and at times distant to his friends. He mainly accepts those he deems strong and worthy to join MD-5 and is mainly friends with them.

Appearance
Masa is shown to be taller than both Tari and Sofia and is around Lamar's height.
He has dark, shaggy hair, thick eyebrows, brown eyes and some facial hair.
He sports a black and white jacket with 2 pockets and his logo, which consists of a Samurai and Katanas, a reddish brown undershirt, black pants and boots. His Meta Runner arm is on his left and reaches up to his shoulder. After the season one finale, Masa now sports a scar across the bridge of his nose and his left cheek and has lost his Meta Runner arm up to his elbow. He also wears a black hooded coat over his season one attire. Following the events of Heart to Heart, Masa had a new, blue cybernetic forearm won from Marco and has opted to remove his black coat. As of Overload, Masa has lost his entire Meta Runner arm up to the shoulder as a result of the explosion.

Personality
Masa is sensible but is willing to take risks when it's beneficial towards MD-5. However, Masa is also quite, as Lamar put it, "emo". being emotionally aloof and edgy. Conversely, in Soft Lock, it was revealed that Masa was friendlier and had more of a sense of humor before learning of Lucinia's presumed death. He is very skillful at video games, with Battle Blaze being his forte, beating Tari multiple times despite her being able to learn very quickly.
After his defeat in Shutdown, Masa became disillusioned and abandoned MD-5, breaking off contact with them and resorting to fighting low tier gamers for money. However, upon learning of the phone with the TASCorp server still on it, Masa immediately became hopeful and willing to cooperate with Sofia and Lamar, showing that Masa is a very determined, goal-driven person.
He has an extreme hatred for Tas Corp. and his former boss, Derek Lucks. Despite this, he never wanted him dead. As shown in the season 2 finale when his Meta Runner arm was hacked and shot Lucks dead, he was horrified by what happened and was left traumatized as a result. While just before hand it seemed like he was thinking about doing it himself, it was more likely in the heat of the moment.
Masa is also seen to have experienced tremendous amounts of guilt over Lucks' death and lying to his friends about cheating Marco out of a Meta Runner arm, as seen in Sheridan's simulation and commented on by Sheridan himself.

History
Masa was a team captain of the Meta Runners in TAS Corp. during the past. He was close friends with Belle Fontiere and Lucinia Porter during his time at TASCorp. Upon the disappearance of Lucinia Porter, he begun suspecting that Lucks killed her. He hacked into the files, only to get caught and decommissioned. After the decommissioning, he set up a secret team called MD-5.
At unknown points of time, he recruited a computer geek named Sofia Porter (Lucinia's sister), and an anime fanboy named Lamar Williams, all of which have their own personal issues with TAS Corp.. Throughout the year, MD-5 have been trying to gain evidence of Lucks' evil affairs but to no avail.

Season 1
One year later, Lamar brought Tari and Theo to the hideout as shown in Sequence Break. As Lamar brought them into the hideout Sofia was working upon Masa's arm he looked at Tari as he got up and walked away there. In Aimbot, while Lamar and the hyperactive Sofia were eager to have new members, Masa acts stubborn and skeptical, wanting to test Tari's ability through a game of Battle Blaze. He gives Tari the controller and gives her an ultimatum as to which Tari agreed to as she goes to sit down and play with Masa.
When she sits down Masa questions her ability and how much skill she has. When Tari responded she only has played Ultra Jump Mania Masa was not impressed at all. Lamar tried to convince how good she was, but Masa was still just as skeptical as he still wanted to test Tari's abilities. Sofia gives her announcement of Battle Blaze the game as to which after she tells both competitors to go Masa makes his move there.
As throughout these rounds, he was relentless and kept on beating Tari. It has gotten to the point that Masa was about to give up and leave but before he could leave Sofia checks Tari's arm as she then makes her warp into the game. Masa then decides to pick his controller back up and resume the game. During this part of the gameplay, he resumes the match as to when he corners Tari, he decides to give her advice and help her calm down as to when she is calm he resumes the battle. It is a tense moment as Tari almost gets Masa, but Masa has really quick reflexes and shoots Tari. Masa laughs a bit as he gets Tari as he praises her skill. However, his victory was caught short as Theo threw banana mines as it catches Masa by surprise as he gets demolished in Battle Blaze.
The game ends as Tari warps out and so does Theo as Masa then gives his judgement as he accepts Tari and Theo into the team. However as Theo glitches out he expresses concern as he yells for Theo to have to go back to his cartridge. Game Plan shows that they urgently put Theo into the cartridge but he was kicked out. As the team is feeling a bit hopeless as to recovering the original cartridge Masa then brings up Operation Silent Demon as to which Lamar expresses distaste to the plan. After debating about it Masa decides to go to sleep about it and talk about it for the next day.
The next day, as Lamar, Tari, and Theo are eating their ramen Sofia and Masa start to enter the room. As Sofia pulls up a holographic map with chibis, the group discusses Operation Silent Demon. Operation Silent Demon is a plan to hack into TAS Corp. servers with the help of a glitch in an upcoming competition as explained by Masa and Sofia. The game that will be played is called Tempest, so they decide train Tari. Considering Theo's glitch problems, they also plan to regain his cartridge.
As they are training in Tempest, Masa tells Tari of the very basics of Tempest as he shows off to Tari what spells do. He also goes to wait at the mountain top for Tari to get to the top there. And as Tari gets to the top he goes to watch Tari train for the glitch. It was a lot to train for especially for Tari but Masa always kept a very watchful eye on Tari there. Eventually as Tari accomplishes the glitch Masa then cuts Tari's celebration short as he tells Tari to keep on training for the competition.
After training a lot Masa and his team enters the competition as they then play the game as shown in One Shot. As Tari was passed out he has been defending her for a while along with Lamar and Theo. Masa then quickly goes to her and tells her the status of the game basically as they then start to travel through the game. Masa with the help of Lamar took out a few players as he gets everyone spell books that they can use to fight with. However, there were a few players that were giving Masa trouble along with his team as they defended for a bit so that Lamar could teleport them out.
By defending for a bit Masa and the others were able to teleport out of there as the meteors missed barely. They appear on the cliffside as he then complains about being teleported in a bad place. An argument ensues but gets cut short as players were by the cliff as one player did a blast as to where Masa dodged but Tari got hit. Masa then proceeds to beat those players as he gains their spellbooks along with the others also getting their spellbooks.
Masa then goes to help save Tari alongside with Lamar and Theo against the ominously strong four players. He holds back the ringleader as Tari, Lamar, and Theo take out the other three. Theo gets taken out along the way as it is only Tari, Lamar, and Masa left as they all try to face against the ringleader. The ominous ringleader however runs away as Masa congratulates the others as they then go to climb and get to the mountain.
On the very day within The Run, the gang reach towards the top of the mountain in-game. Masa congratulates Tari for getting to the top with him as he wants her to do the glitch. However their ability to do the glitch is cut short as Lamar gets taken out by a fireball. This causes Masa to be a bit surprised as the perpetrator reveal themselves to be Belle who was the ringleader there. Only Masa and Tari are left as he steels himself as he asks Tari to execute the glitch hurriedly. However that attempt to execute the glitch quickly failed as Belle blocks Tari as Masa get furious. After an exchange Belle reveals about Masa's past with TASCorp as Tari gets shocked to hear it. After another exchange they get straight into fighting. It was an intense fight but just as it was about to end in victory Tari pushes Masa out of the way as she gets trapped but Masa was free. Belle then summons a meteor storm as Masa tries his best to slice the meteors but hits his limit as she capitalizes on that and beats him out of the game.
Now it was only Tari left as Masa goes on over to Tari's screen in order to cheer her on at least. As Lamar was fearful of Tari being hurt Masa pushes for her to stay. After Theo's words of encouragement, Tari manages to evade Belle and execute the glitch. This causes Masa to cheer heavily for her as when she wakes up he expresses gratitude and also that he had never seen gameplay like that before. Though he and the others basically were told to hurry up as Lamar said they need to escape. They all try to get out as they make their way in a TASCorp covered area now.
When trying to escape, Masa is surprised to even see Lucks as he and the others then go down another path. However, in doing so they end up in the arena as are cornered by Lucks and his mercenaries. He greets Lucks who has a pistol on him as he taunts Masa as Masa has a stern face there. Lucks makes a deal with Sofia which is to hand in her laptop or Masa dies. Masa gets a pistol pointed at him at point blank. Though after thinking about it Masa tries to disarm and fight Lucks off. When trying to fight the businessman off, he gets overpowered by Lucks as he is brought to his knees. As Masa shouts for Sofia to not give in, Masa gets his Meta Runner arm shot off painfully. As Lucks is on his final count he braces for his death until Sofia yields to hand in her laptop in tears as Masa could not believe at the loss. As it is revealed to Sofia that her sister is presumably dead Masa just questions Tari and is just questioning her and who she is as to which Tari could not answer. As Lucks was talking about how they have all the time to talk about it in a holding cell as to which they were about to be escorted.
However as the group was about to be incarcerated, Tari makes a deal to give herself in to TASCorp in exchange for her friends' freedom. This came at a cost where Lucks took Theo hostage as Masa was mainly silent as he watched as he felt really down at losing to Lucks. As he had to see Tari leave them, he and the remaining members of MD-5 are escorted back to their hideout defeated.

Season 2
Within the six months however, Masa seems to apparently run off from MD-5 quickly as he went to go rogue there. This has caused Lamar and Sofia to have to search for him for the last six months. After one specific day, Lamar and Sofia finds Masa as he was cloaked beating a gamer one handed in a game of War Tech Fighters.
As Lamar wants to challenge him Masa then starts to get up and leave. This causes both Lamar and Sofia to chase after him as they have an exchange where they both try to convince Masa that it is not all lost. As Masa hears about that there is still a chance, he starts to put his attention to the prospect.
As he hears about this chance that the phone still has the server data he then moves the talking place to his apartment as shown in Firewall. This apartment show that he made a deal with the annoying neighbor who kept appearing time to time there. While talking to Lamar and Sofia they start to convince him more about taking part of the plan and to rescue Tari and Theo as he was hesitant there. As his heart warms up he then gets more receptive to the plan as the three form MD-5 once again. Sofia then tells Masa where he can get a new arm as to which Masa gets interested to hear about it.
Unreal Engines is where Masa then goes to the Rustworks. He meets up with Marco as they exchange smack talk to each other as Masa at one point places a bug on Marco’s shoulders. As he places the bug he also accepts the bargain challenge that Lamar said to Marco as they go out to play as he practices a bit beforehand.
Although he does have trouble playing at first but as the game starts he starts playing well until Marco shows up with his truck. It was looking bleak as until Masa asks Lamar to lead Marco to a trap. To which Lamar hesitatingly agrees as he drags Marco to the trap and when it looked all too bleak Masa hacked into Marco’s arms as he then shoots the chain and drops the boulder skull onto Marco’s truck there by taking the win.
Masa then goes up to Marco as he pats Marco’s shoulders telling him it was a good game as to which Marco gets furious and calls him a cheater. Masa just responds by mocking Marco more as he gets more angrier until Sofia stopped him. This causes Marco to give the suitcase of the Meta Runner arm to Masa as he then takes the winnings with him.
Masa, Sofia, and Lamar, all breathe a sigh of relief as they all talk about how intense it was to face against Marco. Lamar even wanted to congratulate Masa though he does not respond to his high five as he just focuses on the ride home. When Lamar asked him if he cheated he dodged the question but more or less said no as afterwards he checked the bug as he turned it off.
In Heart to Heart it is shown that Sofia has finished with building his arm as he checks out his new arm there. Lamar comments about decorations as Masa just said it is just good enough for the mission and that could come much later. Then he gets right to business as he starts to talk to Sofia and Lamar about the plan to take down TASCorp along with save Tari and Theo. During his conversation he gets annoyed by Lamar’s constant notifications as he just yelled at Lamar to pick it up.
Much to his surprise in a sense he was glad to see Tari. When he and Tari was put on to talk to him Masa then goes to forgive Tari as well. Then after Lamar gives Masa a mobile device to play Pocket Gakusei he then reluctantly joins in as MASA6 as he dresses in a bland outfit with a gloomy look. However he just goes straight into business as he talks about the plan. However he gets shocked as Tari warps out as he waits while being calm there pretty much. He gets relieved to see Tari as well but gets really shocked as she says she was talking to Belle.
He gets back into the game and starts to complain about Belle the most there. He mutes Belle as both Tari and Sofia have issues with him acting like this. He did not want to get betrayed again and he could not handle a third time but Tari was able to convince him once more with a heart to heart as he then allows Belle to join in on the plan as he unmutes her. He then talks about the plan as to what will happen within the game of Hidden Heroes.
In Hack and Slash he waits by the crowd as he talks to Sofia and Lamar there as when Lamar switches the cartridge he then goes to the crowd with the others as enemy players. He protects Tari as he keeps on eliminating players alongside with Lamar. At one point he takes out a player and is “talking” to Tari but gets caught by Evelyn spying on them. Though he just goes his separate ways as he keeps on taking out the other players though at one point while trying to defend Lamar, Evelyn takes Masa out. On comms he just states he will be waiting out for when it is all over.
In Soft Lock when the game was done he makes his way to the main stage and along the way he bumps into the annoying neighbor who planted a bug on Masa as to which Masa does not know about as he keeps on going. He then arrives to the main stage as to where Tari was having trouble as to where he tells Lamar to take care of the rest. Masa then goes out to make a distraction as he then tackles Lucks and punches him. However it ends up in him being caught which distracts Lucks there as to give Lamar a chance there.
Later on he gets put into the TASVan as to where he is captured alongside with Belle. A furious Lucks then goes to the back of the van after giving furious orders to silence the media. Masa then talks to Lucks in a not so friendly reunion about Lucinia as to which Lucks furiously goes back and sets up the barrier. Belle and Masa then have a heartfelt moment as they reminisce about their time back then when Lucinia was still with them. The reminisce ends with Masa saying that even if Lucks did not kill Lucinia he still was negligent in taking care of her.
He then goes on a ride unwillingly as a prisoner as he reunites with Sofia in the back of the van as he questions how anyone is going to get out of it as Sofia just says to trust in Tari there as to which he just had no choice but to do so. After Tari succeeded and Lamar caused a car crash, Lucks gets furious as he then decides to point his gun at Masa again. As Lucks demands for the cartridge Masa says it is too late for Lucks as the data already leaked as Lucks staggers.
Masa then takes the opportunity to fight against Lucks and disarm him as he holds Lucks at gunpoint there. He then threatens Lucks as he wants the company to dissolve and for the world to know how he killed Lucinia. However the problem was that Lucinia is still alive and he was keeping her alive basically. It was a massive information drop with a lot of skepticism but at the end they all are not even swayed. As the cops are coming though they have to go and leave but Masa was contemplating whether or not he wants to shoot Lucks. He is paranoid that he could still get away with it as he points the gun.
This causes his friends to reassure him that he does not need to shoot Lucks to which Masa then after some time he lowers his gun and does not shoot him. The others were relieved there as he did not shoot Lucks. However the relief was short lived as his arm being hacked by Sheridan points at Lucks. As Masa struggles with his arm he then pulls the trigger as Lucks says his final words perhaps as he then gets traumatized with everyone being shocked as well too. He then drops the gun as he wipes the blood in trauma.
Masa could not process anything as he just looks on with massive trauma and confusion as he could not realize as to what happened there. He stands there shaken as Belle tells the others to go as she stays with Masa to be arrested alongside with him.

Season 3
A week has passed, Masa and Belle find their selves not in jail but a white room, they soon see who they thought was Lucks but was a A.I, they soon see Sheridan who has been revealed to have survived! Sheridan tells both Masa and Belle the brief events of what happened to them during the past few days in the week saying that they have gotten surgery to be able to warp into the server. Sheridan also reveals to Masa that he was the one that put the bug onto Masa's arm in order to control it and pull the trigger to kill Lucks. Masa enraged tried to attack Sheridan but to no avail as Sheridan kept talking and eventually Masa gets hallucinations about killing Lucks. He was asked by Sheridan to join his corporation alongside with Belle but he refused to join enraging Sheridan.
For a while they had to wait warped into the server until Tari was brought in by Evelyn as they were forced to watch the extraction process as he and Belle called out for Tari and for Sheridan to stop to no avail. They then just saw Lucinia as well on the table who was revealed. As the extraction process begins, both him and Belle were powerless to stop the process. As Masa and Belle waited, Theo then shows up by the vents as both Masa and Belle saw him. Both Belle and Masa try to tell Theo to save Tari but their voice hardly could reach as Sheridan then shows up excited that his name was called out.
In Testing Room, as Sheridan's name was called out both Masa and Belle do their best to distract Sheridan from taking notice that Theo was wrecking havoc. This made them get inducted into Shercorp where Sheridan at one point tortures Lucks where Masa gets traumatized himself seeing Lucks be tortured. As soon as Lucks is released as he points to Tari and Theo escaping, Sheridan more than goes to assist Evelyn as he brings Lucks on over to more than accentuate how much better he is than Lucks. This causes Masa to feel repentant as he feels like he only ruins lives as Belle reassures him that he did his best as Masa addresses that Lucks was also helping people as well.
In Skybreakers (Episode), Masa and Belle wake up into the real world in Sheridan's lab while tied to a chair. As they have waken up, Sheridan more than forces them to practice to be better by playing Battle Blaze. While playing as Masa was about to take out the enemy player he more than sees Lucinia. After asking about Lucinia there both he and Belle were warped back into Sheridan's office as when Sheridan explained himself Masa told Sheridan he was a bigger monster than Lucks ever was. This caused him and Belle to be warped back into Battle Blaze without any equipment as Lucinia shot him in game.
By the time in Death Warp, Masa more than essentially had to go through Sheridan's induction process where he has a nightmare about his past traumas. This included the moment where he was about to shoot Lucks along with cheating in the Rustworks talking to Marco, Lamar, and Sofia. Afterwards trying to help Lucinia he more than was sent to the lab where his arm got drilled into where he was angrily told through by Lucks and Belle. When the nightmare was over Sheridan appeared over him with an offer to let the pain all go away if Masa took on the Meta Bug.
As Masa reluctantly took the Meta Bug he shot Lucks under Sheridan's desire as he became inducted to Shercorp but not before shedding a tear. This is coupled by the fact he answered Sheridan when summoned when advertising for his company to all the warped meta runners inside his server. After the advertisement passes and Sheridan incites a battle royale, Masa gets picked up by Evelyn in order to fight against Tari's crew.
In Overload, Masa attacks by Evelyn's orders and as Marco boards Evelyn's ship, Masa more than attacks and duels Marco. As Masa was dueling Marco Lamar steps in to try to help talk through to Masa. This causes his free will to spike prompting Sheridan to take action to suppress his free will. As Masa's free will was suppressed he more than takes Lamar out of the game as he teams up with Lucinia to take down Marco. When that was done he stood by Evelyn's side as when Tari was despairing, he breaks out of his mind control as he attacks Evelyn. He congratulates Tari for being able to lead the team better than him as he goes to fend himself from brainwashed Belle and Lucinia. This course of action prompted Sheridan to check on what happened to Masa as Masa took this chance to go and choke Sheridan pinning him to the fence. As he was pinning Sheridan to the fence, Sheridan picked up the screwdriver and stabbed it right into Masa's throat. The stab causes Masa to scream in pain as he releases Sheridan and as he does so Masa's meta bug explodes and sends Sheridan flying back unconscious.
As Masa was unconscious for a long while in The End, Sheridan tried to stab Masa but not before receiving a warning that caused Masa to be disregarded for a moment. After a long while where Marco finally bursts in, Masa wakes up from the lethal stab to his neck. When Sheridan was electrocuted to death by Marco, Marco made his way back to where Masa and his friends were. As Evelyn was getting her just due punishment Masa expresses joy seeing Lucinia and Belle being fine. Lucinia, Belle, and Masa converse a bit as Masa starts to focus on Marco and what he would do to Masa for the cheating he did. When Marco spared Masa, Belle and Lucinia carried him with them to go back to the Rustworks.
While in the Rustworks, Masa more than made his way to check on Sofia, Lamar, and Tari. When he gets to the room he gets somber along with the others over Tari's "death". After they grieve for Tari Masa makes his way back into the old MD5 hideout that was in a ramen restaurant. Lamar, Belle, Sofia, and Lucinia all take a quick tour before they more than set down in order to put down the photo of Tari and Theo, along with Tari's hoodie, and Theo's game cartridge. Showing their appreciation for Tari, Masa more than makes his way to join in with the others to party with them.
Masa was not shown in the credits.

Gallery
Masa's original design in the official trailer.Chibi-style Masa in Game Plan.Masa in Season 1Masa's Battle Blaze outfitMasa's Tempest outfitMasa with his hood onMasa in Season 2Masa in his TASCorp uniformMasa's Pocket Gakusei uniformConcept Art Masa Shimamoto
Trivia* In the trailer, Masa sported a different design consisting of a red jacket with a plain white under shirt, a sode, a white cybernetic arm and less facial hair. His hair also had shades of blue.
* His last name "Shimamoto" is a Japanese surname. This, along with his recurring samurai theme (his logo and his samurai-like armor in Tempest), further supports the possibility of him being of Asian origins.
	+ In Pocket Gakusei, where he wears an outdated Japanese school uniform, he says “This is the kind of uniform my grandfather would have worn”.
* According to the Police report from Lucks, Masa has been charged with assault.
* According to James Sheridan, Masa seems to have a history of guilt and trauma there which could indicate that Masa was suffering even before the incident with Project Blue. However this is not confirmed as Sheridan could have just only scanned parts of his brain.

References
Season 1* Sequence Break
* Aimbot
* Game Plan
* No Clip
* One Shot
* The Run
* Shutdown

Season 2* Hard Reset
* Firewall
* Unreal Engines
* Heart to Heart
* Hack and Slash
* Friendly Fire
* Soft Lock
* Nightmare Mode
* Fatal Error

Season 3* Power Down
* Testing Room
* Skybreakers
* Dead On Arrival
* Death Warp
* Global Testfire
* Overload
* The End