Masaru Takahara

(高原 日勝, Takahara Masaru?) aka. Masaru Takahara

* Remake
* Original

“I'll fight my way to the top. And the world will know my name.”

—Masaru Takahara's prologue quote.

**Masaru Takahara** is the protagonist of the Present Day chapter, The Strongest. A budding young fighter with great ambition, he seeks to become known as the world's greatest warrior by facing the world's strongest fighters and learning their techniques.

## Profile

### Appearance

Masaru is a young, spry, muscular man. His eyes are of a dark color. He has short black hair and wears a large red headband on his head. He wears a pair of cargo pants, a purple vest and a pair of black fingerless gloves. On his feet he wears a pair of tall black boots.

### Personality

Masaru is a very hot-blooded and confident individual, always believing in himself and never losing hope. With his willingness to improve and knack for adapting on the fly, Masaru has the perfect temperament for a young fighter. Masaru also has a great sense of justice and is very emotive, getting extremely enraged after learning of Odie O'Bright's deeds. Despite his hot-headedness, Masaru carries great respect for his elders and superiors.

## History

### Present Day: The Strongest

Masaru Takahara is a man with a mission: to be recognized as the greatest warrior on Earth. To that end, he decides to travel across the world to engage in combat with six of humanity's greatest fighters: Namkiat of Muay Thai, Great Aja of lucha libre, Tula Han of sambo, Seishi Moribe of Koppo, Max Morgan of professional wrestling, and Jackie Iaukea of sumo. Through perseverance and skill, he manages to best all six masters, acquire their techniques, and earn their acknowledgement. At the end of his journey, he does indeed achieve the reputation of the world's greatest warrior.

However, as Masaru stands alone at a riverbed, he is confronted by a new challenger, Odie O'Bright; a man who shares the exact same goal as Masaru, but differs in believing that true strength means killing all who oppose you. Having murdered all six of the warriors Masaru had fought, O'Bright approaches Masaru with the intent to do the same. Furious, Masaru explodes with rage and uses the techniques taught to him by all six masters to strike O'Bright down. As O'Bright perishes, he warns Masaru that as the "world's greatest warrior", others will ceaselessly come to challenge him, and indeed, a new fighter soon appears seeking to claim the title from Masaru. Masaru greets him with a confident smirk.

### Final Chapter: The Dominion of Hate

Masaru, along with the other six heroes across time, is transported to the Dominion of Hate by the will of Odio shortly after his brawl with O'Bright, and may be chosen as the chapter's protagonist.

As a party member, he is encountered in the Seat of the Betrayers' dungeon, continuing to train despite his surroundings. As the party approaches, he confronts them, asking them if they're looking for a fight. No matter the answer, he challenges the primary hero to spar, and if beaten, he will acknowledge their strength and is able to be recruited from then on. If either the Sundown Kid or Cube is the primary hero however, Masaru will back down from the fight; for the former not wanting to face a gun, for the latter finding him too cute to fight, and will join the party hassle-free.

Masaru's Trial is the Trial of Power, found before the entrance to the Last Hero's Grave. A seemingly endless gauntlet of encounters puts Masaru's strength to the ultimate test. His ultimate weapon, the Champion's Wraps, lie at the very top.

If Oersted is chosen as the primary hero, Masaru is instead fought as an enemy, with the player in control of O'Bright. In this timeline, Masaru is unable overcome O'Bright's brute strength with his diverse techniques, and he falls in battle.

After Odio is defeated once and for all in the true ending, Masaru, if chosen as the primary hero, confronts Oersted over his actions. He explains to Oersted that while there is no fault in trying to become the best at something, Oersted had forsaken his soul to do so, leaving him empty and unfulfilled in the end. Moved, Oersted at last returns the seven heroes to their original time periods with his final breath. Returned to the present, Masaru packs up his things and exits his apartment, resuming his quest to be the world's strongest warrior.

## Etymology

The name Takahara Masaru is written as (高原 日勝) in kanji. His name is made up of kanji taken from names of four professional wrestlers that were famous in Japan at the time:
Takada Nobuhiko (**髙**田延彦), Fujiwara Yoshiaki (藤**原** 喜明), Maeda Akira (前田 **日**明) and Funaki Masakatsu (船木 誠**勝**). "日" means "sun", and "勝" means "victory".

## Trivia

* Masaru is based the hot-blooded, passionate protagonists of traditional fighting games, particularly Street Fighter's Ryu.
* Masaru is the only character that shares his ultimate technique with another character, as Worldbreaker's Wrath can also be learned by the Mimic Mammet at the same level Masaru learns it.
* Due to the nature of his ability to learn techniques from enemies, Masaru is comparable to the Final Fantasy series's Blue Mage job.