Jean Hurlant

Volume 1 cover

David Hurlant (brother)

Jean Hurlant is the main protagonist of Spiral Highway.

## History

### Before the Series

During the Metal City Extraction Incident, on March 24th, 1999, Jean was caught in the crossfire between K-Knights and Junkers, trapping him beneath the rubble, and causing the loss of his legs. He was saved by a K-Night, an event that inspired him to enroll in the Mech Pilot Academy of Metal City.

Through the state-funded Hero Initiative, he met Kaori Henri who built him his cybernetic legs, making him a dodeskaden.

His brother David, mad that Jean had decided to become a pilot, given that he lost his legs due to their actions in the first place, ripped all of Jean's mech-related posters, broke his toys, and ran away.

At 15 he applied at the Mech Pilot Academy but failed at the written test. Admiring his potential, Kaori hired him to work as a scrapper at her workshop, cleaning the streets after the Junkers, collecting their parts, and sending them for recycling.

### The Engine Hunt Arc

One day, while cleaning the streets, he stumbled upon a weird engine core, and brought it to the shop for further inspection, refusing to ship it for recycling. After Kaori caught wind, she fired him.

Later that night, while Jean was in downtown Metal City, with his friends, Michelle and Jearre, he saw smoke coming from the workshop and rushed to it, only to find it being burned by a rogue motor-punk who went after the engine core. Jean ran into the building, trying to save Kaori, and he hooked up the engine to a dismantled Junker. When he jumpstarted it, he went into a trance, only to find himself in a completely restored model. Ass soon as he confronted the assailant and saved Kaori, he was surrounded by K-Knights.

### Rock-It-Joe Arc

Jean becomes a Motor-Punk and has his first fight with Rock-It-Joe. (Laps 05-09)

### The Children of Prodigy Arc

The Cyberslayers appear and Jean is confronted by Kaori. (Laps 10-15)

## Appearance

Jean usually wears a shirt, a red jacket, a baseball hat with goggles strapped around it, and a pair of shorts, so his cybernetic legs won't rip or get caught in his pants.

## Personality

Because of his strong sense of justice, he might come off as mild-mannered and passive at first, but when confronted, Jean doesn't shy away from talking back.

## Etymology

Jean's name, as most of names of characters, mecha and locations, is a reference to Jean Giraud Mœbius.

* He shares his first name with **Jean Giraud**.
* His last name is a reference to ***Métal hurlant*** (English: Howling Metal) a French comics anthology of science fiction and horror comics stories, co-created by Jean Giraud in 1974 , along with Philippe Druillet, Jean-Pierre Dionnet and Bernard Farkas, collectively known as "Les Humanoïdes Associés" (English: United Humanoids), which became the name of the publishing house releasing *Métal hurlant*. Content from *Metal Hurlant* was republished in English in the United States by National Lampoon under the title *Heavy Metal*. It was published in Germany under the title *Schwermetall*.
* When paired with his two friends, Michelle and Jearre, their names are a reference to the French composer, performer and record producer **Jean-Michel Jarre**.

## Trivia

Jean is inspired by anime protagonists of the 1990s and early 2000s, most notably Takuya Kanbara from Digimon Frontier and Naota Nandaba from FLCL. His design is a direct reference to Toshihiro Kawamoto's original design for Edward from Cowboy Bebop, which was later used for another character in Session #5: Ballad of Fallen Angels.

## References

1. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean\_Giraud
2. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%A9tal\_hurlant
3. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Michel\_Jarre
4. ↑ https://bralestudios.com/