Name:
Ayato Kamina
Name:
Ayato Kamina
Race: Human/Mulian
Age: 17
Hair: Gray
Eyes: Blue
Family: Mother, Maya (a Mulian Leader)
Status: Pilot of RahXephon
Anime: RahXephon
Voice: (English) Chris Patton (Japanese) Hiro Shimono
History and Personality: Ayato is the main character of the anime RahXephon. He's the pilot of the RahXephon (a mobile suit of sorts that seems to have it's own will), the one destined to tune the world. Ayato is uiet, and somewhat serious. His greatest interest is art. Because he is artistic and has a sensitive nature he had unknowingly gained the affections of quite a few young ladies. But, like many artists, Ayato has deep inner conflicts arising from his own feelings of insecurity and sometimes depression - especially after he learns that he is half Mulian, the very people he has been fighting. Being a half Mulian and a half Human, he is often confused as to which group he belongs to, and as such, has a deep inner struggle for what should he be fighting for, and who should he be protecting. Although he is able to and does pilot the RahXephon in defending Nirai Kanai, he often questions himself on his own personal abilities. He believes that his only use is as the pilot of the RahXephon, and thus is a burden to everyone else. However, he eventually puts both struggles aside and decides that all he is responsible for is to do his best to protect his friends and his loved ones, no matter what race they are.
While noble in his intentions, Ayato usually finds himself doing things he didn't want to do, and really bad things he wasn't even aware of. By deciding to protect his friends from the giant Dolems, he's also killed them in ignorance. Though Ayato learns that both his friends have become Mulians (indeed, it seems all Humans in Tokyo Jupiter are in the process of becoming Mulinas) Ayato does not realize that a Mulian is a human who is connected to a "dolem" (Mulian living weapons). Since Mulians are directly connected to Dolems, by killing the Dolem, Ayato also kills the Mulian in control of that Dolem. When dolems attack him and his friend Asahina he fights to protect her, not realizing that she is being forced to control the attacking dolem. When he destroys the attacker he also kills Asahina. When he learns this he is heart broken and is so discouraged that he wants to stop piloting the RahXephon. But he realizes that there is no way to save both the humans turned Mulian from Tokyo Jupiter and the rest of the world. And, really, he has no choice - the RahXephon controls him as much as he controls it, and it was created to retune the world.
What Ayato cares the most about is knowing the truth, and also being around people he trusts. When he doesn't get this, he usually tends to freak out, and if the case is dramatic (like at the beginning of the series, or when he sees his mother bleeding blue blood), he'll even scream in fear. One of the bigger issues Ayato tries to address is his own identity. At first he thought he was just a normal person, but when he's informed that he's also a Mulian he suffers a serious identity crisis and even runs away from Terra to Tokyo Jupiter to find more about his true identity. When he encounters his adoptive mother Maya, she reveals to him the truth and Ayato of course freaks out when he finally realizes who his mother really is - a leader of the people he thought were his enemies. Coping with his identity is an important issue in the story of RahXephon and one that is finished quite nicely with the tuning.
Ayato was created using the DNA of Quon Kisaragi, along with his brother Itsuki Kisaragi. His belly is marked with vaguely rune-like markings resembling birthmarks which are a sign of his being a potential instrumentalist for the RahXephon. He originally lived within Tokyo Jupiter with his adoptive mother Maya Kamina, but was able to leave thanks to the RahXephon. Ayato then learns that Tokyo Jupiter is actually just a city (Tokyo) that has been cut off from the rest of the world in more ways than one. It exists within it's own dimension of time. In fact, the rest of the world is twelve years ahead of Tokyo Jupiter time. None of the inhabitants even know that the outside world still exists because the Mulian's rewrote history and even tampered with their memories, erasing certain people and events from their minds. In Ayato's case, the memory of the girl he had loved, who remained outside Tokyo Jupiter, was erased.
After leaving Tokyo Jupiter, he spent a short period of time living with Haruka Shitow in a houseboat, until they were rescued by members of the organization known as TERRA. He then went to live with Rikudo Shougo, Haruka's uncle, as well as Haruka and Haruka's little sister Megumi on an island known as Nirai Kanai. It turns out the Haruka is the girl he once loved, now twelve years his senior thanks to the time passsage differnece between Tokyo Jupiter and the rest of Earth. Though Ayato does not realize who Haruka is until late in the series she always recognizes him and is often hurt by him as he lashes out at her in his struggle to understand himself and the new truths being shown to him. Fortunately, despite their age difference and his adamant position that he isn't interested in older women, some part of Ayato remembers Haruka and he learns to love her once more.
Ayato is destined, as was stated before, to "re-tune" the world - a goal the Mulians created him to fulfill. To do this he must join with the RahXephon and another living "instrument" - Quon Kisaragi. Quon is cared for by Itsuki who is actually Ayato's brother. No one is quite certain what this process will entail or what the results will be, and Ayato is determined not to do it as the most common belief he finds is that the world will be erased and begun anew. However, it turns out that he gets to retune the world as he wishes. At the end of the series, he succeeds in becoming one with the RahXephon and re-tunes the world to one where he was not separated from Haruka and the two are married with a child called Quon. He still loves to paint as a hobby as it is clearly evident by his golden RahXephon painting as well as his paintings of a youthful Haruka. We do not know much else about this retuned world, but from what we see of his life and what we know of his personality it would be safe to assume that in this new world all the people who had been lost are alive once more and are living happily.
Relationships: Ayato's most important relationship is his love interest Haruka. Ayato actually fell in love with Haruka twice: once in high school (possible middle school) and again after Tokyo Jupiter. The two were very close during their teenage years but later got separated thanks in large part to Maya. Maya went as far as erasing Haruka from Ayato's memory since it would interfere for the plans she had for him. Because Ayato can not remember Haruka and she does remember him he often unintentionally hurts her with his actions and remarks. In fact, several times he tells her that he wants nothing more to do with her (generally when he feels betrayed after learning a new truth that she helped hide from him), but he always forgives her. Since Tokyo Jupiter's time elapses differently from the outside world, he aged much slower than Haruka, and as a consequence Haruka became 12 years older than Ayato by the time they met again. But even with such a big age gap, the two found themselves falling for each other again, and this time, the love is much stronger than before. Haruka and Ayato's romance is one of the central themes of the story and quite literally the fate of the world depends on their love.
Ayato only has two friends in Tokyo Jupiter, Asahina and Mamoru. He does not seem to be especially open with them, but he is loyal to them and would give his life to save them. While Asahina and Mamoru are a couple we later learn that Asahina has actually been in love with Ayato for many years and that Mamoru has always been very jealous.
While working with TERRA Ayato befriends Haruka's younger sister, Megumi. Their relationship is rocky at first, as he has little desire to make an effort to make friends and she finds him annoying, but they soon come to enjoy one another's company and even depend on one another. While the relationship is platonic for Ayato, we learn that Megumi has fallen in love with him.
Since he is living with Haruka's familoy, Ayato also developes a relationship with Rikudo Shougo, her uncle. Rikudo becomes a sort of mentor for Ayato, and also someone he can turn to when he is confused.
Ayato's relationship with his mother is unusual. It seems as though they live in the same house but rarely interact. It is not difficult for him to leave her behind, which implies that he has never developed any attachment to her. She seems to view him as a tool and a responsibility. But we later see that her actions, though often wrong or misguided, were based on a desire to see him content and safe.
Trivia: Ayato's name has a meaning. "Ayato" means one who manipulates, but it also means "one who renders something beautifully." This is particularly interesting when his last name, "Kamina", means "of the gods."
Why we love him: Sweet, quite, sensitive, artistic, protective, handsome, and utterly unaware of how attractive he is - which only makes him that much more attractive - something in us wants to wrap our arms around him and sooth away all his worries and confusion. He's so often sad and conflicted, but we live for the moments when he smiles.
All information from wikipedia is used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License and can be copied/altered and redistributed under the guidelines of this license. Additional info for this profile from Nirai Kanai