| Gaia | |
 | |
| Name | |
|---|---|
| Kana Name | ガイア |
| First Appearance | |
| Anime | Battlefield |
| Manga | The Strongest Troops |
| Information | |
| Origin | Japan |
| Age | About 30 |
| Hair Color | Brown (actually bald) |
| Height | About 170 cm (5'7") |
| Weight | About 60 kg (132 lbs) |
| Fighting Style | Military Fighting Style |
| Original Dub | Kouji Yusa (2001) Ayumu Murase (2018) |
| English Dub | Chuck Huber (2001) Billy Kametz (2018) |
| Relations | Izou Motobe (Sensei) Sanada (Comrade) Kuraishi (Comrade) Chiba Brothers (Comrades) |
| “ | Do you not hear how your muscles scream for help? Do you understand the results of your selfishness? | ” |
– Gaia to Baki. | ||
Gaia (ガイア, Gaia) is the leader of the 1st Airborne Brigade from Hokkaido. Gaia has dissociative identity disorder, as he is the alter of a reckless mercenary called Nomura (野村, Nomura) who loved killing. After facing the "ultimate fear" when faced with a firing squad during the Ugandan Civil War, he lost his hair and gained supersensory abilities.
He is a super-soldier known as "Mr. War" (ミスター 戦争, Misutā Sensō).
Personality[]
Gaia is the leader of a mercenary group who fought Baki Hanma. In the past, the main alter was a crazy soldier called Nomura who loved killing. However, after facing the "ultimate fear" when faced with a firing squad, he lost his hair and the alter Gaia manifested from Nomura, as well as gaining supersensory abilities. Nomura is best described as a weakling who acts as a medic for the team. However, when the situation is right and his adrenaline starts pumping, Gaia will come forward to fight. He utterly despises Yuujirou Hanma, stating he is nothing but a thrill seeker that fights for pleasure. He fights Baki and honorably loses to him. When he crossed paths with Yuujirou, Gaia told him that Baki is a better warrior than Yuujirou can ever be before the two fight (even though he loses miserably).
He is a calm and confident person. In the battle against Baki, he even called himself the god of the battlefield. On the other hand, Gaia is quite unobvious character and it's hard to tell if his huge self-confidence was just pure honesty and prance or, to some extent, a play that was supposed to confuse Baki. Gaia is generally composed, but he also showed great rage when Baki managed to deal with all of his aces up his sleeve.
His three philosophies when fighting are one, take care of your body and give it rest; two, free your body from the control of your mind; and finally, use every part of your surroundings as a weapon. He is an intelligent person who often uses psychological tactics. During his fight with Sikorsky, Gaia does the counting because he wants his enemy to feel what he felt before being almost shot to death when he was younger. Gaia stated the counting increases the stress because an opponent knows when he'll be hit. It was an original, well-thought psychological fight, and not just pure muscles to muscles. Also, his belief is that he does not need to put on the additional muscle mass in order to be stronger, because he can merely manipulate the level of adrenaline his body is putting out. He was scolding Baki about how he, at the age of 13, was pushing his body with exhausting exercises that gave Baki all his scars. Meaning Baki doesn't love his own body. Which allows Gaia to have full control over Baki's movement during their fight. The battle between Gaia and Baki was also very mentally.
Over time, and for unexplained reasons, Gaia eventually seems to become more balanced, cautious, and less cocky and reckless. While it was believed that it was because Gaia absorbed Nomura, he is still around, evidenced by him being referred to as such in Motobe's dojo, and by his overall demeanor being different than Gaia's typical one, even after the slight changes to it.
Appearance[]
Gaia is a short bald man of Japanese descent with a noticeably muscular build and quite feminine eyes. Compared to most characters in the series, Gaia's muscles are considerably smaller. This difference in size is mainly due to his philosophies regarding giving a body time to rest and relying on one's mind as well as their body in combat. As such he doesn't engage in the same level of extreme training characters like Baki, Jack or Doppo do.
Due to his military background he is generally seen in military attire, mainly combat boots and fatigue pants, with a white undershirt. His most noticeable trait is a light colored bandana he always wears to cover his head.
History[]
Baki the Grappler[]
Past[]
Nomura, mere moments before Gaia was manifested.
At first, he was a reckless mercenary called Nomura. He was captured and put in front of a firing squad during the Ugandan Bush War. However, as fate would have it, he was rescued at the last second, but the rush of adrenaline and fear caused a split in his personality and all his hair fell out. As a result, whenever Nomura experiences an adrenaline rush, he switches to Gaia.
Childhood Saga[]
For the first time, he is shown as Nomura when he and the rest of the team manage to capture Baki Hanma, who arrived in their forest on Hokkaido island. They ties Baki to the tree and glue his mouth, and Nomura, with a smile on his face, pulls out a knife and slightly cuts the young fighter's neck. After a while, the team states that it is better to wait on killing the newcomer, so Nomura pulls out a special healing ointment and lubricates the fresh wound on Baki's to stop the bleeding.
Later, Baki manages to free himself and begins to meet each soldier individually, including Nomura. The young fighter meets him as he calmly urinates in the woods and then easily knocks him out. Later, he puts him halfway into the previously made hole in the ground, next to Sanada and Kuraishi, thus holding them immobilized. At one point, the companions ask Nomura where Gaia is, and he tells them that he is close, making it clear that soon, Nomura will change into Gaia.
Gaia during his battle with Baki.
When Baki defeats Chiba brothers, the last members of the team, Nomura panics and shakes very much. This is when Gaia reveals himself for the first time. He digs himself with intense movements from the hole, where he was half buried. Gaia then tells Baki about his disorder and ability to control adrenaline. At the very beginning, the young fighter is unable to deal any blow to the super-soldier, who anticipates all the movements of the enemy and avoids them. At some point, Baki uses his endorphins and Gaia already has more difficulty during the fight. The powerful soldier then uses psychological tactics against the opponent, instiling into him that Baki's body is tired of the torturous training and turning against him. Eventually, Baki resists the soldier's manipulation and begins to deal damage to him. Gaia uses further fighting techniques, such as extremely loud screaming and the use of the surrounding nature. At the end, he even tries to hang Baki on the vine, going as far as stopping his pulse and causing him to die momentarily and see his soul, but the young fighter withstands all the murderous attacks of the opponent and eventually defeats Gaia, cutting off the blood flow to his brain. When Gaia regains consciousness, he invites Baki to eat together. The young fighter sits with the super-soldier and his companions, forming a friendly bond with them. In the manga, Gaia's group sings some battle song during this scene. This is how Baki's meeting with Gaia and the rest of the team ends.
When Baki and Yuujirou Hanma fight day comes, Gaia's team is invited to watch the battle. The supers-soldier tells his teammates that he has to do some thing before the fight comes. It turns out that Gaia meets with Yuujirou and challenges him. In the manga, their clash is not shown and only the fact that Gaia lost miserably is revealed. The anime series shows their encounter, during which Gaia tells that Yuujirou is just a brute, stating that Baki is a better fighter than the Ogre, but the fight also is not shown.
Later, Yuujirou arrives by helicopter led by Sir to the meeting place, and Gaia gets off first, bowing to the Ogre and showing him his submission. The super-soldier has a whole beaten and bandaged face. He is one of the witnesses to the murderous clash between Baki and Yuujirou.
Baki[]
Most Evil Death Row Convicts Saga[]
After Jack Hanma fought Sikorsky in the Underground Arena, he left and tagged in Gaia to replace him in the fight. In which, he displays his abilities of using the environment as a weapon. He does this by picking up sand and throwing it at the prisoner. Since the sandy arena is rarely cleaned, the teeth, nails, and bone chunks of other combatants are scattered throughout the field. This is essentially a shotgun in the hands of Gaia.
To stress and further intimidate Sikorsky, Gaia uses the sand to procure a massive cloud which acts as a camouflage during the fight. The battle ends with a terrified Sikorsky admitting his defeat amongst a bewildered audience.
Hanma Baki[]
Wildman War - Pickle Wars Saga[]
He sneaks into Pickle's cell by disguising himself as part of the tree. He later escapes without incident.
Baki-Dou[]
In the fourth manga series, he no longer works for the JGSDF, and is seen working as a bodyguard for the new American president.
Abilities[]
As Nomura, he is a medic who help treats injuries, but when he's Gaia, his alter, he turns into the best soldier and a great fighter. When it comes to jungle warfare, he is considered to be the king. He can control the body's natural limit-breaker of adrenaline to push himself to whatever level of strength, speed, and awareness that the situation requires. His belief is that he does not need to put on the additional muscle mass in order to be stronger, because he can merely manipulate the level of adrenaline his body is putting out. Despite being one of the smaller fighters, he is very strong and capable of beating the much larger Sikorsky into submission. He messed Sikorsky's mind and body up and never once got touched in the process.
As a soldier, Gaia is very proficient in using weapons. Gaia considers himself to be a master of environment. During a fight, he can use anything in the environment as a weapon. In the battle with Baki Hanma, he used a water in a river and a vine in the jungle tree, and nearly killed Baki. During a fight with Sikorsky, he used sand from the underground arena, which contained teeth and nails from previous fights, and started to fight with it as a weapon. He also used sand as a camouflage. Thanks to that move, he could beat and terrorize Sikorsky who decided to surrender. He can use a acid capsule to blind his opponent by spitting it from his mouth. During a fight with Musashi Miyamoto, he used a makeshift knife which has a spring that can shoot the knife with a speed of 60km/h. He is also shown to have immensely powerful vocal cords and an incredible lung capacity, able to shatter all the lights in the Tokyo Dome as well as generate a massive gust of wind with a single roar.
In an omake featuring him, he demonstrates his "tunnel" technique on a large military officer posing as him. While hiding under his couch, he enters the man's anus, making his way up the body, and brutally comes out of the officer's mouth, killing him in the process. He states that this is only possible because of how small he is. The sight of this causes one of the female reporters to wet herself.
Techniques[]
- Adrenaline – Gaia's signature move; used against Baki Hanma in the first series.
- Eardrum-Burster – used during his battle with Baki Hanma.
- Rear Naked Choke – used against Baki Hanma.
- Water Bullet – used during his fight with Baki.
- Vine Art – used against Baki.
- Camouflage – used during his battle with Sikorsky in the second part of the series.
- Stomp – used against Sikorsky.
- Headbutt – used against Kiyosumi Katou in the fifth manga series.
- Tunnel – used against unnamed soldier in the GaiA spinoff.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Nomura's alter's name being "Gaia" is rather befitting as it comes from the Titan in Greek Mythology of the same name. In Greek Mythology, Gaia was the Titan and Goddess of Earth and in some depictions, even considered "Mother Earth'" or "Mother Nature". Meanwhile, Gaia in the series is a master of jungle warfare and an expert at using the natural environment around him as weaponry.
- Gaia is remarkably similar to the character John Rambo from the Rambo film series; both are highly efficient yet lethally merciless former soldiers, both are extremely skilled in using their environment(s) to their advantage to terrorize and/or defeat their enemies, both are military specializes in jungle warfare, both are slightly psychotic, and both of them wear bandanas.
- Gaia's aptly named technique, "Tunnel", is widely considered the single most gruesome and most disturbingly violent technique ever performed in the series.