Kyosuke Nanbu

Kyosuke Nanbu - キョウスケ・ナンブ
Other Names
Series Info
Featured In	Super Robot Wars: Original Generations -Divine Wars- Super Robot Wars: Original Generations -The Inspector-
Personal Info
Voice Actor	Toshiyuki Morikawa
Age	22
Gender	Male
Species	Human
Nationality	Earth Federation - Japan
Relationships	Excellen Browning (Love Interest)
Professional Info
Profession	Test Pilot
Rank/Position	Sergeant Major - 曹長 Lieutenant Junior Grade - 少尉 Lieutenant - 中尉
Affiliation	Earth Federation Army ATX Team

Kyosuke Nanbu (キョウスケ・ナンブ　南部響介) is a fictional character in the Super Robot Wars series. He has appeared as a playable character in the Super Robot Wars Compact 2 series, Super Robot Wars Impact and the Super Robot Wars Original Generation series. In canon, he pilots the Alteisen Riese, and is joined by girlfriend, Excellen Browning, who pilots the Weissritter.

Personal Data

• Name: Kyosuke Nanbu
  
• AKA:
  
• Voice Actor: Toshiyuki Morikawa
  
• Status/Rank: Lieutenant, Captain of ATX Team
• Related characters: Excellen Browning (Girlfriend/Teammate), Einst Alfimi (Former Enemy turned Ally), Beowulf (Dimensional Counterpart)
• Mecha: Alteisen → Alteisen Nacht OG → Alteisen Riese Others: Wildraubiter (OG1/OGs), Gespenst MK II M (OG 1/OGs)

Theme Music

• Steel Beowulf (鋼鉄の孤狼, Kotetsu no Beowulf; localised as Beowulf) - Default theme in all appearances

Appearances

Video Games

• Super Robot Wars Compact 2 - Protagonist
• Super Robot Wars Impact - Protagonist
• Super Robot Taisen: Original Generation - Selectable Protagonist, with own unique storyline
• Super Robot Taisen: Original Generation 2 - Protagonist
• Super Robot Wars Original Generations - Selectable Protagonist, with own unique storyline
• Super Robot Wars Original Generation Gaiden - Playable character
• Another Century's Episode R - Playable character
• 2nd Super Robot Wars Original Generation - Playable character
• Super Robot Wars OG: The Moon Dwellers - Playable character
• Super Robot Wars X-Ω - Playable character
• Super Robot Wars DD - Playable character

Animation

• Super Robot Wars Original Generation: The Animation
• Super Robot Wars Original Generation: Divine Wars
• Super Robot Wars Original Generation: The Inspectors

Personality

Kyosuke Nanbu is considered hot-blooded, but is usually quiet and keeps things to himself. To everyone else, he seems to be cold, unemotional and extremely apathetic towards just about anything; the polar opposite of his significant other, Excellen Browning. Calm and able to make quick, excellent decisions, Kyosuke is also an extremely skilled pilot, as he's the only person to actually pilot the Alteisen effectively due to difficulty in maintaining balance. However, there are times when his emotions go out of control on the battlefield, but that doesn't deter him from accomplishing his objectives. Kyosuke is known to have a bad habit of gambling, often referring to a battle as a big bet, with his and his opponent's life as the ante as one of his frequent phrases is: "I don't mind betting on tough odds." Though he doesn't display it, he cares deeply for Excellen, even if he ignores her advances at times, to the point of ignoring everything else right in front of him as he plows through the battlefield to save her from danger. He also values his team and former teammates, which explains why he was deeply crushed when he thought he let Lamia Loveless die thanks to his miscalculation.

In battle, Kyosuke is a tanker, and will usually rush into battle head-on into enemy units. Coupled along with his combat skills and the specifications of the Alteisen and Alteisen Riese, he can come out of battles with the least amount of damage to his machine, making him a formidable pilot.

Kyosuke Nanbu/Beowulf

In the Shadow-Mirror universe, the Kyosuke Nanbu of that dimension, under the code name Beowulf, pilots the Alteisen Nacht, similar to the Original Generation universe Alteisen, but blue in color. What's significantly different about this Kyosuke Nanbu is that he possesses some form of strength that can be said to be near demonic in nature, which is similar to the Original Generation universe Kyosuke's inhuman luck. Beowulf only appears in the prologue of Original Generation 2, where he leads his squad of Gespenst Mk. IIs, the Beowulves, to fight against the Shadow-Mirror's coup d'état, where he is shown just about as heroic as Kyosuke is.

With the revelations in Original Generations, there has been fan speculation that Beowulf might be an Einst-human hybrid. In the prologue of the Original Generation 2 portion of Original Generations, Beowulf is shown with a portrait similar to that of Kyosuke, the difference being a set of facial markings, under his eyes, similar to those of Alfimi. Instead of being a man of justice, Beowulf is described to be 'monstrous, brutal and evil', his actions were so ruthless that even though the Shadow Mirrors were the bad guys, they pale in comparison of Beowulf's sadism. It is possible, then, that Beowulf's piloting skills and strength were derived from Einst influence. Further speculation of Beowulf's dealings with the Einst occur during his confrontation with Axel and Lemon Browning, which he gives a disjointed speech about the inevitable destruction of Earth and the rebirth of a new world before driving the rest of the Shadow-Mirror away and dueling with Axel.

Original Generation Timeline

Kyosuke Nanbu was involved in a shuttle crash during his youth as a cadet that killed everyone on board, except for him and one other passenger, whom he shielded from the flaming debris. After this incident, he's inherited a form of bizarre, inhuman luck that's been keeping him alive. The next example of this luck occurred in Original Generation, after joining the Earth Federation Army, while he was doing test runs for the Wildraubtier, the machine goes through a malfunction during its transformation sequence. Kyosuke comes out alive, with only a few broken ribs. Sanger Zonvolt, leader of the ATX Team, recruits him and he becomes acquainted with fellow team members Brooklyn Luckfield and Excellen Browning. Unknown to him at the time, Excellen was the other surviving passenger in the shuttle crash. This prompted her to start a relationship with him, although the timing couldn't have been worse, as the Divine Crusaders declared war against the Earth Federation. He would later become the leader of the ATX Team after Sanger's defection to the Divine Crusaders.

Kyosuke would create many rivalries against notable pilots Ryusei Date of the SRX Team in Original Generation and Axel Almar of the Shadow-Mirror in Original Generation 2. His scuffles with Axel were so intense that the Alteisen was almost destroyed. Due to his luck, Kyosuke also manages to survive. His experience with the Alteisen allowed him to propose improvements to upgrade his machine into the Alteisen Riese. When the Einst began their scheme to recreate the Earth, they turned their attention to the pilot, for he would be the new Adam, alongside their artificially-created clone, Alfimi, who was made in accordance to the data they had gather on Excellen, and act as Eve. To have him comply with their wishes, they brainwashed Excellen and had her turn against him. However, Kyosuke breaks their control over her and are able to defeat the Einst, with the help of their various allies and friends.

Original Generation Gaiden puts Kyosuke in a dilemma. He was late to prevent the ODE Incident, and when he attempted to save one of his former ATX Team member, Lamia Loveless (now part of Aggressors, captured by the ODE), he almost succeeded, but did not expect Wilhelm von Juergen to launch a surprise shot to Alt Eisen's arm, which held Lamia. With her life signal not found, Kyosuke was crushed, deducing her to be killed in action. Although he was more than willing to search for her just to make sure, Duminuss' arrival and sudden takeover after Juergen's death forced him to retreat, thus he had to consider her killed off for real.

However, it wasn't for long that he suddenly encountered Lamia again, back from the dead, only this time reprogrammed by Duminuss to antagonize him and his team mentally, trying to goad him to repeat the mistake of failing to save her. Kyosuke resolved to fulfill his past promise to kill her if she ever lost her own will. Shortly after, he meets up two old foes, Einst Alchemie and Axel Almar, also apparently back from the dead. Axel quickly took notice on Kyosuke's dilemma and deduced that if left alone, it would eventually turn him into another Beowulf. To prevent that, he successfully saved and restored Lamia and gained Kyosuke's trust forever, with him promising to somehow pay for this benevolence.

Trivia

• Kyosuke's surname, Nanbu, is derived from the Nambu pistol or Kijiro Nambu, made by a Japanese firearms manufacturer.
• The original protagonists for the Playstation 2 turn-based strategy game, Namco x Capcom, Reiji and Xiaomu, were inspired by Kyosuke and Excellen, who share similar personality traits and relationship status. Namco x Capcom also happens to be directed by Soichiro Morizumi, who directed many games from the Super Robot Wars series, one of them being Super Robot Wars Impact, where Kyosuke and Excellen were the protagonists. Likewise, the protagonists of Mugen no Frontier, Harken Browning and Kaguya Nanbu, are based on this pair.
• The voice actors for Kyosuke Nanbu (Toshiyuki Morikawa) and Axel Almar (Nobutoshi Kanna) also play rivals/arch-enemies in Berserk.
• Additionally, Toshiyuki Morikawa and Yuko Mizutani, Excellen's voice actress, also played characters that were close to each other in Tekkaman Blade.
• Perhaps ironically, Toshiyuki Morikawa also voices Dante, from the Devil May Cry animated series, who has terrible luck when it comes to accepting a bet through card games, pool or a simple coin toss.