Sho Fukamachi is the main protagonist of the anime/manga series Guyver: Bioboosted Armor. Once an ordinary high school student, Sho's greatest concerns were studying, helping out his father and trying to get his long-time crush Mizuki Segawa to notice him. That all changed on the day he and his best friend Tetsuro were walking by Lake Narisawa when an explosion occurred on a nearby cliff. Sho and Tetsuro were almost struck by a falling object that hit the ground near them, and Sho examined the object to find something encased in metal, but seemingly alive. This was the Guyver Unit, a symbiotic suit of organic armour of decidedly alien origin.
History[]
Transformation[]
Sho bonds with the G-Unit
Sho accidentally happened upon the mysterious G-Unit and touched the device, inadvertently activating it. The device was alive and squirmed within its metal brackets before bursting out and wrapping its tendrils around Sho, enveloping his whole body and bonding with him. Sho appeared to fall into the nearby lake and his friend Tetsuro feared the worst, calling out for help. Tetsuro was then greeted by a group of mysterious soldiers led by a horrific monster. Before they could harm him, however, Tetsuro was saved by another creature that emerged from the lake. The smaller creature from the lake killed the large one and the soldiers retreated. After the soldiers fled, the creature spoke Tetsuro's name. It was Sho, transformed into a bizarre creature of tremendous strength and power, but it was only after Sho saw his reflection in the water that he realised something was terribly wrong. As he screamed out in horror and defiance, Sho suddenly returned to normal, a glowing image of the thing he had turned into vanishing into the lake. This was Sho's discovery of the Guyver, and finding it would change his life forever.
Growing in strength[]
After first discovering the Guyver, Sho found himself being hounded by agents of a mysterious organisation called Cronos, who sent creatures known as Zoanoids to attack him. Sho kept managing to defeat the Zoanoids sent after him, but Cronos were unrelenting and would send newer, stronger creatures after not only Sho but his friends and family as well, and had no regard for any innocent bystanders caught in the middle. As Sho fought each threat, he would learn more about the Guyver's power and learn new abilities. He would also find himself surrounded by allies who joined him fighting against Cronos, including Agito Makishima (Guyver-III) and Masaki Murakami.
Loss and pain[]
Throughout his struggles as the Guyver, Sho has had to endure the pain of failing to save innocent lives and losing those dear to him. His father - Fumio Fukamachi - was abducted by Cronos and transformed into the Guyver-killing Zoanoid Enzyme II. Unable to fight against his own father, Sho fell victim to the mind-controlled Enzyme II and had a portion of his brain ripped out. Instead of dying, however, Sho merely lost consciousness and his bio-boosted armour shifted into a self-defence mode. Without its host guiding it, the Guyver was just a mindless killing machine that attacked anything that approached it. Sho's friends could only watch and cry out in vain as the Guyver slaughtered his own father. When Sho later regained consciousness and realised what he had done, he became traumatised and suppressed the memory of his father's death, temporarily losing the ability to bio-boost as a result. He would later regain the power of the Guyver after the renegade Zoanoid Aptom tormented him by way of revenge for Sho killing his comrades, revealing the horrible truth in all its gory details. After regaining the Guyver, Sho vowed never to run from the truth again and silently pleaded his father's spirit to watch over him.
Death[]
The Guyver's control medal is removed
Sho Fukamachi has died numerous times, yet has always managed to come back to life thanks to the Guyver. The control medal of the bio-boosted armour records and stores the mind and memories of its host and is capable of regenerating any wounds, no matter how severe, and can even reconstruct the host's entire body from only a minute fraction of DNA left on the control medal's fibers. So long as the control medal isn't damaged in any way, the Guyver is, for all practical purposes, immortal.
Sho's first death came at the hands of Genzo Makishima, the former head of Cronos' Japanese branch. Genzo had been turned into the first prototype anti-Guyver Zoanoid, Enzyme, and was able to make quick work of the Guyver using its corrosive blood to dissolve the bio-boosted armour. Enzyme removed Sho's control medal and the armour overloaded, essentially eating Sho alive. Sho's body was eviscerated, but still tried to attack Enzyme. The Zoalord Richard Guyot telepathically ordered Enzyme to self-destruct and the creature exploded, spraying its blood all over the remains of the Guyver. The rapidly-melting Guyver collapsed against the pile of meat that used to be Enzyme and both swiftly dissolved. Although Sho was dead, the Guyver's control medal was left intact and when Cronos took it to their Japanese research lab, the medal used the small amounts of blood left on it to regenerate the Guyver's entire body. After regenerating and regaining consciousness, Sho assisted Guyver-III with destroying Cronos Japan from within.
Sho's second death occurred when he tried to rescue his father Fumio from Cronos' Relic's Point facility, where Fumio had been turned into Enzyme II and tore out his son's brain. Of course, Sho would recover from that as well.
Sho suffered a third death during the destruction of Relic's Point, when he took control of a Creator bio-ship and flew it out of Mt. Minakami, destroying the base. After defeating Richard Guyot, both Sho and Agito were forced to contend with Archanfel, the founder and ruler of Cronos. Sho tried to use his Mega-Smasher on the Zoalord, but Archanfel was too immensely powerful and simply redirected the Mega-Smasher beam back at Sho. Sho was disintegrated, but maintained a psychic connection with the alien ship, willing it to send his friends away from danger and to save himself. While Sho was seemingly obliterated (even his control medal), the Creator ship imprinted Sho's mind within its memory banks and stored his bio-data.
A dark new world[]
Guyver Gigantic
Sho would return to life a year after his apparent death, his consciousness preserved inside a strange chrysalis-like object that seemed to be made of the same material as the destroyed Creator ship. Apparently, a fragment of the ship survived with Sho's bio-data imprinted on it, and Sho's consciousness was willing it to re-construct his body and enhance his powers. When Sho emerged, he donned a stronger bio-armour, the Guyver Gigantic, which increased his powers to unimaginable heights. He would need all that power as well, considering the state of the world he had awoken to.
Shortly after Sho's "death", Cronos had initiated their X-Day plan, activating their Zoanoid sleeper agents worldwide and conquering the planet in one swift stroke. While everyday life didn't seem to have changed much at first glance, Cronos had managed to greatly influence the public and gain their trust, and were offering Zoanoid optimization as a public service. Basic rights were frequently overlooked and the public were completely unaware that Zoanoids had no free will, being genetically programmed to obey the Zoalords. Sho's battle was no longer just against a single organisation, but against society itself. It was no longer just Sho's life or the lives of his friends at stake, but the freedom of the world.
Much has happened since Sho's return. He continues to fight the forces of Cronos among a small resistance group consisting of himself, Mizuki and Tetsuro Segawa, his former enemy Aptom, and a handful of citizens attempting to undermine Cronos' rule via the media. The odds are stacked against them, however, as Cronos has vast resources and armies of Zoanoids at their disposal as well as the approval of the general public. To make matters worse, Agito Makishima has since made himself an enemy, revealing his true nature to Sho by fighting him for control of the Guyver Gigantic.
Personality[]
Before his war against Cronos, Sho Fukamachi lived a very "normal" life, but he cherished everything about it and struggled to try and hold on to it even after becoming the Guyver. He is completely selfless and is always ready to throw himself into the line of fire when his friends are threatened. He does, however, suffer from self-doubt and tends to blame himself whenever something goes wrong.
Abilities[]
See Guyver and Guyver Gigantic.