Joe Shimamura
Joe Shimamura is a male anime and manga character who features in Cyborg 009.
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Biography
Joe Shimamura (Japanese: 島村ジョー, Hepburn: Shimamura Jo) was originally from Japan although he was actually half-Japanese. A delinquent youth who was shunned by his peers because he was a half-breed, he escaped from a juvenile detention facility before being captured by Black Ghost. As only an infant, he was raised by his foster parent, a kind priest after his father was disappeared and his mother died leaving him at the doorstep of church where the Father found them in the cold winter. When he was just a baby, he was left on the stairs of a Catholic church by his mother, who shortly died after doing so. He was then found and adopted by the church's priest, who raised him as his son. Despite the presence of a father figure, Joe often felt very lonely, with no memory of his real parents, and had to struggle every day in life against bullies and those who were prejudiced against those who were half-Japanese. He soon became friends with those who were also orphaned, one of which was named Yasu. Unfortunately, few of them actually made it to adulthood, for most mysteriously disappeared shortly after being given to foster care. Joe would never see most of his childhood friends again until several years later, when he discovered some had been turned into cyborgs by Black Ghost.
Unknown to Joe, the priest who raised him was also affiliated with Black Ghost. It was implied he was responsible for the trafficking of the missing children, since as soon they were adopted they were never seen or heard of again. When the priest tried to expose Black Ghost, he was killed by one of their agents, who also set the church on fire. Joe came home that night to find his home on fire. To his horror, he found that his beloved father figure was stabbed to death. Unfortunately, he came at the wrong time, as the police arrived while he was trying to salvage the priest's body from the fire. Because Joe was the only one at the crime scene, he was believed to be the culprit, and was wrongfully arrested. While being escorted to jail, the truck transporting Joe was suddenly smashed, providing him with the opportunity to escape. He soon found himself cornered at the edge of a cliff, with the police surrounding him at all sides. With no other choice, Joe jumped and plunged into the ocean below. Unfortunately, he landed himself in even bigger trouble when he was recovered from the shoreline by Black Ghost agents. They subjected him, along with eight other people, to horrendous experiments, eventually turning him into the last cyborg 009.
Later, his unconscious body washed up on shore where some of Black Ghost's workers found him and handed him over to the Black Ghost Organization. There he was made into a cyborg soldier. Cyborg 001 woke up Joe with his telepathy, and gave him directions on how to escape or at least that's what Joe thought. 001 was actually leading Joe to the enemy, just so he could see exactly what abilities Joe had. Joe was furious when he found out, and saying that he'd punch 001's lights out. But then all of a sudden a plane came and was about to hit Joe. 001 told Joe how to use acceleration mode, by flicking the switch on his back tooth. Joe told him to stop it, and the plane hit him and carried him off into the sky.
He looked inside the vehicle, but found that there was no one piloting it. He looked ahead of him and saw another plane coming right towards him. Both planes collided and exploded. He began to fall and Cyborg 002 caught him and brought him to where the other eight cyborgs were. When Joe had seen who 001 was, he no longer wanted to punch his lights out because 001 had the appearance of an infant. Joe joined the Rebellion with the other eight cyborgs, and became leader of the 00 team. He found out about his codename- Cyborg 009- and used it throughout the other missions. He grew from a general leader to a true leader of the team.
Overview
Personality and attributes
In appearance, Joe Shimamura was a young half-Japanese male of average height with a slender waist who was approximately 18 years old. After his transformation by Black Ghost, he was given the designation of Cyborg 009.
Joe was shown to be a very heroic person and a compassionate character who was an idealist at heart. As the youngest of the 00 cyborgs as well as their newest addition, he is an idealist at heart, which shows through his interactions with others. He loathes killing his opponents, and firmly believes that everyone can be redeemed. Because of his experiences, he deeply sympathizes with other cyborgs and often tries to invoke their sense of morality in order to convince them to fight Black Ghost. In several instances, he has failed more than he succeeded, since Black Ghost has often employed gruesome ways to prevent their employees from rebelling against them.
He came to see himself as the protector of mankind thought that everyone's burdens were his to bear as well. He believes that everyone's burdens are his to bear as well. This often leads to him trying to do things on his own, much to the concern and worry of his friends. Even if the people in danger are his enemies, Joe will still try to save them nonetheless. His hero complex may have stemmed from losing everyone he knew and loved as a child, which ultimately led to a very strong desire to protect everyone as an adult.
Joe fights for justice and will always rise up to destroy whatever evil happens to appear in the world. However, while Joe has worked with the government on many occasions, he and the other Cyborgs more often than not operate outside of the law, which can lead to conflicts between the Cyborgs and the governments of the world.
He regularly finds ways to locate and exploit the weaknesses in his opponents using all of his skills.
Similar to the other 00 Cyborgs, he was dedicated to defeating Black Ghost as they were responsible for almost every single tragedy in his life. Since Black Ghost was responsible for almost every single tragedy in his life, Joe has enough reason to want to try take them down. While he believes that enemies can be turned into allies, he still did not hesitate to attack when necessary, particularly when innocents are involved in the conflict and/or his friends are in danger.
Powers and abilities
Originally, Joe Shimamura was an ordinary human being until he was abducted by Black Ghost to be used for their experiments. He came to be super-humanly strong, resistant to damage, can leap large distances, and can breathe underwater.
He had inherited Geronimo, Jr.'s iron skin, which allowed him to survive being shot in the back multiple times.
Joe's main ability that he was given by Black Ghost's experiments which was triggered by a switch embedded in his teeth. When activated, it makes Joe much faster than his normal speeds, causing everything in his perspective to slow to an absolute crawl. The sheer air friction produced by Joe causes most things that he touches while in Acceleration Mode to burn up. Due to moving so quickly while in Acceleration Mode, he cannot hear anything, as he is exponentially faster than sound. Thus, he was unable to touch people whilst in Acceleration Mode. Any living creatures, such as humans if touched at such high speeds would be killed or otherwise seriously be maimed due to the resultant air friction. Joe cannot also hear anything while in Acceleration Mode unless it is through telepathy, due to the fact that he moves so much faster than sound.
In battle, Shimamura usually started off his fights by switching into Acceleration Mode almost immediately and going for a Speed Blitz. If his sheer speed isn't enough to defeat his opponent, Joe combines his combat experience along with his Accelerator to find ways to outsmart his opponents or find and exploit weaknesses.
When he gained an upgrade through Ivan Whisky/Cyborg 001's psychic powers, Joe learned to use his Acceleration Mode in a more offensive way, and he gained the ability to destroy beings on a molecular level by speeding them up fast enough.
The Supergun is the primary weapon utilized by the Cyborg Soldiers, taken from Black Ghost. It is an incredibly advanced weapon with numerous settings for various combat situations. Joe was shown to be an excellent marksman with the Supergun.
During his adventures, he often acted as the field leader and first line attack of the 00 Cyborgs.
Notes
- Joe Shimamura was created by Shotaro Ishinomori where he featured in the setting of the Cyborg 009 universe.
In other media
Television
Films
Appearances
- Cyborg 009:
External Links
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