[8UPPERS] CHARACTERS
I have translated the character descriptions. I couldn't come up with a good English word for "shimatsuya" so I just used the word "destroyers," haha. Basically these are people who get rid of or destroy things.
Anyway, this was pretty interesting! I hope they make a whole new film that shows all this!!!
(I don't think this spoils the actual movie, but be careful!)
8UPPERS CHARACTERS
JACKY - Shingo Murakami
Jacky’s parents abandoned him as soon as he was born, and by the time he started to understand things, he was growing up in the “Children’s House.” He knew about his situation without anyone really telling him about it. Jacky shut his true heart to others. Even though he opened up only to Toppo, who was in a similar situation as him, he was always just out-going on the outside and his heart was never fulfilled.
One day, Mac came to the orphanage. Mac had just lost his parents, and he never talked with anyone else and was always by himself. Jacky might have seen his own self in Mac. One day, he found Mac being attacked by the older kids, and Jacky went to rescue him. That was the first time he had ever expressed his own feelings. Since then, Jacky and Mac became connected by a deep bond. Later on, Jacky rescued Johnny, who was also being picked on, and welcomed him to the group; he also helped Toppo look for his parents. Jacky cared about his friends more than anyone else.
Ever since he was a child, Jacky had a strong interest and obsession with food. After Mac started working at a factory, Jacky started working part-time at a nearby restaurant. He had a dream to open up his own restaurant, but a certain incident happened which forced him to quit the restaurant he was working at and that’s when Mac invited him to join his team of destroyers.
TOPPO - Shota Yasuda
Toppo was accepted at the “Children’s House” only a few months after his birth. He was always together with Jacky, who was his roommate at the orphanage. Their personalities were the exact opposite; communicating with people was a pain for Toppo, so he usually ended up playing cards and kendama (a wooden toy) by himself.
When he was 8 years old, he suddenly had the urge to go look for his parents. He asked the teachers at the orphanage about them, but they had no idea. Toppo then talked to Jacky about it, and Jacky sneaked into the room with all the documents at midnight and was able to find some information on them.
A few years later, Jacky told Toppo the secret of his birth. Toppo’s father was a leader of one of the two biggest gangster groups in Kansai, and the mother was his lover. The organization knew that the police was after them, so in order to keep Toppo away from danger, they sent him to the orphanage. Only a few days after that, both his parents were shot to death during a fight between the gangster groups. It was very difficult for Toppo to accept the fact that both of his parents were no longer alive, but he also felt relieved that the secret to his birth, which was a long-term concern, was finally revealed.
Since then, Toppo studied hard and graduated high school. He was also very much into games, and in the online game world, he was very famous as everyone knew of his existence. After graduation, he started working at an IT company, but that didn’t suit him well, so he decided to join 8UPPERS as if to start something over.
MAC - You Yokoyama
With his natural service-minded personality, Mac is like the leader of 8UPPERS.
He was accepted to the “Children’s House” when he lost both of his parents in a traffic accident at the age of 5. After Jacky helped him out with the fight with the older kids, he grew up to become a troublemaker himself by age 13. Mac started making his own group. He brought Toppo and Johnny into the group, and started getting along with Ace and Arsenal, who were always picking up fights in the orphanage, as well as Gum, who was known to be the strongest of them all.
When he was 15 years old, Mac started working part-time at a factory and with his personality, he was asked to be the section leader. He also found a secret hobby to watch movies, and it looked like things were going well for Mac, until a certain incident happened and he was fired from the factory.
After many ups and downs, he started doing the destroyer business with Jacky. He went on to organize the 8UPPERS, inviting friends he can trust, such as Toppo and Johnny, Ace and Arsenal, and Gum.
8 rules. Mac formed 8UPPERS, who only do work against those who, under their own decisions, are judged as being evil.
JOHNNY - Tadayoshi Ohkura
Johnny’s family split apart when he was about 5 years old.
His line of sight was listless, and always seemed to be looking at something far away. With his good looks, he was popular to the opposite sex in the “Children’s House,” but that drew jealously from the other boys, and he experienced some horrible bullying.
However, Johnny never showed that he was affected by it. No matter how much bullying he received, he would stare back at them as if to say “Whatever, I don’t care.” The level and amount of bullying escalated.
One day, he was called out to the incinerator in the orphanage, and while he was being bullied, Jacky came to the rescue. Jacky tried to protect him by bringing him into his group. Since then, Johnny started spending time with Jacky and Mac.
Johnny loved kids, and he was known to take good care of the younger ones in the orphanage. Johnny looked cool on the outside but he was kinder than anyone else on the inside. After leaving the orphanage, he worked at a bar and also worked as a model for magazines. A guy he came to know during that time offered to start up a bar together, but Johnny was cheated and ended up with a great amount in debt. Jacky helped Johnny in this situation as well.
Together, they started working as destroyers and started giving back the debt. This is why Johnny thinks of Jacky as more than a brother.
GUM - Ryuhei Maruyama
Gum was born as the fourth boy in the Shorinji Kempo dojo. However, he was not the son of the real wife, so he was always treated as the enemy and was disfavored. Gum left the dojo when he lost his mother, and entered the “Children’s House.”
Gum never opened up his heart, but him and Ace, who picked up a fight with him every day, started getting to like each other. In addition, Gum started becoming more and more popular in the orphanage with his natural character. He was usually calm but when it came to fighting, he would always lead the way, so among the local troublemaking groups, he was cherished as a valuable helper.
The only thing that gave Gum comfort was cats. Gum always carried a triangle-shaped milk carton and canned cat food inside his bag, and was always prepared to feed the cats.
When Gum was 18, he decided to go say hello to his father at the dojo. However, there was a new apartment being built in the place where the dojo was. The dojo had no followers after his father became ill, and they couldn’t do anything but to fold it up. When Gum visited his ill father, the father took Gum’s hands and with tears rolling out, he apologized to him. A few weeks later, he passed away.
Gum decided to work for 8UPPERS to make money to rebuild the dojo.
ARSENAL - Subaru Shibutani
Arsenal also came to the “Children’s House” moments after birth. He was offensive ever since he was young, and he loved to play with toy guns and knives. When he was 9 years old, an older child gave him a broken air gun and since then, Arsenal started getting into air guns and military goods. He also liked western movies, so his obsession with revolvers instead of automatic guns started growing around this time.
During those days, Arsenal met Ace, who seemed to be in a fight every day. Under Ace’s influence, Arsenal became interested in boxing as well, and he joined Ace in his fights.
One side of Arsenal that nobody knew about was that his hobby was to go to karaoke by himself. Also, he kept on drawing. His abstract drawings were a sketch of his daily life.
As soon as Arsenal turned 18, he joined the self-defense force. He continued doing strict training and started wondering if this was really something he wanted to do. One night, Arsenal left the casern and called out Ace. After hearing that Ace was quitting boxing, which he really hoped to continue, Arsenal raised questions to no one other than himself. Arsenal quit the self-defense force, and joined 8UPPERS to find his true self and to act together with his friends.
ACE - Ryo Nishikido
The police rescued Ace at the age of 3 when they found out that his parents were abusing him.
Since then, he lived at the “Children’s House,” and to him, the orphanage wasn’t a bad place. He got into boxing after being influenced by a comic book he read around the age of 8. His father was also a boxer, a fact that Ace himself doesn’t know.
Ace was always picking up fights and doing boxing. One day, a tough opponent came in his way. It was Gum, who was said to be the strongest in the orphanage. No matter how many times Ace asked for a fight, he could never beat Gum. However, the resiliency that Ace showed no matter how many times he lost started opening up Gum’s closed heart.
When he was about 17, they found an inherent eye problem that made him fail the boxing pro test. Ace didn’t have anywhere to lean on, so he started being emotionally disturbed.
That was when Arsenal, who he got along with during his days in the orphanage, contacted him. He told Arsenal that he failed the pro test, and the encouragement that Arsenal gave him touched his heart. Also, the futsal that Jacky invited him to started opening up his heart that tended to face inward. The sweat he sweat under the blue sky started changing him. This was how he started coping with the loneliness he was facing which he couldn’t talk about with anyone else.
Ace continued training at the gym but gave up on becoming a professional boxer, and joined 8UPPERS.