Zato-1

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Zato-1
Official Guilty Gear XX Accent Core artwork for Eddie.
Game series	Guilty Gear series
First game	Guilty Gear
Creator(s)	Daisuke Ishiwatari
Voice actor(s)	Kaneto Shiozawa (Guilty Gear-GGX); Takehito Koyasu (as Eddie, GGXX onward)
In-Universe Information
Birthplace	Spain
Blood type	A
Theme song	"Black Soul" (GG) "Feel a Fear" (GGX -) "Dementia" (Korean XX #Reload)

Zato-1 (ザトーワン, Zatō-Wan^?) is a character in the Guilty Gear fighting game series, making his first appearance in Guilty Gear: The Missing Link. He is blind, but fights using a parasitic entity named Eddie (エディ, Edi^?), a shadow-being created using Gear technology, who eventually overcomes Zato and takes over his body. Due to the passing of his voice actor, Kaneto Shiozawa, the character is officially referred to as Eddie since Guilty Gear XX, and it is explained that "Zato" by that point is simply a lifeless body being manipulated by the creature.

1 Story
2 Music References
3 Trivia

[edit] Story

[edit] Background

Originally, Zato-1 was just another member of the Assassin's Guild. However, at some point, the Post-War Administration Bureau offered him a "forbidden beast" - a parasitic organism derived from Gear technology. After gaining control of the forbidden beast through a secret ritual that required Zato-1 to forsake his sight, he grew strong and became the leader of the Assassin's Guild. Because of his membership with the guild, he personally knows both of the other assassins in the Guilty Gear cast, former Assassin's Guild member Millia Rage, and Venom.

[edit] Guilty Gear: The Missing Link

In Zato's ending, whilst crowing his victory over Justice (not part of the official canon), he hears another voice cackling: it is that of Eddie, the parasitic organism that he thought was under his control, who proceeds to possess and completely control him.

[edit] Guilty Gear X: By Your Side

Eddie spends his Story Mode rampaging around the countryside, taking "samples" from the other characters, apparently with the intention of collecting data on them. In both of his endings, Zato-1 lets out one last gasp before and after fighting Millia Rage. In one of them, Zato attempts to kill himself and take Eddie with him; in the other ending (not canon as it is impossible given the events in subsequent games), he absorbs Millia's hair, which itself is a parasitic entity.

[edit] Guilty Gear XX: The Midnight Carnival

From here on, the character is referred to in the character list as Eddie rather than Zato-1, because Zato is now dead. After a conversation with Faust telling him that he is near the end of his life cycle what with his host body no longer being alive, Eddie spends the game attempting to find a new one, and in one of his paths, he joins forces with I-No, who claims to want to help him; in one of his endings, he meets his end when he tries to possess Slayer's wife Sharon, and promptly melts. In another, he realizes that I-No has betrayed him, and fights her, only to become imprisoned by That Man.

His third story path, which is more likely, does not involve I-No; it ends with a fight against Millia Rage and then Venom, whom Eddie taunts, and then vows to become stronger. Whether this will actually happen is questionable due to Eddie's extremely short standalone lifespan, signified by his gradual loss of health over the course of each path (though this correlation is likely exaggerated for the sake of game mechanics).

[edit] Music References

Eddie is named after the zombie mascot of Iron Maiden, although another possibility is Eddie Van Halen. His attack "Break the Law" is a reference to the Judas Priest song "Breaking the Law" and his instant kill "Black in Mind" is named after an album by Rage. His Shadow Gallery attack is named for an American progressive rock band, and his "Amorphous" attack is named for Finnish band Amorphis. His "Rise and Fall" attack from the original game is named after a Helloween song.

Zato-1's theme, "Feel a Fear", seems to have an opening similar to the opening guitar riffs in the White Zombie song "Grease Paint and Monkey Brains."

The title of Zato-1's original theme music, "Black Soul", as well as his stage's background in the original Guilty Gear are references to the album Souls of Black by Thrash metal band Testament.

Eddie's stage, which is a frozen version Hell in GGXX, is loosely based on the name of American heavy metal group, Iced Earth. In Accent Core, the stage is based on a more traditional firey Hell.

The visor Zato-1 wears over his eyes gives him a resemblance to Vic Rattlehead, the mascot of the metal band Megadeth.

[edit] Trivia

Zato-1 is a reference to the fictional blind swordsman Zatoichi, "ichi" being Japanese for the number 'one.'
Zato-1's voice actor, Kaneto Shiozawa, died of a brain concussion after Guilty Gear X was made.