Briareos Hecatonchires

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Briareos (carrying Deunan Knute on the poster for the 2004 Appleseed film.)
Briareos (carrying Deunan Knute on the poster for the 2004 Appleseed film.)

Briareos Hecatonchires (ブリアレオス・ヘカトンケイレス Buriareosu Hekatonkeiresu?) is a character from Masamune Shirow's Appleseed manga and its adaptations in anime. He is one of the two protagonists of the series, the other being Deunan Knute. Briareos is a trained SWAT officer, his point man is Deunan. They met in her father's SWAT unit before World War III broke out. Briareos and Deunan are lovers and have been involved since before the war. Since moving to Olympus with Deunan, they have joined the ESWAT unit (Extra Special Weapons And Tactics). He is named after Briareus the Vigorous, one of the Hecatonchires (hundred-armed giants) of Greek mythology. In the Japanese media, he is voiced by Yoshisada Sakaguchi in the Appleseed OVA, Jūrōta Kosugi in the Appleseed film, and Kōichi Yamadera in Appleseed Ex Machina. He is voiced by Bill Roberts, Jamieson Price, and David Matranga in the English dubs of the respective productions.

[edit] Cybernetics

Briareos is a prime example of the technology of cybernetic implants in Appleseed. Although his body is almost completely artificial, he suffers little loss in humanity. His outer skin is elastic, capable of feeling sensation, and the temperature can be adjusted to the cyborg's preferences. He has eight eyes mounted on his head, four in his face (The large sensor in the middle is actually his nose) two at the bases of his "rabbit ear" sensors, and two at the tips, which allow him to safely look around corners. His brain is augmented by an auxiliary brain that acts as an information processor, and is capable of handling information in a conceptual format rather than hard numerical data. His cybernetics controller, the Hecatonchires system, is named after the same 100 handed giants from Greek mythology. It is capable of controlling dozens of limbs or other cyborg bodies independently from one another, with no additional strain on the user. In the manga, it is pointed out that a cyborg equipped with the Hecatonchires system is able to fully control an entire aircraft carrier on his own. This ability to process multiple limbs at once is seen in the film when he is seen using one rifle in his Landmate's arms, and another in the control arms.

Languages