Satō

Satō Samuel T. Owen
Manga Anime
Information
Name	Satō Samuel T. Owen
Kanji	佐藤
Rōmaji	Satō
Status	Alive
Gender	Male
Hair Color	Grey
Occupations	Terrorist Marine (former)
Height	174cm
Voice Actor	Houchu Ohtsuka (Japanese) Pete Sepenuk (English)
First Appearance	Chapter 3 Episode 1
Image Gallery

Satō (佐藤, Satō) is an Ajin and the main antagonist of the series. He is referred to by officials such as Yū Tosaki as Hat (帽子, Bōshi).

His real name is Samuel T. Owen.

Appearance

Satō has short, grey hair from age, narrow eyes and thick, roundish brows. He's relatively old and it shows on his face. He is almost always wearing a scally cap. While Satō's father is British and his mother is Chinese, he himself is from the United States of America.

Before dying for the first time he had a large x-shaped scar on the left side of his face and was missing his right leg.

According to a comrade of his from his time as a marine, he is about 5 feet 8 inches in height.

Personality

Sato is shown to be a calm and cheerful individual in the outside as he's able to make people feel calm in his presence. However, beneath this facade is a sinister persona of his - he is merciless when it comes to killing others and he often finds it fun to cause destruction and kill people (whether they're innocent or not).

He's also cautious, logical, and calculating as he's able to devise strategies that gave his desired outcome, often times outsmarting his opponents as demonstrated when he enacted in his plan to take out Grant Pharma and successfully defeated the SAT squads that was assigned to take him out despite them outnumbering him.

Satō has been described as a "player" by Nagai, and "not a revolutionary or a tactician." He is passionate about video games and gaming in general, as shown in a short omake. The main motivation of him traveling to Japan was because Japan created games such as Pac-man.

He has a habit of quoting lines from American TV shows, such as The A-Team and Miami Vice. His IBM appears to have adapted this habit too.

History

His given name when born is actually Samuel T. Owen.

As a child, Samuel was seen ruthlessly killing numerous animals in cold blood for entertainment in a barn, much to his father's fear. While his father scolds Samuel and loves him deeply, Samuel himself seems indifferent and incapable of understanding his emotions.

Satō was part of the United States Marine Corps in the past. Nicknamed "Poker-face," he began his 8-week recruit training in San Diego in 1969 by faking his age to join the corps. After the first 2 weeks, he left because of a supposed serious illness. This was, however, a cover, as he was actually recruited to be part of an ultra-elite section of the military known only as the "team" while fighting in Vietnam.

In 1976, after the end of the war, Satō and the "team," as well as a nameless man being questioned by Tosaki in present time, are assigned to a secret recovery mission in Vietnam. With Satō in the lead, the group had managed to perfectly execute the mission in 2 days without firing a single shot, but just as the team was to return to the extraction point, "the devil woke up," as Satō fired a shot, catching the attention of hundreds of enemies, forcing the men into a battle, resulting in one member dead, one heavily injured, and Satō himself without a leg. After his return, he was dishonorably discharged.

After he was discharged he spent most of his time playing arcade games until he was recruited by his uncle and went to Japan. Sometime later his uncle was killed by his rivals. Satō went on to make a lot of enemies in the underworld and was executed however he immediately revived discovering he was an Ajin.

Satō being revived for the first time.

Just before he met Kōji Tanaka during one of his jobs he took a hard drive from a researcher of the Ajin control commission and learned what the Ajin control commission really was.

Relationships

Kei Nagai

At first, Satō seemed almost friendly to Kei to earn his trust. He kept this façade (to Tanaka's distaste) in order for Kei to think that he was on his side. That's why he made the decision to shoot Kei with a tranquilizer gun (making Tanaka use his IBM) to make it look like the humans where attacking, instead of simply kidnapping him, stating that "it would just make him hate us". Kei not being aware of this, wakes up strapped up to an operation table, cue to his ten day torture.

Later on, Satō tells him that he came to save him. Kei apologizes for the trouble he has caused. While they were "escaping", Kei tells Satō that he doesn't care about the lives of other people, but that it's unnecessary to kill people that aren't even involved. Satō decides to drop his façade and opts to kill Kei instead. Kei manages to escape with the help of one of the doctors, who later dies.

As the story progresses, Kei (along with Kō Nakano) have decided to join forces with Tosaki and help him take down Satō, not because he has caused multiple terrorist attacks, but because too much attention would be brought to Kei, therefore putting his own life in danger.

Kōji Tanaka

Kōji was rescued by Satō and they are now associates. Tanaka is made his second-in-command after he orchestrates his plan of genocide. It is shown that Sato finds him trustworthy as he entrusted Tanaka with plans to assassinate the targets in his list of people to be assassinated.

Abilities and Powers

Sato has the usual abilities any Ajin has.

• Immortality - Like all Ajin, Satō is completely immortal. He is unable to die under any circumstances such as being completely crushed, decapitated, or even due to malnutrition.
• Paralysis Scream - While he has never been witnessed to use this, it can be assumed that he can paralyze others around him by screaming, as all Ajins possess this capability. The immobility can range from seconds to minutes. However, this is easily countered by wearing ear plugs/noise dampeners.
• IBM - Like most Ajin, Satō possesses IBM and can also manifest a Black Ghost. His Black Ghost's defining feature is its half-head - the shape of the head looks like a triangle when viewed from above while it looks flat when viewed in a third person view. Otherwise human, Satō's IBM has six fingers on each hand. Satō can completely control his Ghost to the point where he can make his Ghost mimic his voice (but has difficulty doing so) and share its field of vision while being able to command it to attack with caution. Satō's IBM is able to work independently from his user, being able to work after Satō has been incapacitated. It has the ability of judge a situation as it will kill Satō himself in order for him to revive with the effects of the tranquilizers gone.
• Fighting skills- Even without his Ajin abilities Satō has shown to be an extremely capable fighter and tactician. When he was in the Marines he was quickly recruited into an ultra elite team despite his young age. Even after losing a leg he was able to take down a group of gunmen on his own. It took over 5 years for his enemies to capture and execute him despite his physical handicap during which he killed hundreds of people and angered countless of organizations in the underworld.

Trivia

• Satō is the most common surname in Japan. The kanji used in his name (佐藤) mean "help, assist" and "wisteria" (a type of flower).
• He only opens his eyes three times throughout the series.
• In the anime, his surname is changed to O'Brien instead.
• Coincidentally, Satō can also be used as an acronym for Samuel T. Owen (or O'Brien).
• It seems like Satō's outfit was inspired by Mario, one of his favourite games. This can be noted from his cap, suspenders, slacks and loafers, which mirrors Mario's signature cap, pants-dungaree, and loafers.