Gengorou Shinoda (Kichikuou Rance)

"Rance"

- on Shinoda.

About
Gengorou Shinoda is a highly eccentric man who is rumored to be the greatest strategist in all of The Continent.

In the past he served as a mercenary, selling himself to other armies as a tactician for hire. His talent for formulating highly effective strategies ensured that the army that he currently served would win every single battle it entered, causing him to very quickly gain a reputation as a genius. Over time, however, Shinoda grew bored with warfare, claiming that predicting enemy strategies became too repetitive and simple, resulting in him retiring to the Free City of Hanna and ending his career as a soldier and strategist.

During his retirement, Shinoda made a life-changing discovery while watching Magic Vision in his home. A local sports channel was covering a (American style) football match, and Shinoda quickly became enchanted by the complex and constantly changing strategies that formed the backbone of every single play of the sport. His passion for strategy reignited, Shinoda immediately dedicated himself to a love of football, converting his home into the distinct shape of the sport's ball and organizing a local team within Hanna.

He is very briefly mentioned by Sayori Unga during Rance 03, who expressed exasperation over the countless love letters he had sent to her. While he makes no appearance during the game, the fact that he remained indifferent to the conflict between Leazas and Helman even as it continued into the Free Cities serves as a testament to his complete lack of interest in warfare.

During the events of Kichikuou Rance, Rance will encounter Shinoda when conquering Hanna. Should Rance choose to conquer the city through force, Shinoda will lead Hanna's forces to defend against Leazas, where he will be killed in combat. Alternatively, should Rance choose to conquer Hanna through negotiation, Mozart, the scheming mayor of Hanna, will inform him of Shinoda's reputation as a genius and recommend that he recruit him into Leazas' army. After multiple unsuccessful attempts at persuading him into joining his forces, Rance will allow Shinoda to make a demand in return for his service. Shinoda will tell Rance that he desires a wife with whom he can share a "lovey dovey" life with, and request that Rance give him Sayori Unga to serve as said wife. If Rance agrees to give him Sayori, Shinoda will happily join Leazas' forces as a commander. This series of events serve as Shinoda's "happy ending" and Sayori's "unhappy ending."

Personality and Appearance
Shinoda is a well-built man in his early thirties with short black hair, very tan skin and three thin strips of tape on his nose and cheeks. He wears the official Hanna City football team uniform at all times, - even in battle - consisting of a battered white helmet with two orange stars on the sides of it and "Hanna" printed on the forehead, blue shoulder pads bearing both the city's name and national emblem and white compression shorts with knee pads.

He is a man that is prone to obsession, zealously devoting himself to whatever endeavor he is currently interested in. While football is only the latest of these interests, his love for it surpasses his previous fascinations due to how well it lends itself to his own talents. He is known for punctuating most of his sentences by loudly exclaiming "Touchdown!" at the end of them, and tends to speak using football terminology rather than through more conventional words. His passion for football extends to his private life, as he spends all of his free time watching football matches both live and recorded on magic vision, and does so well into the late hours of the night. Despite his eccentricities, however, he is a fairly pleasant and friendly person with an upbeat and positive personality.

His complete addiction to his current interests is not limited to his hobbies, as he is equally as capable of becoming obsessed with people. He has been in love with Sayori Unga, the kind and beautiful owner of the theme park M-Land which borders Hanna, for several years and regularly sends her love letters expressing his affection for her. He believes that the only thing that his life is lacking is a loving wife to grow old together with and he sees Sayori as the perfect person for the position. While Sayori does not dislike Shinoda, she is still very much in love with her deceased husband and has no interest in him, being somewhat bothered by his constant letters. If Rance forces Sayori to marry Shinoda in Kichikuou Rance, Shinoda is shown to have an almost child-like view of what the life of a married couple is like, and does not appear to have any sort of sexual attraction to her, preferring to instead engage in various "lovey dovey" activities such as sewing and baking together.

Abilities
An impossibly brilliant man, Shinoda is recognized as a genius by all who know of him, and is widely believed to possess the single greatest military mind on the Continent. He is one of only two people known to possess the Strategy Lv2 skill, giving him an immense amount of potential in the field, and has a lifetime of experience using it. He is capable of creating intricate, ingenious, and seemingly unthinkable strategies in seconds and can execute them immediately after forming them. His strategies have a perfect success rate and are capable of effortlessly trumping the strategies of famed tacticians such as Barres Province, Ex Banquet, Cream Ganoblade and Lelyukov Berkov when pitted against them. Shinoda's skill for strategy is so astoundingly high that he finds combat boring, as he can easily predict and outmaneuver his enemy's actions regardless of who his opponent is, resulting in him devoting much of his abilities to creating football plays rather than leading armies.

Beyond his talent as a tactician, Shinoda is fairly unremarkable as an individual fighter. He possesses an average Level Cap of 12, which, while allowing him to hold his own somewhat in combat, is far below the vast majority of trained warriors on the Continent, making him roughly on par with an average civilian in power. Despite this, Shinoda is shown to be quite strong and physically fit, likely due to his constant football playing, and is capable of tackling Rance and several trained Leazas soldiers to the ground with ease, meaning he is likely substantially stronger than the average person despite being thoroughly outclassed by most other fighters.

Trivia

 * Bizarrely, he seems to be subtly referenced by the recurring Alicesoft character Muscat Plan, who debuted in the game Mamatoto three years after him. Muscat shares a first name with Shinoda's favorite football team, the Muscats, and her last name, Plan, references his talent for strategy. Whether this is intentional or merely a massive coincidence is unknown.
 * His interest in American football is rather odd, considering how the sport is not particularly popular outside its country of origin.