Not to be confused with "Kohaku Otori", the protagonist of COGEN: Sword of Rewind and a DLC boss in Luminous Avenger iX 2.
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"Woah! You're really something, Copen!"
—Kohaku, Luminous Avenger iX
Kohaku is the leader of the underground group of Minos and a supporting character in Gunvolt Chronicles: Luminous Avenger iX and Gunvolt Chronicles: Luminous Avenger iX 2.
Website Descriptions
Luminous Avenger iX
A young lady who acts as the leader of the Mino children in the underground slums. Her bright personality supports the children living through such desperate times. She has a knack for repairing machines, and has managed to furnish their underground base with equipment salvaged from junk parts. However, she has no real formal training with machines, working only by intuition. As such, many of the machines she manages to get working are far removed from their original purposes...
スラム街の地下に隠れ住む
マイナーズの子どもたちのリーダー役。
ひたすらに明るく前向きな性格で、
絶望的な状況の中、子どもたちを引っ張っている。
特技は機械類の修理で、基地内の機材は
ほぼコハクが修理したジャンク品である。
だが、知識があるわけではなくカンで修理しているため、
本来の意図とは違う動作をする機械も多いのだとか。
Luminous Avenger iX 2
A super positive and energetic young woman, Kohaku finds herself trapped in the parallel world alongside Copen. Even in an unfamiliar desert world, Kohaku remains as positive as ever and can always be seen raising the spirits of her friends. Though she has a “knack” for repairing machines based on intuition alone, Copen has put a moratorium on her maintenance duties for the time being.
以前、アキュラと共に戦った元気いっぱいな女の子。今回はアキュラたちと共に異世界に飛ばされてしまう。慣れない異世界においても、持ち前の前向きさで、みんなを引っ張るムードメーカー。機械修理が得意だが“なんとなく”で直してしまうため、今はアキュラから止められている。
Appearance
Kohaku is a young woman with orange eyes and matching orange hair, tied into a ponytail, with long bangs and forelocks. She wears a sleeveless yellow jacket with a white stripe through the middle, and buckles coming down from her collar. Matching her jacket, she has pieces of yellow cloth on each of her forearms, and wears black fingerless gloves with a hole showing the back of each respective hand. She wears black underclothes with two fanny packs on the front and back of her body acting as a sort of skirt. On her legs, she wears white thigh-highs with black rims, and dark blue boots with silver highlights.
Kohaku's clothes are small and expose much of her skin. It is implied that this is because she used fabric from her clothes to make Jin's backpack, Maria's ribbon, and Kyota's scarf.
Gallery
Main article: Kohaku/Gallery
Personality
Despite the genocide of the Minos and the deaths of many of her friends and comrades, Kohaku tries to remain optimistic in the face of it all. She remains determined to make sure she and the rest of her group stay alive as long as they can. In addition, she is quite generous, having happily invited Copen and Lola into her group's shelter after saving them from Blade. By the end of the game, Kohaku displays great fearlessness, willing to fight against Sumeragi's forces despite the danger it posed. She does show a bit of an air-headed side, though. Due to her self taught knowledge, most of her attempts to repair machines fail as she ends up making them work in unintended ways. However, despite her attempts to remain upbeat and optimistic, the deaths of her comrades (especially her sister) still weigh heavily on her mind.
History
Luminous Avenger iX
City Slums
Just as the Sumeragi enforcer Blade is about to finish off Copen, Kohaku throws a smoke bomb and leads him away from the opponent. She leads him back to where she holes up along with Jin, Maria, and Kyota, and offers their hideout as a base of operations. Copen accepts, much to her joy, and he repays the favor by getting various supplies.
Medical Center
Some time after Copen has gotten used to basing himself, Kohaku falls terribly ill. Her calls for her sister on her deathbed convince Copen to infiltrate a Sumeragi medical center for the cure. He succeeds, and the medicine brings Kohaku back to full health.
City Slums 2 to Ending
Copen successfully destroys the Giant Lola threatening the hideout, but the tanks across the world won't stop until Copen destroys Sumeragi's AI Demerzel. Unable to stand idly by, Kohaku gathers weapons and manpower to create a diversion so Copen can sneak into Building 13 and stop Sumeragi. She also gives Copen her pendant, a keepsake from her lost sister.
On the surface outside Building 13, Kohaku hears Lola's song. Sensing that Copen is in danger, she rushes into the facility's depths, following the song only she can hear. Just as she's surrounded at gunpoint by Asimov clones, Blade suddenly appears and cuts one of them down. Kohaku is confused as to how her sister is alive and why she's dressed the way she is, but at Blade's behest, goes on ahead to help Copen.
Kohaku finds Copen in the depths of the bunker, heavily damaged but still alive. She promises to fix his eye later before borrowing his gun. Gazing upon Demerzel's capsule, the source of the suffering she and everyone else has gone through, she takes aim and fires, destroying the capsule and the AI within. With Copen and Lola in tow, she and Blade return to the surface, reuniting with the children in the light of dawn.
Luminous Avenger iX 2
Prologue
Enjoying the peace that's come from the defeat of Demerzel, Kohaku brings a drink to Copen, who has recently been holed up in the lab researching the device known as the "Blaster Rifle" that's fallen into his hands. Soon after they talk, a wormhole shows up and sucks up Kohaku with Copen and Lola. When the three come to, they find themselves in a deserted wasteland, with a female robot standing over them. Introducing herself as Null, she asks if they are "human".
Pillar Outskirts
In the months-long timeskip that happens, Kohaku apparently had a weapon made for her by Copen. While this weapon is never elaborated upon, it's at least enough for Kohaku and Null to follow Copen and Lola to the Grave Pillar, despite Copen's wishes for her to stay out of danger. When the group is stymied by a barrier on the Pillar's entrance, is suddenly deactivates when Kohaku nears it. The girl goes into a minor tizzy until Null hypothesizes that since the Grave Pillar was made for humanity by the Creator, it only responded when a full human like Kohaku neared it. Entering the Pillar, Kohaku marvels at the sheer number of environments inside, and remarks that the Creator, who made the Pillar and the Workers, must have been someone amazing.
Soon after, they find a door blocked off by data keys held by guardian Workers referred to as "Gravekeepers". Copen and Lola have Kohaku and Null wait by the entrance area, as it's apparently a no-access zone for all the security robots of the Pillar. Kohaku sheepishly apologizes after Copen admonishes her not to follow them again.
Time with Null
As Copen ascends the Pillar and defeats Gravekeepers, Kohaku and Null converse and spend time together. Kohaku teaches Null a great deal about her world, though occasionally her context-less explanations (and sometimes even the ones with context) either confuse Null or give her the completely wrong idea, such as trying to explain Minos, Sumeragi, the events of LAiX1, and so forth. If there's any upside to these talks, it's that they help keep Copen's morale up.
She also empathizes with Null's feelings of being an outcast, given the Minos status of herself and her friends.
Kidnapping
Soon after the group deactivates the second gate blocking their way, Ypsilon appears out of nowhere and kidnaps Kohaku, under orders from "Mother".
As Copen and Lola finally reach the depths of the Hanging Gardens, they find Kohaku suspended midair by crystals. Soon Pix begins to gather around Kohaku until a bright flash of light comes and goes, revealing someone who's clearly not Kohaku. Introducing herself as the Mother Computer supervising the Grave Pillar, she explains that she needed to take over Kohaku's body and become human to achieve her goal; by using Kohaku to give herself orders, Mother can disregard her directives to restore the human race and protect the environment, allowing her to destroy the world, the Workers, and herself. Prepared to save Kohaku, Copen readies for battle.
Even after Mother is seemingly defeated and separated from Kohaku, she refuses to give up. Trapping Kohaku in another crystal prison, the Mino girl can only watch and pray for Copen's victory against the mad AI.
Bad Ending
This ending is only available by intentionally attacking Kohaku after the crystal prison breaks until she stops flashing.
Copen, Lola, and Kohaku miraculously make it back to their world, where Kohaku has seemingly undergone some changes, going so far as to diligently clean Copen's lab. When questioned by Lola, Kohaku(?) laughs and remarks that she and Copen will be together forever, strongly implying that her mind and personality have been completely subsumed by Mother's consciousness.
Normal Ending
Coming to after Mother's defeat, Kohaku is shielded by Copen as Mother's server explodes. Gazing upon Mother's true form, Kohaku tells the two that she peered into Mother's memories while being possessed. She admits to feeling pity for Mother and is slightly confused over the Creator in Mother's memories looks exactly like Copen. When the power goes out, Kohaku is quick to assuage any concerns, stating that she learned plenty of things about the Pillar and the Gardens, thanks to Mother's memories.
Guiding the two to an emergency exit, she points them toward a faint light at the end. That light turns out to be a wormhole, which she states is the path back to their homeworld. With one last word of gratitude to Null, Kohaku steps into the wormhole with Copen and Lola, tearfully reuniting with her sister and her friends in the light of dawn.
True Ending
This ending is only available by beating the game on Hard Mode.
Having been freed from Mother's control, Kohaku watches in awe as the Hanging Gardens become a verdant field again, and witnesses the spirits of Mother and the Creator fly into the heavens.
After the credits finish, Kohaku wonders how they'll get home since trying to talk to Mother turned out to be a bust. When she finds out they can get home thanks to Copen's Razor Wheel, she's elated to finally go back to her sister and friends, but is immediately saddened when she remembers Null belongs to this world, and insists that they'll come back to visit. When Copen invites Null to step through the wormhole with them, Kohaku looks back at the Worker with a welcoming smile.
Other Appearances
Card-en-Ciel
"Everyone's smiles keep me going! Gotta put my best foot forward!"
"I'm feeling great today! It's a new world here, so let's give it our best effort!"
Kohaku is featured in the crossover roguelite card-battling RPG Card-en-Ciel, with her iX1 and iX2 versions appearing as cards.
| Card | Character | Effect | Cost | Movement |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A Simple Minos Girl | Kohaku (iX1) | Gain 1 [Damage+] per each tile moved this turn. (Max: 15) [Memory Leak: Back] (Special: Gain 2 [Damage+] per each tile moved this turn (Max: 30) [Memory Leak: Back x2]) |
0 | Right |
| New World Adventure | Kohaku (iX2) | Draw 1 card with Attack or Break Amp. [Draw Amp: 1] (Special: Draw 5 cards with Attack or Break Amp. [Draw Amp: 1]) |
0 | Left |
Abilities
As a Mino, Kohaku possesses no extraordinary skills or powers. She does have a knack for repairing machines. However, due to her not having real formal training with machines, and working only by intuition, many of the machines she manages to get working are far removed from their original purposes.
During Sumeragi's Mino genocide, she has developed survival skills like scavenging, handcrafting, cooking, gardening, weapon maintenance, and combat skill. Those skill also came in handy when she ended up in the Grave Pillar's world.
While her combat skill is never mentioned and can be debated. In game she has shown that she knows how to use weapons like smoke bombs and fire arms. In Luminous Avenger iX 2 she was given an unknown weapon by Copen and was confident in her skills and was able to follow Copen all the way to the Grave Pillar and claiming that she was able to fend off the enemies that were present while protecting Null.
Musical Themes
Composer = (C)
Arranger = (A)
| Title | Context | Musicians | Audio |
|---|---|---|---|
| Positive Girl (ポジティヴガール) |
Kohaku's theme | Ryo Kawakami | |
| The Sword Opening the Future (明日を拓く剣) |
Blade saves Kohaku | Ryo Kawakami (C) | |
| Uncontrollable Heart (アンコントローラブルハート) |
VS Mother (1) | Ryo Kawakami (C) Keishi Yonao (A) |
Ryo Kawakami's track notes:[3][4]
- Positive Girl
Kohaku’s theme song. It feels like I simply wanted to give it the image of a cheery girl who tries to keep her brightness despite the desperate situation she’s in. I was very influenced by pop songs from the 80s when making the arranging. While a cybernetic tone is predominant, I added a retro and raw feeling to it, to create a feeling of having been left behind by the world. This track’s melody also has a secret for it. For more details, read the description “The Sword Opening the Future”.
- The Sword Opening the Future
The track that plays in the scene when Blade gallantly rushed to save Kohaku, who’s in trouble. To express the bond of both sisters through the music, I included a certain “trick”. I took out the melody from “Hidden Beneath the Mask” and “Positive Girl”, glued them together and added a new accompanying… Ta-dan! This is the end result! When composing a song, and to avoid issues, I stare at the score and wrote the 3 songs at the same time. It was a hard task, but the joy you feel at completing the puzzle is so great.
- Uncontrollable Heart
The track of the 1st battle against the last boss. When I read the script for that part, I decided to use an arrangement of “Positive Girl” (Kohaku’s theme). You don’t want to fight yet you’re forced to. The harsh feeling that comes with it. And the harsh feelings of Mother, who “wants to put an end to all”. The melody is the same as the original track, but I think I did recreate it as a track with a feeling of sadness from which you can feel both things.
Trivia
- Kohaku (琥珀) is the Japanese word for amber (the substance). This is appropriate for Kohaku, given her color scheme. 琥珀 also has the kanji components 王虎王白 (king tiger king white), referencing Copen's White Tiger sacred beast motif.
- Kohaku's name in the Japanese version is written in katakana, rather than with the kanji meaning "amber" (琥珀).
- Also note that the Japanese word for the color amber is 琥珀色 (kohakuiro), with the -iro suffix meaning "color".
- The Ancient Greek word for amber is ἤλεκτρον (ēlektron). This is the origin of the English word electricity and its relatives because of amber's ability to bear a charge of static electricity. This is notable because Kohaku's sister receives an electric Septima.
- Given Kohaku's strange ability with machines and how she was able to hear Lola's song in iX1's ending when the other Mino children could not, it is possible that she is attached to one of the stages of the Lifewave above normal humans but below Adepts.
- When the COGEN: Sword of Rewind collaboration was switched from Azure Striker Gunvolt 3 to Luminous Avenger iX 2, COGEN developer Gemdrops initially asked to use Kohaku for their side of the collab due to her name being identical to the COGEN protagonist and iX2 DLC boss Kohaku Otori. However, they ended up feeling this wasn't right and decided to work on Copen as the playable character of the COGEN collab DLC instead. Inti Creates was not informed about this change of plans and asked for permission until Gemdrops had already made significant progress with Copen.[5]
References
| Luminous Avenger iX 2 | |
|---|---|
| Main Pages | Game Page • Gallery • Soundtrack (RoRo Robotics Vox) • Credits • Story Scripts |
| Team Copen | Copen • Lola • Kohaku • Null |
| Boss Characters | Ypsilon • Dacite • Vespa • Autochrome • Brigade • Hail • Ace • The Creator • Mother Computer |
| Other Characters | Blade • Jin • Maria • Kyota • Medium Bosses • Common Enemies |
| DLC Boss Characters | Kohaku Otori • Yang Yumo • Jason Frudnick • Kurona • Kirin |
| Missions | Pillar Outskirts • Volcano Block • Jungle Block • Passage to Upper Stratum • Laboratory Block • Industrial Block • Arctic Block • Space Block • Passage to Top Floor • Entrance to Top Floor • Hanging Gardens • Hanging Gardens 2 • Versus Missions and Boss Rush |
| Songs | Command Prompt • Purification • Love's Sanctuary • Ready to Go! • Curiosity = Possibility! • You're Not Alone • Wordplay Magic• The New World |
| Story Elements | Workers • Grave Pillar |
| Gameplay Mechanics | Score and Kudos • Copen's EX Weapons • Abilities • Skills |