Agito vs. Sho

[BlasterTempest]

I dunno what the rules about spoilers are (the issue I wanna discuss is nearly 2 years old but yeah) so I spoiler tagged this whole thing just in case.

 

at the end of Volume 28, how exactly did Agito & Sho's deathmatch end?

last I saw, Agito was at the foot of Gigantic Exceed giving it the ol' "it's up to you now!" nonsense, and then their control medals started sending some data, aaaand that was it. then the next time you see them it's like the fight never happened, and Agito seems to have shelved his plans completely.

 

that's odd, right? or am I missing something obvious?

[Matt Bellamy]

Despite the fact Agito's plans were to finally deal with the one person who could stand against him on possibly equal terms.

He failed.

Horribly. Sho really kicked his ass, despite not trying to kill him.

I honestly think, Sho having won the fight, allowed Agito to let some of the weight he had been carrying, simply slip away. Allowing himself to believe that Sho could possibly do what he couldn't. And when Sho spared him ( and possibly passing the Exceed information to him), Agito probably realized how far gone he truly was. Thinking Sho was an enemy, allowing Shizu to become Griselda etc... The graves, and his reaction to Shizu later in the chapter showed an Agito that possibly regrets some of his decisions, despite how far they have gotten him.

Sho basically offered Agito a truce, despite noting that he still has some issues with Agito that need to be worked out before they can become friends/allies again.

Will we see a changed Agito? And if we do, how much of a changed man will he be? We will just have to wait and see.

[*V Guyver]

Thanks a well written reply and analysis. along the lines of my thoughts. Agito in the past used to predict and manipulate Sho with ease, not to mention intimidate him. Seeing Agito's expression as Sho continually performed unexpected counters to his attacks and even that data transfer at the end surprised Agito to the point that he was in shock. I haven't seen Agito so wide eyed in ages, not since his encounters with Guyot. 

I think, that even in this fight, he thought he could win because Sho wouldn't kill him, or that if Sho would attempt to kill him, he would know how to manipulate him. He got neither, instead he got a generous and very forgiving Sho. I think that was the biggest shock top Agito. He's not used to dealing with kindness or generosity from others except Shizu and her late guardian, let alone an opponent he was trying to KILL! 

[BlasterTempest]

hm, Sho calling a truce makes sense, just confusing why we never saw it. good theory though.

 

what irks me is how much more powerful Sho is all of a sudden. I mean while Sho was battling Evil Aptom and then having the power ranger city brawl with the Draglord it's not like Agito was kickin' it on a beach somewhere, he was facing off against, outsmarting and then bitchslapping two Zoalords at the same time (three if you wanna count what he did to Balcus at the end).

 

I get that Sho went all Exceed, but that was a function of plot (to have a giant monster fight) rather than narrative. narrative-wise Sho came out of his fight slightly ahead of where Agito was, having won the battle of wills to summon Gigantic after Hayami's pep talk. so Sho had a willpower advantage, but they were still around a similar level given Agito's smarts, but when they fought it was an absolute beatdown even before Sho whipped out the Exceed.

 

and for Agito to be so far behind robbed us of what shoulda been a stupendous battle and the climax to Agito's descent-into-villainy arc. I mean I know they were destined to throw-down (the tension has been building since the start of the story) and that Sho would prevail, causing Agito to learn the error of his ways in time to help Sho in the final fight against Chronos (he is Zeus, after all). but I figured that would be a more detailed showdown and an epic battle. Sho didn't even break a sweat!

[*Jess♥]

if the fight were more evenly matched, the story would be different.

the fight seems to be intended to show that Shou is indeed a better fighter than Agito due to his focus on defence and protection rather than offence.

It seems Shou's approach is to be like water. (kinda makes me think about his chosen colour for his guyver)

 

I also don't think it is unreasonable that Shou would be stronger than Agito. He has more combat experience than Agito.

Most of Agito's combat experience includes sneak attacks and running away. Shou usually has balls to the wall action. He doesn't run because he is usually protecting something and would not be able to protect anything if he fled.

 

In a way, Agito was pretty stupid to confront him. He should know that Shou has had all that experience.

[LordSpleach]

It seems Shou's approach is to be like water. (kinda makes me think about his chosen colour for his guyver) 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pc1pbCMRSU'>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pc1pbCMRSU

[Matt Bellamy]

hm, Sho calling a truce makes sense, just confusing why we never saw it. good theory though.

 

what irks me is how much more powerful Sho is all of a sudden. I mean while Sho was battling Evil Aptom and then having the power ranger city brawl with the Draglord it's not like Agito was kickin' it on a beach somewhere, he was facing off against, outsmarting and then bitchslapping two Zoalords at the same time (three if you wanna count what he did to Balcus at the end).

 

I get that Sho went all Exceed, but that was a function of plot (to have a giant monster fight) rather than narrative. narrative-wise Sho came out of his fight slightly ahead of where Agito was, having won the battle of wills to summon Gigantic after Hayami's pep talk. so Sho had a willpower advantage, but they were still around a similar level given Agito's smarts, but when they fought it was an absolute beatdown even before Sho whipped out the Exceed.

 

and for Agito to be so far behind robbed us of what shoulda been a stupendous battle and the climax to Agito's descent-into-villainy arc. I mean I know they were destined to throw-down (the tension has been building since the start of the story) and that Sho would prevail, causing Agito to learn the error of his ways in time to help Sho in the final fight against Chronos (he is Zeus, after all). but I figured that would be a more detailed showdown and an epic battle. Sho didn't even break a sweat!

 

The fight between them as Guyvers, I actually felt that Agito maybe wasn't really trying his hardest, and Sho was fighting smart. It did surprise Agito a bit, even though he pointed out that Sho wouldn't go for the kill. If Sho had been going for the kill, Agito would have been dead.

 

The whole point of the fight was Agito wanted to show off his new toy to Sho, and prove he didn't really need him anymore. And once they both used their Gigantic armors, it become less about skill, and more about pure power. Agito used what he thought was his most powerful weapon, the Giga-Smasher. And Sho used exceed and his new blackhole power ( with a bit of help from Shin). Sho's new power turned out to be superior to Agito's, and Agito conceeded that She had what it took to protect the Earth.

 

As for why they did not show it... Probably because he still might show it. Takaya does like flashbacks, and the aftermath of the battle might still be shown when/if Agito uses the Exceed for the first time... Or possibly if we just get some more "alone" time with Agito or Sho for them to reflect on what happened. As it is, I almost don't doubt that Takaya will probably slip over the conversation Sho and Aptom were about to have with Shin. The next scenes with Sho and Aptom will probably be them leaving, and then we will leanr what they learned during a flashback later.

[*Chernaudi]

I personally think that Agito and/or Shizu got wind of the events with Gigantic Exceed, and, knowing that it was Sho's willpower that willed the Gigantic Armor back to him, it also stood to reason that Agito would also believe that the Gigantic Exceed was also a product of Sho's willpower (Sho did dream that up, after all, and hence, it was basically his creation). One thing that I think that has been overlooked is that Agito had similar issues with Sho that Aptom had in the past--questioning Sho's willpower, namely it's extent. They knew that he wanted to protect his friends, but they questioned if Sho would pull the trigger and kick some ass to fight Chronos on his terms. I think that with the events surrounding Gigantic Exceed was proof that Sho now has the will to take down Chronos and right the wrongs that have happened since their takeover.

Of course, Agito had to go and see for himself whether or not it was a flash in the pan, or if Sho had overcome those issues. Of course, Agito seemed to be disappointed when Sho called forth the Exceed Armor and with the fact that Sho never went for the kill against him. But I do believe that Agito may've learned something else form that encounter. Just because you have power or lust for power, it doesn't mean that you need to have that "win at all costs" attitude that he's always had up to that point. You need to have heart if you want to wield true power, and Sho's pure of heart as far as heroes go (not really wanting power or to rule the world or anything like that, just wanting to protect/help people and right some major wrongs), while Agito is an extremely amoral anti-hero who's lust for power has shut him off from having any real pleasure or cause in life other than obtaining power and reshaping the world to his ideals, whatever they may actually be. In other worlds, he's fighting the big evil, but he's definenly gone about it in a very questionable manner.

Granted, I do believe that Chronos is the big bad, and some of their guys and ex-members have pulled off some pretty evil and deviant stuff, but Shin and the late Purg, the anti-villains of the piece, do seem to genuinely care about the human race and trying to make the world better, even if their alliance with Chronos seems counter to that. And then there's Shizu, who isn't as much of a pure-hearted hero in the same way that Sho is, she still by far looks like a saint compared to Agito. She's an aggressive fighter and fights with vigor against Chronos, but she genuinely cares about the Libertus Hyper-Zoanoids that she commands, and she sees them almost like as her children or close friends, even if they don't really know her that well.

She also has a personal vendetta against Chronos for the deaths fo Agito's parents, Genzo's adoption of Agito and what that did to him, and the death of grandpa Yohei--all things that Shizu holds Chronos liable for. However, she's not cruel like Agito sometimes verges on being, and she's been shown to be very hesitant to activate the "C" modes of the Libertus, seeing it as excessive perhaps, and above all not wanting to be the one who asks them to die, even if they're ready and willing to do so upon request. And when she activates the "C" mode, Shizu has been seen as being extremely remorseful (I'd say also almost distraught) about it, even if it was necessary. And she also willingly tried her damndest to protect Mizuki, Natsuki and Tetsuro at the Mansion when Guyot and Valkyria tried to raid the place and abduct them. She was somewhat harsh with them early on when she was keeping them from interfering with Sho and Agito's fight, but it became obvious soon what was happening, and it was a tough front to "bully" them into doing as she asked, and her actions spoke much louder than those words did.

In short, Sho and Shizu have experienced a lot of tragedy in their lives as well (it should be noted that Shizu's parents apparently died when she was very young), but they didn't let it totally consume them like Agito did. Sho's still a pure of heart hero, his tragedies shaping his will and resolve to help and save others, and though Shizu can be considered an anti-hero/anti-villain/well intentioned extremist type by sticking with Agito the way that she has, she's still got a heart and it, for the most part, is in the right place (though again, execution of that policy's a bit flawed), and, unlike Agito, she cares a lot more about people and doesn't just see them as pawns/tools/weapons like Agito often has (Shizu seems to be one of the few exceptions to that, at least to some degree).

I think that possibly Agito it starting to see his own personality flaws and is perhaps starting to think like "if I had this to do all over again...", and he doesn't have to look much further than Sho and Shizu to see where his "power is everything/win at all cost" mentality basically borders on insanity, and that such a mentality isn't necessary to achieve his goals. As Sho has shown, heart is as dominant a power as force.

Edited March 13, 2013 by Chernaudi

[LordSpleach]

While it maybe possible that Agito is having a change of heart, I doubt it. Agito saying that he is leaving the fate of the world in Sho's hands seems to be a ruse on Agito's part. He's a strategic planner, and it would be the first time that he has 'played a part' to gain the trust of someone. Though, what I fear is that Sho may have willing gave Agito the secret to Exceed.

 

If that is the case, I fear Sho truly has underestimated Agito's resolve.

[Larz Zahn]

I honestly believe that Agito is changing for the better. He may not suddenly be an angel but he is changing.

As for Shizu, she's just a nice person. I don't think she thinks of the Libertus as long, lost friends our family she's just a sweet girl who was sad at the loss of life.

As for her motivation, heh. All that has to happen is Agito says to Shizu, go do this! And she'll jump at the chance to please him. We already saw how unstable she gets because of him.

[*Chernaudi]

So Agito seems to know that Shizu has a berserk button and how to push it?  Not unexpected, since they know each other for like forever (almost their entire lives).  Naturally, I believe that she's willing to do whatever Agito asks her to because of their friendship, which is why a lot of people believes that she almost totally whitewashes his flaws.  In the TV series it gets into it a bit more, but it seems that Shizu is willing to do almost anything to please Agito because she feels that he deserves vengeance.

 

I do believe that without a doubt that Shizu is extremely nice, gentle and loving, and maybe Agito does def. seem to take advantage of that.  And I may've taken it too far with her being a motherly figure to the Libertus, but she definitely has reservations about sending them to their deaths, even when Agito or them ask for it.  That's where the well intentioned extremist aspect about her comes from.  She believes in Agito and his cause, but she's much more caring and compassionate than Agito is--Shizu is almost to Agito/Zeus' Thunderbolts what Shin is now to Chronos.  But Shizu's definitely very aggressive when she fights and she seems to be taking out a lot of aggression on her enemies--she's not cruel for sure, but I don't think that she's just kicking ass because it would please Agito. 

 

I do sort of question Shizu's sanity/mental balance.  She may be extremely nice and compassionate, but I do believe that a lot of things sort of wear on her:  Her parent's deaths/disappearance (Shizu was only 5-6 when that happened, according to the TV series, and she might have few if any memories about them), her knowing full well what happened with Agito/Genzo/Agito's parents, and seeing her grandpa get killed in front of her.  I don't think that all of that stuff has warped her the same way that it did for Agito, but it seemed that she wasn't in the best state of mind when she volunteered to be processed into Griselda.  I do wonder if she's a bit mentally unstable from all of that.  Again, not Agito's level of that stuff, but that stuff I feel definetly effected Shizu and her thinking processes, or maybe, if she doesn't try to please Agito--her closest friend--she might think that she'd be useless to him, and she want to help him right the wrongs of what happened.

 

Now that I've ranted about one of my favorite Guyver characters, back on topic here.  I do sort of hope that Agito is experiencing a genuine change of heart, but as has been said, that's hard to tell right now.  He may be softening up, but it could be a ploy, or somewhere in between.  But the way that Shizu and Agito conversed at the grave site, Agito may be realizing the folly of his way, and it might be his confrontation with Sho that made him realize it, and Shizu is one of the very few people that Agito would confide such a thing to, though, again, the result of their confrontation is sort of inconclusive.

[*V Guyver]

Yeah, that does make me think back to when Shizu overheard Mizuki talking about Agito, and how it forced tears on her. She probably sees Agito as her other half, but seems to be in denial about who he's become at times. 

[*Chernaudi]

After re-reading the Nov 2012 chapter and seeing how Shizu and Agito conversed, I do believe that Agito did realize a few things after Sho didn't go in for the kill against him and exchanged some data with him, and the mansion being destroyed and Shizu/Griselda nearly getting killed in her confrontation with Val.  As I said before, and as Matt also mentioned, Agito seems to have learned that power means nothing without the proper control.  Agito used to question Sho's will power, and he had to go and see for himself if Sho really has will power at least equal to his own, and the outcome of the battle where Agito had to give up confirmed that Sho has now virtually equaled him in basically every way, if not surpassed him in some areas.

 

In other words, being a cold-hearted manipulative SOB can get one pretty far, but it can hold one back if there is a benevolent power that proves to be superior.  I mean, to most of us, which is the superior power or desire:  to rule the world and gain revenge, or try and save mankind as we know it?  It seems that Sho's desire to save mankind as we know it does sort of outweigh Agito's quest for vengeance in the canon of Guyver, now doesn't it?

 

It's not like Sho isn't fighting Chronos partially out of revenge--they forced him to kill his father and put his other friends and himself though a living hell, after all.  However, Sho isn't overdoing it with the revenge quest, and it's not his only motivation, his overriding one being to help others and save his friends and others from evil and Chronos' amoral ways.  For his part, Agito's desire for revenge is understandable, but his quest to gain that revenge and to obtain power though it, he overdoes it, and, as such, at times has done things that could be compared to giving someone the death penalty for jaywalking.  Naturally, it does make one question if Agito is really much better than Chronos.

 

And then there's the angle with Shizu.  She's now about the only one who Agito is used to receiving generosity and kindness from who's still alive.  Going back to the Nov 2012 chapter, I did gather from the reaction that Shizu had for Agito setting up a cemetery for the fallen Libertus, Grandpa Yohei, and Hayami was of an emotionally strained young woman, for sure, and she was probably surprised, too.  Shizu seems to be staring to get extremely frustrated and tired of fighting and seeing the tole of what Agito is the driving force behind.  Granted, hearing about the cemetery and learning that the dead Libertus were entombed there probably made her crack/snap a bit, but I think that it wasn't just that which has been weighing on her.  I think it's just a collection of things that have been building up for her over the previous months and even going back into her own childhood, with her parents dying when she was very young, the deal with Agito's parents and Genzo, which Shizu herself likely witness to, and watching her grandpa die while trying to save Agito from an Enzyme III.  She's been though a lot of pretty negative crap in her life. 

 

However, it's interesting in how Shizu and Agito deal with that trauma differently.  Shizu's definitely been hurt by all of that stuff, but it hasn't warped her like it has Agito.  She still at her core is a very nice, gentle, respectable young woman.  Mean while, Agito is, at least up to this point, been very amoral and had at times def. had a "there's no kill like overkill" mentality with Chronos.  Even Hekkelring said that him letting Shizu volunteer to become Griselda without even simply asking her if she really wanted to commit to it and show any actual reservations at the time could be construed as overkill in his quest for power and vengeance, which Shizu has actively helped him with, even if she's not as personally driven by power.

 

I think that realizing that Shizu is about the only real sympathizer that he has left, and her nearly getting killed and the fact that she probably has a relatively short time to live also woke Agito up to a few things that he had blinded himself to.  He has a young woman who is basically his wife in all but formalities who is willing to do damn near anything for him, and though he has returned her affection at times, he's never really seen himself as her lover, at least not in the same way that Shizu holds herself to Agito as far as that goes.  Maybe her volunteering to put her life on the line for him several times has awakened him to the fact that she genuinely loves him.  It would be better if Agito was that way to her all along, instead of seeing her as just his friend and his second in command, but better late than never, I guess.

 

What leads me to think about that is the last few pages of that chapter where Shizu found Agito at the grave site, and she found out about what happened after she nearly got killed and the fashback to his and Sho's conversation, and finding out that her grandpa and Hayami were also buried there.  The last panel that showed Shizu speaking to Agito, where the only thing that she said was "Agito-sama" ("Master Agito"), I have been puzzled by her facial expression, almost like she looks slightly happy, but above all else confused or even surprised, or coming off of being shocked and realizing something has changed.  I do believe that Shizu herself was surprised at what Agito did with the cemetery and him and Sho being on speaking terms again even with all that happened.  As V Guyver said above, it seems that Shizu genuinely believes that she's Agito's other half (personal commentary:  a lot of people probably see her as Agito's "better half" for sure), but she's had a hard time dealing with some of the things that he's done in the past, and she seems to be a bit confused or surprised--maybe in a good way--that Agito does seem to be at least somewhat apologetic for some of those things.  And we do have to remember that Shizu is pretty much the only person now who Agito not only considers to be a true friend, but she's also about the only person that he'd confide such things in, aside from maybe also Sho now.

 

I don't know what to think of this as far as being a permanent change, but Agito's quest for revenge, IMO, has really sealed him off from a lot of things that life had/has to offer.

[*V Guyver]

You know, looking back at the images of Young Agito, he actually looks like a long lost Brother of Sho. Also, Agito, though his primary goal is revenge, he does see the bigger picture, if he was petty he would of killed Genzo and moved on. But instead he plotted the entire origination's downfall, knowing that it was the primary cause of his woes. It's his plans to take over the world himself to prevent his own life from being manipulated again that we have to worry about.  

[*Chernaudi]

And this is something that I thought of just a few minutes ago re-reading this topic. After Shizu and Agito captured the control medallions from the Ark at the Arizona HQ, Agito attempted to create his own gigantic armor after Sho was able to permanently take control over the original (to the point where Agito had great difficulty trying to get it back and had to give up on it because of Sho's willpower willing the armor to him). Agito and Shizu concluded that Sho knew something about the history of the Guyver units and Zoanoids/Zoalords and the Advents that they were unable to figure out.

Clearly, Shizu, Agito and Dr. Hekkelring figured out that it was something that Sho picked up from the info he gleaned from the Relics Point Ark's control medallions. We all know why Sho created the Gigantic Guyver Armor (and the Exceed armor as well)--to allow him to take on Zoalords on even terms for the former and to give him the power to decimate any threat beyond a "normal" Zoalord for the latter. It was a product of Sho's thoughts, dreams, and imagination based on what he'd seen from Alky and his desire to protect his friends and the people of earth from Chronos.

However, clearly, Shizu and Agito, at least at first, didn't really know this. After all, this is something that Sho never shared with them, and in fact, he's only shared these thoughts in any real detail with only a very small handful of people--Tetsuro, Mr. Hayami, and maybe Mizuki and Natsuki. Aso and Toki also probably know a bit about this, but not as much as Sho may've confided in with his closest friends. But Shizu and Agito figured out that, clearly, Sho's willpower had to come from somewhere, and that he probably knew something that they didn't at the time.

So we head back to Agito obtaining his own gigantic armor though his learning about stuff from the Ark's control medallions. The part where Shizu and Hekkelring were freaking out and Agito was like "that's it, that's the reason! That's what Sho knows!" is where Agito found the source of Sho's power and will, and that seemed to be when Alky destroyed the asteroid that the Advents intended to use to destroy the earth, and how much firepower it may take to destroy Alky if one or the other has to fight him.

Hence, I have a theory. Maybe Agito was trying to "beat" a truce or alliance out of Sho, using the Gigantic Armor he aquired as a means to demonstrate to Sho that "I now know what you've known for a while now!" Sort of like how Aptom threatened to deliver an ass-kicking to Sho over his reluctance at the time to fight Murakami/Imakarum unless he got his "fire" back to fight. Of course, it would've been simpler for Agito to just take things at face value, since he couldn't get the original gigantic armor back under his command that Sho had to have gotten a major willpower/desire to kick someone's ass boost. But he had to go see for himself, and all he got for his efforts was Shizu nearly killed by Val/Female Guyver II when she was trying to protect Mizuki, Tetsuro and Natsuki from her and Guyot, and Sho demonstrating that he's now the equal of Agito as a fighter and a demonstration of what Sho may do to him if Agito goes out of his way to piss him off again, that is if Sho intended for the Gigantic Exceed to be a warning for Agito. I do think that Sho did that to prove to Agito his will to fight beyond any shadow of doubt.

However, the info that was exchanged between them though their units' control medals may hold the key to what actually happened. However, I do believe that it's highly unlikely that Agito can easily manipulate Sho again, and that any possible allegiance between them will have to be a true allegiance, and not just him using Sho as a means to an end like last time. Sho's grown up and has some balls now, and he's no where near as willing to take crap from people like he was at the beginning of the story.

Edited July 14, 2013 by Chernaudi

[*Chernaudi]

Sorry to bump this thread, but this is an observation that I had at work today during my last day there for a while (I'm taking leave until I start my new job).  Sho and Agito are examples of the extremes of what I like to call the Postal 2 complex or Postal 3 complex.  For those of you who don't know, the second and third Postal PC games have the option for the player to decide what path they want to go down and how to play the games, based entirely on how amoral and violent the player wants to be.  In P2, you can either go throughout the game without harming anyone, or you can try and lay waste to the town of Paradise and all points in between.

 

In P3, you chose to be the hero, the villain/extreme anti-hero, or a "regular" anti-hero, with the appropriate "good", "evil" and "normal" endings.  If you go for the good ending, you become a police officer, arrest foes using less than lethal force unless necessary, and eventually become President of the United States.  The bad ending has Postal Dude joining with his cult leader Uncle and the town's corrupt mayor.  The "normal" ending is an alternative to the good ending, and just has Dude escaping the town unharmed.

 

Obviously, we all know where this is going.  Sho is the hero, who doesn't want to commit harm to anyone, though he's now willing to do whatever it takes to take down the villains as long as he can do it while minimizing collateral damage.  Agito is the anti-hero, one who fights against the big bad, but at times has used such questionable and amoral means that one does have to on occasion wonder if he's really a whole helluva a lot better than the big bad.  Agito may be becoming the Postal Dude-like "only sane man" (phrase used loosely--I think that we can all see that Shizu is the sane one in that relationship, and Sho is certainly sane compared to Agito for damn sure), but he'll never really be a pure hero like Sho is. 

 

Sho's had a lot of crap happen to him, but he's still got his head on his shoulders straight.  Shizu has been though a lot and also been witness to the stuff that happened to Agito and his family, and she's killed for him and out of revenge for her own feelings over what happened and the death of the grandfather at Chrono's hands, but she regrets it when she feels that she's wasting the Libertus' lives or when innocent people (when she knows about it) get involved.

 

I hope everyone understands what I mean by my observations.

[*V Guyver]

I can agree with your observations. I think most of us would agree to an extent too. Though I view Agito different, as being sane, but emotionally imbalanced. You would think it otherwise because of his intellect and precision, but not the case since he's driven by his parents death and loss of a childhood. Actually batman isn't emotionally balanced either, they are pretty similar in that they have this dogmatic goal of tearing away at the flaws in their worldview in the only way that could keep them sane. That's agito in a nutshell, but certainly less sane than Sho. 

[*Chernaudi]

And I think that we can look at Shizu and Agito, and how Shizu is sort of like an intermediate between Sho and Agito as far as emotional/mental stability and qualities. Yes, Shizu is a more "willing" killer than Sho, as far as killing enemies and foes, and she's generally more aggressive than Sho is most of the time. However, compared to Agito, while she has no problem killing members of Chronos and she's driven by what happened to Agito and to her grandpa at Chronos' hands, she does see people as people, unlike Agito, where, with some exceptions (Shizu seemingly being the most notable), Agito sees people as pawns or, more appropriately in my opinion, as tools and potential instruments of destruction that he can use and wield. Be it the Libertus that volunteer to be processed and fight or knowing that he can count on Shizu to do things for him, often without even asking her to, to manipulating Sho and his friends. That's the big difference.

It can be said, that though she was changed and shaped to a degree by tragedy and she's acting out on it, that Shizu hasn't totally lost her humanity, not the same way that Agito has. Agito seems reluctant to form many emotional bonds with people, partly so he can use them in his plans, and partly because of what happened to his parents. Of course, that means that Shizu's love for Agito is often unrequited beyond him seeing her as one of his few friends left. Of course, we know that Shizu does see herself as Agito's soul mate, and though he returns the affection at times, he doesn't love her on the same level--quite different to see someone as a soul mate vs seeing one as being "just a friend".

However, Agito having Yohei's grave and those of the deceased Libertus transferred to Zeus' Thunderbolt's HQ and him seemingly showing some regret over some of the things that had happened could be him waking up to some of the things that he shut himself off from. Maybe Shizu nearly getting killed and the fact that if something's not done soon that she'll most likely die woke him up, as well as the stuff that he saw from the control medallions that he and Shizu captured from the AZ HQ. Maybe he knows now that he needs friends, and that he needs them more than ever now if he wants to get any of his goals achieved, and hopefully some of those priorities have shifted for the better too. But only time will tell.

Also, if anyone's a fan of the Pink Floyd album and film The Wall, you can probably draw some comparisons between the character Pink and Agito as well. Agito and Pink both built metaphorical walls up around them to shield them from the world because of personal tragedy, and the pros and cons of that, the good and bad consequences of such a mental/emotional action.

So, we have Sho, the conventional hero who does the conventional hero bit, Agito, the extreme anti-hero who cares/cared little about what he felt had to be done as long as the ends justify the means, and Shizu, who's sort of between the two. She's fighting with Agito, which can make her an anti-hero/anti-villain by proxy(depending on POV, or even both depending on line of thought), but she's much more emotionally sensitive than Agito, overtly cares more about people, and though she'll willingly kill enemies, she's not very willing at all to sacrifice her allies, even when they ask for it.

That's one of the more interesting things about Guyver as far as the storyline--all the characters are complex and interesting to study why they are the way that they are, and discuss those personality facets.

Edited November 16, 2013 by Chernaudi

[*V Guyver]

If Guyver is known for one thing, it's not making too many characters 2 Dimensional, though the early OVA's made viewers think otherwise. I actually like the fact that since relics arc, the villains have been given full character development treatment too. Originally you don't know much and have to assume they are greedy darwinists megalomaniacs, but it's changed since then... well except maybe for Guyot, he;'s still all that... Barcus might be heartless to the rest of humanity, but he cares for his friends and duty. He's a great antagonist who as it turns out is someone you would trust with your life if he were your friend, but a frightful enemy. 

[*Chernaudi]

That's something that I like about the manga and the TV series, though to be fair, the TV series had more material to work with than the OVAs did at the time, and had 26x25 minute episodes, vs 12x25-30 minute episodes.  The OVA was mostly action oriented.  The TV series had more plot and character development.  I liked how near the end of the TV series how the writers gave Shizu and Natsuki more character development, even if they went a bit above and beyond the manga for that area of the storyline (TV series was coming to it's end, after all). 

 

We have to remember up until then that Natsuki was basically a throwaway character that only made occasional appearances in the first couple of chapters in the manga.  Completely in contrast to the major role that she'd play from the time of her re-introduction.  And Shizu was known as being Agito's largely unrequited lover, so she seemed until about that point to be sort of one or two dimensional until she started to get more emotionally involved, and in the TV series, had her heart to hearts with a distressed Mizuki and sort of played big sis to her for a while, which Natsuki does that with Sho, Mizuki and Tetsuro now.

 

And, both the manga and the later TV episodes do treat the female characters as being a lot more than fancy/sexy window dressing, which in a shonen manga, I do appreciate.  You can't accuse Guyver characters of not being interesting or complex to say the least.  Even Agito or Aptom on the surface may be passed off as a H'wood anti-hero, but there's lot beyond that just below the surface.