Taro Sasagae

Taro Sasagae (タロ＝ササガエ) is a character in BlazBlue: Remix Heart. He was Jin Kisaragi’s roommate back when he was still a student at the Military Academy. He also works as part of the student body council.

Appearance
Taro is a young man with black hair, amber eyes, and dark skin. He wears a white T-shirt, which has kanji written onto it, and his military uniform hangs over his shoulders. The only time he wore his uniform properly was when the climate control was broken.

Personality
Taro seems to be a friendly and sociable guy. He gets along with Akane and Jin very well, calling the latter “Jinny” instead of using his actual name. Taro can be serious at times, but he is easily distracted. He likes to mess with Jin sometimes, to the latter’s annoyance. He has a tendency to give people nicknames.

He can be very serious while fighting against opponents, such as rescuing Mai from Yukianesa possessed Jin, while also tried to calm his roommate down. Due to fact, he’s been entrusted by Kagura to look over Jin.

BlazBlue: Remix Heart
Not much is known about Taro, but he first appears with Akane Teruhiko when meeting Jin’s friend, Tsubaki Yayoi. During clean up duty, he compliments Mai Natsume on her maid outfit. Later at the Torifune Festival, he, Akane, and Jin are at the monitor wishing the competitors good luck. When Torifune’s climate control breaks, he runs into Jin and makes him trip, causing them and the Detective Team of Pretty Girls: Remix Heart to slide and fly into an unknown beach, where they have fun until they are rescued.

Five days later, when a flustered Mai runs from her friends and accidentally stumbles into him in such a way that their lips meet in an unintentional kiss. Noticing her embarrassment, Taro asks her if she likes him. Mai vehemently denies this,  stumbling on her words and confusing the situation as she is unable to explain herself. All this only serves to increase Taro’s interest in her. As Mai leaves Kagura Mutsuki shows up and a comical discussion takes place between him and Taro. We learn that Kagura is a relative of Taro and that he is entrusting Jin’s safety to him. Later, Taro is seen with Akane and Jin, who have passed out from his cooking. After tasting his own cooking, Taro loses consciousness. He is later seen recovering in bed with Akane and Jin. Taro encounters Shiori Kirihito; he is aware that she is an assassin and he must protect Jin at any cost as he tastes Shiori’s porridge just to make sure it’s not poison. After Taro and others ate, they got some rest, until Jin suddenly becomes possessed by Yukianesa’s influence and attacks Mai thinking she was Ragna, Taro puts on his Magic Formula gloves and tries to stop him, failing to do so until Noel distracts Jin with a shot from Bolverk. Taro then binds Jin with his Magic Formula, and an alchemist, Cypher Albar, manages to calm Jin down and knock him unconscious.

Later, he woke up in the middle of the night and left his room, worried that he wasn’t able to help Jin. Unexpectedly meeting Mai waiting around outside the men’s dormitory, he questioned her about why she was there. Mai replied that she had dropped something during that incident. As they have a good conference, he mentioned that he was tasting for poison, and praised Mai, saying that she is great at running, which made her blush. Noticing that, Taro thought that her face is red because it is cold outside and suggested they return to their dormitories.

BlazBlue: Variable Heart
Taro graduated from the Military Academy and joined the World Void Information Control Organization together with Jin.

BlazBlue: Chronophantasma
Taro was mentioned in BlazBlue: Chronophantasma when Noel and Makoto were discussing about Jin’s nickname “Jinny”, which he was called by Taro during the time when they were still students. In Kagura’s Arcade Mode, he is mentioned again when Kagura calls Jin by his nickname. His whereabouts and what he is currently doing, however, are not specified.

Powers and abilities
Not much is known about Taro’s abilities, but he seems to possess the ability to manipulate lightning. He also possesses an Magic Formula that is in the form of gloves, the gloves can release multiple binding strings that of Magic Formula that he can use to trap an opponent or use offensively, however, in the face of an Event Weapon, these binding strings do not stand a chance and can be easily cut to ribbons, as demonstrated by Jin with the Ice Sword: Yukianesa.

Despite the fact that his abilities haven’t been demonstrated in combat, he is strong enough to have protected Jin from every single Kirihito assassin who has been sent after him; given the extremely harsh training that the assassins have to go through from childhood, it’s easy to see that Taro is a considerable threat in combat.

Trivia

 * He has a habit of nicknaming people he knows in a similar fashion to Taokaka, examples include:
 * Jin:
 * Mai:
 * Kagura:
 * Shiori:
 * Kajun:
 * According to Shiori, countless assassins outside of the Kirihito family had been sent after Jin, but they failed because Taro stood in their way.
 * Taro is the one who cooks for his roommates.
 * Taro is briefly mentioned by name in BlazBlue: Chronophantasma; Noel and Makoto comment that Kagura calling Jin “Jinny” brings a feeling of nostalgia, reminding them of Taro. Taro also has a very brief entry in the Glossary, where he is called Noel’s and Makoto’s mentor.