Masaki Murakami

Masaki Murakami is a major character in the Guyver: Bioboosted Armour franchise. Once a freelance journalist, he happened upon the activities of Cronos and paid the price when they used him as a test subject for producing a new Zoalord. He survived disposal and has since been fighting back against Cronos alongside the Guyvers, until the day he supposedly meets his death.

Discovery of Cronos
Five years before the events of Guyver begin, Murakami was a member of a journalistic team investigating stories revolving around apparent monster sightings in New Guinea. The journalists were led into the jungle only for their guides to transform into monsters before their eyes and attack them. Murakami's colleagues were all murdered but he was kept alive and taken to Cronos Headquarters in Arizona where he became one of Barcas Dr. Barcas' guinea pigs. Numerous experiments were conducted upon him in an effort to produce the ideal battle form for the 12th and final Zoalord to make up Cronos' ruling council. Once he had served his purpose, Murakami was to be disposed of along with the other test subjects present.

However, Cronos was betrayed from within by one of its leading scientists, Professor Yamamura. Yamamura released Murakami and the other Proto-Zoalords hoping that he could bring down Cronos from the inside, ordering them to find and assassinate the 12th Zoalord Guyot Richard Guyot who was still undergoing optimization at the time. Unfortunately, Yamamura's rebellion was quickly stamped out when the Zoalord Council assembled at Cronos HQ and eliminated the Proto-Zoalords. All except for Murakami, of course. Yamamura helped Murakami escape from the base before he too was executed. Murakami would later return to his home country of Japan and attempt to undermine Cronos' operations there. As his Zoalord optimization was incomplete, Murakami's lifespan had been greatly reduced, giving him only a few years to live provided he did not utilize his battle form for any length of time.

War against Cronos
Five years following his escape from Cronos, Murakami had established a cover as a journalist while he operated in the shadows, monitoring Cronos' activities in Japan. He would eventually come to learn of the Guyvers and observed their activities closely following the destruction of Cronos Japan. When Cronos stepped up their operations to eliminate Sho Fukamachi, Murakami stepped in to help Sho when he was confronted by the Number Commandos Lost Number Commandos. When they met, Murakami did not reveal his status as a Zoalord and only offered minimal information on his connection to Cronos. After informing Sho of the existence of Cronos' base at Mt. Minakami, the pair travelled there together in order to rescue Sho's father Fumio and his friends Mizuki and Tetsuro Segawa.

After meeting with Agito Makishima and his servants the Onumas, Murakami was soon forced to reveal his zoaform when the group were attacked by the Team Five Hyper-Zoanoid Team Five. The Hyper-Zoanoids retreated after being instructed by Dr. Barcas, sparing Murakami from having to exert too much power. Still, even just transforming took a serious toll on Murakami and left him drained. He would later transform again after Guyver-I temporarily lost the ability to bio-boost and used his impressive powers to kill a trio of II Enzyme II Zoanoids.

Having revealed himself to be a Proto-Zoalord, Murakami explained to Sho and the others how he came to be and also explained the origins of not only the Guyver and Zoanoids, but the origins of humanity itself. He also explained the nature of the Guyver Unit and how the Creators came to fear its power when wielded by a human.

Following this revelation, the group were attacked by Richard Guyot himself. Zoalord and Proto-Zoalord fought one another, but Guyot was far too strong and gained the upper hand. A massive gravity attack from Guyot devastated the cliffside where the battle took place, and Sho and Mizuki (who had been separated from the group before Guyot's arrival) feared the worst. Everyone survived, of course, and would later be sheltered by Dr. Odagiri and his staff down in the "basement" of Relic's Point.

Last stand
While sheltered by Odagiri and his colleagues, Murakami went through a number of tests to determine if his life could be extended. Odagiri's team could do nothing to help Murakami and gave him only a few months left to live provided he did not transform again. Murakami would be forced to transform one last time when the group were attacked by Guyot while the Guyvers were attempting to launch the Creator bio-ship held deep within Relic's Point. As the ship ascended into the skies, Murakami, Sho and Agito battled together against Guyot, but Murakami would be horrifically maimed by Guyot, who then pulled out the dummy zoacrystal from his forehead.

Spurred by Murakami's death, Sho battled furiously with Guyot, but their fight was suddenly ended by the appearance of Archanfel and the Zoalord Council. Guyot was seemingly killed and his zoacrystal removed while the Creator ship was destroyed. The Guyvers and their allies had seemingly been obliterated along with the ship, leaving no one left to interfere with Cronos' plans. However, Cronos had lost one of its leaders, the Zoalords that were essential to Archanfel's vision. However, Archanfel formulated a new plan upon discovering the body of Masaki Murakami.

Imakarum Mirabilis
Over a year after Cronos' domination of Earth, the Guyvers resurfaced to fight against the new world order, now supported by the power of the Guyver Gigantic. But Cronos too had new surprises to unveil, among them being the new Zoalord replacing Richard Guyot: Imakarum Mirabilis. Sho and his friends were horrified to discover that this new enemy was in fact their old friend Murakami.

When Murakami had supposedly perished at Relic's Point, he had merely been placed into a death-like torpor. Archanfel recovered his body and later Cronos would revive him, completing his Zoalord optimization using the zoacrystal taken from Guyot. Murakami was also subjected to immense psychic conditioning so that he would become completely obedient to Archanfel.

When the Guyvers first met Imakarum, he attempted to persuade Sho into surrendering. Sho refused, of course, countering Imakarum's offer by trying to appeal to his better nature, the Murakami Sho once knew as his friend and ally. The two adversaries' attempts to convince one another were wasted: Sho was resolute in defying Archanfel and Imakarum no longer cared about their past friendship.

The battle between Imakarum and Sho was ended following an interruption from Guyver-III, who attempted to blast the Zoalord with his Mega-Smasher, though Imakarum survived and managed to escape. It became clear that Sho lacked the will to fight his friend, so even though he commanded the Guyver Gigantic, he was at a grave disadvantage. Currently, Imakarum still serves Cronos as Archanfel's loyal puppet and may yet return to do battle with the Guyver armed with the knowledge that Sho lacks the resolve to defeat him due to their past friendship.

Personality
Murakami possesses a cool, calm demeanour and a strong sense of justice. He cares deeply about those he tries to protect, even to the point where he feels the need to keep secrets from them. He is not one to back down from a fight and is determined to bring about Cronos' downfall, not just for himself but for the sake of his former colleagues and all of mankind.

In stark contrast, Imakarum seems to lack any personality at all, aside from his complete devotion to Archanfel. As a Zoalord, his powers are similar to those of Guyot whom he was originally a prototype of. Since Archanfel is forced to remain in hibernation on Silha for a prolonged period, Imakarum acts as his representative on Cronos' ruling council, relaying Archanfel's instructions to the other Zoalords as and when necessary.

Abilities

 * Telepathy - Like all the Zoalords, Murakami possesses telepathic control over Zoanoids. Before being fully optimized by Archanfel, his psychic abilities were considerably weaker and he could not maintain control over a Zoanoid if a true Zoalord was exerting their own power over it. After becoming Imakarum, his telepathy is now on par with the other Cronos leaders, save for Archanfel and maybe Dr. Barcas.
 * Zoanoid Buster - A modified .347 Colt magnum revolver that Murakami used while maintaining his human persona. The rounds that this gun fires carry three times the amount of gunpowder of the average magnum, making it powerful enough to kill certain Zoanoids whereas normal firearms are completely useless. With his Zoalord stamina and resilience, Murakami is the only person capable of using this gun without being injured by its recoil.
 * Gravity Blade - A blade of gravitational energy that Murakami produces from his hand when in Zoalord form. It is easily more effective than the Guyver's high-frequency swords.
 * Gravity Bullets - Murakami can fire off a series of micro black holes to blast foes to pieces. These projectiles dissipate shortly after firing.
 * Barrier - Murakami can project a barrier around himself to block attacks. Any foe that makes contact with the barrier is immediately sliced to pieces.
 * Flight - Murakami only ever demonstrated flight after being re-optimized, so it is unknown if his Proto-Zoalord form was capable of it.