Sagiri Naoya (沙霧 尚哉) is a side character appearing in the two main games of the Muv-Luv franchise: Muv-Luv and Muv-Luv Alternative.
Extra[]
In Extra, Sagiri Naoya was a doctor by profession. When he was still a novice, Sagiri had been close to the Ayamine family, enough that he thought of Kei's mother as his own, and also worked as Ayamine Kei's personal doctor. However, Sagiri committed malpractice on a patient under anesthesia while only he and Kei's mother were in the room, which resulted in Kei's mother taking the blame for it to protect Sagiri; she was dismissed from her job as a result. Sagiri tried to claim the fault was his, but everyone thought he was only trying to protect a lowly nurse.
Although Kei and her mother still maintained amiable relations towards Sagiri, he soon began climbing the career ladder, and eventually accepted a proposal to the hospital director's daughter. Feeling betrayed for both her and her mother, this caused Kei to start displaying introvert tendecies, as a result of her emotional scarring.
When Suzumiya Akane is admitted into hospital following a concussion in the lacrosse match, Shirogane Takeru's numerous visits to Akane has him noticing that the nurses seem to know Ayamine; Sagiri later approached him to directly ask about Ayamine, showing renewed interest in her. Takeru then learns Sagiri's side of the story, and despite getting more romantically involved with Ayamine, he attempted to get her to talk to Sagiri, and she eventually, yet reluctantly, agrees to do so. When Takeru is involved in an accident and wakes up in the hospital, beat up but otherwise uninjured, he goes to the roof, armed with his resolve to take Ayamine back from Sagiri. While stating his case before both of them, he collapses, and wakes up to Ayamine waiting at his bedside, having finally chosen him over Sagiri.
Alternative[]
In the Unlimited/Alternative timelines, Sagiri Naoya is a Captain of the Imperial Japanese Mainland Defence Force and the commander of the 1st Tactical Armor Regiment, a prestigeous position granted to IJA/MDF troops tasked to protect the capital of Japan, Kyoto.
In the past, Sagiri was a close friend and loyal subordinate of Lieutenant-General Ayamine Shuukaku, Kei's father. However, Shuukaku's decision to protect civilian lives during the evacuation of Gwangju and refusal to follow orders to safeguard retreating forces resulted in the United Nations losing a large part of their manpower and equipment to the BETA, turning the battle from an organized retreat to a slaughter. At that time, Sagiri was also a part of the Imperial Army forces deployed to the Korean mainland, and was injured as a result of Shuukaku's actions.
While Sagiri did not hold it against Shuukaku and even defended his superior, the other leaders of the Far East Defence Line's military forces and the UN would not accept anyone else's head to be hung for the massive failure on the Korean Peninsula, labelling him a maverick, a traitor, and a coward to their cause. As a result, the Imperial Army was forced to accept their demands to placate them; Shuukaku was arrested, charged for desertion, and executed.
This incident essentially destroyed Sagiri's faith in the government of Japan. Throughout the years that saw Japan's fall to, and later its recapture from the BETA, Sagiri grew more and more disillusioned with the Japanese government, particularly with their reliance on foreign troops garrisoned in the nation and the harsh treatment of Japanese citizens evicted from their land or awaiting resettlement. In particular, the outcome of Operation Lucifer affected him greatly, with him viewing the UN's decision to use G-Bombs on Japanese soil as the ultimate affront.
Having spent the years working his way into the vaunted position of the 1st Tactical Armor Regiment of the Imperial Japanese Mainland Defence Force, and gathering those of like mind under him in the guise of a military-funded tactics research group, he eventually amassed enough resources to initiate his goal: the 12/5 Incident, the coup d'état of the Japanese Shogunate. He himself led the insurgents, piloting a Type-94.
Initially close to achieving his goal of securing the Shogun, the subsequent battle that erupted near the end of the 12/5 Incident forced him to engage in combat. Resolved to carry his actions through, and to seek his death, and atonement, in battle, he mercilessly engaged each of his opponents, including Alfred Walken, and was finally slain in single combat by Tsukuyomi Mana after he lost all hope and allowed her to slay him.
While Sagiri does not appear in the main storyline of Unlimited, it can be assumed that his circumstances are similar to Alternative's Sagiri Naoya. Just like in Extra, Sagiri was engaged to Ayamine Kei, and in Alternative, prior to his suicidal coup, he had continued to send letters to her, in an attempt to communicate his last feelings and thoughts to her.
The Day After[]
Sagiri Naoya returns as part of the cast in The Day After Episode 2.
Episode 02[]
In his first appearance, he is shown as either having given up or lost his position as the commander of the IJMDF's 1st Tactical Armor Regiment, instead having thrown in his lot with the French/Canadian alliance, flying a Rafale into combat. Despite his zeal, the French have some doubts about his alliance, one of them voicing out his concerns prior to the battle at the border.
Easily killing most of the pilots who stood in his way, he later engaged Alfred Walken in combat, and was unable to kill the American pilot before being forced back by reinforcements from Walken's command, the 66th Tactical Armored Battalion.
Episode 03[]
Sagiri leads a detachment of ex-IJMDF pilots who were exiled/left behind by Japan and recruited by the French during the takeover of NORAD. While his comrades despair over Ikaruga's escalation of warfare, they are quick to side with their new host country to repay their debt. He leads them with his usual zeal and keeps remarkably calm in the face of overwhelming danger.
Later, in an abandoned cabin, the remaining exiles despair over their loss at NORAD. Some reconsider whether they could pledge themselves to France while others decided they still wanted to resist against Ikaruga to the end. When Sagiri is asked what will become of them, he recalls a conversation he had with Lea Gegranne, the French army commander, about their promise to receive citizenship should the battle turn out a success. If it were a failure, they would have to find their own path; whether they tried to return to Japan or Canada, they might be looked on as traitors. Sagiri steels himself for what is to come.
How he came to join the French Foreign Legion is expanded somewhat by referencing the short and bloody civil war that occurred when Sakaki Kurechika stepped down as prime minister following the failure of Alternative IV and the beginning of Operation Babylon. During such a time of instability, many believed it was the Shogun's place to take control of the government and appoint a new prime minister to calm the people, but the house of Ikaruga, led by Takatsugu, instead entered the fray with a majority of the Imperial Guard at his back stating that he would take control of the government to ensure the safety of Japan.
Sagiri, incensed by Takatsugu's disrespect of the Shogun and tradition, openly engaged in battle against the Imperial Guard with his supporters in the 1st Tactical Armor Regiment. In the midst of combat, he personally engaged the Ikaruga's Type-00R in single combat with his Shiranui. However, he ended up disappearing before a decisive blow could decide the victor which led to the rest of his supporters either retreating or surrendering to the Imperial Guard.
Some thought he died in combat, but others believe he chose to retreat when he knew the battle was lost. Somehow, he managed to escape from his pursuers and defected to the newly formed 6th French Republic in Quebec, Canada. There, he was made a pilot in the French Foreign Legion along with some of his men that managed to escape with him; given the severe ratio of lack of pilots vs TSF stockpiles, the former Japanese were accepted and even given top-of-the-line equipment, but suffered from suspicion and were barred from applying for citizenship until they had proven themselves worthy or received a sponsor.
Etymology[]
- Sagiri means "sand" (沙) (sa) and "fog, mist, haze" (霧) (kiri/giri).
- Naoya means "esteem, furthermore, still, yet" (尚) (nao) and "how, what, alas, question mark, ?" (哉) (ya).
Trivia[]
- Sagiri is hated by almost the entire Western fanbase for his actions in Extra, thanks to his minor role as a mild asshole being blown out of proportion. In Alternative he returns with a double dose of hardheadedness and over-zealousness, with his resurgence against the Japanese in The Day After the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back. Nicknames for him include Assgiri, Shitgiri, and other that are just giri-giri. While his story is essentially him acting on his sense of giri (義理), other characters point out that his actions are harmful, both to humanity's cause, and the actual 義理 that he should be acting on as a defender of Japan.
- The feeling goes both ways, with Ayamine haters calling him Saintgiri and a greatly misunderstood hero of humanity. Horrifying rumors has it that they're petitioning for a Sagiri Maniax...
- He is the only character from any of the Muv-Luv series to appear in Ayu-Mayu Alternative (as a cameo in a flashback monologue by another character).
- In Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei, the ringleader of a rebel-terrorist group that caused a minor coup in a school, is a Kendo Captain (Tsukasa) that looks strikingly similar to Sagiri Naoya, including the haircut and glasses.
Gallery[]
