Amiba

Amiba
	; Amiba (impersonating Toki) in the manga.
Name in Kanji	アミバ
Name in Romaji	Amiba
Fighting Style	Hokuda Shin Ken; Nanto Sei Ken; Nanto Suicho Ken (Rei Gaiden)
Allegiance(s)	Raoh
Family	Unknown
Position(s)	Toki imposter
Appearances	Manga (ch. 45-51), Anime (ep. 33-36), Rei Gaiden (Ch. 9-11, 18), Toki Gaiden, Ten no Haoh
Voice actor(s)	Takaya Hashi; Kazuyuki Okitsu (Ten no Haoh PSP); Tomokazu Seki (Hokuto Musou, DD Hokuto no Ken); Kenyū Horiuchi (Legends ReVIVE); Kirk Thornton (TV series dub); Steve Staley (Ken's Rage dub)

Amiba (アミバ) is a major antagonist in Fist of the North Star. A self-proclaimed genius with an extreme superiority complex, Amiba was originally a practitioner of Nanto Seiken, but believing he could master any martial art in record time, he turned his sights on Hokuto Shinken.

Manga & TV Series

He travelled to the Village of Miracles in order to prove his worth and when experimenting by himself he almost killed an elderly man with his efforts. Toki intervened to save the man, slapping Amiba aside, and advised him not to practice a martial art he had yet to master. Amiba was left humiliated by the incident and swore revenge on Toki.

When Toki was imprisoned in Cassandra by Raoh, Amiba took the opportunity to exact his revenge by impersonating Toki and destroying his reputation. He rearranged his appearance to model Toki, right down to the scar on his back, and began gathering martial artists and villagers under the guise of the legendary healer. He experimented on them with cruel "new vital point tests", and reported his findings to Raoh. Eventually, however, his village was visited by Kenshiro, searching for his brothers after Jagi hinted that they were still alive.

Initially, Amiba fooled Kenshiro into thinking that he really was Toki, with his precise use of Hokuto Shinken and the scar on his back supporting his claims. "Toki" taunted Kenshiro with his apparent change of heart, "explaining" that he had abandoned his peaceful ideals after seeing his village ravaged by bandits. He bragged that violence was the true path of his martial art, believing that Kenshiro would not be able to fight his beloved brother, only to be surprised when Kenshiro engaged him in battle nonetheless, having decided that "Toki" had fallen too far and hurt too many innocent people to continue living.

Although Amiba was briefly overwhelmed by Kenshiro's skills, he seemingly defeated the Hokuto Shinken successor by striking a new power point that paralyzed his body. However, Amiba was exposed as a fraud by Rei (who trained with him during his Nanto Seiken days), and Kenshiro quickly overcame his paralysis, claiming that only the real Toki would have been able to truly immobilize him. Amiba called on his remaining minions to attack Kenshiro and his allies, but they refused to obey him (having followed him previously because they thought he was Toki and they decide to dissociate him and release Lynn). In desperation, Amiba used another of his newly-discovered vital points to power himself up, only for the technique to backfire and destroy his hands.

Now completely helpless, Amiba was pummeled by Kenshiro, who used Zankai Sekiho Ken to force the "genius" to walk backwards towards a balcony. Unable to reverse the effects without his hands, Amiba fell to his death from the top of his palace. His body exploded before he hit the ground, putting an end to his mad experiments and vendetta against Toki.

Appearance

Amiba's appearance differs on his media portrayal, but is generally featured as a tan skinned male with long black hair (dirt blond in the 1980s anime series) with the contours of his eyes darkened, giving him a maniacal, deranged experession. He later models himself after Toki (he whitens his hair in the 1980s anime) and even scars his back, while showing a more normal human expression that fades away as his true persona leaks.

Personality

Amiba was at heart, a highly narcissistic individual, who believed himself a genius who could master any martial arts. When his failed attempt at healing an elderly person was met with a slap and a dressing down by Toki himself into never use a technique he had yet to master, Amiba's ego was so hurt by this incident that he developed a petty grudge on Toki and sought revenge. When the opportunity presented itself, Amiba not only modelled his appearance after Toki, but also scarred his back so as to emulate him as perfectly as possible, all the while committing vilainous acts to ruin his name, out of sheer scorn for the man who had humilliated him.

Amiba was a completely amoral person with a complete disregard for human life, as he engaged in inhuman experiments involving pressure points utilizing many martial artists as his guinea pigs, all the while letting his minions rampage on the innocent populace with little to no care about all the lives hurt or lost as a result.

Although he showed a decent amount of skill to somewhat back up his superiority claims, Amiba's inflated ego would become his downfall, when he recklessly triggered a pressure point to increase his muscle mass, which backfired when his hands exploded, all but exposing his incomplete mastery of Hokuto Shinken. As Amiba abandoned his Nanto Seiken training in favor of Hokuto Shinken the latter of which he was evidently inexperienced upon, evidences Amiba as a fighter with a severe lack of discipline, whose arrogance drive him to the point of thinking himself superior, but without truly commiting himself to learn properly and dedicate time to his growth, which severely hindered his prowess as a martial artist.

In the end Amiba was nothing more than a coward, who had to wait until Toki was captured to enact his revenge. When his demise was all but assured, Amiba pitifully begged for his life, still in denial that he could have been defeated.

Fighting style

Amiba was originally a student of Nanto Seiken, but later dropped the style in order to become a master of Hokuto Shinken. As a result of his gruesome vital point research, he was able to enhance the abilities of his minions - granting them inhuman speed and strength - and perform basic Hokuto techniques with enough precision to fool Kenshiro into thinking he was actually Toki. However, Amiba's abilities pale in comparison to a true master of Hokuto Shinken, which he discovered quite painfully when Kenshiro got over his regret and dedicated himself to stopping "Toki" from hurting the innocent.

During his studies, Amiba discovered several new vital points, including one that can paralyze a person and others that drastically increase the subject's muscle mass - however, the latter backfired and caused his hands to explode. It is unclear if this was due to Amiba's incomplete understanding of the points, or simply an error he made due to his increasing anger and desperation to defeat Kenshiro. Nonetheless Kenshiro was able to correctly deduce that Amiba's hands would blow up before they did, implying that Amiba's lack of skill was repsonsible for his demise. This is further evidenced by his failed attempt to paralyze Kenshiro, as the latter could protect himself from it, while claiming that had Toki performed the attack, Kenshiro would have been unable to defend himself.

Rei Gaiden

In the manga spin-off Rei Gaiden, it was revealed that Amiba studied Nanto Suichō Ken under the previous master, Rofu. During a flashback to their early years, Amiba conspires with Yuda in a plot to assassinate Rei and become successor of the style.

Toki Gaiden

Toki Gaiden covers Amiba's original visit to the Village of Miracles, where he seeks out Toki to improve his limited knowledge of vital points. When Toki refuses to teach him and reprimands his conduct, Amiba plots against the village with the Zeed gang, whose attack is thwarted by the combined efforts of Toki, Juza, and the villagers. He then joins forces with Jagi, who helps him impersonate Toki by teaching him Hokuto Shinken and scarring his back with a club. After Toki is captured by Ken-Oh and his forces, Amiba infiltrates the village posing as him and begins his reign of terror, until he is ultimately killed by Kenshiro.

Ten no Haoh

In the Ten no Haoh manga, Amiba returns to the Village of Miracles after his original clash with Toki and attacks him with his new Hokuto Shin Ken imitation style, Hokuda Shin Ken (北蛇鍼拳, "Needle Fist of the North Snake"). Toki easily defeats him with Hokuto Ujō Ken but spares his life to prevent more bloodshed. Amiba does not appear in the animated adaptation.

Video games

Amiba returns as an NPC and boss in Shin Hokuto Muso. In this version of the story, Amiba helps Jagi convince Shin to kidnap Yuria. Amiba is also available as a full playable character with DLC. The playable version of Amiba is unique for his mix of Nanto and Hokuto attacks. DLC Amiba's moveset expanded from his NPC counterpart, his moves include: experimenting on foes like he did the boxer, increasing his muscle mass, making heart's explode just like he did to Jun (Yu's father) and even his own Hokuto Hyakuretsu Ken.

Character Rating

From Hokuto no Ken: Kyūkyoku Kaisetsusho: Seikimatsu Haō Retsuden.

Level: B
Power: 2
Speed: 3
Skills: 4
Looks: 3
Charisma: 1

Trivia

Amiba's design was modelled after actor Christopher Lambert.
Amiba's name is pronounced the same as "amoeba," a single-celled organism similarly known for being amorphous.
Amiba's human experimentation resembles that of Dr. Shirō Ishii and his Unit 731. He and his men referring to people as deku (木人形(デク) wooden doll) is similar to Ishii's maruta (丸太 logs).
In the original manga, Amiba is able to fool Kenshiro with his "Toki" disguise despite having dark hair (by this point, the real Toki's hair had turned white from radiation sickness). The 1984 anime fixes this by giving Amiba white hair in his "Toki" appearance, while also revealing him to have had blonde hair prior to his "makeover".
A character resembling Amiba appears in the background of the finales to both the Hokuto no Ken and Hokuto no Ken 2 anime (see gallery), as a running in-joke by the animators. This could be attributed to the character's cult status within the fan base.
Amiba's powered-up final form resembles Wyler of the Art of Fighting series.