Jako

Jako
Jakoh, as he appears in the manga.
Name in Kanji	ジャコウ
Name in Romaji	Jakō
Alternate spelling(s)	Jakou, Jakoh
Fighting Style	knives (games only)
Family	Jask (son) Sheeno (son) Falco (adopted brother)
Position(s)	Viceroy of the Imperial Army
Appearances	Manga (ch. 150-160), Anime (ep. 110-122)
Voice actor(s)	Shigeru Chiba (TV series) Eiji Takemoto (Shin Hokuto Musou) Masashi Ebara (Legends ReVIVE)

Jako (ジャコウ, Jakō)

The Viceroy (総督 Sōtoku) of the Imperial Capital, he imprisoned the Celestial Empress, Lui, and blackmailed Falco into destroying the Hokuto and Nanto fighters. Jako feared they would threaten his supremacy and outshine Gento's imperial star, Taikyokusei (大極星, aka Polaris).

Manga & TV Series

Jako was an inhabitant of the village that houses the Celestial Emperor and was raised by Falco's mother as an adopted son. At some point Raoh tried to invade the village but Falco negotiated Raoh into a stalemate, even offering his right leg. Raoh accepted the offering and vowed to leave the village in peace. Before leaving Raoh detected Jako and forced him out with his aura before dragging him by his collar. Seeing the malice deep within Jako he warned Falco of Jako's evil intentions and advised Falco to kill him. However, Falco was unable to at that time because his mother, was watching. The event left Jako terrified of the Hokuto and the darkness (since the North Star shines in the black sky, this made him afraid of darkness).

Eventually the Celestial Emperors, the twins Lui and Lin were born. Because law dictated that there could only be one emperor, he ordered Falco to kill Lin as he only needed Lui for his purposes. Falco could no go through out it and secretly had Lin given into adoption while hiding her origins.

Jako, knowing he was on borrowed time, took matters into his own hands after his mother died and kidnapped Lui and made himself Viceroy and act on her name, thus bestowing himself with full authority while preventing Falco from killing, and having full power for himself. He then proceeded to build an empire of his own having his army ransack and conquer land and enslave its populace to produce electricity for his capital, all so he could bathe himself in light. He fathered two sons Jask and Sheeno who acted as his main enforcers (they were replaced by Boltz and Taiga in the anime, who were the blue and green Gento Generals).

Eventually his army was constantly thwarted by the Hokuto Army, which along the reappearance of Kenshiro, drove Jako mad with fear and sought to have noth Hokuto and Nanto fighters and allies destroyed, just so he could have power for himself. Following a battle against the Hokuto Army, Falco reports back to Jako. The latter demands to know why he left the Hokuto Army away, Falco answered it was because he met an unexpected enemy. Jako is displeased with this and kicks Falco into his prosthetic leg while having his sons reaffirm his absolute authority. Shoki then breaks through a wall, sickened of standing Jako any more and revealing on his face that he knows of Jako's weakness and crippling fear that move him. Stating that he has only put through with Jako's schemes out of loyalty for Falco, but unable to stomach his evil, he tries to kill the evil Viceroy, but Falco attacks him feigning to kill him. Falco disposes of his body while secretly sending out to safety in the canal of death where bodies are thrown, but this is seen by Sheeno (Boltz in the anime) and has his spear pierce Shoki, wounding him fatally but not killing him before reaching Kenshiro.

Kenshiro and the Hokuto Army move to assault the capital with Kenshiro killing Sheeno (Boltz in the anime) with his own spear, avenging Shoki. Learning of the attack on the capital, Jako snaps as he is shrouded in darkness, killing one of his men, blaming him for leaving him in darkness and even stabbing Jask on his leg (Taiga in the anime).

Kenshiro pushes through the Celestial Army until he confronts Falco. Lin senses the Celestial Emperor calling for her and she and the main Hokuto Army group accompany her to the capital. They meet with Myu and Saiya who are being tortured by Jako's men and give them a beating. Jako has his face punched by Ein before activating a trap door that has them all sent to a chamber where Lui is hidden. Jako then has a landslide happen in order to kill everyone, reasoning the time has come to dispose of Lui, Falco and Kenshiro since the latter two are weakened.

Jako moves on with his plans and has his men bombard Falco and Kenshiro with cannon arrows which Falco's men take to protect their general. Before Jako can continue, Ein successfully sinks a device into breaking the rocky surface causing water to burst, which breaks part of the capital and interrupts Jako. With the Hokuto Army rescuing Lin, Falco is no longer tied to Jako who has his men attack the wounded warriors to no avail until a burst of water sends him straight into Falco, leaving Kenshiro to kill him (in the anime after his warriors fail, he tries to have Taiga kill them, but the Green General refuses, sickened with Jako and leaving him to find for himself, Jako then tries to escape but Kenshiro throws one of the cannon arrows which breaks a wall, causing water to drag him down).

Jako begs Kenshiro to let him leave if he can defeat Falco, to which he agrees. An overconfident Jako uses one of the arrows to strike at Falco's prosthetic, but Falco says it is futile as only Kenshiro can break it, before slamming the tip into his shoulder. Falco then takes his arrow and slams Jako in the same place, claiming that even if his body is 99% dead, he can still kill Jako with a mere finger. Falco then proceeds to rub each and all of Jako's crimes on his face which time and time again killed a piece of Falco's own heart. Jako desperately begs for forgiveness and to get along again, but Falco places his hand on Jako's face before setting him ablaze with his golden aura, disintegrating the mad viceroy for good.

Personality

From the bottom of his heart, Jako is evil incarnate. He's a power hungry tyrant who rules with an iron fist, and hides behind the authority of the Celestial Emperor as a means to justify his self-centered evil deeds. A cowardly, cunning and selfishly insane buffoon; Jako uses different means to shield himself from harm, particularly kidnapping and holding the Celestial Emperor hostage to force Falco to fight for him. Often treating his minions, even his own sons, Jask and Sheeno abusively.

Jako has a crippling fear of the dark and of stars in the night sky, that was caused when Raoh at some point invaded his village and found him amongst the people before grabbing him by his collar, warning Falco that Jako was connivingly rotten and needed be purged. Ever since, Jako has been terrified of the North Star and anybody who aligns with it, because he feared they would get in the way of his plans and threaten his life. The association of Hokuto with the black sky is the main reason why Jako despairs under the dead of night, which causes him to go into hysterical rants and even become physically violent to his own subordinates for leaving him in the dark, killing one of his own men for depriving him of light even though it was not the servant's fault.

His astrophobia is so severe that he equips himself with a generator on his back tied to three lanterns that constantly illuminate him. Jako also regularly demands to be shined upon with more and more radiance despite the fact he is already bathed with light, if only because of news that the Hokuto Army has been making advances into his territory. Entirely uncaring if his demands for more light place a bigger burden on his already exhausted slaves, demonstrates the depth of his selfishness.

Jako is arrogant and boastful when he knows he has a leverage over others, but is otherwise easily sent into a panic when his schemes are thwarted and driven into a corner with no one to fight in his place. When left with no other means, Jako desperately begs for forgiveness and even propose to "be friends" again with the people he has tried to have killed and trampled, showing a cartoonishly obtuse side of his character.

Trivia

• He is modelled after the Joker from the Batman series.
• His screams for "More light!" are said to be based on the last words of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

Gallery

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  Jako with his sons Sheeno (left) and Jask (right)

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  Falco delivers the finishing blow on Jako

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  Jako bursts into flames

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  Imperial Capital

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  Jako in Shin Hokuto Muso

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  Jako in Hokuto no Ken: Legends ReVIVE (illustration)