Hiro Tagana is a Kuei-jin from Tokyo.
Biography[]
From a very early age, Hiro Tagana was fascinated by show business. His father was a prominent player in the National Theatre company, and Hiro grew up envisioning himself following in his father's footsteps. The requirements for Tokyo's most exclusive drama school, though, were prohibitively high. Being a legacy guaranteed Hiro nothing.
Hiro steeled himself for the highly selective entrance exams. He sacrificed meals and sleep as he pushed himself to come out on top. Hiro was accepted. The examination committee saw potential for the younger Tagana to become one of Japan's most respected thespians.
Yet the pressure to succeed, both from his father and the school, led Hiro to take some unsavory shortcuts. He started using amphetamines to keep up with his studies, but that route resulted in diminishing returns for Hiro - as well as an addiction. One night a guard caught Hiro searching the office of an instructor for the questions from an upcoming exam. The drama school and Hiro's father were furious. Hiro's dismissal from the academy followed shortly thereafter, and his father officially disowned him, throwing Hiro into the street.
With no home, no job and a growing addiction, Hiro was desperate to find some sort of income. He drifted from one bit-part to the next, in plays no one had ever heard of. His addiction became too much for even the most liberal playhouses to tolerate, and even tiny, slapdash production companies refused to let him audition.
Hiro drifted into a bosozoku, one of the many motorcycle gangs that claimed turf in the metropolis. The gang Hiro chose was a low-level pipeline for a Yakuza family, whose oyabun found use Hiro as a bagman. On his first job, Hiro decided to make a score of his own and he skimmed a percentage off the top before closing the deal. He ended up at the bottom of Tokyo Bay.
Hiro Tagana later crawled out of the murk and found himself on the shores of the Sumida River. He fell upon an unlucky midnight jogger and slashed her throat to drain her Chi. Then Hiro went to clear his debts with the Yakuza chieftain.
The chieftain, "Cousin" Ozaki, was impressed by the sheer fact that Hiro had returned at all. The mobster offered the fledgling vampire a second chance. During the time of Hiro's kôa, the fallen performer would be able to live out his dream. Ozaki had a lot of pull with the Japanese filmmaking industry, and he paved Hiro's way to stardom. His movies, the Dusk Walker series of action-adventures, have made him a cult sensation and have plastered his face on billboards and kiosks all over Tokyo. But fame has come at a price; Ozaki uses Hiro to smuggle contraband, which is a dodge that becomes ever more difficult as Hiro's fame increases. The danger of detection is foremost in Hiro's mind, almost more so that the fear of Ozaki's retribution.
Image[]
Hiro Tagana is medium height with a bushy mass of hair and a slightly rounded face. He dresses in dark jeans, black T-shirt and black motorcycle jacket, and he carries a special metal fighting staff (his Dusk Walkers character's trademark weapon of choice), which can be telescoped to fit under the jacket.
Haven[]
Hiro resides in a penthouse apartment in the Kabukicho section of the Shinjuku District. It is a home magnanimously provide for him by Yoshida Ozaki.
Secrets[]
None.
Influence[]
Very little outside the entertainment industry.
Stats[]
Nature: Loner
P'o Nature: The Deceiver
Demeanor: Bon Vivant
Chi Balance: Yang
Direction: South
Dharma: Resplendent Crance 3
Physical: Strength 3, Dexterity 4, Stamina 3
Social: Charisma 3, Manipulation 3, Appearance 3
Mental: Perception 3, Intelligence 3, Wits 3
Talents: Athletics 3, Brawl 4, Dodge 3, Streetwise 3, Subterfuge 2
Skills: Drive 2, Firearms 2, Martial Arts 3, Melee 3, Performance 4, Stealth 3
Knowledges: Computer 1, Law 1, Occult 2, Politics 1
Disciplines: Black Wind 3, Yang Prana 3, Yin Prana 2
Backgrounds: Contacts 2, Herd 2, Horoscope 1, Nushi 1
Chi Virtues: Yin 2, Yang 3
Soul Virtues: Hun 2, P'o 1
Willpower: 6
References[]
- WOD: World of Darkness: Tokyo, p. 56-57