Io Mikura

"Amazing, this is amazing. That Gomora, it moves according to how I want it to."

―Io Mikura^[1]^[2]

Io Mikura (御蔵イオ, Mikura Io) is the protagonist of 2008-2010 manga series Mega Monster Battle: Ultra Adventure, set 50 years after the events of Ultra Galaxy Mega Monster Battle. He is also the protagonist of Mega Monster Battle: ULTRA MONSTERS arcade game, which the player assumed.

Conception[]

Like all characters in Ultra Adventure, Io is designed by Shinji Nishikawa. Io himself is an original character to the manga and is given his signature ahoge as a means of distinction. The family name Mikura is intended solely to connect him with Karen Mikura, the survivor of Planet Boris from Ultra Galaxy and as a means of connecting both the series and the manga. His T-shirt has the design of Ultraman Nexus' Energy Core.

History[]

Not much to be known about Io's past, saved for the fact that he is the grandson of Karen Mikura, who was rescued by ZAP SPACY on Planet Boris in the past. Io lived with his mother alone after his father left the family to join the Planet Aval branch of ZAP SPACY.

Mega Monster Battle: Ultra Adventure[]

Io is a young boy from a ZAP SPACY school with myriad knowledge of monsters, playing Mega Monster Battle arcade game and befriending his classmates Akane and Dai. One day while the three visited the space port, Bullton's presence caused a simultaneous monster appearances across Japan, the space port in particular is where Golza and Gan-Q are spawned. Being given the Battlenizer (intentionally) left behind by Pigmon, Io somehow materialized Gomora and defeated the two monsters. While at first amazed by the device, Reimon try to dissuade the boy from using it and Akane's misfortune only discourage him even further. However after trying to defend Pigmon from the townspeople and seeing Red King's reign of terror, he made up his mind and accepted to use the device, resolving to destroy Bullton and (hopefully) removing the monster attacks. With Pigmon's advice, Io headed to Osaka where Karen lived, using this pretense of a family visit. When Bullton appeared, Io manages to use Gomora to kill Bullton's forces; Geronimon, Reicubas and Super C.O.V., but ended up getting sucked into the monster's wormhole alongside Pigmon and Gomora. Karen advises Io to cling onto hope while Reimon's spirit visited Io again, accepting the young boy's resolve and asks for his help to restore peace to the universe.

Awakening at a strange planet, Io and Pigmon came across an elderly Alien Pedan who was stranded there as a result of his damaged King Joe unit. Io's display of friendship moved the Pedan from abandoning the young boy to his fate and eventually sacrificing himself to take down the Alien Hipporit at the cost of his life. During that moment, Io's Battlenizer absorbed Hipporit's Bemular into it as his third monster. The rest of the Alien Pedan squad, led by Dorothy, offers Io to join them and sought their help in turning the tides of their war with Alien Nackle, only to draw out the attention of Yapool as well. Io's Battlenizer was scanned to create an artificial copy of it, while Yapool and Nackle join forces to tear down Planet Pedan. While Io stands in the frontlines to fight, he met the young Alien Keel Vittorio. The onslaught brought from the war resulted in the Nackles unleashing their greatest weapon from their collaboration with Yapool, EX Tyrant. The monster wiped out an entire platoon of King Joes even when Dorothy try to control it, resulting with her King Joe Scarlet left with the head/arms unit left to operate. Io uses Gomora's Ultra Oscillation Wave to bury EX Tyrant into a pool of lava, then King Joe Scarlet/Dorothy stabs EX Tyrant II's head with the Pedanium Lancer to properly destroy it. Dorothy sets her King Joe to autopilot to bring Io and Pigmon back to Earth before she finally died. En route, the King Joe was dragged to Planet Aval by a stray Geranda, where Io discover its ZAP SPACY headquarters being infested with Ghighi. After killing the invaders, Io uses their discarded shrink gun save the operatives, including his father as they had their reunion for the first time. Bullton then reappeared on Aval, summoning Dinosaur Tank and Neronga to attack Gomora, but Io was much more prepared this time and effectively destroys Bullton with Gomora. Although Bullton's destruction opened several wormholes, Io was prevented from returning to his home when Pigmon reminded him of his resolve.

Io and Pigmon are instead brought to the Planet Boris, now a barren wasteland and witnessing the fight between Alien Metron/EX Red King and Alien Zarab/EX Eleking. Io fights against a Reionics wannabe Alien Babarue, who later on uses Arados to travel 50 years to the past and preventing Rei's awakening into Reimon. With Vittorio's help, they followed in suit and manages to both kill the alien and save Arados, briefly encountering Ultraman when he saved them from Planet Boris' destruction. Arados brought Io and Pigmon to their proper timeline before it resumed its journey. Io and Vittorio clashed their Gomoras, resulting with the young Keel's victory. Alien Reiblood however revealed himself and uses Silverbloome to absorb the other alien Reionics' energies to resurrect himself to full corporeal form. It was then when Pigmon's true allegiance was revealed, but the tiny creature saved Io and defected from his master. When Reiblood hijacks Gomora from Io, the young boy reaffirms his connection to turn the monster back to his side and save EX Gomora from the jellyfish monster. Reiblood then assumed Reimon's Burst Mode as a physical form, then summons Grand King to take care of the two Gomoras. Reimon's spirit merges with Io to grant the young boy his form, ensuing a fight between two Reimons before the original's spirit leaves and plunges Reiblood to the depths of Planet Boris.

Grand King is defeated by two Ultra Oscillation Waves, and it all seemed as if everything was over, but Reiblood pulls his one last trick by possessing Prometheus and travels to Io's Earth where he transforms into Deathfacer, killing all of the leftover monsters that Bullton summoned and absorb them into the robot to resurrect himself. With Vittorio injured from Reiblood gunning his ship, he gives Io his Battlenizer. Io at first uses the monsters at his disposal, but Deathfacer's knowledge allows it to counter their tactics. Bemular sacrificed itself to defend Gomora from Neo Maxima Cannon. Io then summons Vittorio's EX Gomora, allowing it to turn the tides of the battle before the two stabs their horns to Deathfacer, executing Double Ultra Oscillation Wave (Zero Shoot). Deathfacer exploded and thus, peace returned to Earth. Io then returned Vittorio's Battlenizer, while finally reuniting with his family and friends.

Mega Monster Battle: Ultra Adventure NEO[]

Io, Pigmon and Vittorio — Pigmon, Io and Vittorio as they face Reiblood in *Ultra Adventure NEO*.

Knowing that Reiblood is still operating even after Deathfacer's destruction, Io and Vittorio split up to track his presence across the universe. Additionally, Io also achieved his second awakening off-screen, upgrading to Neo Battlenizer and even has the ability to transform Gomora to its Reionic Burst mode.

Vittorio uses his ship to retrieve Io and Pigmon to where Reiblood is, introducing them to Ai Asama, Kanegon and Red King. While preparing for the worst when Reiblood/EX Zetton resurrect deceased monsters as his grunts, Ultraman and Ultraseven provided cover to stop the undead army, allowing Gomora and Red King to fight EX Zetton uninterrupted. With Vittorio providing his energy to Io, he is able to focus Gomora into stabbing EX Zetton with its horn, delivering Ultra Oscillation Wave before Ai and Kanegon did the same via Red King's Volganic Impact. Io bids farewell to Ai when the young boy needs to return to his home, now that Reiblood is finally defeated for good and his wormholes begin to disappearing as a result.

Profile[]

Powers and Weapons

Monster Knowledge: Io is knowledgeable of monsters, hence his nickname "monster prince" by his friends. This also grants him advantage in battle, using Gomora's Ultra Oscillation Wave to shatter the ground where his opponent is standing, adapting new tactics to Gomora from studying another monster and quickly identify monsters and aliens at first glance, as well as their traits and histories on Earth.
Connection to Gomora: As Gomora is his main monster, Io's attachment means that he is also able to save Gomora from attempts at brainwashing, diverting control back to him. While there are drawbacks such as suffering the same injury with said monster, the inverse can be said the same when Gomora's vitality is awakened, causing Io to be energized as well.
Battlenizer: A Reionics himself, Io is in possession of a Battlenizer, summoning and capturing monsters in his possession. It was later upgraded to Neo Battlenizer upon achieving his second awakening.
- Monster/Abnormality Detection: A rather particular ability for his Battlenizer is that it can detect monsters and abnormalities in the dimension, such as Bullton's Fourth Dimension powers.
- Connection to Reimon: Through the Battlenizer, Reimon is able to establish spiritual and telepathic contact to Io Mikura, having witnessed the young boy's exploits through said device. This type of connection is said to be the same one when Ultraman and Ultraseven contacted Rei while on Planets Boris and Hammer, respectively.
- Mini-Monsload: While Io never really uses it, Pigmon claims that he can establish a small fraction of Monsload to summon monsters at miniscule forms. This is also partly a result if the monsters in question are halfway in their recovery process.
Ghighi's shrink gun: Ghighi's own shrink gun, Io manages to get his hands on one of their discarded weapon, using it to shrink Pigmon back to his size and rescuing the ZAP SPACY members on Planet Aval.
Vittorio's Gun: When Vittorio tries to remove himself from Silverbloome's grasp, the gun slipped from his hand but Io catches it, using it to fire on one of Silverbloome's tentacles and save Vittorio.

Battlenizer monsters

Gomora: A monster that's already within the device upon being discovered by Io. Gomora is usually portrayed as an anti-hero and only fights once being summoned by Io to prove his strength.^[2]
Pigmon: Reiblood's former follower, Pigmon has the ability to detect dangers and other monsters.
Bemular: Alien Hipporit's former monster, Io adopted it after being defeated by Gomora and its master died at the hands of the elderly Alien Pedan.
EX Gomora: Vittorio's monster, it was lent to Io in the final battle against Reiblood-possessed Deathfacer.
Garamon: In ULTRA MONSTERS NEO, Io controls Garamon as his third monster as a stand in for his Pigmon.

Reimon

When Reiblood took on the form of Reimon's Burst Mode and open fires on Io, Reimon's spirit appears and merges with Io's body to prevent the attack. This turns Io's body into a physical copy of Reimon before the Reionics's spirit exited.

Powers and Weapons

Energy Beam: Io is able to shoot energy beam by outstretching both of his hands, doing so to encounter Reiblood when he tries to shoot the same attack.

Other Media[]

Mega Monster Battle: ULTRA MONSTERS[]

When the Ultra Adventure storyline is adapted to the arcade game, Io's position is replaced with a featureless protagonist that the player assumed. The storyline follows the same as the manga with few differences to accommodate the shorter and compressed time duration. ^{Mega Monster Battle: ULTRA MONSTERS}

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"Let's fight with me!"

―Io challenging the player to his match.

"Looks like I win!"

―Io if he wins the match.

"It appears that my strength alone isn't sufficient enough."

―Io if he is defeated by the players.

In Mega Monster Battle: ULTRA MONSTERS NEO, players are given the option to face against Io if they obtain a special card from Kerokero Ace featuring him. Io's monsters are Gomora, Bemular and Garamon.

Gallery[]

Trivia[]

Io's favorite food is chocolate bars, having received some of them from Karen during his visit to Osaka. Io also gave some to the elderly Pedan he befriended, this being one of his friendship gesture that convinced the elder to sacrifice himself and save Io from the giant Hipporit.
Whereas Io's home residential area remains unnamed in the story, ULTRA MONSTERS changes this to make it appear as if he lived in Osaka, as the game did not adapt Io's journey in the bullet train.
- Since the game also made him to be anonymous (par on course with the players acting on Io's perspective), the game made no mention of the player's gender or appearance (save for being a child), but trailers and news press from the Game Watch website refers to the player perspective of ULTRA MONSTERS story mode as a young boy.^[2]
The voice actor for Io's appearance in ULTRA MONSTERS NEO remains uncredited to this day. Additionally, Io is rendered in manga drawings instead of CG composition like the rest of the characters.

References[]

[1] File:Io Mikura first panel.png

[DKBEX-2] 2.0 ^2.1 ^2.2 ^2.3 https://game.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/20071113/bandai.htm

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