Grings Kodai: Difference between revisions

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Grings Kodai グリングス・コーダイ Grings Kōdai
Kodai
Gender	Male
Hometown	Nimbasa City
Region	Unova
Animated debut	Zoroark: Master of Illusions
English voice actor	Sean Schemmel
Japanese voice actor	Takanori Jinnai

Grings Kodai (Japanese: グリングス・コーダイ Grings Kōdai), often referred to by simply his surname Kodai, is the main antagonist of Zoroark: Master of Illusions. He is a successful businessman who has the ability to see into the future.

Spoiler warning: this article may contain major plot or ending details.

In the movies

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Young Kodai

As a young man, Grings Kodai traveled to Crown City after reading about its legends and history. In particular, he was interested in the city's relationship with Celebi and hoped to use the Pokémon's time travel abilities for his own ends. With his Shuppet and Misdreavus, Kodai found Celebi's Time Ripple in the city and attacked Celebi to prevent its interference, then used a robotic arm to reach into the Time Ripple himself. The energy of the Time Ripple flowed into his body, initially causing him great pain, and triggered a backlash that caused all of the city's plant life to rot away. Standing among the ruins of the city's greenery, Kodai experienced a vision of the future, revealing his destiny to become a wealthy and powerful business tycoon using this new ability. He quickly set about accomplishing this goal, rising to power as the president of the Kodai Network Group and gaining massive influence, including over the mainstream media.

Twenty years later, Kodai's right-hand man Goone introduced him to his new executive secretary, Rowena, at the Kodai Network Group's headquarters in Nimbasa City. During the meeting, he experienced a future vision that showed him returning to Crown City, the reappearance of the Time Ripple, and the rampage of the legendary beasts and a Zoroark in the city. The vision faded before clearly conveying how these events were connected, leading Kodai to realize his powers were fading. Musing about this later, he decided to follow the vision and developed a plan to restore his powers by absorbing the new Time Ripple, even at the cost of Crown City's restored greenery. He captured Zoroark and her child Zorua, then announced he would enter the Pokémon Baccer World Cup in Crown City using a team called the Nimbasa Legends, comprised of Raikou, Entei and Suicune, attracting significant media attention. En route to the city aboard his flying boat with Goone and Rowena, he used holograms of the legendary beasts to train Zoroark to imitate them using her Illusion Ability. He separated her from Zorua, blackmailing her with his safety to force her into following his demands. Although Zorua managed to escape, this did not harm Kodai's plan, as Zoroark was unaware of that fact and Kodai could still use projections of Zorua to convince her.

Kodai experiencing a vision

As dawn broke in Crown City, Kodai released Zoroark, blackmailing her into terrorizing the city in the guises of the Legendary Beasts. He had Rowena record this from multiple angles, and supervised her editing of the footage into a falsified video that made it appear the city actually was being destroyed when, in reality, it was all an illusion. During this, he experienced a vision that revealed Rowena would betray him, opposing him alongside Ash, his friends and Karl. Kodai chose not to let on that he knew of Rowena's impending treachery. Once enough edited footage was compiled, Kodai initiated a broadcast in which he claimed that Zoroark was controlling his Nimbasa Legends team to destroy Crown City, and ordered the evacuation of the old town area so he could recapture them. All of this was a lie; he was actually removing any chance of his actions being discovered as he hunted for the Time Ripple, which he was able to confirm was present in the city once his cameras spotted Celebi. Using a hoverboard, Kodai set out into the city alongside his Shuppet and Mismagius to hunt for the Time Ripple, leaving Rowena behind to continue broadcasting the announcement.

Kodai's earlier vision revealed that the Time Ripple was located near one of the Pokémon Baccer World Cup countdown clocks found throughout the city, and thus he visited each of them one at a time, scanning the area to search for it using Shuppet's Foresight and using a map programmed into his hoverboard to narrow down the potential locations. As he explored the city, he reminisced to the day Goone introduced him to Rowena, the same day he realized he had to find the Time Ripple again to restore his powers. He was interrupted by a security alert that revealed Ash, his friends and Karl were still in Crown City, fulfilling his vision. Kodai summoned Goone to capture them and confronted them in person, warning that they would not be able to stop him due to his ability to see the future and then had Goone place them in captivity aboard his ship before joining him to continue searching for the Time Ripple.

By that evening, Kodai and Goone had finished checking every countdown clock, with the Time Ripple nowhere to be found. Kodai expressed confusion over his vision seemingly being incorrect, only to experience a new one that revealed he needed to capture Celebi to continue the search. They tracked Celebi to a large tree, where they discovered it hiding with Zorua, Pikachu and Piplup. Though they tried to resist, Kodai overwhelmed them with his and Goone's Pokémon, capturing Celebi as his vision had revealed. This caused him to see yet another vision, confirming he would be victorious in obtaining the Time Ripple, but Zorua leaped onto his face to protect Celebi and caused him to crash his hoverboard. Soon afterward, Ash, his friends, Karl and Rowena arrived, fulfilling his vision of their opposition to him. They were able to recover Celebi and escape, but Kodai confidently told Goone that he knew what would happen next and released a smaller camera drone to follow them.

The drone followed them to Joe's house, where Karl's grandfather informed the group that there was one more countdown clock inside the Pokémon Baccer stadium itself. Kodai and Goone were watching the feed from their amphibious vehicle and departed for the stadium, but Ash's group discovered the drone and raced there to try and stop them. Kodai, leaving Goone to fight Dawn and Brock. took control of the vehicle and chased Ash and Celebi into the stadium. Ash attempted to stall him after releasing Celebi to reach the Time Ripple, but Kodai drove past him and gave chase to it. When he had his Pokémon attack Celebi, however, he discovered that it was actually a disguised Zorua, with Karl's Bronzor levitating him to create the illusion that he was flying. Bronzor destroyed the vehicle and Zorua bit Kodai's wrist, but Kodai shook him off and captured him using the robotic claw hidden up his right sleeve.

Kodai and Goone arrested

Kodai caught up to Ash and the real Celebi before they could reach the Time Ripple and ensnared them with Mismagius's Psychic. Zoroark arrived and attempted to attack him, but he tortured Zorua with electricity to hold her at bay. Kodai approached the Time Ripple, released Zorua and touched it with his claw, absorbing its powers and setting in motion a repeat of the disaster he had caused twenty years earlier. Declaring victory, Kodai arrogantly confessed everything he had done to Ash, boasting that nobody would ever know what he had done in the past or present, and that the public would see him as the hero who defeated the evil Pokémon Zoroark. However, time suddenly paused and reversed, undoing Kodai's victory. The entire landscape vanished, revealing that everything that had just taken place was actually Zoroark's illusion, which Kodai failed to detect due to his Illusion Canceler being broken when Zorua bit him. Rowena and Karl revealed themselves, having recorded his entire confession on video. With the tide decisively turned against him, Kodai attempted to attack Zorua, only for Zoroark to protect her child. He attacked her in a rage with his robotic claw, violently electrocuting her as he fumed that she would pay for thwarting him. Zoroark managed to muster enough strength to break free with Dark Pulse, destroy the claw and help defeat his Pokémon, leaving Kodai completely beaten. He tried to run for the Time Ripple, only to be cornered by the real three Legendary beasts, forcing him to flee. He ran into the stadium, where Zoroark cast an illusion to trick him into thinking he was aboard his ship before cancelling the illusion, making him fall onto the stadium field and knock himself unconscious.

Kodai awoke a short time later, only to discover the video Karl filmed playing throughout the city, revealing his true evil to the public. He was quickly arrested by Officer Jenny and brought to prison, putting an end to his ambition for good.

Character

Kodai realizing his defeat

Kodai is known as a ruthlessly ambitious man who is widely recognized for his business success, even having a magazine published following his exploits. By the time of the movie, Kodai is the president of a powerful corporation bearing his name, the Kodai Network, with a secretary named Rowena and a bodyguard called Goone. However, his success is due to a mysterious power; at times, he will painfully hallucinate and receive a vision of the future.

Kodai gained his powers twenty years ago while causing a disaster that struck Crown City. Following a series of ancient records and legends, he discovered Celebi in the city and touched the Time Ripple produced from its time-traveling powers, absorbing its energy and gaining his future sight abilities. However, absorbing the mysterious energy inside the Time Ripple caused it to collapse, producing a tremendous explosion of "negative time" which killed all the plant life within Crown City and the areas around it. Nearly twenty years would pass before the city and its people fully recovered from the disaster.

Kodai is a master manipulator, using his supernatural ability to see into the future to set up complex plans in order to secure and increase his vast fortune. While he presents himself as a kind person who looks out for the good of Crown City, he is actually one of the few characters in the anime to be portrayed as purely evil with no redeeming qualities, he is a heartless and egotistical sociopath with a pronounced sadistic streak. He shows no compassion and cares only for himself, not caring who or what he must destroy to get what he desires.

He is also shown to be incapable of feeling any remorse about his violent and destructive behavior. However, his two greatest weaknesses are his over-dependence on his future sight, which he used to gain his vast wealth and power, and his fear of losing that ability which he believed would gradually lead to the loss of everything he gained. Additionally, he is an extremely prideful man, which ultimately leads to his undoing.

Pokémon

の	This article is missing information on this character's English voice actor and Japanese voice actor. You can help by adding this information.

On hand

Misdreavus → Mismagius

Voice actors
Debut	Zoroark: Master of Illusions
Japanese	Kikuko Inoue
English	Sarah Natochenny

One of Kodai's Pokémon is a Mismagius, which he has owned since it was a Misdreavus. Years ago, when Kodai first discovered the Time Ripple, Misdreavus was present at the scene. After evolving, Mismagius still served Kodai faithfully and helped him by using its Psychic attack to prevent Ash from stopping Kodai from taking the energy from the Time Ripple and renewing his ability to see the future. Mismagius was later defeated by Pikachu's Volt Tackle.

Mismagius's known moves are Psychic and Psywave.

Shuppet

Debut	Zoroark: Master of Illusions

Shuppet is Kodai's other Pokémon and worked with him closely during his search for the Time Ripple. Years ago, Kodai used Shuppet to help him find Celebi's Time Ripple and it was thanks to this that Kodai accidentally got his powers after he attempted to extract some energy from it.

Years later, Shuppet was shown to be fiercely loyal to Kodai and obeyed his orders without question even though Kodai's eventual goal would end up wiping out all of the plant life in Crown City. It was shown to be ruthless in its obedience, as it attacked Zorua from behind when it attempted to run to Zoroark but was defeated thanks to Zoroark's Dark Pulse.

Shuppet's known moves are Foresight, Shadow Ball, Psychic, and Thunderbolt.

Controlled

Suicune, Raikou, and Entei (projections)

Debut	Zoroark: Master of Illusions

With the Pokémon Baccer World Cup approaching, Kodai claimed that he was going to enter his three Legendary beasts as a team, the Nimbasa Legends. However this was simply a ploy as the Beasts he was seen to own were only holograms that Kodai later claimed had escaped.

Kodai also used the holograms to test Zoroark's Illusion ability.

Zorua (projection)

Debut	Zoroark: Master of Illusions

When Zoroark had done her job to attack Crown City in order to cause an evacuation, Kodai needed to retrieve her. In order to do that, he created a projection of Zorua as bait to lure Zoroark into a trap.

Borrowed

Ninjask (multiple)

Debut	Zoroark: Master of Illusions

These Ninjask belong to Goone, Kodai's bodyguard, but he also commands them himself during the movie.

Ninjask's only known move is Shadow Ball.

Escaped

Zorua

Voice actors
Debut	Zoroark: Master of Illusions
Japanese	Kurumi Mamiya
English	Eileen Stevens

Main article: Zorua (M13)

Kodai kidnapped Zorua from his homeland alongside his adopted mother, Zoroark. Later Kodai attempted to hold him hostage to force Zoroark to follow his orders to attack Crown City. However, while being transported Zorua escaped Kodai's airship, but this didn't hold up Kodai's plans as Zoroark was unaware of the escape and Kodai made her believe Zorua was still captive.

Zoroark ♀

Voice actors
Debut	Zoroark: Master of Illusions
Japanese	Romi Park
English	Romi Park

Main article: Zoroark (M13)

Kodai's plan was for Zoroark to cause Crown City to be evacuated in order to allow him to search the city for Celebi's Time Ripple. Once this was accomplished, Zoroark was recaptured however she later escaped when she heard Zorua screaming for help.

Technology

The Illusion Canceler

Kodai's vast wealth enables his access to a significant amount of high-tech equipment needed for his mission. Among the tools he is seen using:

Illusion Core: A small orb that can create a physical manifestation of artificial Pokémon data; very similar to Dr. Yung's Mirage System.
Illusion Canceler: A bracelet that, when activated, shows its wearer any nearby objects that are actually illusions.
Amphibious vehicle: A four-wheel drive, SUV-like car capable of driving in water just as well as on land. It is equipped with the illusion generator as well as remote-controlled saucers that can generate electrified iron crates. The unfolding arms in the back of the car can tow the crate around.
Robotic arm: Originally appeared as a device contained within a backpack with a large arm-mounted cannon. It was later streamlined into a durable cable with a claw at the end which could be hidden inside Kodai's sleeve. It is used to absorb the Time Ripple's energy, and the modern version can also discharge electricity to shock anything in its grasp. Its output is capable of reaching a high level of voltage that can mortally wound the powerful Zoroark, making it potentially deadly to anything smaller or weaker.
Airship: A massive, eight-engined flying boat that serves as Kodai's base of operations.
Camera drone: A small drone camera that can be used for spying. Its weakness is the loud buzzing it makes while flying.
Hoverboard: Used to quickly cover long distances and to find the Time Ripple. Similar to the hoverboard used by Zero, but equipped with radar maps of Crown City and a large spotlight.
Remote cameras: Several flight-enabled camera units used to carry out surveillance on many areas at once.
Video editing software: An extremely powerful, high-tech video editing program. It is capable of taking input from several video feeds at once and splicing pieces of them into one falsified, impossible-to-distinguish video.

Artwork

Ken Sugimori's design of Kodai

Voice actors

Language		Voice actor
Japanese		陣内孝則 Takanori Jinnai
English		Sean Schemmel
Danish		Rasmus Hammerich
Dutch		Frans Limburg
Finnish		Juhani Rajalin
German		Stefan Günther
Italian		Paolo De Santis
Korean		유동균 Yu Donggyun
Polish		Jakub Szydłowski
Brazilian Portuguese		Felipe Grinnan
Spanish	Latin America	Víctor Covarrubias
Spanish	Spain	Luis Bajo

In the manga

In the Zoroark: Master of Illusions manga

His role is nearly exactly the same as his role in the movie, but he uses his holograms more often, including confronting Ash via illusion instead of in person. After mortally wounding Zoroark, he runs to the stadium when confronted by her and the Legendary beasts. There, he meets his end when Zoroark chases him off the top of stadium wall with illusionary thorn vines, sending him falling.