Nago's entry in the Central Fiction Library suggests that he holds a superior position among Rachel's attendants, at least when compared to Gii, describing him as "Gii's mentor".
This superior standing is backed up by Rachel's gameplay, as Nago attacks on her behalf much more often than Gii does- roughly four times as much, going off a quick tally of her Central Fiction moveset.
Nago also appears in official art and even fan art far more frequently than Gii does. This is likely a consequence of the fact that people like to draw Rachel with her iconic umbrella, which just so happens to be Nago- rather than any popularity he's gained himself.
Ironically, Nago may not have existed at all in early drafts of BlazBlue. The earliest known design we have of Rachel with her servants, drawn by Toshimichi Mori in 2006, only depicts Gii! Rachel's umbrella is present, but it lacks Nago's face, or any traits that would suggest it was meant to be anything more than an ordinary accessory.
If Nago had never been added, would Gii have his day in the spotlight?
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Entropy Effect X has been announced, and with it, a new trailer full of new lore that seems much more rooted in the BlazBlue franchise then the game has been thus far.
A new set of NPCs have been revealed that seem to have interesting similarities to the Sector Seven cast. Below I'll be taking a look at the characters' profiles as listed in a Famitsu article, but note that I'm not translating the text of these profiles. It's too late in the night for me to want to do that.
Instead, I'm just noting any information I find interesting from either the profile or the trailer itself. Thank you for your understanding.
Dr. Mercurius
A strange scientist seen at the beginning of the new trailer, who looks a lot like Jubei or Kokonoe. According to their profile, the cat face is actually a mask. In charge of the lab and these experiments they're running, but the trailer suggests his teammates don't trust all them.
Shares a VA with Kokonoe herself, as well as XBlaze's Ringo and Mother.
Ti [Dr. T]
A researcher with a great amount of trust in Dr. Mercurius. His specialty seems to lie in researching "consciousness." Shares a VA with Tager.
Lime [Dr. L]
The researcher in charge of her teammates health, as well as the game's shop. Shares a VA with Litchi. The shared Chinese aesthetics are notable.
Fox [Dr. F]
A researcher who appears to be straight up wearing the Torifune Military Academy uniform from the BB series. In charge of running the simulations in the game. She mentions having a "best friend" she wants to save. She shares a VA with Kajun Faycott.
Cafe [Dr. C]
A passionate, if initially unimpressive, researcher. Very good at making coffee. Very willing to take risks for his research. Shares a VA with Arakune and Roy. The trailer suggests he might have a similar experience with a Cauldron.
Since BBDW’s untimely demise, I’ve had a lot of fun designing my own mock-ups for how I think characters from the franchise would have been implemented. In doing so, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about the patterns the game established during its short run. In trying to crack the code of how the official BBDW units were designed, one mystery I prioritized was “how is a character’s element decided.” And I think I’ve figured out a pretty compelling guideline.
The most obvious, of course, are characters who are directly using one of the elements in their magic. Nine and Kuon are Fire units because of course they are. Jin and Acht, ice-users, make perfect sense as Water units. Both Izayoi and Tsubaki being Light units is a natural conclusion, given the Izayoi (weapon)’s well known Light-based abilities.
But even beyond the obvious, I believe I’ve found consistent patterns across all- or at least, nearly all- members of any given elemental group. At the very least, I think I’ve figured out the general themeing around each element.
So, let’s discuss my theory! Starting with the element I found to be the easiest to puzzle out; Fire. Why are the Fire Units of BlazBlue assigned to that element???
Before we get into the nuanced, thematic ideas I have about the elements, we have to touch on the obvious. The characters who are straight up, literally, using fire during combat. Let's go over them here!
BANG = SHISHIGAMI
Bang is a bit of an odd man out to start this post with, as the rest of the characters discussed under the cut are all big name magic users, but we'll be starting with him anyway because I want to discuss these characters in the same order they appear in BBDW's files.
Bang's "Furinkazan" motif, as seen in one of his main-series Distortion Drives, is meant to be a unity of elements- but Bang himself has always been depicted with a heavy emphasis on the element of fire. See the name of his Drive, Burning Heart, or his Fatal Eruption Distortion.
When designing his BBDW unit, the developers doubled down on this fire motif. Bang can be seen using firey explosives on the last hit of his BBDW Drive and Special attacks, his Distortion Drive, and of course his Astral Heat. Astrals didn't end the match in BBDW, so they could have additional effects too! Bang's Astral lit him on fire, inflicting the Burn status on himself.
Taking on a five-turn status ailment when using your super move may seem an odd choice (though perhaps appropriate for Bang) until you see how it played with one of his BBDW-exclusive passive skills. Bang Surrendering Himself To Furinkazan gave Bang a 60% Attack buff when suffering from Burn. So as long as he was on fire, Bang was actually hitting harder than ever! Which reminds me a little bit of certain Abilities in Pokemon, but that's a story for a different post.
Lastly, I've spoken before about how characters in BBDW were given a variety of costumes. Out of all the outfits they could've designed for Bang Shishigami, one of his costumes featured no changes... except lighting him on fire. Well, his gauntlets and leg armaments, at least, but still.
Unfortunately the costume didn't actually inflict the Burn status, so it didn't have any strategic value, but it served to reinforce Bang's fire connections. And it sure made his accompanying talksprite look kinda funny.
NINE
With Bang out of the way, the rest of the characters we'll be covering today have a lot in common! These three are all magic users, well-known pyromancy experts, and share something of a student-teacher lineage! We'll be starting with Magister Nine herself!
In her previous playable appearances in CF and CrossTag, the full range of Nine's magical skills are on display, showing her controlling water, wind, fire, and a variety of other spells. Despite that, fire has always been her thing, thematically. Fire has been Nine’s element of choice throughout the series!
BBDW chose to build her unit around this fire preference, having all of her attacks feature fire manipulation. Additionally, her kit has tons of options to support her flame-focused moveset, with two ways to inflict Burn, a passive that buffs her damage against a Burned target, and a Burn immunity for herself!
If her 'Nine the Phantom' appearance from Central Fiction had ever been added, we likely would've seen her return to her multi-element style. But it was a lot of fun to see her return to her thematic roots for her Phase Shift inspired unit!
KUON = GLAMRED = STROHEIM
Another unsurprising face. From the flame magic we see her using throughout XBlaze and her title “Fire Empress,” it would be outright weird if Kuon didn’t land in this category. There are a few unexpected choices in her build, such as her appearing as a Healer unit, but that’s not the focus of this post.
Unsurprisingly, her kit has a heavy Burn focus, with her Astral Heat, Special, and one of her skills inflicting the flame-associated debuff. Interestingly, her Astral Heat is the only attack in her kit that isn't clearly a fire spell, as it focuses on the summoning and use of the Izayoi. However, it does still feature fire heavily at the start of its animation. Paired with the Burn effect tied to it, the developers clearly wanted to keep Kuon's fire themeing consistent.
Her attack names also evoke that fire motif, with that Burn-triggering Special I mentioned being named "Ignite Rush," and her Distortion Drive, though having no Burn effect, is named "Blazing Duel" and does still feature flames in its animation.
Her skills are also heavily fire-named, with "Flamberk" being her Burn skill, "Bucht Flare" granting a passive regeneration effect to any Fire-attribute allies on her team, and "Hitzeschleir" (that is, "Heat Haze") granting Kuon additional damage against targets with the Burn status.
Kuon was also the only character who’s Swimsuit Unit self was the same element as her main! We only ever got three swimsuit characters in BBDW, so who can say if that would’ve been a rare occurrence or not, but I think it’s interesting. This version of her doesn’t really bother with the Burn mechanic, but still utilizes fire-based magic for her Revolver attack, Distortion Drive, and Astral Heat. There’s also cute fire decal on the left side of her swimsuit and on the volleyball she uses as a weapon here.
RINGO = AKAGI (ZWEI)
The last member of our literal fire users is Ringo Akagi, or Zwei as she was referred to in BBDW. She appeared in her Ten Sages uniform, commanding a mastery over magic in line with what we would expect of Nine, her peer on this list and in the Mercury family (through some unspecified connection.)
We see Ringo conjuring flames outright through her Revolver and Special commands. Her Special, titled “Banishing, Destroying Flames of Thunderous Azure” had a chance to inflict Burn onto her target.
I don’t see any flames in her Distortion Drive, but it too has a chance to inflict Burn (at a higher rate than her Special, no less) and carries this fire-evoking name; “Burn all to Cinders, Calamity Entombed in Indigo Binds.”
Her Astral Heat, called “Illuminate and Shine from Above, Rising Star of Azure Flame,” ALSO boasts a Burn risk and continues the fire themeing, featuring a blazing meteor attack similar to the C-Series Astrals of Kokonoe and Nine.
It’s safe to say that though Ringo does possess elemental versatility, showing off some lightning and earth spells during her animations, her main thing is fire. If the full-Burn kit wasn’t enough to convince you, we can see the fire names continue into nearly all of her skills: the active Hellfire’s Blazing Wheel, Heavensflame Comfort, the passive Azure’s Violent Flames or Azure’s Blooming Blaze.
Azure’s Consuming Blaze, which ups her damage against a Burned enemy, or Azure Robe of War-Time Flames which grants her Burn immunity. The fire theme is so heavy here I feel like I’m being beaten with it. Only ONE of her skills, Azure Stratagem, does not threaten to roast you.
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As always, we can't be sure who this woman is or what project she's for, but the mark on her arm seems very in line for the BlazBlue series. With the marking there and the '08' she has, some people are wondering if she's part of the same line-up as Alpha and Gamma, both previously revealed on Mori's Twitter in the same mysterious manner.
Though it is worth noting that while Alpha and Gamma have both been depicted with their corresponding Greek alphabet symbol, this girl lacks one in her image here. Further, her number marking is on her arm, rather than her collarbone as we've usually seen with PFDs; though her shirt does cover the area where the marking would usually be placed.
I also find it interesting that this image lacks the AD 2049 mark that has appeared on the rest of Mori's recent Bluesky sketches. I wonder if this girl is, or is not, part of the same project...
This is just my current theory, and absolutely not confirmed information, but I'm assuming these sketches are part of whatever installment of the BB franchise he has in mind next. I expect we'll be seeing these characters every few months for a few years, just like how we got sketches of XIII, AD Kagura, and Tokiwa Camellia appearing on Mori's Twitter over the years while he was working on BBDW's story. Many fans wrote those images off as Mori's "fanart" at the time, but they were all tied into the plot of BBDW- we just didn't have the information to recognize it at the time.
It is very likely that Ringo Akagi is one of the most powerful characters in the greater BB/XB franchise, and almost certain that she's one of the most knowledgeable about the greater magics of her world.
As a member of the Mercury family and the Ten Sages, her magical abilities and know-how must be on the same level as Nine's.
Additionally, she's implied to be one of the greatest members of the Sages, as when she left the organization, they reserved her seat for her; in hopes of her return, and in acknowledgement that she could not be replaced.
The only other character to be granted this honor is Relius Clover in his tenure as One.
