Eikichi Hyodo

Eikichi Hyodo (兵動栄吉, Hyōdō Eikichi) is a young onion farmer leading a normal life. In order to save his sister Yuko, he has to fight Sagako.

He is the main character and was introduced in the spin-off manga Zombie Land Saga Gaiden: The First Zombie.

Appearance
Eikichi wears a red shirt with a black leather jacket over it, black pants, and black shoes as well. As for his appearance, he is the eldest son of his family and shares height and physique with his younger sister. He doesn't possess great strength, but thanks to his training as a baseball player, he is quite flexible and skilled at throwing things. His eyes are dull green, while his hair is black.

By the end of 1989, he now notes that he is much older than his sister in height due to his training as in Sagako Busters and the fact that his sister was preserved in an onion.

Personality
Eikichi was a teenager searching for new emotions. Previously, he loved to play baseball until he injured his shoulder. The accident left him out of his team and without motivation to live, feeling like a mediocre man who would never amount to anything. Eikichi was somewhat clumsy and constantly tried to follow the fashion or what others are doing at his school. He was also rebellious by trying to smoke and do things to get his mother's attention.

In his first confrontation with a Sagako, he makes the quick decision to save the old people who were under his influence. Here, he also begins to understand how much his sister risked endeavoring to protect him and his family. He decides that it is his turn to step up and fight as well, defeating the Sagako with his baseball bat and onions. Unfortunately, his power is insufficient and the Sagako runs away.



He always got along with his sister, even when she was better than him in every way. He was never envious of her, but he always put himself down. Despite everything, he still appreciates her very much and appreciates everything that Yuko was always worrying about him, encouraging him to move on. As such, he would not allow anyone to sully his sister's legacy like Sagako Buster, even going so far as to take on a police officer who was insulting his sister's dream.

He was weak in terms of physique and did not have much of a cognitive level. As the Busters mention, he is technically the opposite of his sister in terms of personality. When he discovered that he could also seal the Sagako, he realized that his power was still very weak and needed training. Both Eikichi's physique and intellect took great strides thanks to the Sagako Busters. Little by little, he becomes more and more confident in himself when he discovers that he can be like his sister and be someone useful for once in his life. Which motivates him to continue fighting side by side with the Busters.



Although he is always willing to help others despite their situation, he also has downtimes where he feels quite depressed and overwhelmed by what is happening around him. After being hit by Higashino in a forest, Eikichi enters a state of negativity for more than a week. Despite the efforts of the Busters, he cannot get out of it. All he needed at that moment was a “We need you” from the girls for him to feel like a part of the group. It doesn't take long for him to realize his mistake in running into a young Saki, who accidentally runs him over with her bike. Saki tells Eikichi to stop thinking others need him and start acting for himself and decide what he wants to do with his life.



Eikichi from the beginning was always willing to continue with the Sagako Busters, even if he was not well treated by Tae. The Busters were the place where he was able to embody himself and find the motivation that took him out of his ordinary farm life that he had. Saving his sister was always what he had in mind, ever since he understood what she was doing for the people of Saga and her family in secret. As his Misogi's power increases, he also begins to understand curses and onions, getting to the point of worrying that they are well sealed. Little by little, he begins to look like her sister and to have the same thoughts as her. Now that he understands the Sagako better, he tries to communicate with one of them, even if it seems impossible.

When the last of the Sagako is sealed away by Tae, Yuko is finally freed from her onion and is proud of her older brother. All the struggles and battles of her brother, she had heard and seen from her onion. Even though Saga was saved, he feels that he couldn't save Tae that day. Jofuku, on the other hand, tells him that he should put the past in the past and not blame other people for something that is his problem. He also tells Eikichi that he's got his back covered, so he doesn't have to worry about anything else.

Skillset

 * Baseball-playing—Since he practiced baseball and aspired to be a professional, he has excellent bat skills, which allows him to hit hard hits or throw objects at high speed to hit his targets. He faces off against a Sagako with nothing more than a baseball bat. His exorcism abilities are performed through tools passed down from his sister, though he slowly begins to harness his supernatural abilities as well.

Unique Abilities

 * Misogi—Power that he gains by purifying the Sagakos that appear in Saga.
 * Exorcisms—Like his sister, he possesses the ability to seal curses using onions. According to Jofuku, his Misogi power increases with each training. Only the Hyodo twins have access to this ability, being able to seal the Sagako using special shields made of Onions. Eikichi has to gradually learn how to use this ability when he first joins.

Etymology

 * The name Eikichi means “flourish, prosperity, honor, glory, splendor” (栄) (ei) and “lucky, good” (吉) (kichi), which can can be translated as “extremely happy”.
 * Eikichi's surname Hyodo means “soldier, warrior” (兵) (hyo) and “dynamic, motion, change, confusion” (動) (do).

Trivia

 * Eikichi was also a victim of Saga's curse, which caused his shoulder accident so that he was not a successful baseball player.
 * Eikichi is revealed to have been classmates with the Death Metal fans since before they became metalheads.
 * Although Eikichi is somewhat careless, he cares for Yuko Hyodo when she sees the number of bandages that she always wore at school.
 * Hanako and Anna start calling him “little brother” due to his relationship with Yuko.
 * Thanks to Hanako, he is now 1.80 and much more flexible thanks to his “Del Height”. This quality only lasted one chapter of the manga.
 * He has a strong similarity to Sakura Minamoto, not only is he just as clumsy and acts similarly, but they also get depressed in the same way and tend to be very expressive at times.