JPS-19 (Ikku)
| JPS-19 (Ikku) | |
|---|---|
| Name | |
| Kana | ジェーピーエス・ワンナイン |
| Romaji | JeePiiEsu Wannain |
| Nicknames | Ikku (イック, Ikku) |
| Characteristics | |
| Eye Color | Red |
| First Appearance | |
| Anime Episode | RobiHachi Season One Episode One |
| Portrayed By | |
| Japanese | Daisuke Sakaguchi |
| English | Anthony Bowling |
JPS-19 (ジェーピーエス・ワンナイン, JeePiiEsu Wannain), more commonly referred to as Ikku (イック, Ikku), is Robby's support robot.
Background[edit]
Ikku was originally built on Yokkamarché. His first owner was Rock Kita, who, as a token of friendship, gifted Ikku to his friend Yuma Yarge. However, after Yuma died, Ikku was turned off, his memory was reset, and he was turned back on only 15 years later. Thus, he has no data left from before Robby turned him back on.[1]
During the main course of the story, Ikku acts like the (admittedly very snarky) voice of reason of his group, trying to balance out the wild ideas both Robby and Hatchi sometimes have or to get them to think about things seriously for a moment. He’s the one who properly maintains their spaceship, monitors their fuel levels, organises minor repairs of Nagaya Voyager, as well as constantly reminds the other two that they are constantly close to broke so they shouldn’t be spending money so carelessly.
His short temper is very often tested by the various antics of Robby and Hatchi, but Ikku ultimately always sticks to them and comes to their aid when needed and, despite being less than enthusiastic about the trip in the beginning and definitely not enchanted by the (apparent) wonders of Isekandar, seems to be enjoying the excursion with his friends. At the end of their trip, he accidentally saves the Earth together with Robby and Hatchi and becomes famous for this – there is even merch of him being sold.
After the main story, it seems he and Robby part ways for some time – as when they meet again, he teases that Robby is “useless without him”. During his time away, Ikku writes a novel called RobiHachi: The Men Who Saved Earth. However, eventually he, Robby and Hatchi reunite and agree to go on another adventure together.
Appearance[edit]
Ikku is a short robot that resembles a white rabbit. He has dark red, oval-shaped eyes. He has pink, circular blush on his cheeks. He has tall, rectangular ears, each with a red stripe near the tip. He has a round tail and no hind legs.
The front of his body has a gray tuxedo pattern printed on it, with two white buttons and a dark red bow tie. He has a red numeral 1 and 9 on the middle of his back.
Personality[edit]
Ikku has a personality that is not necessarily one that could be expected from a support robot – he is often cynical or borderline rude, calling Robby, his owner, various insults and rubbing it in when something goes wrong again just like he predicted it would. It seems to be so integral to his being that when he was forbidden from saying anything negative on Akka Sakka, he compared it to being in purgatory and couldn’t be more happy to leave the planet.
Despite this, he is also unwaveringly loyal to Robby – he may complain about his owner a lot, but he still dismounted his own head to distract Hatchi so Robby could run, and he did this unprompted despite having complained about the man mere hours before and knowing the situation was Robby’s own fault.
It may partially do with his company, but Ikku also presents to have a very short temper. He is quick to anger and often snaps when Robby and Hatchi are arguing over something ridiculous again – even more so when they start doing it during a dire situation – though at times he will also just resignedly leave them to their own and go away. He can, however, recognise situations when something that is irrational to him is truly affecting someone else, like when he rather quickly understood Hatchi really is afraid of ghosts and tried to console him, instantly dropping his initial mockery, or when he seemed to be bothered by the cold war aboard of Nagaya Voyager mainly upsetting his friends.
In stark contrast to both Robby and Hatchi, Ikku is the one who keeps his feet on the ground the most. He is not swayed by anything during their travel, stays on topic (even when his friends run off to some excitement of theirs), sometimes stares in disbelief at yet another absurd situation occurring and tries to enforce some reason upon his friends, with varying results as very often his comments are either brushed off or completely ignored. When this happened for too many times and he felt too disrespected, he got even on them by landing the Nagaya Voyager on unfriendly to humans Mulberry 8. Eventually they made peace and Ikku continued to support Robby and Hatchi as before, but this shows there is just so much he is willing to tolerate.
Etymology[edit]
Ikku is named after the author of the original Hizakurige, Ikku Jippensha[2] (the JPS- in his full name represents the author’s surname, and -19 represents ik-ku). Him writing a novel about Robby and Hatchi in the end is a nod to the author as well.
As stated in the introductory part of the English edition of Hizakurige, Jippensha was allegedly a sworn enemy of sham and considered all priests hypocrites. This might be reflected in how Ikku in the anime is more than sceptical about Isekandar, completely not seeing it’s sanctity (albeit fake).
Trivia[edit]
Ikku, as a robot, doesn’t need any food, a power outlet is enough for him. Similarly, for the same reason, he is not equipped with any sense of faith and so he just calls things like he sees them, not falling for the fake aura of spirituality of Isekandar.
He has a built-in fire extinguisher, which he himself calls the Fireman Mode. He also has automatic cleaning installed.
He is also capable of piloting vehicles (at least two are shown: Nagaya Voyager and a commuter at Yokkamarché), diagnosing a spaceship and performing some basic repairs on his own. A less technical skill of his is writing – not only did he write a full novel, but also made up a haikai poem on the spot.
When Ikku input his data into the application which suggests tourists which stage station planet they should visit basing on their personality, he was recommended a planet suitable for those who are careless and hasty.
Gallery
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Ikku with Yuma Yarge and Rock Kita, his previous owners.
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Robby, Hatchi and Ikku in Nagaya Voyager's cockpit.
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Ikku with his head dismounted.
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Ikku's manufacturing plaque from Yokkamarché.
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Ikku in Fireman Mode.
Notes[edit]
- ↑ Most of this is revealed in episode 12. In the ending section, Ikku is shown working on a novel. On the computer screen, the text that can be seen is him talking about this background.
- ↑ Ikku Jippensha on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jippensha_Ikku