Arado Balanga

Infobox animanga character
color = lightsteelblue
name = Arado Balanga
series = Super Robot Wars


caption = Arado Balanga, as he appears in .
first =
last =
creator =
voiced by = Kaichi Kazuya (Japanese)
portrayed by =
nickname =
alias = Bronzo 28
age =
gender = Male
species = Enhanced Human
born =
death =
nationality =
class =
occupation =
title =
relatives =
divider = Military History
aux1 name = Affiliation
aux1 = Titans (Alpha 2),
The School (Before Alpha 2/OG 1/OGs),
Alpha Numbers (Alpha 2/3),
Neo Divine Crusaders (OG 2/OGs),
Aggressors (After OG 2/OGs/OG Gaiden)
aux2 name = Rank
aux2 = Sergeant Major
aux3 name = Units Piloted
aux3 = Huckebein MK III L (Alpha 2),
Lion F (OG 2/OGs),
Huckebein MK II M (OG 2/OGs),
R-Blade (OG 2/OGs),
Wild Falken L (OG 2/OGs),
Wild Wurger (Alpha 2/3, OG 2/OGs/OG Gaiden),
Bartool (OVA, OGs/OG Gaiden)

Arado Balanga is a fictional character from the Super Robot Wars series. In canon, he pilots the Wild Wurger and is joined by close friend Seolla Schweizer and her Wild Falken.

Appearances

Arado appears in the following games:

*Super Robot Wars Alpha 2 - Selectable protagonist, with own unique storyline
*Super Robot Wars Alpha 3 - Playable character, available in Cobray Gordon's route only
* - Non-playable enemy character → Playable character
*Super Robot Wars Original Generations - Non-playable enemy character → Playable character
*Super Robot Wars Original Generation Gaiden - Playable character

Arado also appears in the animated .

Theme Music

* "Ace Attacker Ver. W" - Default theme in Alpha 2/OG 2/OGs; appeared as an extra theme in Alpha 3
* "Wild Flug" ("Wild Flight") - Used when piloting the Wild Wurger in Alpha 2/3/OGs/OG Gaiden

Personality And Traits

Unlike his School training partner, Seolla Schweizer, Arado Balanga is a more cheerful person, although his attitude to his superiors can be unsettling, according to Seolla. Arado can let his ego get the better of him at times, particularly when it involves arguing with Seolla, with the end result being berated at, even getting delivered a swift beating from her. Nevertheless, his relationship with her is utterly strong, reflecting their promise to look out for each other during their days at The School. For a growing, young man, Arado possesses a rather strange appetite -- he is known to down three full-course meals in one sitting, shocking most people. Also, he is one of the few people to try Kusuha Mizuha's health drinks and not faint, and the first to claim the concotion, which is shunned by all who've tried it (and by people that haven't tried it), is "delicious".

Arado's skill as a pilot is fairly low, which several characters take notice, remarking a student of The School should be much more adept, due to the training he received. The reason is the style his School instructors taught him: Arado was never trained to fight solo, and hinges on having Seolla there to support him. However he is known to unleash his full potential at the most pivotal moments, while at the same time, get shot down by enemy pilots, due to his carelessness and lack of focus.

History

Alpha Timeline

Original Generation Timeline

Arado Balanga was one of the students of "The School", an Earth Federation Army facility designed to turn children into Personal Trooper pilots. Arado was the 28th child in the "Bronzo" class, and given the designation "Bronzo 28". The Bronzo-class children were trained in pairs, and Bronzo 28 was partnered with Bronzo 27. Training at The School was hard, but Bronzo 27 and 28 did manage to make a few friends, particularly Aurum 1, one of the oldest students at the school, and a young girl, who was the 11th subject of the Latune class. But the training at The School was dangerous, and as better ways to pilot Personal Troopers were discovered and implemented, the facility was shut down. By this time, Bronzo 27, 28, and Aurum 1 were among the few surviving children. They were taken in by Agilla Setme and her assistant, Cuervo Sero, who decided to finish their training, and joined up with the Divine Crusaders. Cuervo gave Bronzo 27 and 28 the names "Seolla Schweizer" and "Arado Balanga" respectively.

Arado and Seolla's training continued, even through the Divine Crusaders War and the L5 Campaign. After the war, they were finally deployed by the Neo Divine Crusaders, and assigned to steal the prototype Wild Falken from an Earth Federation base in Hawaii, while under the command of Archibald Grims, Yuuki Jaggar, and Ricarla Borgnine. Arado engaged the enemy forces while Seolla secured the Wild Falken, but because he was facing the Aggressors in a mecha totally unsuited to his style, he was quickly shot down. After the mission, Seolla would confide to him the pilot of the Wild Falken was in fact Latune 11, whom they thought had died in a training accident at The School. Believing Latune to be brainwashed by the Earth Federation, Seolla was determined to rescue her, but Arado was much less certain.

After failing out of the Randgrith simulations, Arado accompanied Seolla and other Neo Divine Crusaders forces in a distraction raid against the Earth Federation Izu base. Unfortunately, the base was conducting tests on the R-Blade, piloted by Ryusei Date, along with Irmgult Kazahara's Grungust. Seeing Seolla in danger of being captured by the Grungust, Arado managed to activate his Lion's Boost Drive and took a rocket-punch meant for Seolla, nearly destroying his mech in the process. While their unit moved from China to Africa, they were attacked by more Earth Federation forces. Regulated to staying behind to guard the ship, Arado, Seolla and the other rear forces were called in as reinforcements, and were under heavy assault. Again, Arado would find himself getting between Seolla and an enemy attack, but what was a simple burst of vulcan fire from an enemy Huckebein MK II M just happened to strike his Lion at a critical spot, blowing the mech in half and nearly killing him.

Arado woke up in the medical room of the Hagane, with a worried Latune sitting beside him. She had been piloting the Huckebein, and was trying to disable Seolla's Randgrith when Arado nearly got himself killed. Although he was happy to be reunited with Latune, he resolved to escape and find his way back to Seolla, whom he knew would think he had died. The crew of the Hagane, under advice from Kai Kitamura, decided to try to recruit him, but first transferred him to Mao Industries' headquarters on the Moon, for a psychiatric evaluation by Radha Bairaban. When Mao Industries and the neighboring lunar colony were attacked by troops commanded by the Inspectors, Arado stole the second Wild Falken prototype and attempted to escape, but was convinced to stay and fight the invaders off. Unfortunately, he was injured when Inspector Vigagi destroyed the Wild Falken and attacked the other defenders until he was called off.

After recovering from his injuries, Arado would again face the Inspectors when they came to attack Mao Industries a second time. This onslaught was so fierce that company president Ring Mao had no choice but to evacuate the staff, along with the new Huckebein MK III and the AM Gunner. However, the transport's departure was delayed, and Radha was facing down a squad of enemy units. Being denied permission to use the MK III, Arado instead deployed in a Huckebein MK II M, equipped with a hastily-made hammering weapon that Mao employee Dr. Marion Radom had made so Arado would be able to fight in close-quarters combat. Arado and Radha managed to stall the enemy forces long enough for Ring and Rio Mei Long to be able to arrive and support them in their Huckebein 008 and AM Gunner, respectively while guarding the final transport carrying Dr. Radom, Kirk Hamill, Ryoto Hikawa, and the Huckebein MK III. When things looked to be under control however, Inspectors' field commander Mekibos appeared in his Graterkin Super Robot, determined to prevent the escape and capture the 008 and MK III for the Inspectors' own use. At this point, Ryoto started up the MK III, and helped Arado and the others in fending off Mekibos until he decided to retreat.

Following this, Arado and the Mao employees returned to Earth, where they were picked up by the crew of the Hiryu Custom. Radha, Ryoto, and Rio were ordered to join the fight against the Inspectors and Einst in the respective mechs they had used back on the moon, while Arado was given the prototype R-Blade to use after it was uninanimously decided that his strengths lie in melee combat by Kyosuke Nanbu, Katina Tarask, and Ryusei Date, three of the Hiryu's most skilled melee combatants.

Arado would later be sent on a scouting mission alongside Lamia Loveless, during which they were ambushed by a squad of supposed Neo DC units under Seolla's command. Arado attempted to convince Seolla that the EFA weren't the enemy, but she had been brainwashed into believing that Arado was not a member of The School, but rather an EFA soldier who kidnapped and brainwashed Latune into fighting on his side. Following this, reinforcements for both sides joined the fray, with the Hagane, Hiryu Custom, and Shirogane arriving to aid Arado and Seolla, and several more squads of Gespensts under the command of Axel Almer and Echidna Iisaki showing up to assist Seolla's group. Shortly afterwards, Vindel Mauser appeared in his Zweizergain machine in order to test its capabilities in battle. After a brief engagement, Vindel used the System XN to transport Axel, Echidna, Seolla, and the surviving Gespensts away from the battlefield. Arado swore afterwards to do whatever it took to break The School's hold on Seolla.

Arado would next be on hand to help the EFA forces in rescuing Shine Hausen, crown princess of the Dukedom of Riksent, while she was fleeing her country when it had become occupied by Neo DC forces. Shine was already close friends with Latune, and soon enough, Arado had hit it off with the young royal as well, promising to aid her in the liberation of her country. After succeeding at which, Shine resolved to stay on with the Hagane and Hiryu in order to not just aid the people in her own country, but those all over the world, adding that she felt safe as long as she was with Raidiese F. Branstein, Latune, and Arado.

Some time later, Arado, Latune, and Shine encountered Seolla again. When Seolla shot down the R-Blade and was preparing to finish Arado off, Dr. Radom had Latune and Shine hand the Wild Wurger, the counterpart machine to Seolla's Wild Falken, to Arado for his personal use, having added the Stag Beetle Crusher, a powerful melee grappling weapon, to the machine's right arm after monitoring Arado's simulation training. She also programmed it with motion data from Kyosuke and Katina in order to allow Arado to fight efficiently with it. Although Arado fought back Seolla and the Neo DC reinforcements sent to aid her, he again failed to break The School's hold on Seolla.

Arado's next mission involved taken a former EFA base back from the Neo DC. Although the mission went well at first, things turned sour when Arado and Latune's close friend from the School, Aurum 1, now going by the name Ouka Nagisa, appeared on the scene in her Rapiéçage. Ouka, who had undergone even more extensive mental conditioning than Seolla, was also convinced that Latune was being forced to work for the EFA against her will, and that Arado was the man responsible. She single-handedly held back the entire Hagane team, showing a degree of control over the dangerous GEIM System that normally increased the abilities of a pilot at the cost of their sanity. The assault ended when the Machinery Children, a trio of genetically engineered boys who were cloned from Arado himself and hated him with a passion, arrived, killing off the Neo DC soldiers guarding the base due to seeing them as worthless and ordering Ouka to stand down. Thurisuz, the most aggressive of the three, then charged the EFA forces in his Bergelmir mech, hoping to kill Arado. After Arado barely evaded Thurisuz's attacks, Uruz and Anthuz, the other two members of the trio, called off their brother, reporting that they had been called back to the Earth Cradle, which the Machinery Children and Neo DC troops were using as a base.

Following this, Arado was introduced to Mai Kobayashi, a new addition to the SRX Team and younger sister of team captain Aya Kobayashi. Arado, as well as Shine, and Ryusei, would become close friends with Mai. Despite this, however, Mai was carrying a heavy burden of guilt, as she had previously been forced to lead the Aerogaters as Levi Tolar after being captured and brainwashed. Afraid of becoming her sister's enemy and endangering innocent people again, Mai fled from the Hagane, running right into Neo DC forces supervised by Agilla, who ordered her troops, including Ouka and Seolla, to capture Mai. but before she was able to do so, Arado rushed to Mai's defense along with the SRX Team, Latune, and Shine. When Agilla revealed her knowledge of Aya and Mai's past as test subjects at ICS, and taunted them with the fact that their pasts and memories, including the notion that they were real sisters, was false; Arado and Ryusei rebuffed her and proclaimed the fact that it didn't matter what had happened to them in the past, they were friends and comrades in the present, and that's all that mattered. Spurred on by this, and similar words from the other members of the group, Aya and Mai recovered and aided in driving back the Neo DC forces once again.

Shortly afterwards, Arado, Latune, and Shine were attacked by Seolla once again while on another scouting mission. After exchanging blows between the Wurger and Falken, Arado was finally able to undo Seolla's brainwashing. Immediately afterwards however, Arado would be attacked by Ouka and the Machinery Children, who explained their connection to Arado and why they wanted him dead. At this point, reinforcements arrived, and during the battle which ended in the retreat of Ouka and the Machinery Children, Arado and Seolla unveiled the Twin Bird Strike, a special combination maneuver specifically designed for the Wurger and Falken.

Following the failed Operation Plantagenet, during which the Neo DC was absorbed into the ranks of the Shadow-Mirror forces led by Vindel, Arado would be placed on the Kurogane, a ship that would be used to replace the Hagane, which had been badly damaged by an assault from the defecting Shirogane and its captain, Lee Jinjun. Alongside Seolla, Latune, Shine, and members of the SRX Team, as well as Yuuki and Carla, who had decided not to ally themselves with the Shadow-Mirror after Operation Plantagenet, Arado would participate in the attack on the Earth Cradle, the Shadow-Mirrors' home base. During the ensuing battles, Arado would be forced into a final confrontation against the Machinery Children, who were eventually killed alongside their creator, Egret Feff, Agilla, and Cuervo, due to suicide attacks from the repenting Ouka and Wodan Ymir.

After this, Arado and the other Kurogane team members joined up with the Hiryu's forces in outer space to carry out an assault on Neviim, where the remaining Inspectors and Shadow-Mirrors had stationed themselves. They would also be drawn into a final conflict with the Einsts, during which the Einst leader, Einst Regisseur, merged with Neviim itself, forming the moon-sized entity Stern Regisseur. Arado would participate in the operation to destroy the monsterous enemy before it could reach the Earth and destroy it.

Following the Einst attack, Arado was made a member of the Aggressors, along with Latune, Seolla, Lamia, and under the command of Kai.