Hiro Nakamura

Hiro Nakamura is a character on the NBC drama Heroes who possesses the ability to teleport and manipulate the space-time continuum. He is portrayed by actor Masi Oka.

Character history

Hiro Nakamura is an office worker living in Tokyo, Japan who one day discovers he has the power to manipulate time and space. Hiro is an otaku (a Japanese nerd) who is an avid fan of superheroes and science fiction. Naïve and over-eager, Hiro is both the series' comic reliefand the one character that aspires to the pure heroism of comic bookcrime fighters. His best (and apparently only) friend is the less geeky but equally hapless Ando Masahashi.

In the pilot episode,Hiro's power is developed sufficiently enough for him to turn the second-hand of his clock back one second. He later realizes this same power made a train in Tokyo fourteen seconds late. Ecstatic at these accomplishments, Hiro confides in Ando, who is skeptical about Hiro''s new abilities. Then, at Ando's suggestion, Hiro spaceports himself into the womens' bathroom of a local club. As Hiro is returning home,unconsoled, he happens to see a vacation ad for New York City in the train. Pushing the limits of his powers, Hiro concentrates and actually teleports himself into Times Square.

At first extremely happy, Hiro is later shocked to discover a comic book called 9th Wonders!in a nearby newsstand that shows himself standing in Times Square with his hands up and yelling, "I did it!", which happened just moments earlier. Perusing the comic book, Hiro discovers that his early conversations with Ando are there reproduced with eerie accuracy. The comic's back cover has the name and address of the artist and writer,precognitive Isaac Mendez.

Hiro visits Isaac's loft, discovering the artist's dead body, partly decapitated with the brain removed. Hiro is arrested by the police and during the interrogation discovers he has actually traveled not only through space, but through time as well. It was October 2 when he left Tokyo, and it's now November 8. Just as Hiro discovers this, he witnesses a cataclysmic explosion. Before the blast can hit him, Hiro teleports himself back to Tokyo at the same point from which he had originally left, still holding the comic he had picked up in the future.

Hiro tries to call the present-day Isaac Mendez several times but is unable to communicate because of Hiro's poor English. Hiro then tries to convince his friend Ando about what happened. Using the future comic book, Hiro manages to stop time to save a little girl who was about to be run over by a truck, an event which the comic depicted. Now convinced, Ando agrees to accompany Hiro to New York City in his"heroic journey" to save the world.

They take a plane to Los Angeles but go the rest of the way by car,because that is what the comic book says they do. Hiro and Ando then have several misadventures in Las Vegas,starting when Ando decides to hit the casinos. Ando convinces Hiro to use his powers to cheat, stopping time to give Ando winning hands in poker games. The two make a lot of money but are later beaten up by a player they cheated.

Their attempts to call Isaac Mendez are finally successful, as Peter Petrellianswers the phone, relaying a message from Hiro's future self, and tells them to come to New York City. However, the pair are detained further when the same player they cheated earlier (actually a criminal in the employ of Mr. Linderman)forces them to play a poker game to make money to repay what they gained before. Ando and Hiro manage to escape shortly before the other players are slaughtered by Jessica Sanders.Hiro is crestfallen that he is unable to stop their deaths in time but is comforted by Ando who claims Hiro is still beginning his journey to become a true hero.

Hiro exercises his power as a hero again when by chance he and Ando run across D.L. Hawkins and his son, Micah,at the scene of burning car wreck with a passenger trapped inside. AsD.L. frees the passenger, the vehicle explodes and Hiro freezes time to save them. Hiro complains about not having super strength when he is forced to drag the pair away from the explosion. After he unfreezes time, he shows the future edition of 9th Wonders! to Micah and speaks to him in English about his space-time manipulation powers.

Continuing their journey to New York, Hiro and Ando stop at a diner and meet a waitress named Charlie, who recently developed powers of her own. As Hiro talks to Charlie, who finds him to be "sweet", the man in the baseball capis watching them talk. Charlie is later found murdered in the diner''s storeroom with her brain removed in the same manner Hiro found Isaac in the future. Not wanting to fail to save someone like he did in Las Vegas, Hiro goes back in time in an attempt to prevent her murder,promising Ando that he'll return in five seconds.

Hiro's attempt to teleport to the day before Charlie's death goes awry, landing six months in the past on the day of Charlie's birthday.There, he tries to warn Charlie and protect her from the "very badman", but ends up forming a close relationship with her once he realizes just how far back he's traveled. He doesn't attempt to teleport again for fear of being eaten by a dinosaur (an unlikely outcome of another teleportation attempt gone awry). Eventually, he asks her to come with him to Japan. As the date of their departure gets closer, Charlie reveals that she has a blood clot in her brainand will die no matter what. She says she was going to give up beforehand came and that she has fallen in love with him. Just as they are about to kiss, Hiro inadvertently travels to Japan some time after he and Ando had left for the United States.Unable to return via his own powers, he is forced to make his way back to the diner through normal means. Ando, happy to see Hiro again,assumes Hiro used his powers and was successful, but Hiro corrects him.A sad, defeated Hiro says he failed and took public transportation back to the diner.

In "Fallout",Hiro and Ando find their way to Claire's high school, but arrive under Sylar's's attack and believe her to have already been killed. Ando tries to be optimistic about the situation, claiming that "save the cheerleader, save the world," is just a progression of events and not a conditional statement. While thinking about their next move, Hiro is called by Isacc Mendez, who arranges a meeting with them in Texas. Once they meet, Hiro shows Isaac the future 9th Wonders comic, much to his surprise, then asks him to paint the future. At first, Isaac isn't convinced he can do so without drugs, but once he realizes that some of his rough sketches depict Hiro traveling back to save Charlie,he tries again. Hiro recommends that Isaac concentrate, using the same face he makes when activating his own powers, and Isaac manages to activate his own power successfully. Isaac's painting depicts Hiro fighting a dinosaur, possibly a Carnotaurus, with a sword, seemingly confirming Hiro's earlier fears. Hiro remarks, "I really need to find that sword".

Future Hiro

Another Hiro Nakamura, this one claiming to be from the future, first appears in "Collision". When he appears to Peter Petrelliin a subway, he freezes time in order to speak with Peter privately. He urges Peter to "save the cheerleader, save the world" and "to be the one we need" but doesn't elaborate for fear of causing a rift in the space-time continuum.

The future Hiro appears to be much more fit, confident, and experienced than his present self. He no longer wears glasses, fashions a soul patch and ponytail hairstyle, wears a black overcoat, carries a sword strapped to his back, and speaks fluent American English. On the hilt of his sword is the symbol that appears in various points throughout the series

Powers and abilities

Hiro discovers in the first episode that he can manipulate the space-time continuum,giving him the power to freeze time relative to himself, travel through time, or teleport to any location at will. The first noted occurrences when Hiro inadvertently made a subway train late using this power.This is especially notable because a Japanese train being late at all is an extremely unlikely event. In the third episode,he also froze time relative to himself. He could not hold time in this state for very long, but he since duplicated the feat repeatedly during a stop in Las Vegas.

Although stressful events and active use have helped Hiro to develop his abilities, he still lacks full control. For example, when he attempted to teleport to New York,he ended up inadvertently traveling five weeks into the future as well.Although he was able to travel back to the same time and place from which he left, he was only able to do so when his life was in danger from a nuclear explosion. Later, when he attempted to save Charlie's life by traveling to the day before her death, Hiro accidentally ended up six months in the past. He also inadvertently teleported to Japan from Texasjust as he and Charlie were about to kiss. Afterward, he could not teleport back, no matter how hard he tried. These trips have given Hiro his own unique time line, which is reflected in some of Isaac Mendez's paintings of Hiro.

Time alterations

Along with the existence of an alternate future version of himself, Hiro has come across or induced a few time paradoxes or alterations in the series.

• In "One Giant Leap", Hiro travels with Ando to the United States even though Ando was still in Japan when he had previously traveled to New York City five weeks into the future. When directly questioned about this by Ando, Hiro says they are changing history.
• Between the episodes "Seven Minutes to Midnight" and "Six Months Ago", Hiro traveled six months into the past in Texas.
  • There, he changed history again by forming a close relationship with Charlie in the past. This change was most noted by a picture which had originally shown only Charlie at her birthday party now showing both her and Hiro.
  • At one point, Hiro was able to give himself a phone call from Texas to Japan, though he immediately hung up after he realized it was the Hiro in Japan who had answered.
  • In "Seven Minutes to Midnight", Charlie said that someone had given her a small Japanese dictionary on her birthday, and in "Six Months Ago", Hiro is the one who gives her the Japanese dictionary.

Name

According to the online comic on NBC.com, Hiro is named after Hiroshima, so that his family will always remember the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Tim Kring has been quoted as saying, "It's no coincidence we named him Hiro… he truly is on a hero's quest".^[1]To this end, his name is often used as a pun. His co-worker Ando once called him "Super-Hiro" in jest, which is actually a homonym to the Japanese word for superhero.(, sūpāhīrō^?), and the fifth episode's title is "Hiros".

Interests

• Hiro's Blog, maintained by NBCand written from Hiro's point of view, is updated after each new episode is aired, usually about the events of the episode.Appropriately enough, after the airing of "Seven Minutes to Midnight", all of the entries and archives were removed, as though Hiro was never there to write them, and after "Homecoming",there was a post about Hiro meeting Charlie and a comment about the missing entries due to a "server glitch." Following Hiro's return to present in "Six Months Ago," all previous entries were restored.
• Hiro is a big fan of the Japanese anime and manga Jojo's Bizarre Adventure. In his blog, he states that he wants to "be like Jojo and Vaan and go on adventures". (Vaan most likely refers to Van Fanel of Escaflowne. This could also be reference to Vaan from Final Fantasy XII.) One of Hiro's powers includes time manipulation, a gift shared with Jojo characters Jotaro Kujo and Dio Brando. Van Fanel traveled between Earth and the parallel world of Gaea, indicating teleportation.
• According to his blog, his favorite video games are Chrono Trigger (which dealt with time travel) and the Final Fantasy role-playing game series (particularly the sixth installment). He is also a fan of Future Trunks, a time traveler from the manga and anime Dragon Ball Z(the future version of Hiro shown in "Collision" and "Hiros" bears some resemblance to Future Trunks with his serious attitude and the sword strapped to his back).
• As he is being questioned by the police in "Don't Look Back", it is revealed that Hiro's wallet contains a membership card for the Merry Marvel Marching Society, a Marvel Comics fan club which has not distributed membership cards since the 1970s.

Character history

In the premiere episode, Peter Petrelli is a nurse living in New York City.He is sensitive and compassionate, wears his heart on his sleeve and is described as a "dreamer". Peter is also defined by his complex relationship with his older brother, Nathan,to whom he feels very close, even claiming he has a sort of metaphysical connection that allowed him to know immediately when Nathan suffered a serious accident in the past. Differences between Peter and Nathan, an ambitious politician who is so focused on his congressional campaign that he shows no compassion when their mother is arrested for shoplifting, have caused tensions among the brothers.

These tensions are exacerbated when Peter starts having extraordinarily vivid dreams of flying.He tries to confide in Nathan, but his brother tells him that the dreams are a sign of psychological distress. Eventually Peter summons Nathan to witness as he jumps off a building to prove he can fly.However, it's Nathan who flies, catching Peter as he falls. Peter blacks out after the brothers lose their grip on each other, to wake on the hospital with muddled recollections of what has happened. Nathan claims neither of them flew and that Peter simply jumped, nearly killing himself. Between this and his mother's revelation that Peter'slate father had been mentally unstable as well as suicidal, Peter is led to believe he's going crazy.

Drawing a crude stick figure image with one figure levitating a few feet above the ground, Peter gets an idea. Attempting to discover the truth, Peter stands on the edge of another rooftop later that evening.Nathan arrives, and Peter threatens to jump if Nathan doesn't tell him what really happened. Nathan admits that they both flew: Nathan first caught Peter, lost his grip, and then Peter flew some way down to the ground before falling. Peter at first doesn't believe it, thinking Nathan is only telling him what he wants to hear, but then Peter realizes he is levitating just as they argue. However, Peter's later attempts to fly, when he is away from his brother's presence, are unsuccessful.

Peter decides to quit his job as a nurse, saying that he no longer feels right "trying to save the world one person at a time" but is meant for something more. As he is leaving, he confides to Simone Deveaux,the daughter of the dying man Peter has cared for, that he has loved her ever since he first saw her. The two of them spend a night together, even though Simone doesn't know how she truly feels about Peter, having just broken up with Isaac Mendez, a tortured painter addicted to heroin.

The first hints of Peter’s greater destiny come when he is contacted by a future version of Hiro Nakamura,a man with the power to manipulate time. This visit occurs when Peter is riding the subway, and all the other passengers are frozen in time.Hiro has come to give Peter a message: "Save the cheerleader, save the world". He urges Peter to be "the one we need", saying this was what Peter always wanted to hear. He finally tells Peter to go and visit Isaac Mendez, the precognitive painter and Simone's former boyfriend.

Peter does so and convinces Isaac to see past their differences. Relearns that Isaac has predicted a nuclear explosion will happen in New York soon, and they both become convinced that saving this unknown cheerleader is somehow connected to averting the catastrophe. While in Isaac's company, Peter also confirms that his superhuman ability involves copying other superbeings' abilities, when he manages to mimic the painter's powers, finishing one painting that apparently shows the cheerleader killed by a figure that resembles Sylar.

In the episode "Nothing to Hide,"Peter has a dream about Simone's ailing father. In the dream, he tells the sick man that he can fly. Simone later comes to his apartment and tells him that her father has died. Before he passed away, her father told her that he had dreamed of flying with Peter and is worried about the state of the world. However, Peter told him that there are people who care and who will save the world from destruction. Simone then tells Peter that she has sold the painting by Isaac to a man named Linderman in Las Vegas. Peter believes the painting will help him to save the world.

Peter goes to Nathan's hoping that his brother can help convince Linderman to give up the painting. When he gets there, he finds,Nathan, their mother, and Nathan's family attending a brunch with a newspaper reporter. Peter joins them and is surprised when the reporter implies that Nathan may have cheated on his wife, Heidi, with a blondein Las Vegas. Peter then claims Nathan was arranging for a private clinic to treat Peter's mental illness. That night, Nathan talks with Peter about what happened in Vegas. Peter is unhappy Nathan cheated on Heidi, but Nathan tries to explain himself. Before he leaves, Nathan says he was temporarily kidnapped, and warns Peter that people will want to lock them up if they realize the two of them have powers. Peter is skeptical of Nathan's story.

In "Homecoming", Peter's brother Nathan Petrelli destroys the missing painting created by Isaac Mendez,which depicts a dead Peter. He intends to stop Peter from going to the homecoming game and getting killed. However, Simone shows Peter a photograph of the painting and has taken the liberty of tracking the school down for him. Peter goes to the high school in Odessa, Texas and meets Claire Bennet. Sylarsoon shows up to kill Claire, and Peter tries to hold him off while Claire escapes. During their battle, Peter tackles Sylar and the pair fall off the roof of Union Wells High. Sylar survives the fall, but it seems as if Peter has't. However, when Claire shows up, Peter mimics her healing powers. As he begins resetting his bones, he asks Claire to call the police. Claire's father has already taken the liberty of doing so, so they show up while Peter is still covered in his own blood and arrest him.

The episode "Six Months Ago"reveals why Peter believes he has a metaphysical connection with his brother when, during a dream, he sees Nathan and Heidi get into the car accident that paralyzes Nathan's wife from the waist down (a scene which also shows Nathan using his ability to fly apparently without meaning to do so). Peter proves there is some hint of a brotherly connection to Nathan when he asks the latter about "the other car"involved in the accident, a detail no one else knew save for Nathan,Heidi, and any persons riding in the other car.

In "Fallout,"Peter is in jail when he has a vision in which he is visited by his brother, who apparently metamorphoses into Sylar, causing Peter to wakeup violently. Peter is later visited by Claire Bennet, who believes Peter shares her powers (in fact, Peter's health is deteriorating for unknown reasons). Claire leaves Peter's cell, telling him that he is her hero; a short time later, Nathan gets Peter out of jail.Interestingly, Nathan appears to be wearing the exact same clothes as in Peter's vision, although Nathan's tendency to wear a suit most anywhere leaves this an ambiguous detail. On their way out of the building, Peter passes out and has a vision of the future where he explodes in the middle of New York. After recovering from the vision,Peter tries to explain it to his brother, but then falls unconscious.His status remains unclear, although a preview of the next episode reveals Peter to be alive.

Powers and abilities

Mystery surrounded Peter's powers before and after the first few episodes. While every main character was said outright to have a power in press releases, Peter was simply billed as "trying to convince his brother he can fly". Eventually, Peter did indeed display the ability to levitate, but only while in the vicinity of his brother, who has the ability to fly. The exact power he had and its nature were officially explained in an article from the October 9-14 TV Guide.

Peter is actually a power mimicwho temporarily copies the powers of others in his immediate vicinity.He seems to be able to use the powers he mimics instinctively. In "Hiros",Peter successfully mimics Isaac's precognition in order to finish a painting. While Peter's eyes undergo the same change as Isaac's, he doesn't use any heroin to activate the ability. He believes his crude levitation sketch was also a product of Issac's copied power. He was also able to mimic Claire Bennet's healing factor after spending only a few minutes near her to heal from a near-fatal fall in "Homecoming".

Peter has also had several clairvoyantvisions. The first two were related to his brother's flight ability while the most recent was of himself exploding in downtown New York while the other heroes looked on. Additionally, he saw Charles Deveaux in what appears to have been a shared dream, right before the elder man passed away.