Hiro Granger

Hiro Granger, known in the Japanese versions as Hitoshi Kinomiya (木ノ宮仁) is a fictional character in the anime and manga series of Beyblade. He only appears in the third season of the anime, Beyblade G-Revolution, but appears throughout the manga from the beginning. He is the older brother of Tyson Granger. His bit-beast is Metal Driger. In the manga his Holy Monster is Metal Driger. He is English voiced by Illich Guardiola. He is one of three characters to reappear after the first Beyblade game on the GBC, the others being Kai and Tyson.

Manga
Hiro appears in volume 1 as a rival/villain and confronts Tyson on his skills. He later brings Ray to the Japanese tournament to compete. After the tournament finishes, he reveals his true identity to his younger brother who has returned to Japan. Later as part of the world championships, the Japanese team of Tyson, Ray, Max and Kai travel to China, along with Kenny, to compete against the White Tigers. Before they enter the tournament, Hiro introduces them to a site his father and him had worked at before he had returned to Japan in the first place. There he explains the importance of the four sacred bit-beasts which are housed into the Beyblades and how other sacred spirits will now appear.

Hiro follows the team throughout the entire championships until the end. When the championship is won, he once again disappears. He returns upon the second tournament to aid Tyson and his team in the World Championships once again. After the team splits up into their own countries team, Hiro accomplices Tyson, Kenny and now Daichi until the last volume where the final battle of Tyson and Kai is left unfinished.

Anime
Hiro first appears as his alter-ego, Jin of the Gale (Shippu no Jin). He seems to be another ordinary villain. However, Tyson feels that he is familiar, as if foreshadowing. When "Jin of the Gale" sent a battle invitation to Tyson, Ray intercepts it and challenges him. During their battle, Ray gives everything he has but eventually admits his inability to surpass Jin, which resorts to his final attack, Hiro emerged victorious regardless of being caught off guard. Even though Jin won, he does not desire to battle Tyson anymore. When Jin finally reveals himself to be Tyson's brother, Hiro Granger, they share a brief reunion which doesn't last long.

Hiro turns out to be a strict coach who doesn't care about anything but the team and it actually makes him look like a villain in his own right. The truth is that he wants to prepare Tyson the best he can for whatever comes his way.

After the world tournament in the first half of the season, Hiro surprises everyone by joining the BEGA League. This angers Tyson. At first, his reason was to help Tyson. If he trained a strong blader, Tyson would have to get stronger as well. However, when Hiro saw Brooklyn's talent, he wished to create a strong rival in order for him to defeat and left BBA Revolution. Through the Justice 5 tournament, he stood by Brooklyn, but at the very end, he expresses his pride in Tyson through his thoughts and leaves to train.

Though no real reason is given, Kai seems to hate Hiro. Tension is very thick between them when they talk, and Kai clearly states later on for Hiro to stay out of his way. During the World Championship, Hiro chose Daichi and Kenny to battle with Kai and Tala of the Blitzkrieg Boys, meaning that Tyson wouldn't fight Kai. When Kai started his game with Daichi, his Dranzer hit Daichi's Strata Dragoon in the air, and then hit the wall very close to Hiro. Kai stared very angrily at Hiro, showing his anger for not being able to battle Tyson. Also during Kai's first confrontation with Brooklyn, Hiro speaks to Kai in a very condescending tone to the point of insulting Kai's ability as a beyblader stating that he will never match Brooklyn's talent.

Although never fully proven, Hiro is constantly being hinted as the strongest and most powerful blader in the series. He defeats Ray with relative ease, and able to successfully predict victory at the beginning of a match. Moreover, he is able to manipulate elemental objects into his own benefit which he declares only one of his many tricks. He is able to change his strategy based on an opponents strengths as well as weaknesses, therefore makes him invincible and unpredictable.

Beyblades
In series 1 of the manga, Hiro uses Metal Draciel as a blade of choice, in series 2 in V-force he used Metal Dranzer.


 * Metal Draciel
 * Attacks:Metal Duo Sabre
 * Metal Dranzer
 * Attacks:Steel Air Cutter, Mecha Dart
 * Metal Drigger
 * Attacks:Iron Claw, Multi—Image Illusion, Wing Boxer Attack

Hitoshi Kinomiya