Hiro Nakamura

Hiro Nakamura
Portrayed by	Masi Oka, Garrett Masuda (11-year-old Hiro), Sekai Murashige (8-year-old Hiro)
First appearance	Genesis
In-story stats
Known ability	Space-time manipulation
Formal name	中村広 Nakamura Hiro
Aliases	Jotaro Kujo, Takezo Kensei
Nickname	Carp
Gender
Date of birth	1982
Home	Tokyo, Japan
Residence	Hiro Nakamura's home
Occupation	Office worker
Significant others	formerly Charlie Andrews (deceased), formerly Yaeko
Parents	Kaito Nakamura (deceased), Ishi Nakamura (deceased)
Sibling	Kimiko Nakamura (older sister)

This article contains international text. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of the correct international text characters.

Hiro Nakamura (中村広 Nakamura Hiro) is a programmer at Yamagato Industries based in Tokyo, Japan who possesses the ability to bend space and time.

About

Bored with the monotony and conformity of his job as a salaried employee, Hiro Nakamura turns to his love of science fiction and fantasy as an escape. A bit of a dreamer, Hiro loves the idea of possessing powers, but the reality of it all becomes more than what he expected. Initially a happy-go-lucky fellow with an innocent view of adventure, Hiro's experiences force him to become more serious and determined. Hiro possesses a very strong sense of purpose and a solid moral foundation, and the events of the series only strengthen them.

Character History

Season One

For an episode-by-episode summary, see Hiro Nakamura: Season One History.

Hiro works at Yamagato Industries when his power manifests. He tries convincing his friend, Ando, but fails. Growing tired of Japan, he teleports to New York, only to be five weeks in the future. Collecting 9th Wonders! and seeing Isaac's dead body, he escapes an explosion and returns to the present. He convinces Ando of his ability, and they travel to Las Vegas. After cheating at gambling, the friends part ways after an argument, and Hiro meets Nathan in a diner, telling him about the future. Returning to Las Vegas and meeting with Ando, they end up helping the high roller they cheated until he is killed. They then help D.L. save a woman, and reach the Burnt Toast Diner, where Hiro hits it off with a waitress. She is soon killed, and Hiro time travels to save her.

He arrives six months in the past, and continually tries to tell Charlie of her impending fate. However, he falls in love with her, and visa versa, and Hiro proves his power by folding 1,000 origami cranes. They prepare to leave for Japan, when they lean in for a kiss - only for Hiro to appear on the rooftop of Yamagato Industries.

He returns to the Diner, and thinks he has failed in his task when the cheerleader Peter told him about is believed to have been killed. They meet with Isaac, and he paints Hiro facing a dinosaur. Hiro vows to get the sword, and goes to the Museum of Natural History with Ando. Finding his power rapidly diminishing over two weeks, Hiro finds the sword is owned by the Linderman Group and gets help from both Nathan and Simone to find it.

However, his father and sister try to stop him, but Hiro overcomes this. He and Ando reach Las Vegas once more, where they are further sidetracked when Ando decides to help Hope - a criminal who is using them. Afterwards, Hiro tells Ando to return to Japan, and goes to the Corinthian Casino himself. Tricking the curator, he gets the sword with a returning Ando's help, and travel to the future, where they meet with Hiro's future self. He is caught by Future Matt, and is consistently attacked for information. He is almost killed, but Future Mohinder saves him, and he meets with Ando, Future Hiro and Future Peter. Hiro and Ando return to the present day.

Returning to Isaac's loft, they find Isaac's body, as Sylar hears them. They escape, and continue following him, watching his home life and his visit with his mother. Hiro almost kills him, but escapes when Sylar gets the upperhand by breaking Hiro's sword. Hiro and Ando go to Jittetsu Arms, where Hiro trains with his father - only to find that Ando has left to fight Sylar. Hiro saves Ando from Sylar, and drops him off at Japan. He returns to Kirby Plaza, and stabs Sylar. Before he can kill Peter, Sylar throws Hiro at a building--causing him to appear outside Kyoto, Japan in 1671 between Whitebeard and Kensei as an eclipse occurs.

Four Months Later...

Hiro is in feudal Japan. He narrowly escapes death by freezing time, taking Takezo Kensei with him. It turns out that he did not save Takezo Kensei, but a stand in. The real Takezo gets upset that he frightened away his stand in. Hiro then calls him a hero, to which Takezo is surprised, but Hiro is surprised that Takezo is English. Hiro and Takezo later walk to Otsu, and on the way Hiro finds out that his childhood hero is not as heroic as he imagined.

Lizards

In the past, Hiro asks around looking for Takezo and finds him drunk. Hiro dunks Takezo's head in a trough and tells him that he needs to go after Yaeko and save her. He explains that before he came back in time Takezo was supposed to be a great warrior and that she would become his princess. Takezo tells Hiro that he looks like a fish when he talks and Hiro dunks his head in the trough again. Hiro laments that he already ruined the past and that if Takezo won't be a hero then he'll have to. He takes Takezo's outfit and rides off.

Hiro, dressed as Takezo Kensei, calls out to Whitebeard's men demanding that they leave Yaeko alone. The leader asks Hiro how he can boast of his swordsmanship when he doesn't even have a sword. Hiro tells him that he doesn't need a sword because he has all of their swords. He uses his ability to stop time and take all the swords from the men. The men take aim with their bows and Hiro laughs and tells them they shouldn't. Before they can fire, Hiro stops time again and takes their bows and arrows from them. He tells them to leave before he takes their clothes next. The men run off as Hiro suggests they refer to this as "The Battle of Twelve Swords." Yaeko, believing Hiro to be Takezo, thanks him. Hiro asks Yaeko to ride back with him. The two dismount the horse and Yaeko apologizes to Hiro for thinking that Takezo had just left with their money. He promises to rescue Yaeko's father. They enter a clearing surrounded by cherry blossoms and talk about their beauty. Yaeko asks Hiro to take off his mask, but Hiro tells her that she disarms him and that he shouldn't. He tells her that his love for her will be legendary. After stopping time and taking off his mask, Hiro disappears.

Hiro looks for Takezo, who is angry that Hiro stole his armor. Hiro explains that he needed to use it to save Yaeko and to make people think that Takezo was a hero. Hiro explains that "Kensei" disarmed 11 men and rescued a beautiful woman. Takezo is skeptical, but Yaeko enters and thanks Takezo, telling him that he forgot his sword. She tells him that they must go rescue her father now. Takezo tells Hiro that apparently listening to him will earn him more reward and asks him to make him a hero. They exit and are confronted by the men from earlier. The men shoot Takezo with three arrows and leave with Yaeko. Hiro pulls an arrow from Takezo and soon notices that the wound heals itself.

Kindred

Hiro communicates with Ando by writing a series of letters and hiding them in the hilt of the Kensei sword. He tells Ando about his life in 1671.

Hiro talks with Kensei and explains that they are both "special". Kensei dismisses the thought and calls Hiro a devil. Later Hiro sees Kensei testing his power and talks to him about it. Hiro explains that powers should be used for ethical reasons, not for financial gain. Hiro then teleports Kensei to a temple where the ninety angry ronin protect the Fire Scroll. Hiro than teleports away. Later he is talking to Yaeko; she thinks that Kensei has two personalities, one of them actually being Hiro. Hiro writes to Ando that he has fallen in love with Yaeko and instead of leaving, he will stay in Otsu a little bit longer.

Graphic Novel:The Trial of the Black Bear

Hiro is a small, cat-like creature who is the sidekick to Takezo Kensei. They are trying to capture the map to Whitebeard's camp, which is held by the Black Bear of Sakashita. A cub holds the map while its mother is distracted chasing Kensei. This gives Hiro a chance to grab the map.

Fight or Flight

Ando brings the scrolls from Hiro to Tatsuya Atsumi, who tells Ando it's authentic. Ando tells him that a few scrolls are damaged and he must know what they say. After some work, Tatsuya puts it under a microscope to show the hidden characters. On the scroll, it tells Hiro's tale of helping Kensei. Kensei and Hiro run up to Yaeko with another fragment of the tapestry to find Whitebeard's camp and help find Yaeko's father.

The Line

Ando and Tatsuya Atsumi continue to read Hiro's scrolls. Hiro continues his story of his quest with Kensei and Yaeko while they are on Kiso Mountain. The day before they invade Whitebeard's camp, Hiro asks Yaeko not to go into battle, but she insists that when she is with Kensei, she cannot be harmed. She wonders where they will find her father, and Hiro recalls the tale that Kensei found him in the tent that smolders. She insists that they cannot guess when Kensei arrives, telling her that her father is in the smoldering tent. Yaeko shoots Hiro a look, and he tells the couple that they should begin to get ready.

Hiro, Kensei and Yaeko approach Whitebeard's camp to find the swordsmith. Kensei knocks out a guard, and the three run into the tent to find Yaeko's father. Hiro introduces himself, and introduces Kensei as well. They try to remove the chains holding the swordsmith in place, but he tells them they must not, because he needs to destroy Whitebeard's guns. Hiro asks where he was able to get guns since the emperor banned them, but the swordsmith tells Hiro that he showed Whitebeard how to make them in exchange for Yaeko's safety. He explains that Whitebeard intends on overthrowing the emperor, and Hiro remarks that Kensei must save Japan by destroying the guns. Kensei nods, and begins to hack at the chains.

After sunrise, Hiro, Yaeko, Kensei and the swordsmith run away, with Kensei killing many men in their way. Guards alert of the attack, and Whitebeard fires a rifle towards the invading party. The bullet nearly hits Hiro or Yaeko, but Hiro teleports the two to safety. Yaeko asks what happened, and how the two were moved from where they were. Hiro tells her they must find Kensei, but she asks Hiro if he was able to move them, then realizes that Hiro has been doing amazing things around her, including the Battle of Twelve Swords and their moment under the cherry blossoms. She asks if Hiro loves her, and he tells her very much. She tells Hiro that everything she loved in Kensei was in fact Hiro, and begins to kiss Hiro. Hiro freezes time, and wonders about the space-time continuum, but then unfreezes time and kisses Yaeko. Kensei, standing from a distance, sees the two kiss. Later, Hiro finds Kensei after searching for hours, but Kensei reveals that he saw Hiro kiss Yaeko. Hiro apologizes, and urges Kensei to fulfill his destiny. As Hiro walks away, he is knocked unconscious by Kensei.

Out of Time

Hiro goes to destroy White Beard's guns to save Japan. Hiro tells Yaeko to go and wait for hi under the cherry blossoms. In the tent containing the guns, Hiro is confronted by Kensei. The two begin to have a swordfight, knocking over a lantern in the process. Hiro is able to knock Kensei down, but when he discovers that barrels of gunpowder have caught fire, he tells Kensei to grab his hand so they can escape. But Kensei, due to his newfound hatred of Hiro, will not go. Hiro teleports out, and the tent explodes with Kensei inside. Hiro goes to meet Yaeko and tells her of Kensei's demise. She tells him that as far as she was concerned, Hiro was Kensei. She promises to spread the stories of Kensei (with the ending that Hiro had heard in the stories, that ended with Kensei cutting out his heart to save Japan and his princess.) The two kiss and Hiro teleports back to the Yamagato Industries building to see Ando. He gives Ando Kensei's helmet. Hiro is thrilled to hear that they had stopped the explosion in New York. He wants to tell his father of all his journeys in Japan, but is shocked to hear his father was murdered.

Cautionary Tales

Hiro attends his father's funeral and Japanese tradition states that the eldest son is the first to give an eulogy. He refuses to give the eulogy because doing so would mean he accepted his father's death. Hiro returns to the rooftop the day of the murder and listens in on the conversation between Kaito and Angela Petrelli. Kaito mentions that the Company had killed many people and the murderer was seeking revenge on them. After Angela leaves, Hiro confronts his father and attempts to convince him that its not worth dying for. Hiro and Kaito travel back 17 years to the day of Hiro's mother's and Kaito's wife's funeral to show him how much pain he was feeling for his death, just as his father did for his mother.

Hiro encounters his younger self who is fighting with a sword as Takezo Kensei and gives him some words of advice. Hiro admits that he was childish and returns his father to the future. Hiro seemingly disappears from the roof and the killer appears. Just as the killer pushes Kaito over the edge, time stops and Hiro emerges from the darkness. If he could not save his father, he could still find out who the killer was. And Hiro does as he sees the face of Adam Monroe under the hood.

Hiro returns to his father's funeral and repeats that he cannot give an eulogy because his father is still alive in him.

Truth & Consequences

Hiro and Ando find out more about Kensei and that he has been using the new name Adam Monroe. Hiro travels back to 1977 and finds out that Adam was imprisoned by Kaito, Hiro's father, after he almost released a deadly virus. Hiro finds out where the virus is being kept and travels to Primatech Paper in Odessa, Texas. He arrives with the intention of killing Adam, only to find that Peter Petrelli is accompanying Adam. Peter says he cannot let Hiro kill Adam, and at the very end of the episode Hiro cries out and runs towards Peter with his sword drawn, ready to attack.

Powerless

Hiro tries to convince Peter Petrelli that Adam Monroe wants to release the Shanti virus, not destroy it, but Peter is unconvinced and, despite Hiro's teleportation ability, manages to knock Hiro out twice — once with lightning and once with telekinesis. While Matt Parkman and Nathan Petrelli try and reason with Peter, Hiro confronts Adam in the vault where the virus is kept. Before Adam can open the vial containing the virus, Hiro teleports them both away. Left behind, the vial falls to the floor, but is caught by Peter's telekinesis before it can shatter.

Ando finds Hiro in a cubicle at Yamagato Industries, and asks about Adam. Hiro cryptically replies that Adam will never harm anyone again. Adam is then shown inside a coffin in an unmarked grave in Aoyama Cemetery, buried alive and screaming for Hiro to let him out.

Graphic Novel:The Ten Brides of Takezo Kensei

Trapped in a coffin, Adam remembers how he outlived and survived the world's greatest men and women. All except one -- Hiro Nakamura.

Evolved Human Abilities

Hiro discovers he has the ability to actually affect the space-time continuum, stopping or slowing time with sheer power of will. The first noted occurrence is when Hiro supposedly 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. Later, he theorizes that he may soon be able to teleport by bending the space part of the continuum. Although this isn't seen, he does seem to teleport from the seating area of a Karaoke bar to a ladies' bathroom on a dare (said in jest) by Ando. When he believes he needs to go to New York, he concentrates intensely, teleporting himself to Times Square. However, at the same time he unintentionally moves five weeks into the future. Later, when an explosion threatens his life, he is able to teleport back to Japan, landing at the exact time and place of his original departure.

Although being able to teleport and time travel great lengths at once, Hiro apparently has little control over how much time elapses when he teleports. This shows that, without further honing of his powers, he may not be able to teleport great distances without also traveling in time. He has also frozen time relative to himself. He was able to keep time frozen long enough to fold one thousand paper cranes. (Six Months Ago)

Although no source has been cited for Hiro's powers beyond Heroes's general theme of evolution, in a free web comic released by NBC, Hiro's grandfather was hinted to have been directly affected by the atomic bombings of Hiroshima. Believing that he has done "a great disservice" to him, Hiro makes an origami crane out of the cover page for Action Comics #1, the comic book which introduced Superman.

Hiro's rules of time travel haven't yet been explicitly defined. Whether he changes time just by traveling, or whether it's more of a ripple effect is not known.

It should be noted that it appears Hiro's time-traveling powers may not supersede the principles of the self-consistency theory. This essentially states that a time traveler cannot alter history in such a way that he would cause a paradox to occur; rather, the events would self-correct. However, it seems Hiro's powers are controlled by "fate", as not only were his powers disabled at one point, but he traveled in both time and space against his will. This appears to be contradictory to Future Hiro's statement that he risked creating a "rift", as well as his existence being proof that he is trying to prevent the catastrophe.

Equipment

Formerly

• 9th Wonders! Issue #14--brought back from the future
• Ando's sword--used to stab Sylar
• Hiro and the Dinosaur painting--delivered to Mr. Linderman to gain access to Linderman's archives
• Nissan Versa--rented by Hiro and Ando at LAX
• Takezo Kensei's sword--once believed by Hiro to focus his powers; stolen from the Linderman archives

Memorable Quotes

"Fine. Stay here. Be just like everyone else. I wanna boldly go where no man has gone before."

- Hiro, Ando (Genesis)

"You cannot bribe a hero. My heart is true. My spirit unbreakable. When I meet your Big Boss, I will tell him the same thing!"

- Hiro (to Kaito's assistant) (The Fix)

"I understand, Father. To save what is most important, I must be strong enough, to cut out my heart."

- Hiro (to Kaito) (Landslide)

"Father. My whole life you have looked at me with disappointment. I do not wish to lose you now. But I cannot let my friend die. Not when I have the power to stop it."

- Hiro (to Kaito) (How to Stop an Exploding Man)

"I know. You have shown me what bravery is."

"Your whole life you talked about your favorite stories...Star Wars, Star Trek, Superman, Kensei... All the heroes you wanted to be. One day, people will tell the story of... Hiro Nakamura."

- Hiro, Ando (How to Stop an Exploding Man)

Notes

• Hiro is named after Hiroshima, so that his family will always remember the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (The Crane). Tim Kring has been quoted as saying, "It's no coincidence we named him Hiro… he truly is on a hero's quest." 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 similar to the Japanese word for superhero: スーパーヒーロー (sūpāhīrō), and the fifth episode is entitled Hiros.
• 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. (Don't Look Back)
• Hiro is on the list.
• When explaining to Ando where he got the idea of time not being an straight line, Hiro mistakenly cites X-Men, Issue #143 as the issue where Kitty Pryde travels back in time from a dark future. In fact, it happened in Uncanny X-Men, Issue #141, in the famous "Days of Future Past" storyline. However, Issue #143 does focus on Kitty Pryde's evolution as a super-hero. (Genesis)
• 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". One of his powers includes time manipulation, a gift shared with JoJo characters Jotaro Kujo and Dio Brando. Vaan is the character the player takes the role of in Final Fantasy XII.
• His favorite video games are Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy (games that dealt with the manipulation of time), according to his blog.
• As confessed in his blog, Hiro is also a fan of Mirai Trunks, a time traveler from the manga and anime Dragon Ball Z. When "Future Hiro" visits Peter, it is a very similar encounter to the first encounter of Future Trunks with Son Goku, including Hiro's sword and Trunks' sword. (Hiros)
• Hiro was born in Osaka, Japan. (Five Years Gone)
• Hiro's father said that he had been watching Hiro for "close to 30 years" (Four Months Later...). Hiro's exact age is unknown. However, it should be noted that the original casting call for Hiro listed his age as 24, as does his blog.
• Takezo Kensei's nickname for Hiro is "carp," a reference to the fact Hiro's face "looks like a fish" when he speaks.

Trivia

• Hiro has no brothers. (My Father, Hiro's blog)
• Hiro is a programmer with a level 3 security clearance. His ID number is 651283461132, and he is referred to as "a lowly office drone". (The Crane)
• Hiro's blog refers to Charlie saying, "Charlie wasn't my Marle, she was my Gwen Stacy." Marle refers to the character from a video game called Chrono Trigger, which follows a group of adventurers who are accidentally propelled through time. Gwen Stacy is the first true love of Spider-Man; she was killed by the Green Goblin, and was pivotal (and controversial) to the Spider-Man stories.
• The senior vice president of the design division at Nissan Motor Co. is named Shiro Nakamura. Nissan is a prominent sponsor of Heroes.
• Prior to The Kindness of Strangers, Hiro had appeared in every episode. (It should be noted that in Company Man, he was played by Garrett Masuda; Masi Oka did not appear.)
• Hiro's given name in kanji is probably 広, coming from the kanji for Hiroshima, 広島. His family name in kanji is the common form of Nakamura, 中村 as seen in Cautionary Tales.
• In early versions of the script, Hiro's name was originally Hiro Tanaka.
• According to the official site for the Season One DVD, Hiro's AIM screen name is yattaimhiro.

See Also

• For Hiro as he appeared in the dark future, see Hiro Nakamura (future).
• For articles related to Hiro, see Related Articles:Hiro.
• For images of Hiro, see Images of Hiro Nakamura.
• For information about Hiro's weblog, see Hiro's blog.
• For other uses of Hiro, see Hiro (disambig).

Fan Theories

Please refer to Theory:Hiro Nakamura for fan-created theories and other speculation.