Yamato Hino

Yamato Hino is the main protagonist of God Mazinger and the pilot of titular mecha. A gifted young sports enthusiast, he is transported to Mu through the prayers of Aila Mu to be their land's savior.

Appearance
Yamato possesses a build of an athletic teenager of average height and weight. He has messy black hair and brown eyes. In his initial appearances Tamao wears his gakuran school uniform. Subsequent appearances have Yamato wearing Mu garments including a red toga, a black belt with a buckle, armbands, sandals, a white neck cloth, and a sword at his side.

Personality
Yamato was an average high school student who was at first a reluctant hero. However spending time on Mu (especially with Aila) changed him into a person willing to stick up for the weaker man. He also has a strong desire to protect Aila, hinting feelings for her.

In the manga, he had a much more carefree and rebellious attitude who did not care much about academics or the state of the world in spite of the possibility of a nuclear war, this got him into a lot of heated arguments with his father. He said that he would want to live in the Sengoku period as he believed that was a time when the struggle for life actually meant something. Yamato would often use his psychic powers for mischief like making girl's skirts fly up.

Aila Mu
In all series, Aila served as Yamato's love interest. As she is the one who brought Yamato to Mu, Aila is the closest person to him and provides Yamato a place to live. Overtime, he falls in love with Aila and begins to use his power and the God Mazinger to protect her from threats.

Kaoru
In the anime, Yamato was close to his sister Kaoru Hino and promised her that he would return home. In the manga, Kaoru Asahi was his childhood friend who had feelings for him. While Kaoru would berate Yamato for his mischief, they were close and Yamato wanted to save Kaoru went they got separated. Yamato was disheartened when Kaoru was turned into a cat and killed by the God Mazinger's rampage.

Abilities and Powers
Yamato is a skilled athlete, having the ability to excel in anything he tries. This includes piloting the God Mazinger. In the manga he also has an innate psychic power, allowing him to utilize telekinesis and understand the language of Mu whether in writing or speech. He is also able to foresee the past and future. In the anime, he gains these powers over the course of the series. Like Koji Kabuto, Yamato possesses a strong will even in spite of near defeat and fighting in a strange world he knows little about.

Anime
Yamato had been hearing strange voices from someone he does not know. He also sees visions of a giant shadow. Dismissing them as delusions, he is caught in a thunderstorm and when a bolt of lightning strikes he is transported to a battlefield where the Mu army is fighting a losing battle against the Dragonia Kingdom. Standing near the giant he had been seeing visions, Yamato starts to glow and fuses with the statue. The God Mazinger then turns the tide against the Empire. Yamato then meets the voice he has been hearing, Aila Mu Queen of the Mu continent.

Aila and Prime Minister Muraji, explain the legend of the God Mazinger to Yamato. Yamato is reluctant to take the role of savior, but with another attack by Dorado; Yamato decides to join the ranks of the Mu army. After several fights, Yamato fights against Dorado himself and later his son Eldo, completing his mission and returning home.

Manga
Much like the anime, Yamato heard strange voices in his dreams. As his father tries to wake him up for school, they start to argue over the fact that Yamato does not take his school life seriously which Yamato refutes is kind of pointless since the possibility of a nuclear war is near, something his father slaps him for. As Yamato's mother tries to calm them both down, Yamato sticks to his claims before going off to school passing his childhood friend Kaoru Asahi and flipping her skirt. At the entrance ceremony, Yamato notices that a girl is acting more nervous than usual and telekinetically flips her skirt revealing that she is not wearing underwear.

Kaoru confronts Yamato in the gym about this, saying that she knew Yamato was behind the act with Yamato thinking that she's telepathic. Suddenly a young woman appears in front of them revealing herself to be the voice from Yamato's dreams, Aila Mu who asks for Yamato's help at Mu. Yamato dismisses her words and leaves with Kaoru but on the bus ride Aila is still on his mind. Then a giant monstrous face appears in front of the bus transporting everyone into the Galba desert where Mu is fighting against the Dinosaur Empire.

As everyone starts to get massacred, Yamato manages to escape with Kaoru by using his psychic powers. However, Yamato hears Aila's voice telepathically and is transported to her leaving Kaoru behind. Coming to the palace, he encounters Aila again who explains to Yamato about how his ancestors came from outer space and left a prophecy that Yamato would be the savior who controls the guardian deity of Mu, the God Mazinger. Yamato finds this ridiculous and is still upset over the fact that he had to leave Kaoru behind, but finds a portrait sculpted into the statue's head. Yamato is then sucked in and the God Mazinger begins to move towards the battlefield wiping out much of the Dragonia Kingdom's forces. Before any more damage could be done to his army, the emperor Dorado telekinetically causes an earthquake that allows his forces to retreat.

Yamato has the God Mazinger go to the location of the empire by opening a gap in space time with its sword. However, Dorado was expecting this and had his priests use their ESP powers to create a landslide and cause the Mazinger to fall into chasm where it faced the Empire's deity, the Demon King Hades. Hades multiple tentacles put the God Mazinger in a pinch and its psychic powers attacked Yamato's mind. Yamato had the God Mazinger cut the tentacles while and slash the monster in two. However, the psychic damage proved to be too great and the God Mazinger crumbled and Yamato disappears.

The God Mazinger had managed to reform itself but went on a rampage, no longer a benevolent deity. It causes a series of earthquakes that destroys parts of the land including some of the Mu Kingdom Army and the entire Dragonia Kingdom. Yamato tried to stop the carnage especially when he found out Kaoru was killed in the rampage. He is then transported to another plane of existence where he encounters a giant figure that looks like a golden God Mazinger who reveals himself as the Creator of Existence.

He explains that the God Mazinger was just a statue powered by its energy and controlled by a pilot who became Yamato. He further explains that its rampage was brought on by the unconscious desire of Yamato and that the world must be destroyed because of the presence of Ma, an evil presence in the hearts of life. When nurtured, it can cause wars that can destroy an entire planet as what happened with the Dora. He later explained that similar events had happened in the past such as when it created Eden, Earth's original but had to destroy it as Ma was present in the heart of Eden.

The Creator went on about how he gave humans who had no Ma in their hearts another chance. He assigned a guardian who would continuously reincarnate and watch over humanity, and if Ma was on the horizon would awaken the God Mazinger, who in the Mu time became Aila.

Yamato then asked where he fit into this. The Creator revealed that Yamato was an indicator to show the amount of wickedness of modern civilization, which was measured by how Yamato would use the God Mazinger. The creator came to the conclusion that Yamato used the Mazinger to destroy the enemies in front of him. Yamato however rebukes this, saying that he did not act on hate but love, a love to protect Aila. With this, and seeing that Aila has no Ma she is transported to the space where she reunites with Yamato and they embrace in a lover's fashion.

Seeing the love between them, the creator gives humanity another chance with Yamato and Aila being reincarnated indefinitely. But if Ma appears again, so too will the God Mazinger and the destruction it causes. At the end of the manga, it is implied that Yamato was reincarnated as Seiji Hayami.