None of the following information is mine. All information was taken from Fantasy Akemi's Webpage. Only the vital statistics and some information on Rowen's armor was taken off or altered to fit the layout of my site. The major information in the body about his past and personality is unaltered.
Name: Rowen Hashiba
Japanese Name: Hashiba Touma
Birthdate: October 10, 1973
Age: 28
Interests: Chess, Puzzles, Computer games, Basketball, Studying, Reading, Archery, Mystery novels
Armor: Strata or Tenku
Weapon: Bow and Arrows
Kanji: Inochi – Life or (Chi – Wisdom in the Japanese version)
Power-up Cry: Armor of Strata! Dao Inochi! (Busou! Tenku! - Japanese version)
Sure-kill: Arrow Shockwave (Shin Ku Ha)
Element: Air
Family:
Father:
Genichirou, a university researcher specialized in physics and astronomy. He's the type of mad scientist similar to Doc Brown of Back to the Future. He almost never leaves his lab. He'd like Rowen to join him in his research. He has a beard which I guess shows how far from the norm he is. (Japanese generally disapprove of facial hair.) However, he does care deeply for his son even though he is not always around to show it.
Mother:
About a decade younger than her ex-husband, she still keeps in touch with the two. She is described either as a very cheerful young person or an air-head. She is an international journalist and is about 32 when the other Ronins met her in Tenkuden (Legend of Strata Drama CD). She gave birth to Rowen when she was eighteen. She treats both Rowen and his father like friends, Rowen-kun and Genichirou-kun respectively.
The name Hashiba was used by Toyokimi Hideyoshi, the person who united Japan before Tokugawa. In history, the Hashiba clan was wiped out by the Tokugawa.
In his father's side of the family, there has been a legend about an armor (yoroi) that the family once had but lost. Rowen was researching ancient history and strategy, taking interest in this opposite to what his father researched. He created a computer program to analyze the data but couldn't understand the output. His mother happened to drop by that day and identified it as "Ama no hashidate", and one of the three famous sites of Japan and where Rowen trains later in the TV series. It is there that he receives his armor (I turned it around and said it was where he got his undergear instead. I had thought it was Lake Biwa that Rowen recieved his armor, consequently, I assumed that it meant "ama no hachidate" which lit means "eight storied building of heaven" and referred to a palace ruins. Since I was wrong, I was forced to re-write that section of my story, so Rowen does indeed get his armor there, but I had Rowen's mother read the passage wrong to justify Rowen going to the ruins and receiving his undergear.) The story says he went there during the spring vacation of his first year third semester of high school, which would be right before the battle.
Rowen's dark blue armor is Strata (Tenku – lit. Firmament) and draws power from generally air. He has a metal collapsible golden bow (Sho Ha Kyu) that can be hooked on his quiver, which supplies an endless amount of golden energy arrows. Rowen is skilled both in Eastern and Western archery. His special attack, Arrow Shockwave (Shin Ku Ha), creates a huge air wave that obliterates anything its path (well, except Anubis (Shuten). And Mukara. And the Inferno armor - Kikoutei. But that's all.) The ancient poem points to Ama no Hashidate (as the script from Sunrise says) as the armor’s resting place but in actuality, Strata draws its power from the vastness of space and is actually found floating in orbit. As such, Rowen is the only one of the Ronins with the ability to fly (he only realizes this ability during Tenkuden – one of the drama CDs after Talpa’s first defeat). Because of the loftiness his position, Rowen has developed keen eyesight, able to see for abnormally long distances, called Farsight. Rowen was the first to discover that the warlords were human, by destroying Anubis’ helmet, so in a sense, they have become adversaries, although Rowen has more problems with Kayura.
Rowen has lived with his father in a modern high-rise mansion (i.e. apartment) in Osaka since his parents divorced when he was twelve (most others agree that it was probably before this. I say it was when Rowen was seven, but that’s me). His mother has the spare key to drop in whenever she wants. Rowen's father's lab is in Kyoto. In the original storyline, Rowen's paternal grandfather owned a shrine and Kento was a foreign student who was staying there, that is, Kento and Rowen grew up together (there is one story that takes advantage of this fact – “Samurai Souls” by Kajite – but I find it easier to believe that Rowen had not met any of the Ronins until attending Hana High).
Rowen has an IQ 250 (which in reality is impossible), which means during the TV series, he had the intellectual capacity of a 35 year old. (His mom did say he acted like an old person.) Because of his intellect, others would call him a Living Computer or genius. Adults didn't treat him like a kid, so Rowen often acts like an adult (he's the youngest of the Ronins). He actually enjoys studying (what's wrong with that?). He also likes reading detective stories. Dais (Rajura) once commented to Talpa (Arago) that Rowen was “the most dangerous of the Ronins because he was the smartest”. Indeed, Rowen knows how best to use his abilities where they matter most. He is also smart enough to know when he can’t win and what he can do to get around it (it was Rowen who realized how to get the other three Ronins, even though they were trapped, to lend Ryo their power so he could form the Inferno – Kikoutei armor durning the TV series. He was also the one to free them from bondage and restore their armor’s power to them).
Once Rowen got a zero on the math portion of the academic tests given as practice for the college exams because he forgot to write his name and the teacher was a substitute who didn't know him.
Though he is usually a cool, self-possessed person, matching his computer-like intellect, his emotions can also make him as violent as a tornado. Like Ryo, the Ronins are the first real friends he's ever had and he'll do anything to protect them.
In addition to the interests listed above, Rowen's hobbies are sleeping and eating. He has low blood pressure, which makes it harder for him to get up, but he also likes to sleep. Staying up till two in the morning doesn't help either. His idea of waking early is eleven am. Rowen actually eats as much as Kento (or more in one manga) but it doesn't show and he doesn't talk about food like Kento either. He does have a sweet tooth.
Rowen's blood is AB. By the little Japanese blood-personality chart, that means he has a very high pride, a tendency to insult, and often takes revenge.
Rowen’s past is up for debate. On one hand, he lives with his father who regularly abuses him and is described as a drunk. In other accounts, his father is really very caring but is too involved in his work to really take time out to give attention to his son (I prefer to believe the latter version). Rowen’s mother is also up for debate. In some she is prevented from seeing her son by a court order because of her work as a journalist, Rowen’s father thought she was going to take him out of the country. In others, she is actually present until the point just before Rowen gets his armor and leaves her abusive husband with him. In some she is too involved with her own work to take the time to visit Rowen. I tend to believe that Rowen’s parents got a divorce because both of them were too passionate and involved in their work. They still like to drop in on each other and think of themselves as friends.
Linked to this problem is how Rowen got his blue hair. Some accounts assume he had it from the beginning. Others show Rowen getting his hair dyed in a freak experiment while in others, Rowen intentionally dyed it himself so he could be “different.” I find the experiment one hard to believe and thus more realistic to think that Rowen dyed it. However, I made up the part about it growing blue. As far as I know, there’s no such dye that will make your hair grow permanently the color you dye it. The script-writers and illustrators from Sunrise say that Rowen had it from the beginning, as is common in Japanese anime (notice how only in anime blue, green, lavender, bright red are normal hair colors?) But in the interest of making it seem more realistic, I will consider this false.
Even Rowen’s personality is up for debate. Most stories show him as being a usually very calm person who has an interest in books and Astronomy. He is often described as the school “Brain.” But in a few stories, Rowen has a hot-headed personality with a habit of “looking” at girl’s undergarments. In these, he has a love of basketball (and is quite good) and is not deterred by fighting anyone that doesn’t agree with him. He is also not in the least bit put off by using obscene language or causing trouble. This is a serious breach of personalities. The latter version seems to support Rowen’s personality during the TV series, esp during the American one where the voice given to Rowen is harsher than intended. The OVAs fit more Rowen’s personality in the former version (leads me to muse that he has split personalities – ‘Touma’ is the smart, cool one, and ‘Rowen’ is the hot-headed, temperamental one. Oh, never mind). I’m more partial to the first account of Rowen’s personality. His duties as a Ronin brought out other features of his personality though through it all he remains the same cool, intelligent person.
Although in some accounts he and Kento grew up together (which, as I said, most stories don’t capitalize on), Rowen can usually relate better to Ryo who in most cases becomes his closest friend. Some stories claim that Rowen has a crush on Mia but won’t admit it, but these are mere rumors at best.
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