The other half of Starwind and Hawking Enterprises, young Jim Hawking is truly a child prodigy. He is the son of a famous computer hacker known as the Computer Wizard, but beyond that, nothing is known of his family (although it is implied that his parents are dead). While it's never made clear exactly how he and Gene ended up as partners, Jim does consider himself the brains of the operation. In the original Japanese language version, Jim always referred to Gene as "aniki", which, depending on how you translate it, can mean everything from "mentor" to "one's senior" to "elder brother". Regardless of how you translate it, however, it's clear that Jim and Gene aren't related, and the "mentor" definition is actually closer to the truth. Both the English dub and sub tracks ignore the word, and instead have Jim always refer to Gene by name, which was a wise move, as any of the direct translations would have been overly cumbersome.
Jim gets along well with pretty much everyone, eventually even overcoming his distrust of Suzuka. He sees Melfina as a pseudo-mother figure, lending support to the theory that his own parents are no longer around.
In addition to being the stereotypical computer, electronics, and mechanical whiz kid, Jim also attempts to keep a handle on Gene's extravegent ways, constantly reminding his older partner how little money they have left, and how hard finding Caster shells is becoming.
