i enjoy long walks on the beach with beautiful women... |D



I am the head of Shinra's Science Research Division some people call me a mad scientist.
i'll show them all how crazy i really am.

i had many unwilling test subjects other than just Vincent, including Cloud Strife, Zack Fair, and Red XIII. ALL FAILURES i might add!

Loveless is pure drivel, the end of the story has never even been found.

My research is directly or indirectly responsible for every major disaster that ever happened! (in ff7 anyway)

Perhaps the most direct example of this is my son, Sephiroth, whom I used as a test subject. I regard my subjects i use in my experiments as mere specimens. (This is often done in spite of the fact that they are almost always human or otherwise sentient.) This utilitarian attitude extends to all of my research, as I will often undertake radical experiments without any regard for ethics or the potential consequences.



((Hojo is a slender middle-aged man with long black hair that he wears pulled back in a ponytail, and prominent bangs. He is always seen wearing small round glasses and a white lab coat, and he has a distinctive hunched, shuffling walk.

Hojo's full name is never disclosed, although, since "Hojo" is an actual Japanese surname, it is likely that "Hojo" is his family name rather than given name. However, Gast Faremis is referred to as "Professor Gast", so Hojo may be his first name. Either way, the individual kanji used mean "a treasure" and "logic," respectively. This is indicative of the importance that he places upon his work. Ironically, a possible meaning of "Hojo" is "help" or "aid."))

((Hojo first appears when the protagonists infiltrate the Shinra headquarters in Midgar in an attempt to rescue Aeris, who had been kidnapped by the Turks. They find her in Hojo's laboratory, where Hojo had placed her in an enclosure with Red XIII, intending to breed them. However, the party managed to free both Aeris and Red XIII from Hojo's lab.

This scene is considered puzzling by many. Although little is known about the biology of the Final Fantasy VII world, Aeris and Red XIII were of completely different species, and it would seem unlikely that they would be genetically compatible enough to produce offspring. However, despite Hojo's madness, he was also a dedicated, intelligent researcher, and he believed that such offspring could be produced. He even tells his fellow Shinra officials of his plans to breed Aeris, leaving little room for doubt that such a crossing of species would be unable to produce offspring.

Although, since Hojo's experiments seem to be primarily genetics-related, he may have intended on artificially breeding the two, through genetic manipulation.

The party encounters Hojo again at Costa del Sol during his brief period of retirement from Shinra. Here they find him relaxing on the beach, surrounded by beautiful women. He taunts and insults the heroes before their departure, and later appears at the Northern Crater, having returned to Shinra at an undisclosed point in time. There he incorrectly calls Cloud a "failed experiment," misled by Cloud's lack of a tattoo and by Cloud's own claim of being failure, he having been mislead himself by Sephiroth. This insult is the last in a series of traumas that finally prompts Cloud to have a severe mental breakdown, during which time he willingly hands over the Black Materia to Sephiroth, all according to Sephiroth's plan of emotional and psychological revenge upon Cloud for hurting his pride five years earlier when they fought.

Finally, near the end of the game, the party finds Hojo in Midgar once again. He reveals to them that he is Sephiroth's father, putting Vincent's uncertainty to rest, and that he is planning to use Shinra's Mako Cannon to give his son the energy of the Planet, as he desired. This was due to Hojo's own obsessive desire to see his research develop to its ultimate end. Hojo further reveals that he had injected himself with Jenova cells (Obviously far more than used to create a SOLDIER), and then attacks the party. As the Jenova cells take effect, he transforms into a deformed monstrosity during the battle. However, the protagonists manage to kill him.

((Sephiroth was told only that his mother was named "Jenova," and although he knew both Hojo and Gast, he was never told that Hojo was his father. Ironically, Sephiroth had a very low opinion of Hojo; he described Hojo as "inexperienced" and a "walking mass of complexes," whereas he referred to Gast as "a great scientist."))



((In continuation of his research into Jenova, Hojo began a project to create what he called "Sephiroth Clones", so named because of the similarities between the experiments that he conducted on his new subjects and those that were conducted on Sephiroth. The "specimens" for this experiment were the survivors of Sephiroth's massacre in Nibelheim, and Cloud and Zack were among these new subjects. Despite the title he gave to his newest subjects, Hojo did not intend to create a new breed of super soldiers with these individuals. His intention was, rather, to test the validity of his Jenova Reunion Theory, which stated that if Jenova's cells were divided, they would instinctively seek to become whole again. To test this, he injected Jenova cells into his Sephiroth clones and infused them with mako. The mako was intended to lower the self-awareness of the subjects to the point that the instinctual drive of the Jenova cells to reunite would take over their minds and cause them all to gather in one place, an event that would be called "the Reunion."

Hojo placed numbered tattoos on the hands of each of his successful Sephiroth copies, though Zack--later revealed to be a failure of the experiment, due to his strong will preventing the mako within him from causing him to lose his own self-identity, which in turn prevented the Jenova cells from taking effect, would break himself and Cloud out of the Shinra Mansion some four years after their captivity began. Cloud, to the opposite extreme, was considered a failure because his self-awareness was lowered to the point where he could no longer function, so he could not confirm Hojo's Jenova Reunion theory. Thusly, neither Zack nor Cloud would have a mark on them branding them per se as Sephiroth Clones. This event would change the course of the future of Hojo's research, and that of the world at large. ))

((The Final Fantasy VII Ultimania Omega Guide featured a novella called Maiden who Travels the Planet, written by Studio BentStuff's Benny Matsuyama. In Maiden, it is revealed that Hojo's soul was unable to properly diffuse through the Lifestream as in accordance with the natural order, and he allowed himself to be assimilated into Sephiroth's body to grant his son more power and allow himself the opportunity to witness the ultimate results of his experimentation as a part of it.))