Ai
From R5 Central Archive Wiki
Ai is a character in the story arcs of the podcast R5 Central, acting as co-host for the first three series. To date, she's been voiced by three people: show creator Mike Dent, Rina, and the current voice, Kara Dennison.
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Character History
The Beginning
Ai is a Cyber Assistant, a personal computerized assistant that could be installed into portable devices or have a body of its own based on the FT (Female-Type) design developed by Robo-Garage in the early 2000's. She was initially a gift to Mike on his 8th birthday in the 50th century and the two have been inseparable ever since, Mike refusing to upgrade her over the years due to her being the closest thing he has to a sibling. After the death of Mike's parents during a Kingdom attack, the two became closer as they were all the other one had.
When Mike entered the E-Vanguard and became a Tracer Pilot, the mechanics had to customize his unit with an interface for her, becoming something of an enhanced A.I. system. The two fought together until Operation Crusade which say the decimation of half of the Tracer Squadrons of Base 77 and what was believed at first to be the defeat of the Kingdom.
They would return to find the base trashed and no signs of life inside. When attacked by the remnants of the Kingdom minions that were responsible, a freak accident caused by battle damage causes the on board D-Jump Drive to surge, sending Mike and Ai back in time to the year 2005.
After arriving, Mike and Ai swear to prevent the invasion and create a podcast in the meantime as a front for their operation, all the while trying to figure out a way to return home in secret.
Death And Rebirth
When it became clear that the Kingdom has indeed come back in time after them, Ai began work on the remains of Mike's Tracer, converting it into a Super Robot based on drawings he had made when he was younger. At the same time however, she had started to upgrade herself, creating a human sized body for her use. Due to the fact that Mike refused to upgrade her, she withheld this new Trace Hybrid form, appearing occasionally in it however to help him.
During a fight with Saiba, the location of their Chamber Studio had been compromised, leaving Ai to reveal her Trace Hybrid form to Mike and the recently completed G-Parts for DaiRaiGou MK I. Together with Mike, she helped to destroy Saiba's Mecha Titan...only to be impaled through the chest by a barely surviving Saiba. With the massive trauma to her system, she shut down in Mike's arms. A frantic Mike tried to figure out a way to repair her but only found a message in the file where her backup A.I. would be. In it, Ai revealed her intentions with the Trace Hybrid and howshe erased her backup A.I. for both of their sakes. To protect her from falling into the wrong hands, Mike stored her body in the ruins of the Chamber Studio in a Liquid Stasis tube.
In the aftermath of the second major conflict with the Zodiac Corporation (Series 2, Episode 44.5), another mecha which would later be known as Aquamarine appeared and took out DaiRaiGou MK II in one blast. It wasn't until Mike had managed to smash open Aquamarine's cockpit that he realized the horrible truth: his opponent was none other than a reprogrammed Ai. Mike and Sylene would discover that the Liquid Stasis chamber had been broken, confirming that the Zodiac had found a way into the Chamber Studio ruins and stole Ai's body. Calling herself "Miss Sapphire", Ai would pose the ultimate threat to Mike as he could never bring himself to destroy her, even when she claimed that she had no memory of him or anything before her re-activation.
Return
In the final moments of the Zodiac Corporation conflict, Ai involuntarily had to discard her Trace Hybrid body. She became Mike's personal C.A once more, now with a Holo-Projector so she can interact with her surroundings. With the return of RaiDecker, Ai chose to install herself as the ship's primary A.I., being able to assume her hologram form on or off ship. Currently, she has taken up co-hosting duties again, maintaining an uneasy relationship with Sylene, leading to much arguing between the two of them.
Abilities
Ai was initially a Cyber-Assitant, meaning that aside from occasional use of the small FT frame, she was restricted to being an A.I. During Series 2, Ai would build herself a new body, using technology and principles from the remains of Mike's Tracer, thus creating what she called a Trace Hybrid form. Aside from the boost in strength and speed, Ai would look human but have more in common with an android. This would come in handy during the fight with the Kingdom and eventually, the Zodiac.
Since the end of the Zodiac conflict, Ai's Trace Hybrid form has been discarded, now opting to use a holographic avatar to interact with the world while she works on RaiDecker. Though she is considerably weaker now than she was back then, she can now control the density of her light projection, being able to either become transparent enough to phase through walls or dense to the point where she's nearly indestructible. The latter function has a tremendous strain on her generator so it is used sparingly.
Mecha
During the course of the story arcs, Ai rebuilds the wreckage of Mike's tracer into RaiGou to face off against Saiba and the Kingdom's Mecha Titans in the 2000's. She would pilot the following mecha alongside Mike.
- RaiGou: Series 2
- DaiRaiGou Series 2, Current
- RaiSapphire Series 3-4
Random Trivia
- In the second Naze Nani segment, Ai revealed that her birthday is the same as Mike's: January 27th. She also revealed that her three sizes were 36C-24-35, making fanboys everywhere foam at the mouth.
- Though somewhat content with her new voice as of Series 5, Ai wishes to have hers modded to sound like voice actress Aya Hirano. On that note, she once let slip that she has a secret crush on Koyasu Takehito. There was much laughter.
Notes
-Scarily enough, show creator Mike Dent was the voice of Ai in her first incarnation during Series 1 and 2. This was done using his own voice and then digitally altering it to make it sound female. In spite of this, she still remained to be a popular character.
-To date, Ai also holds the record for voice changes: Mike would play her from Series 1-2 with Rina stepping in midway through to play her all the way until Episode 37. She would return to the role following Sapphire's appearance in the second arc and would resume the role until the end. Starting with Series 5 of R5, the role is now played by Kara Dennison, with Rina coming back to reprise the role of Ai's Trace Hybrid form.
