Shinra Middle Manager, also known as simply the Shinra Manager, is a minor recurring character in the Final Fantasy VII series. He is a minor character in Final Fantasy VII and has a slightly expanded role in Final Fantasy VII Remake and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth.
The middle manager works for the Shinra Electric Power Company. He is kind, friendly, and passionate about the job, staying faithful to the company despite disagreeing with their policies and the way he is treated.
History[]
Before Final Fantasy VII[]
Shinra middle manager was born in 1971.[1] He was hired by Shinra at some point and worked his way up into a middle manager position. He was living in the Sector 7 slums of Midgar with his wife and daughter.[2]
Original continuity[]
The Shinra manager complained about the last train.
The Shinra middle manager boarded the train to the Sector 7 slums during "No. 1 Reactor Bombing" in Final Fantasy VII, grumbling about being on the last train with unpleasant passengers, indirectly referring to Avalanche.[3]
A few days later, the middle manager took the train again in "To the No. 5 Reactor", annoyed by Barret Wallace's loudness and lamenting his bad luck. When confronted by Barret, he timidly told him off. Despite expressing concerns about Avalanche's bomb threats, he refused to give in to violence or give up his seat. After Barret held back, he was both scared and excited when security caught Cloud Strife's party with fake IDs.[4]
The middle manager was sent to Junon during "The Stowaway Strategy" to help with transporting the city's mako cannon. He encountered Cloud's party in the Lower Junon Barracks, feeling ashamed that he was not staying in a five-star hotel and asking how they could sleep in such a place.[5] He later traveled to Costa del Sol via Shinra cargo ship in "Dangerous Voyage". Upon seeing Heidegger and Rufus Shinra at the helipad, he swore under his breath that he would leave Shinra, thinking Heidegger was an idiot and Rufus was too egotistical.[6]
The middle manager returned to Junon for the Weapons crisis during "In a World Approaching Its End". He was disappointed that he would not be going back to Midgar, began questioning his loyalty to Shinra, and wondered if he might become the company's next president if the Weapons killed all current upper management.[7][8]
Remake continuity[]
Midgar activities[]
Shinra middle manager was aboard the train to the Sector 7 slums following the bombing of Mako Reactor 1 during "Fateful Encounters" in Final Fantasy VII Remake. He gossiped with co-workers about Avalanche, provoking Barret to angrily interject. They argued over the Shinra creed and the manager's colleagues applauded him before they exited in fright.[9]
The middle manager and his family.
The middle manager greeted his family outside the station and informed them of recent events in "Home Sweet Slum". Sometime later, he chatted with a co-worker about his ambitions, their living conditions, Shinra's positive influence, and promised to give everyone raises if he was promoted.[10] The next morning, during "Mad Dash", the middle manager sat with his family at the station before taking the train to work.[11]
The middle manager grilled Barret about Avalanche's terrorism.
The middle manager sat beside Barret on the train to Sector 4 in "Dogged Pursuit" and questioned if the latter still supported Avalanche's terrorism, breaking into a speech that aggravated him. Cloud intervened to prevent a confrontation, prompting the middle manager to move down a few seats. When Cloud's party's fake IDs were detected and Shinra drones attacked, Tifa Lockhart evacuated the passengers, including the middle manager. Though confused why she would help the enemy, he agreed to cooperate and look after the other passengers.[12]
The middle manager played Yuffie in a Fort Condor match.
Shinra middle manager attempted to learn the Fort Condor strategy game for his daughter's sake during "Wutai's Finest" in Episode INTERmission. Although he lost a match against Yuffie Kisaragi, he graciously accepted defeat, realizing that playing well enough to make it seem like he was losing would bring his daughter joy.[13]
The middle manager and his friend outside the Honeybee Inn.
The middle manager visited the Honeybee Inn in Wall Market with his co-worker in "The Town That Never Sleeps". He claimed he was on a secret mission to survey the undercity for Avalanche activity, though his friend called him out for not doing much investigating. The middle manager later watched and enjoyed Andrea Rhodea's show featuring a dressed-up Cloud.[14] He and his family survived the destruction of Sector 7.[15]
Global activities[]
The Shinra middle manager in Costa del Sol.
Shinra middle manager assisted with Rufus's inauguration in Junon during "Dawn of a New Era" in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth.[16] He traveled to Costa del Sol to prepare for Professor Hojo's arrival ahead in "Fool's Paradise", holding a sign to welcome passengers from Shinra-8. He joined Tifa and Aerith Gainsborough for the Cactuar Caper challenge, struggled to find and photograph cactuar illustrations, but eventually thanked them for giving him the photos, stating his family would love them. The middle manager was later annoyed upon learning Hojo arrived earlier than expected, quit Shinra, and cursed Rufus and the company.[17]
The middle manager as the Gold Saucer's "ultimate party animal."
The middle manager reinvented himself as the "ultimate party animal" at the Gold Saucer during "A Golden Key", setting high scores on every minigame. When Cloud broke his records, he praised him, only to receive a call from his assistant begging him to return to Shinra. He accepted, vowed to shield his colleagues from the company's politics and bureaucracy, shook Cloud's hand, and hoped they would meet again.[18]
Characteristics[]
Appearance[]
Shinra middle manager is a man of average build with fair skin, dark eyes,[note 1] and short dark brown hair. He wears a burgundy suit jacket and slacks paired with a white dress shirt and black dress shoes. He sports a purple tie in Final Fantasy VII and a red tie with a diagonal pattern held by a clip in Final Fantasy VII Remake. He also wears a lapel pin with Shinra's logo.
Personality[]
We will not submit to intimidation or violence! But work together for peace and prosperity! That is how civilized people change the world!
Shinra Middle Manager, Final Fantasy VII Remake § "Last Train"
Shinra middle manager is passionate about his job and faithful to Shinra, following the company's creed and believing their developments will improve the people's lives.[19][9][12][2] However, he feels undervalued by the company, discontent with obeying his boss's orders and constantly stressing without an outlet to express his true feelings. Though faced with many challenges in his position, the middle manager is ambitious and maintains a positive attitude.[20][2][1]
The middle manager loves his family and works hard for their sake, even going to work on the day of a bomb threat and learning to play Fort Condor to make his daughter happy.[11][13] He is respected by his colleagues for his kindness and passionate work ethic. However, he becomes increasingly fed up with the company over time, eventually quitting and becoming the "ultimate party animal" at the Gold Saucer. After a brief stint of freedom and fun, the middle manager returns to the company at his assistant's begging, vowing to protect his colleagues from Shinra's corrupted politics and bureaucracy.[1][18]
Gameplay[]
Shinra Middle Manager plays Fort Condor in "Episode INTERmission", and when Yuffie Kisaragi comes to Sector 7, she has a chance of challenging him. The middle manager is a Rank 1 player, who wants to learn the game so he can teach his daughter, who had expressed interest in the tabletop tower-defense game.
Shinra Middle Manager is in the northeast end of the Residential Area, on the way to the train station. He favors ranged units, meaning a loadout of primarily vanguard units is deal. He has a single defense and vanguard unit. His board has a better ATB-recharge rate than previous opponents.
In hard mode, the Manager is a Rank 5 player with a faster board and towers with better stats. Using Sorcerer Board II with a fast Guard Dog unit in the loadout works against him as well as it did against Johnny and Kyrie, though there are many viable strategies. Unleashing all spells on the HQ does not quite destroy it, but does deplete its HP ~5/6ths. The Manager deploys his troops and they head to the player's territory, but it is best to wait without deploying anything until "the coast to be clear", and then send a unit from the middle line that will push the territory line all the way up to the Manager's towers. When the Middle Manager deploys a unit to defend his towers, the player can send out a unit that counters his, but focus on attacking the HQ.
- ↑ The middle manager has gray eyes in Final Fantasy VII and brown eyes in Final Fantasy VII Remake.
- ↑ In hard mode, Shinra Middle Manager plays with "Altered Assassin Board I", a rarity ★★★★ board with 3/3 speed and buffed towers.
- ↑ Shinra Middle Manager gives the Assassin Board I if he is the last Rank 1 player Yuffie wins against. The board can also be bought from Old Snapper when Yuffie has advanced to Rank 2.
Behind the scenes[]
The Shinra Manager was created by planner Motomu Toriyama.[21]
Shinra Manager in a dummied Honey Bee Inn scene.
The manager appears in a dummied scene at the deleted Honey Bee Inn lobby, where he was queuing up waiting to enter.[22] He appears outside the location in Final Fantasy VII Remake. The manager fumbled his words as he refused to give his name, and subsequently whispered it to the receptionist. An unnamed customer fainted in response to a blown kiss from a Honey Bee, who shut herself back into the dressing room in dismay after the unconscious man was dragged away. Palmer descended a stairwell to leave, which made it the manager's turn, but Palmer noticed him and shouted at him, calling him simply "Manager". The manager tried to weasel out by claiming he was turning his day off into a business trip for on-site marketing research, but a Honey Bee exclaimed she was happy that he came. Having been exposed as a regular, the manager cowered and begged Palmer not to transfer him or make him write an apology letter, then crawled between Palmer and Cloud and ran away. Palmer gave chase, and so did the Honey Bee. This made it Cloud's turn to go up the stairwell and into a room, but the field is unfinished, thus ending the scene. In Final Fantasy VII Remake, the manager appears outside the venue, bragging that he is there on a covert Shinra mission, though he seems to be doing no investigating.
In the Japanese version of the original game, Shinra manager's speaker line changes with his two comments in Junon. When speaking of the Sister Ray, he is referred to as the Madokiwa Shinra Manager (まどきわ神羅課長, Madokiwa Shinra Kachō?), which refers to the concept of madogiwa-zoku (窓際族?, lit. window-seat tribe), where long-serving employees who are no longer useful or have become a burden, instead of being made redundant, are given fewer and less or unimportant responsibilities to idle their way until retirement. When speaking of the Weapon killing upper management, he is referred to as the Moetsuki Shinra Manager (もえつき神羅課長, Moetsuki Shinra Kachō?), which alludes to the concept of Moetsuki Shōkōgun (燃え尽き症候群?, lit. burnout syndrome)—the idea of occupational burnout.
In Final Fantasy VII Remake, the Japanese version voice in the Visual Entertainment Floor of the Shinra Building is by the same voice actor as the Shinra Middle Manager: Eiji Hanawa. Nothing official states it is the Middle Manager voicing the video, but scenario writer Motomu Toriyama finds it fun to consider it that way.[23] Toriyama stated that in the original version he had the middle manager appear in areas he was working on as a kind of trademark. He noted that for the remake we get to see snippets of his struggle between balancing family life and his career as a middle manager and that his character has developed over the years.[24]
Citations[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Final Fantasy VII Rebirth Ultimania, p. 38
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Final Fantasy VII Remake Ultimania, p. 49
- ↑ Final Fantasy VII script § "No. 1 Reactor Bombing"
- ↑ Final Fantasy VII script § "To the No. 5 Reactor"
- ↑ Final Fantasy VII script § "The Stowaway Strategy"
- ↑ Final Fantasy VII script § "Dangerous Voyage"
- ↑ Final Fantasy VII script § "In a World Approaching Its End"
- ↑ Final Fantasy VII script § "Junon optional dialogue"
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Final Fantasy VII Remake script § "Fateful Encounters"
- ↑ Final Fantasy VII Remake script § "Home Sweet Slum"
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 Final Fantasy VII Remake script § "Mad Dash"
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 Final Fantasy VII Remake script § "Dogged Pursuit"
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 Final Fantasy VII Remake script § "Wutai's Finest"
- ↑ Final Fantasy VII Remake script § "The Town That Never Sleeps"
- ↑ Final Fantasy VII Rebirth
- ↑ Final Fantasy VII Rebirth script § "Dawn of a New Era"
- ↑ Final Fantasy VII Rebirth script § "Fool's Paradise"
- ↑ 18.0 18.1 Final Fantasy VII Rebirth script § "A Golden Key"
- ↑ Final Fantasy VII Kaitai Shinsho The Complete, p. 32
- ↑ Final Fantasy VII Ultimania Omega, p. 61
- ↑ (n.d.) . Introducing the FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE development team. Square Enix. Archived from the original on 17 March, 2021.
- ↑ Dummied Honey Bee Inn scene with Shinra Manager.
- ↑ Team, FF7 (2020, August 28). "Final Fantasy VII Remake Ultimania Interview with Motomu Toriyama, English Translation". From game8. Archived from the original on 23 February, 2021.
- ↑ Final Fantasy VII Remake Material Ultimania, p. 104