Ira Gamagōri

"I am Lady Satsuki's impenetrable shield!"

- Ira Gamagōri

Ira Gamagōri is one of the main characters in Kill la Kill and part of the Student Council's Elite Four. He is Satsuki Kiryūin's loyal, massive enforcer who leads the disciplinary committee at Honnōji Academy, and, being a member of the Elite Four, has a Three-Star Goku Uniform. He refers to himself under the title of Satsuki's "Impenetrable Shield".

Appearance
Gamagōri is a large, muscular young man who has a darker-toned complexion and short blonde hair. His eyebrows are noticeably thick and he wears a pair of small gold earrings in his enlarged earlobes, and is often dressed in his Three-Star Goku Uniform. For artistic and comedic effect, he is sometimes portrayed as a giant, towering over the rest of the cast. Gamagōri's varying size changes according to the size of his emotions.

Personality
While all of the Elite Four have sworn undying loyalty to Satsuki, Gamagōri is the most outwardly loyal of the Elite Four by a huge margin. Gamagōri is always serious, bearing no tolerance for foolishness or rule-breaking, and often shouts at the top of his lungs whenever opposed in any way. He typically berates his much more casual colleagues and keeps the students in line for Satsuki, and is considered to be her right-hand man. As befits the head of the Disciplinary Committee, Gamagōri seems to hold adherence to the law, his ideas of ethical behavior, the hierarchy of the academy and Satsuki above all else.

Gamagōri intimidates those under his authority, and is not below killing lawbreakers and displaying their corpses as examples, which according to Mako Mankanshoku, is not an uncommon occurrence. However, being the Disciplinary Committee chair, he will never hurt an innocent student and will always aid a student in need, as demonstrated when he offered Ryūko Matoi and Mako a ride in his car after their scooter ran out of fuel.

He is a blatant masochist, thoroughly enjoying the pain inflicted upon him during battles (at least while in his Shackle Regalia), all while exclaiming stereotypical masochist statements like "Punish me more," or "I've been a bad boy!". He also has no qualms about being next to naked, as shown when he was stripped of his Goku Uniform by Ryūko and forwent dressing himself ever since, save for underpants.

Gamagōri is also very honor-bound and has a strong resolve, vowing to never kneel to Satsuki a few years prior to joining Honnōji when she had annexed his school and was willing to fight her in order to drive her out. Also, after his defeat at the hands of Ryūko, he took out a knife and attempted Seppuku. However, Satsuki stopped him, telling him to "wipe away his own tears".

History
During his Junior year in Rinne-Dō Junior High, Gamagōri wore his jacket loosely on his shoulders and had red spiked bracelets instead of gauntlets. He had loose chin-length hair, not slicked back, and was shown to be already very large and muscular for his age.

During that time, Gamagōri confronted Hōjō (whose father owns a company) and Imagawa (whose father is the local police chief), along with a group of juvenile delinquents, who were bullying a small boy into committing suicide by threatening to abuse the power and influence of their parents to have the boy's father fired from work. After Gamagōri failed to rescue the boy from a roof-top leap, Satsuki Kiryūin, a freshman at the time, made a sudden appearance, and prevented the boy's death by padding his fall with a "Kiryūin Deluxe Trampoline". After being threatened by the bullies, she revealed that she had already removed the bullies' parents from their positions of power by buying out the company owned by Hōjō's dad and exposing Imagawa's dad for taking bribes that led to his arrest. After single-handedly defeating the bullies and their gang with her katana, Satsuki announced her rule over the entire junior high school body. This was Ira Gamagōri's first encounter with Satsuki.

At a later point, he tested his abilities against Satsuki and at first, resisted her "tyranny" heavily, saying he would never kneel to Satsuki even if he was unable to defeat her. He wore steel armor under his uniform to protect himself from her attacks but even so she managed to pierce it with a stab to the gut. Although he was defeated, he pulled the scabbard off her weapon and used it to prop himself up and thereby avoided kneeling on the ground. Impressed by his resolve and determination Satsuki decided to recruit him to her cause and told him to wait for 2 years when she would make a school that would become her army. Both of them later became good friends.

He is implied to have been the first member of the Elite Four to meet Satsuki after Nonon Jakuzure, as Hōka Inumuta is skeptical of Satsuki's leadership before she battles Uzu Sanageyama, while Nonon and Gamagōri are shown to trust her. After graduating from middle school, Gamagōri chose to delay his own schooling for two years as he awaited Satsuki's graduation, and enrolled with her at Honnōji Academy.

Powers and Abilities

 * ​Natural Capabilities
 * ​Superhuman Strength - Even without a Goku Uniform, Gamagōri possess an immense, almost absurd amount of physical strength, enough to overpower multiple Goku Uniform users without activating his own. Even when losing his uniform, he still had enough strength to grapple with a large COVERS monster barehanded. His strength also allows him to have a high tolerance towards damage inflicted to him, being able to withstand great amounts of pain and punishment.

Former Powers and Abilities
Three-Star Goku Uniform:
 * Shackle Regalia (の)
 * Gamagōri's Three-Star Goku Uniform transforms into a diabolical-looking mummy-like bondage suit with the kanji 縛 (Shibari; Shackle) displayed on its chest. The uniform renders him invulnerable to external physical attacks while also boosting his strength and size relative to the amount of damage absorbed. The outer suit is actually made out of extremely tough cloth armor instead of Life Fibers, so attacks that seek to absorb Life Fibers are also ineffective. Although it is usually used to store energy for the Scourge Regalia, the Shackle Regalia has some offensive capability; its cloth strips can be separated into whips to strike at opponents, or simply tighten around Gamagōri's body to choke an opponent trapped in their grip.
 * Secret Technique: Self-Flagellation


 * If the opponent is aware of Gamagōri's special ability and refuses to attack his Shackle Regalia form, Gamagōri can use the suit's whips to attack himself, allowing him to gain the energy for Scourge Regalia's release by himself.


 * Scourge Regalia (の)
 * A "secondary" transformation of Shackle Regalia. It allows Gamagōri to unleash an explosive area of effect attack powered by all damage previously absorbed. This form also grants Gamagōri multiple spiked whips with remarkable reach and destructive power. There is also a spiked chakram attached to the back of the armor, which can be pulled out in multiple numbers for a simultaneous attack with the whips. Finally, Scourge Regalia's arms can morph into a hollow, two-part mold of (what he states to be) the ideal, proper high school student and in turn be used to crush opponents between them, literally molding them into a "proper student". Although devastatingly powerful, the Scourge Regalia is dependent on the energy absorbed by the Shackle Regalia to function properly; should Gamagōri's defenses somehow be pierced, his second form is severely weakened.


 * Shackle Regalia Mk.II (の・)
 * A revamped version of Gamagōri's old uniform. It features white bandages and a pharaoh-like mask that make it resemble the mummies of ancient Egypt. The uniform features silver pauldrons with red spikes and brown straps that scatter across Gamagōri's arms and chest. During the transformation, the uniform showed signs of electrical emission, but the electricity itself looked like chains.


 * Shackle Regalia Persona Unleashed (の・)
 * The ultimate form of the Shackle Regalia. In its base form, the uniform resembles its previous forms, expect being all black with multiple golden highlights. In its active form, its much more revealing than its previous versions, and unlike the Mk.II, it bears a stronger resemblance to the original Scourge Regalia rather than the Shackle Regalia. The uniform also resembles a mix between the Scourge Regalia and Gamagōri's Nudist Beach uniform.
 * Enhanced Physical Prowess - In this form, Gamagōri's immense size, physical strength and durability are even more increased. He was able to literally squish a giant COVERS between his hands with no effort. The arms of the uniform are as tough as Bakuzan, being able to block both of Ragyō Kiryūin's Life Fiber swords, which were noted to be capable of cutting through other Life Fibers.
 * Fire Fist - A unique ability shown by Gamagōri, his right fist becomes coated in flames, which he uses to punch and one-shot multiple COVERS monsters.


 * Unrestrained Ego Blast: The most powerful ability of his Shackle Regalia, Gamagōri's face comes out of his stomach and blasts copies of it made of yellow energy that were powerful enough to break the shell of the life fiber transmitter.

Relationships
Satsuki Kiryūin
 * He has sworn his ultimate loyalty to her, and his job is to enforce her rules. His thoughts seem to center around pleasing her, and he never hesitates to follow her commands. Although his loyalty to her has not actually been heavily tested, he did hold himself back two years so that he could graduate with her.

Student Council's Elite Four
 * Gamagōri's attitude toward his fellow Elites is very authoritarian. This is especially true with Uzu Sanageyama, whom he even went as far as whipping for punishment for refusing to admit defeat at the hands of Ryūko Matoi.

Mako Mankanshoku
 * Gamagōri's relationship with Mako has evolved over time. At first, he viewed her as just another No-Star Student, but after a number of encounters, he has begun to show a degree of respect towards her, albeit together with feelings of fierce rivalry due to the two supporting Satsuki and Ryūko respectively. He also notably did not make any move against Mako during their stand-off over Ryūko's Scissor Blade in the Ōsaka Battlefield Trip and only tried to intimidate her. He also showed a great deal of concern for her when Ragyō was assaulting Honnouji. He also pledged to her family that he would rescue Mako. It is implied that he has romantic feelings toward Mako.

Memorable quotes
"Attention! Your Student Council President, Satsuki Kiryūin! Hail!!!"

- Gamagōri demonstrating his authority and loyalty to Satsuki

"You're not fit to wear it!!! Remove that Goku uniform! NOW!!!"

- Gamagōri exerting his discipline on Suzuki

"A red light wouldn't even stop Mankanshoku."

- Gamagōri to Ryūko while hearing Mako's awful singing

"You know how I feel about forfeiting, so I won't harp on you about your decision. However, why are you wearing a tracksuit?! Have you no shame?!"

- Gamagōri to Inumuta, while wearing nothing besides his underwear

Trivia

 * Gamagōri bleaches his hair blonde.
 * Gamagōri's physical size tends to vary wildly from scene to scene, from merely exceptionally tall to the size of a building. The only seemingly constant thing about it is that he is always larger than any other character present. While likely for comedic value, this could be done to attribute the effects of a toad, which puffs itself up to look bigger and intimidating to make predators think they're too big to be eaten.
 * All of Gamagōri's Goku uniforms share a resemblance to characters from Marvel:
 * Shackle/Scourge Regalia resembles Iron Man.
 * Shackle Regalia MK.2 resembles Juggernaut.
 * Shackle Regalia Persona Unleashed resembles Apocalypse.
 * Gamagōri's "Unrestrained Ego Blast" gives him the appearance of a Gunman mecha from the Anime Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann.
 * In his name, Gama (蟇) is the kanji for "toad", while Ira (苛) means "strict" or "unforgiving" in kanji, which represents his animal motif and personality. Ira is also the Latin word for wrath. However, his name is also a pun on gorilla, as when his name is said in the Eastern Order, it's "Gamagōri Ira".