Hyde

Overview

Gameplay

Quotes

Gallery

Arcade

城戸 灰都 Hyde Kido
[Sys:Celes]UNIBBTAG
Profile
Name	Hyde Kido (城戸 灰都)
Gender	Male
Birthday	April 14th
Height	171cm
Weight	55kg
Blood Type	O
Affiliations
Alias	Unknown Actor (不明なる共演者(アンノウンアクター)) The Wild Card (Official English text only) Clownfish (By Carmine) Hide-and-seek (By Nanase) Hiking (By Nanase) Hydro Kid (By Nanase)
Relatives	Unnamed parents
Organization	Night Blade
Rank	Partnered with Linne
Ability	The EXS of Darkness: Void Red
Weapon	Indulgence of Insulating: Insulator
Character Voice
Japanese	Ryōhei Kimura
English	Kyle McCarley
Appearances
Further information Games UNDER NIGHT IN-BIRTH (Playable) UNDER NIGHT IN-BIRTH Exe:Late (Playable) UNDER NIGHT IN-BIRTH Exe:Late[st] (Playable) UNDER NIGHT IN-BIRTH Exe:Late[cl-r] (Playable) UNDER NIGHT IN-BIRTH II Sys:Celes (Playable) Other Appearances BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle (Playable)

"Her will... Everything she wanted, I'm doing in her stead. That's all."

Hyde Kido (城戸(キド) 灰都(ハイド)) is the main protagonist of UNDER NIGHT IN-BIRTH. He is the wielder of the legendary Insulator and a second year student at an unnamed high school.

He was one of the twelve original characters introduced in the first version of the game.

Background

The young boy, victim of chance and coincidence.

UNDER NIGHT IN-BIRTH

An ordinary child from an ordinary high school, who is the protagonist of the story. He was saved by Linne, while under attack by a Void. As a result, he awakened to his power of EXS, and Linne has demanded his help. Since then, Linne has made Hyde's house hers, as well, having Hyde do her bidding. All the while, when the Hollow Night falls on the world, she acts on her own, not wanting to expose him to danger. In order to save her, however, Hyde takes matters into his own hands.

UNDER NIGHT IN-BIRTH II [Sys:Celes]

Hyde is our high schooler protagonist. The power of EXS awakened within Hyde after an encounter with a mysterious young girl named Linne. After a series of gruesome battles, Hyde defeated Paradox--considered to be the strongest wielder of all. Afterwards, however, Hyde was defeated by an immensely powerful Re-Birth called Kuon the Aeon. Kuon boasted of plans that involved destroying the world as a means to achieve his goal. Hearing this, Linne disappeared. Hyde sets out on his own to confront Kuon and save the world...

Appearance

Hyde is a teenage boy of average height with strange, dual-toned, messy hair, being bleach blonde at the front and black at the back end. His eyes are dark red in color and are occasionally portrayed as having slit pupils, akin to a cat's.

He is commonly seen wearing his school uniform in a rather sloppy manner. His apparel consists of an black, unzipped blazer with gold rims on the lapels, collar and pockets. He has a small belt with a golden buckle each wrapped around the sleeves of the blazer and the right arm is embellished with the emblem of his school. He wears two more normal sized belts around his waist, the top one is done up but not buckled while the bottom one hangs loosely.

Underneath his uniform, Hyde wears a white, long sleeved polo shirt with the topmost button undone, revealing a red shirt underneath. Hyde loosely wears a red tie with two black and red stripes on the back of it. His legwear consists of black pants with two zippers going up to below the knee and black, leather shoes with a gold stripe going across the front.

Personality

Straight-forward and strong-willed, Hyde is an individual who gives his all to any challenge before him and doesn't back down from a fight. Although normally cool-headed, he has a cocky and reckless side to him and tends to head into extremely dangerous situations without a second thought and can act rather obtusely when talking to girls. Despite this, he is shown to be understanding the responsibility of his role as the Insulator's wielder, as well as being well-aware of his life being on the line. Hyde himself has stated that he has no desire for power and only wants to live his life like a normal person.

Hyde is someone who greatly values his friends and comrades. Although he is capable of using Insulator to kill Linne, he decides to postpone doing so as he feels that she has much more to teach him. He was also hesitant to fight Orie due to the positive relationship they have and offers Vatista a place to stay until she completes her mission.

Story

Not much is known about Hyde's childhood or past outside of when he started going to a local kendo dojo, where he ended up meeting Yuzuriha for the first time. The two became almost inseparable, with Hyde following Yuzuriha wherever she went. However, their relationship became strained overtime. Hyde began distancing himself from Yuzuriha more and more and an unknown incident left them separated almost for good, with him still trying his hardest to forget.

Scenario: Child of Darkness (漆黒の少年)
During a walk back home through a toy store, Hyde ends up knocking into a small child and she knocks into a shelf behind them. Hyde helps them up and offers to help clean up the mess they made. After that, the child leaves without another word. Suspicious of the child, Hyde decides to follow her. He then comes across the same child getting into an argument with a petty thug and he tries to step in by pretending that the child is his little brother, "Yoshio". The attempt fails and Hyde just ends up carrying the child away to safety. When out of the thug's sight, Hyde proceeds to put the child down and discovers it's a girl through somewhat unfortunate means. The girl proceeds to strangle Hyde to the point of unconsciousness. When he wakes up, the girl properly expresses her gratitude for earlier and decides to go on her way, to which Hyde decides to show the girl around Kanzakai and introduces himself to her. The girl introduces herself as Linne.

Hyde proceeds to show Linne around the town, taking her to a crepe restaurant for a break. A few hours pass and Linne decides that she should be going, Hyde offers her to stay at his house due to the rumors of people going missing and being found in a coma a few days later, but she turns it down. The next day, Hyde is seen walking out of school with Orie, a new student who is apparently from an all-girl's school. The two say goodbye and Hyde heads back home. On his way back, he's attacked by the rumored shadows and is backed into an alleyway. Out of nowhere, Linne shows up and kills one of the creatures but not before one of them bites Hyde in the shoulder. A sharp pain engulfs Hyde's hand and a strange, red mass erupts from it and takes the form of some sort of sword, the resulting overload of energy injures the other creature and Hyde collapses. He wakes up to find himself being dragged away by Linne and tries to stand up, to no avail. Linne takes him over to a bench for him to recover and tells him that she will be staying at his home from now on.

After that, Linne, her pet Kuu and her guardian Waldstein move into Hyde's home. They teach Hyde all about the Hollow Night and the Power of Existence so that Hyde would be ready for when the next Hollow Night arrives. During his time as an In-Birth, Hyde becomes known on the streets as the Unknown Actor (不明なる共演者(アンノウンアクター)) who accompanies the Princess of the Night Blade.

Scenario: Dreams of the Night (乙女は『夜』に夢を見る)
Two weeks later, Hyde searches through the park, on the lookout for someone named "Paradox" and comes across a girl who he at first mistakes for them. He goes to help the girl up, only for her to start calling him a pervert and threatens to call the police. Hyde tries to calm the girl down and if forced to cover her mouth with his hand in order to not cause any issues. The resulting commotion attracts a Void, which bites the girls leg from behind and she falls unconscious. Hyde quickly kills the creature and takes the girl somewhere safe, trying his hardest to not think of anything provocative after the encounter.

He places her on a nearby bench and decides to hide and watch over her, believing it to be irresponsible to leave her. The girl wakes up and tries to recall what happened, once again twisting the story to make Hyde out as the villain. Slightly frustrated by this but glad that the girl is ok, Hyde leaves her alone as she texts a friend to pick her up.

Scenario: A Reluctant Hero (それでも俺は行くしかないだろ！？)
Just a mere two days before the next Hollow Night, Hyde is very excited since he has gotten far with his training. While Hyde heads to shop some groceries, he encounters a mysterious boy on the nearby park. This boy makes a suggestion that Hyde absolutely has to meet a certain someone. Hyde heads to the designated place only to discover that the person he's meeting is the Paradox, leader of Amnesia.

Hyde does his best not to raise any suspicions, but in the end he over-confidently declares himself as the new wielder of Insulator. Hilda says that he is free to leave as she can't make any moves under the surveillance.

Arcade Mode (アーケードモード)
After two days have passed, the Hollow Night finally arrives. Linne and Waldstein suddenly disappear so Hyde begins searching for them. On the way, he encounters Orie and both are surprised that the other is an In-Birth. They then fight for the right to move on to challenge Hilda with Hyde emerging victorious. Soon after, one of two things may happen: Waldstein suddenly appears and engages Hyde in battle to test his strength and resolve; or he bumps into Yuzuriha and Hyde apologizes for the incident that happened in the past before the two duke it out.

Afterwards, Hyde encounters Linne outside the Altar and insists that he fights Hilda while Linne insists that Hyde stays back because Hilda is after the Insulator and she is on a whole other league of power than him. They then fight and Hyde is able to proceed. Paradox offers Hyde a place in Amnesia to help her plans come to fruition, but he refuses. He defeats Hilda but doesn't find it in him to kill her and uses the Insulator to destroy the Abyss, ending the Night. Afterwards, he reunites with Linne and carries her home on his back.

Other Arcade Mode appearances

CarmineOrieMerkavaVatistaSethHildaNanaseByakuyaPhonon

Carmine refers to Hyde as a clownfish, and they argue. Hyde is confused by Carmine only fighting for the sake of fighting, but says he doesn't mind dueling someone with a simple motive.

Orie and Hyde try to convince each other to not venture further into the Night in order to not get hurt, after finding out at that very moment that they are both In-Births.

Hyde is amazed by Merkava's form and sentience. Merkava finds this sentiment baffling and irritating, but does take an interest in Hyde's sword. Hyde ultimately decides to slay the Void.

Vatista encounters Hyde undressed, and he pleads her to put on clothes. After defeating Hilda, she meets Hyde again, and he offers her to stay at his house so she won't have to stand alone all day and observe her surroundings.

Seth ambushes Hyde and the two have a hostile conversation about their roles in the Night, and about the Insulator. Seth deems Hyde immature and they fight.

Hyde rushes to save Linne after Hilda had severely wounded her. She takes the Insulator from him, and depending on the ending achieved, she either kills him herself or sends Enkidu and Uzuki to do it in her stead.

Hyde goes into the Altar to defeat Hilda, only to discover Nanase had already taken her down. Nanase forces him to fight her to force him to atone for turning her into an In-Birth. After defeating him, Vatista provides clarification on the true process behind turning into an In-Birth, and Hyde's name is cleared. However, Nanase still doesn't hold a high opinion of him.

Byakuya explains to Hyde that his sister cannot use her EXS abilities and thus he will crush everything in her way to find a certain someone in her stead.

Phonon and Hyde bicker as Hyde constantly confuses Phonon's dominatrix facade for many other things, which irritates her.

UNDER NIGHT IN-BIRTH II [Sys:Celes]

Since defeating Hilda, Hyde had encountered Wagner and saw her undressed on accident.

Arcade Mode (アーケードモード)
On the eve of the Final Night, Hyde resolves to stop Kuon alone. On the way, he runs into Waldstein, who has left the house and apparently joined forces with Kuon. Hyde tries reasoning with him one last time, but Waldstein reaffirms that nothing can be done for him, and they fight.

After defeating Waldstein, Hyde is surprised to encounter Hilda, considering she was defeated by Kuon in the Hollow Night three months ago. Hilda declares her intent on getting revenge on both Kuon and Hyde, while Hyde resolves to stop her a second time.

Hyde makes it to the Altar of Eternity where Kuon is waiting, and declares that he'll be taking the Power of Sealing to stop the Immortalize and free Linne from her curse. He succeeds in defeating Kuon, and cuts him down with the Insulator for good.

One week later, Hyde wanders the city streets, wondering about what happened to the other In-Births after the Final Night. Linne has gone missing, and he agonizes over whether cutting Kuon down was enough to save her. Suddenly, he bumps into a mysterious girl, causing him to fall to the ground. He apologizes, and the girl offers to help him back up, revealing herself to be Linne in a new form.

Other Arcade Mode appearances

LinneOrieMerkavaVatistaNanaseTsurugiKaguyaKuon

Hyde begrudgingly teams up with Seth to save Linne using the power of both of their Indulgence Weapons as she prepares to sacrifice herself.

Hyde converses with Linne in the epilogue as she berates him for thinking he ever had a chance with Orie. Much to his surprise, she suddenly appears for a visit.

In the good ending, Hyde appears and yells at the newly-human former Void to put on clothes. Hyde does not appear in the bad ending.

Linne and Hyde are looking for the Autonomic Nerve after she had sacrificed her body to destroy Kuon. Many girls suddenly come to shout at Hyde due to him being near a young-looking naked girl.

Nanase challenges Hyde after defeating Kuon to force him to apologize to her even after she realized what truly turned her into an In-Birth. After being beaten by her, Hyde gives out a half-hearted apology after much demand for the sole intent of her leaving him alone.

Tsurugi talks to Hyde about their deep bond and shared duties, which the latter shows himself to not be a fan of.

Kaguya encounters Hyde and teases him in regards to his relationship with Orie.

Hyde appears as Kuon's final encounter, with Kuon striking him down to take the Insulator from him.

Abilities

Hyde's ability is the EXS of Darkness: Void Red (漆黒のEXS 「ヴォイドレッド」). This power makes it possible summon a sword called the Indulgence of Insulation (断裂の免罪符(インスレーター)) or "The Insulator" from within his hand. The sword has a power to rend things apart, and can even be used to rip a person's EXS apart - meaning it can kill Immortals and those similar to them. This makes it so that any contact with the blade itself even if not directly damaged by it, is dangerous to its victims in any context.

However, Hyde is noted to be an In-Birth for much less compared to the rest of the more experienced characters. As a result, he fights with basic swordsmanship and has stated that "his body merely moves on his own", indicating his inexperience with his powers. Despite that, Hyde has shown to have adapted to his newfound powers very quickly.

Musical Theme

OfficialExe:Late[st] only

Title	Description
Scraper Sky High	Hyde's theme
Mutual Situation	Hyde VS Seth theme
Scraper Sky High [UNI2 Mix]	[Sys:Celes] Hyde's theme
Mutual Situation [UNI2 Mix]	[Sys:Celes] Hyde VS Seth

Title	Description
Sky-High Scraper	Hyde's theme
Mutual Rivalry	Hyde VS Seth theme

Introduction Text

Exe:Late[cl-r] (Art Book)Exe:Late (EN)Exe:Late (JP)OriginalLocation Test

He awakens. In order to free the girl from the chains of eternity that seal her fate. The
power burning within him is the "Void". The blade he carries, the Insulator. Each day became
lost in a sea of banality, living under the threat of the Night. The Hollow Night approaches
and where reality and fantasy meet, this young boy takes a stand... to reclaim everything
and return it to nothingness.

He wakes up -- In order to free the girl from the chains of eternity, that seal her fate. The
power burned within him, the "Void". The blade he carries, the Insulator. Each day became
lost in a sea of banality, living under the threat of the Night. The Hollow Night approaches,
and where reality and fantasy meet, this young boy takes a stand... to reclaim everything,
and return it to nothingness.

He wakes up. In order to release the girl caught by the eternal chain from the fate.
The power minced by the body is "nothingness." The power grasped by the hand is an "indulgence."
Every day leveled. The boy who has lived every day vacantly. The day of looming referee.
Under this night. In order to stand on the boundary of reality and fantasy and to return the all to nothing ---

He wakes up. To release the girl bound by the perpetual chain from her destiny.
Her body is engraved ”immortal”. Her hand holds ”indulgence”.
Ordinal days are broken. The boy lived hollow days. The judgement day is impending.
Under this night standing in-between the reality and fantasy to bring back everything to the nothingness.

The red into which his ability overflows a sword blade, black aura.
I slip through partner's defense and despoil physical strength.
It isn't embodiment of just darkness officially,
but he himself doesn't know this keeping barrel ability yet, either.

Creation & Development

Visuals

Hyde's Evolution

Before the story was finalized, the protagonist of this game was just a bunch of constantly changing ideas. He wasn't particularly important as the story itself revolved around Linne's and Hilda's conflict. In the original scrapped setting, the protagonist was supposed to be a young adult who protects a lonely girl. However, after Yoshihara decided to combine adult Linne and little Linne into a single character. The necessity of the main characters high age was lost.

One of the main targets for French-Bread's new fighting game were younger gamers. In order to appeal to them, the setting was shifted into a light-novel styled world very similar to the reality the players live in. That's when the protagonist was changed into a high-school student. Yoshihara received some directions and advice from BlazBlue producer Mori Toshimichi while he was troubled by Hyde's design.

His uniform was dressed down on purpose to make Hyde look slightly more like a bad guy. Black colors and slight red elements were chosen because they reminded one of the Void. The blonde hair was added to increase the extravagance​ in the visuals.

Theme
Hyde's theme was the first song the composer Raito composer for the game. It was a struggle and took a long time to grasp what kind of franchise UNI really is and how it's going to differentiate itself from "Melty Blood". In the soundtrack booklet, Raito comments that completing Hyde's theme took a little over half-a-year. On August 24th 2014, Raito showcased one of the scrapped versions of Hyde's theme during his "UNI Music Stream".

Gameplay
Originally in the promo back around 2011 for the first installment of UNDER NIGHT IN-BIRTH, Hyde was able to use one of his special moves, Dark Lotus, standalone on the ground. In the final build, it ended up as a follow-up move for Black Orbiter.

Trivia

• In the official English versions, Hyde's title of "Unknown Actor" is translated as "The Wild Card".
• The black section on the cowlick in Hyde's SD art is missing, leaving it entirely blonde.
• Hyde's signature dish is Pasta.
• In the UNDER NIGHT IN-BIRTH II [Sys:Celes] Product Survey & Character Popularity Poll held in 2024, Hyde came in 6th place, with 192 votes.
• Hyde's moves often utilize alternative Kanji reading, where the kanji used have rather different English readings from their actual translations. More accurate translations are seen below:
  • [Strict Daze] Vestige of Cruelty (峭刻ノ残滓)
  • [Blaring Outrage/Blare Out Edge] Cadence/Rumbling of Extinction (断絶ノ鳴動)
  • [Black Orbiter] Torus' Misfortune Vortex (円環ノ凶渦)
    • This exact move with its kanji name has become one of Kuon's attacks, using the opposite input.
  • [Dark Lotus] Black Lotus Blooming in the Abyss (深淵ニ咲ク黒蓮)
    • [Dark Lotus Anthesis] Black Lotus Crazily Blooming in the Abyss (深淵ニ狂咲ク黒蓮)
  • [Bend Sinister] Distorted Aperture (歪曲サレシ空隙)
  • [Red-Clad Craver] Wing of Crimson-Clad Darkness (紅纏イシ闇ノ翼)
  • [Vacant Shift] Fault Dividing the Empty Air (虚空ヲ分ツ断層)
    • [First] One Layer (壱層)
    • [Second] Two Layer (弐層)
    • [Third] Three Layer (参層)
  • [Shadow Scare] Earth-Drilling Shadow (地ヲ穿ツ影)
  • [Veil/Pale Bringer] Wedge of Calamity Calling Sick Crimson (禍招セシ猩紅ノ楔)
  • [Gyre Vortex] Cage of Alluring to the Demise Spiral (終焉ヘ誘ウ螺旋ノ檻)
  • [Raging Roar] Heaven & Earth Shredding Savage God's Roaring Howl (天地斬リ裂ク荒神ノ咆哮)
  • [Vacant Shift - Sediment] Fault Dividing the Empty Air - Multi-Gulf Layer (虚空ヲ分ツ断層 - 多重隔層; an EX Vacant Shift, named in BBTAG)
  • [Veil/Pale Bringer Arose] Awakening Wedge of Calamity Calling Sick Crimson (覚醒禍招セシ猩紅ノ楔; BBTAG only)
    • Hyde's battle quotes for Vacant Shift reference the original kanji-based reading via the mentioning of the layers per input ("Issō, nisō, sansō!"), which is something that does not normally apply to the other similar kanji-based alternate character readings. Meanwhile, in Cross Tag Battle, he does the same for Veil Bringer Arose (yelling out "SHŌKŌ NO KUSABI!").
    • Another unique aspect of these kanji is that all the grammatical particles are rendered in katakana instead of hiragana, shared with Kuon's techniques as a follow user of the Insulator.