Character Analysis
Samurai Kings
The brothers Daito and Shoto round out the High Five—the first five gunters who find the Copper Key, including Wade, Aech, and Art3mis. Out of the five, we learn the least about Daito and Shoto.
They're Japanese. Honorable. And expendable. Poor Daito gets thrown out of a window and killed in real life, and Shoto's avatar dies trying to avenge his online brother's death by killing his assassin's avatar. Oh, and they're not even real brothers. They're brothers from other mothers; they're totally unrelated, but have formed an unbreakable bond through the magic of OASIS online relationships.
After Daito's death, we learn that he was a hikikomori, which is a Japanese word for someone who is a total recluse. It definitely shows an interesting parallel between Daito and Wade. Wade is just as extreme, if not more so, than Daito, but Americans just don't have a word for it. We'd like to give Daito more credit and say he was just really passionate about gaming. After all, there's a fine line between pro-gaming and dangerous addiction.
In the end, despite being by-the-book honorable samurai, Daito and Shoto end up being two of the most expendable characters in the book. As we said, Daito is literally thrown from a window. And Shoto, even though he survives and is brought to Og's compound with Wade, doesn't even warrant an in person meeting with the guy. Even in the 3D world of the OASIS, these two characters are barely one-dimensional.