Oribe Sou

Sou Oribe
Sou Oribe as seen in anime
Japanese Name	僧 織部
First appearance:
Manga	Chapter 1
Anime	Episode 1
General information:
Gender	male
Age	17
Alive	yes
Affiliation	"Blue Steel", Chihaya Gunzou
Current occupation	I-401's first mate
Previous occupations	Japanese National Maritime Institute of Technology student
Appearance:
Eye color	unknown
Hair color	unknown
Notable details	wears helmet that completely conceals his face
Voice Actors:
Japanese	Matsumoto Shinobu
German	Unknown

Sou Oribe is a member of the I-401's crew; he is also a childhood friend of Gunzou and his classmate from the Japanese National Maritime Institute of Technology. He is the I-401's first mate.

Appearance and Personality

Sou Oribe is a rather tall male. His face was never shown as he is always wearing his red and white face-mask. In one of the episodes, Sou claims that the mask is used due to his allergies. Sou Oribe's clothes consist of varying sweaters and blue jeans.

Sou Oribe reading a lecture on Wave-Force armor at the Military Command of Yokosuka naval base.

He comes across a rather mysterious type because he isn't talking very often. His hobbies are making various schemes, diagrams and slides. He is a pretty good lecturer with the first-hand knowledge about the "Fleet of Fog" technology. During the I-401's rather short stay at the Yokosuka port, he was invited to read a lecture on the Wave-Force armor at the Military Command of the local naval base. Back when he attended the Japanese National Maritime Institute of Technology, he was ranked 4th on the last annual test that he took.

Role

We are first introduced to Sou Oribe when he is already the member of the I-401's crew for a long time. From Iori's dialog with Gunzou it is revealed that he, along with Iori Watanuki and Kyouhei Kashihara, had joined the crew a couple of months before the battle with battleship Hyuuga. Ever since then, Sou Oribe has been I-401's first mate.

Sou Oribe doesn't have his personal mini-arc, so for the most part he is a background character.

Relationships

• Gunzou Chihaya - Sou Oribe's childhood friend, classmate and, later, captain.
• Iori Watanuki - Sou Oribe's classmate and a fellow member of the I-401's crew. She's in charge of the engine.
• Kyouhei Kashihara - Another Sou Oribe's classmate; he is also a member of the I-401's crew and is in charge of the weapons.
• Maruri Hibiki - Yet another classmate of Sou Oribe. She was the original sonar operator, but left the crew following the battle with battleship Hyuuga.
• Shizuka Hodzumi - The current sonar operator. Unlike the rest of the crew, Shizuka never attended the Japanese National Maritime Institute of Technology.
• Kotono Amaha - Gunzou's and Sou Oribe's childhood friend. It is believed that she had perished in the Facility #4 fire.

Trivia

• Sou Oribe is the only character whose face has never been shown in the series.
• His mask has a hole through which he eats. Underneath the outer red-and-white hard mask there is another one, apparently pure-white in color. And while he takes the outer mask off for maintenance, the inner mask is always hiding his face.

Gallery

Sou Oribe

Sou Oribe gives a lecture on Wave-Force armor to the Military command of Yokosuka naval base

Sou Oribe's anime render