Eiji, Kiiriyama

桐山英治

As the director of Kiriyama Heavy Industries and the creator of the Thunderclap Armas, he was a childhood friend of Reiji Moritsugu, whose ideals of justice he greatly respected. Apparently, however, those ideals became twisted and warped over time, turning him into a greedy, arrogant, and overconfident individual. His portrayals differ considerably: in the manga, he used the Katou Organization as mere guinea pigs to demonstrate the prowess of the Thunderclap, whereas in the anime, he initially forged an alliance with them. Nevertheless, his greed for power prompted him to try and subdue them as well after staging a coup d'état that granted him control of Japan. Kiriyama was a Factor, and to crush the remnants of JUDA after conquering Japan, he fought them himself. He was defeated after being publicly unmasked as a ruthless dictator and one of the key figures of the coup. He was recovered by Katou, and thanks to Masaki Sugiwara, revived as a Machina-turned human. Being fused with his Machina made Kiriyama completely insane and also heralded his demise. While fighting JUDA a second time, he fused almost completely with his Machina and was obliterated, musing in his last moments on how he truly admired Reiji's old ideals and how he wanted to be a hero for him.
Eiji's Machina is Pretender, a machine most unique in that it is the only Machina that can transform, changing from a fighter jet to a walking mecha at high speed even in mid-flight. Despite its bizarre appearance, it benefits from enormous mobility and a huge degree of firepower, granted by a large number of missile launchers and wireless Nerve-Crackers identical to those used by Deceive. For close combat, it is armed with a massive combat knife.