Collector Manikin ガラクタ集めマネカタ

“A real Bill!”

The Junk Collector Manikin can be described in one word: quirky. His entire life is dedicated to his collection of man-made objects, which he goes to great length to to add to. Nothing has more importance to him, not even his own life, despite the fact that he often doesn't even know what these objects are actually for. They were made by humans and that's good enough for him.

This quirk of personality have led the other Manikins, who are all nameless like him with the notable exception of Futomimi and Sakahagi, to name him the Junk Collector Manikin. Far from being offended, he reasily accepts that. It is, after all, who he is.

The Collector Manikin is first encountered in the Great Underpass of Ginza. The protagonist is directed to him because he attempted and failed to leave the Great Underpass, as the Manikin guarding the gate will not let him through. The Collector Manikin is not as afraid of the protagonist as the other Manikins and proposes a deal: if the protagonist can bring him a Bill, a small painted piece of paper some men valued more than their lives, the Collector will give the protagonist a letter to let the guard know to let the protagonist through.

After robbing an alcoholic Loki's room, the protagonist finds gems and a 1,000 yen banknote (about USD 10.00). The Collector is overjoyed and, in a display of how his passion override even his survival instincts, he snatches the Bill from the protagonist. After calming down, he says he'll fulfill his end of the deal and writes the protagonist a letter that will make the guard open the gate. Indeed, the guard, upon reading the letter, opens the gate for the protagonist, who can continue on.

The Collector Manikin is next encountered in Kabukicho Prison. After getting captured in the Underpass, he is being subjected to torture to extract his magatsuhi. He is nonetheless more annoyed at having been caught than about his current predicament. He is even happy to see the protagonist roaming the corridors of the prison and lends him his Spoon (probably more a battle spoon as seen in SMT: IMAGINE and not just a soup spoon) for another Manikin to use because “you did help me with the Bill”. Once freed, he embarks on a journey to Asakusa with the other Manikins and Futomimi.

Asakusa is where the Collector can be found next. At first, he is standing around, talking about clearing the sand and debris out of a building to start his very own shop. Later on, when the interior of Asakusa is cleared, the Collector has indeed opened shop, and magatamas can be found there in addition to other useful supplies, just because he thought they would be useful to the protagonist. From then on, however, he stops being a character one can encounter in the world and becomes a shopkeeper character, although he does ponder for a while the possibility of joining the porotagonist's party to seek out more “human things”.

Having survived the Mifunashiro genocide, probably by hiding among the junk in his shop, the Collector Manikin finally makes his way to the Tower of Kagutsuchi. There, he climbs with the other, establishing the last shop of the game in the small hub of Amala Drum/Fountain of Life/Cathedral of Shadows where the Manikins have set up camp, just below the floors where Yosuga have set up camp themselves, near the summit. It seems that he too, even if there is no hope of a Manikin world, wanted to see the end with his own eyes.

Stats

As the Collector Manikin never fights the protagonist or joins his party, he has no official stats or skills. However, just for fun, I decided to give him some, base on the knowledge of his travels through the Vortex and what would be necessary for him to survive.

Reason

Collector is too absorbed in his collection and his travels to really ponder deep philosoophical questions like the creation of a Reason. He is most likely entirely in agreement with Futomimi's Reason of equality, as long as there would be man-made things in that world.