Mekata

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Mekata
目加田
PS artwork from Shin Megami Tensei II
Occupation(s)	Scientist

Mekata is a character in Shin Megami Tensei II.

Profile

A mysterious scientist who seems to be involved in Aleph's past.

His appearance is that of a middle-aged to elderly man with entirely grey hair and a cane. He has two black lines of makeup trailing down his eyes and wears a grey business suit with a green tie.

Game Appearances

Shin Megami Tensei II

In the game's introduction, Hawk receives various flashbacks involving a man standing in front of large vats who asks him to name various individuals, which lets them be renamed. If Aleph says he does not remember their names, the man will tell him their names instead.

When Hawk meets Hiroko for the first time, she mentions Mekata as one of the scientists she suspects is responsible for the disappearance of the child she is searching for, as he, along with his accomplice Hanada had caused an explosion in the Center 6 months prior, with the child going missing shortly after.

This section contains spoilers. (Skip Section)

After Aleph defeats Daleth at the Colosseum, he is approached by a little boy who was told to give him a note. Reading the note says to go to the Slum. At the slum, Aleph meets Mekata in person, who implies that he knows Aleph's past, but before he is willing to explain everything to him, he asks that he rescue Hiroko from the Factory, who was imprisoned there for going AWOL, wanting her to be there for his explanation as she is deeply involved in it as well. When Aleph and Hiroko return to Valhalla after the latter is rescued though, they are greeted with a vast void where Valhalla should have been, with it being revealed that the Elders had Abaddon swallow the district whole, preventing Aleph and Hiroko from finding out the truth.

Later, when Aleph's party invades the Center's headquarters, they can stumble upon Mekata's lab, where in one of the rooms, Aleph experiences a flashback of escaping from the Center with Mekata and Hanada. Mekata tells him he wiped the memories the Center had implanted in him, which is why he had trouble remembering his name, and this is interrupted by Hanada alerting him that they have been found out. At this, Mekata mentions that there are still 4 other individuals they need to get to, before begrudgingly deciding they must escape with only Aleph in tow, and then gives Hanada the ok to turn on some sort of device.

When Aleph and Hiroko find themselves inside Abaddon's body, they stumble upon the remains of the Slum that is still mostly intact and finally reunite with Mekata, who tells them the reason why Valhalla was swallowed was to prevent Aleph from finding out the truth from him. Now that both Aleph and Hiroko are before him, however, he can proceed to explain the truth of their lives to them; That all of them are subjects part of an experiment overseen by the Elders called the Messiah Project, in which Mekata was a head scientist. As God never sent the people of Tokyo Millennium a savior, the Elders decided to artificially create one themselves, with Aleph being the created savior in question. He tells them that four other beings were created to support him as the Messiah: Beth, Gimel, Daleth, and Zayin, and also reveals that Aleph's creation was unique in that he was originally a fertilized egg who was implanted into a strong woman who carried him to term and gave birth to him. This woman turned out to be Hiroko, making Aleph her surrogate son and also the child she was searching for at the beginning of the game. Mekata then tells them that after his birth, Aleph was placed in a vat that accelerated his growth into adulthood within a matter of 3 days. Mekata admits that initially, he followed the Elders' orders unquestioningly, but eventually, he grew disgusted by what they were doing, and together with Hanada, wiped Aleph's false memories and escaped with him. He then addresses Hiroko and reveals that she is his daughter, who was brainwashed by the Center into being a Holy Knight, apologizing to her for not being able to save her. Due to his time in Abaddon's body, Mekata is fading away, so he quickly hands the party the MAG Presser and bids them farewell as he completely disappears.

Visionaries

Mekata is featured in five Visionary cutscenes in the Game Boy Advance and iOS versions of the game.

In Photo Frame, Mekata decides to give Hiroko away to different parents as he will not be able to make any time for her as a researcher. He talks about how when his late wife fell ill, her treatment was delayed due to the reduced medical facilities that the Great Cataclysm caused, leading to her death. Not wanting anyone else to meet a similar fate, he switched to medical research, and then the Center started mobilizing scientists, who Mekata had no doubt were trying to accomplish something of a large magnitude. Knowing that it will take up all his time, he concludes that it would be better for Hiroko if she grew up in a family that lived in the Center. He wonders if he'll ever be able to tell Hiroko the truth someday, but tells himself that he won't as long as he lives.

In "Ebony Wand", Mekata is in disbelief that he has met Hiroko again as part of the Messiah Project. Though at first, he believed that the Project would save people, Hiroko being used as the donor for the artificial insemination shakes his faith in the project massively, making him wonder if it is all God's doing that he is separated from her. As his doubts pile up, he finally decides to take action against it.

In "Cracked Flask", Mekata discusses the need for a fifth body for the project with the Bishop. Though Mekata warns him that the chances the fifth body survives accelerated growth is less than 100%, the Bishop dismisses his concerns and tells him that the body should be able to survive it no matter how fast they set it's growth rate. Mekata tries to convince him that more time is needed to ensure the body doesn't fail, but the Bishop responds by saying that if it does fail, they will simply move on to another body for the experiment. The Bishop justifies his attitude by saying that it is the body's duty to undergo the experiment, and even if they could not withstand the acceleration, their soul will surely be saved by God, and that as a scientist, Mekata does not need to be worrying about what happens to its soul. Mekata reluctantly concedes to his orders.

In "Broken PDA", Mekata receives a call from a young Hiroko using a dormitory phone, who eagerly tells him of a story she had heard that day about the Blessed Mother and the Messiah. Mekata says he must continue working, however, disappointing Hiroko and making her ask him when he will come to see her, with him hesitantly telling her he might be able to see her the next week. She sadly asks him to promise her that he will really see her then, to which he does, and then hangs up the call, leaving Mekata to contemplate if he is a failure of a father.

In "Piece of White Coat", Mekata speaks to Aleph as he is close to finishing his accelerated growth, relieved that he and the 4 other experiments were grown successfully, but implies there were other previous failures that should not have happened. He mentions that he is the body born from the body of his daughter and the core of the Messiah Project, as he is meant to be the faithful Messiah of the Center, though he laughs to himself at the irony of it all, as he secretly erased any sense of loyalty to the Center in him. As he is now unbound to the Center, Mekata wonders what will become of him in the future, as it is now his choice whether he aligns with the Center not, before he concludes that no one can know.

End of spoilers.

Trivia

• According to Kazuma Kaneko, he is Dr. Frankenstein.

Nomenclature

According to Ryūtarō Itō, mekata was named after a female reporter from the Japanese news network NHK. However, he claimed that he took mekata's name from his former landlord in another interview.

Names in Other Languages

Language	Name	Meaning
Japanese	目加田	Mekata

Gallery

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  Sprite from Shin Megami Tensei II (PlayStation)