Johnny Sasaki

Johnny Sasaki, nicknamed Akiba by his comrades in Rat Patrol Team 01, was a U.S. Army soldier, and sometimes mercenary, who participated in the Shadow Moses Incident, the Big Shell Incident and, more prominently, the events of Liquid Ocelot's Insurrection. His grandfather, also named Johnny, was encountered by Naked Snake during Operation Snake Eater.

During Liquid Ocelot's Insurrection, his entire body was often covered with wearable computers. Using a wrist-mounted keyboard and a goggle monitor, he specialized in scouting, patrolling, record keeping, data analysis, explosives, and traps. He became proficient in these areas in an attempt to match the skills of his nanomachine-enhanced teammates, though he would later admit that he never came close to doing so. Johnny suffered from irritable bowel syndrome and, due to his lack of nanomachines, also consumed local water without normal nanomachine filtration. This caused his diarrhea and cramps to become particularly bad during missions, although he seemed to blame the bouts of diarrhea on trying to hold up good-looking women during a mission.

Despite his poor hand-to-hand skills and generally hapless behavior, Johnny exhibited excellent firearms proficiency when he finally engaged in a gunfight with Liquid Ocelot's FROG troops (an earlier incident with the safety left on notwithstanding).

Early career
Circa 2004, Johnny joined the U.S. military.

During the Shadow Moses Incident, Johnny was one of the Genome Soldiers that took part in Liquid Snake's revolt. He was the guard assigned to watch the DARPA Chief's and Meryl Silverburgh's cells, during Solid Snake's first infiltration of the facility. Upon seeing Meryl for the first time, Johnny immediately fell in love with her. Later, while in the bathroom, Johnny complained to himself about a cold he had caught and how much he hated Alaska, before commenting on how "built" Meryl was. After hearing Meryl banging on her cell door, Johnny opened it and was immediately knocked unconscious and stripped of his clothes, which Meryl intended to use as a disguise. His Codec was also stolen by Meryl, which later ended up broken when Meryl blew her cover.

After acquiring some more clothes, Johnny was later assigned to guard Solid Snake's cell in the medical room, after the latter was captured by Sniper Wolf. He only opened the cell for Snake whenever Revolver Ocelot requested that he be brought to him for further interrogation. While guarding the cell, Johnny periodically complained about his cold, which he was still suffering from despite having access to medicine, and also took frequent bathroom breaks due to his diarrhea. Despite his feelings towards Meryl, he was angered that she had earlier stolen his uniform, referring to her as a "witch." Johnny was later fooled by Snake, when the latter played dead by lying down in a puddle of ketchup, resembling blood. After unlocking the cell to investigate, he was subsequently knocked out again.

Unlike the surviving Genome Soldiers who had participated in the rebellion, Johnny somehow managed to avoid being detained at Pease AFB in the aftermath of the Shadow Moses Incident and eventually joined the Gurlukovich Mercenaries. He participated in the takeover of the Big Shell, though he continued to suffer from stomach problems. During a bathroom break in the Shell 1 Core, he talked about his commanding officer, Olga Gurlukovich, who reminded him of Meryl. He also commented that "things really started to hit the skids" and "up 'til then [he] was steady cruisin' with the elites." His monologue ended with him realizing that there was no toilet paper.

Johnny later ran into Emma Emmerich while she was crossing the Strut L Oil Fence. Although he was assigned to watch out for intruders, he lowered his gun when he saw that she was an unarmed woman. Johnny then reflected on the danger of associating with beautiful women during a mission, referring to his past experience with Meryl at Shadow Moses. He told Emma that it would cause diarrhea, right before being hit with a bout. Johnny was then forced to release Emma and run off to find the bathroom, with Emma commenting, "what a weird guy."



In 2014, Johnny somehow returned to the U.S. military, despite his checkered history, and joined Meryl's Rat Patrol Team 01, with his teammates calling him by the nickname Akiba due to his love of Tokyo's world famous Akihabara electronics district. During Rat Patrol's undercover PMC investigation in the Middle East, Akiba hid within a drum barrel, presumably to scout the current situation of the area for Rat Patrol, but he ended up being hit with a bout of diarrhea, and was forced to blow his cover to release his bowels, drawing a Middle Eastern militia soldier to his location and having to run away with his pants partially up. This also inadvertently saved Solid Snake the trouble of hiding from the same militia soldier. He had a brief run-in with Snake, whom he didn't recognize, and attempted to hold him up at gunpoint. However, he kept the safety on apparently due to negligence. When Snake pointed this out and accused him of being a rookie, Johnny denied this and stated that he was a "ten year vet." However, despite his training, Johnny was ultimately unsure as to whether he did leave it on and tried to check, thus resulting in Snake easily disarming Johnny and then holding him up instead, causing Snake to question how he had even survived for ten years. Johnny accidentally attracted a large battalion of FROGS by the reflection of his binoculars. The Rat Patrol and Snake did battle with the FROGS, and Johnny, in typical Sasaki fashion, lost control of his bowels during the battle. After Liquid Ocelot shut off the SOP system present in all active soldiers (PMCs and Rat Patrol alike), Johnny was the only soldier on the battlefield who was not affected. After Snake collapsed in the middle of the warzone, Johnny was able to locate him and drag him to safety.

Snake reconvened with the Rat Patrol in Eastern Europe on his mission to locate Big Mama, with Johnny excitedly greeting Snake before being knocked down by his comrade, and Snake irritably questioning what is wrong with him. Later, Rat Patrol led an army attempting to stop Liquid from escaping with the stolen body of Big Boss. Liquid shut off the SOP system once again, causing the entire U.S. military to fall to shambles. Johnny saved Meryl from drowning after she was knocked into the river, and for the first time, he removed his balaclava and sunglasses to perform CPR on her. After waking up from her near death experience, Meryl was surprised but relieved, as she shared a passionate kiss with him.

After a mission briefing on the USS Missouri, Johnny, along with Meryl and Snake, were launched by catapults onto Liquid's massive warship, Outer Haven. Johnny missed his mark and fell into the ocean. He somehow managed to board the ship and appeared with a Barrett M82-A2 (which he had gotten from Drebin) and his XM8 Compact, saving Meryl and Snake from a troop of FROGS. Johnny was then attacked by Screaming Mantis and knocked unconscious, but Mantis was unable to control him using her Psycho Mantis doll due to his lack of nanomachines; he had skipped out on all mandatory injections of nanomachines because of his fear of needles. Snake defeated Screaming Mantis and left Johnny and Meryl to hold off the relentless waves of FROGS.

During their massive fire fight with the FROGS, Johnny revealed to Meryl that he had joined the unit to get close to her, because he had been in love with her since the day that he laid eyes on her on Shadow Moses. Eventually he proposed to Meryl, while in the heat of battle. At first she rejected him, but Johnny persisted by asking her if they just moved in or that it didn't have to be official. After fending off more FROGS, Meryl decided that she wanted to do things "her way" and demanded Johnny to marry her. Johnny was briefly stunned but accepted saying that it would be a pleasure. They eliminated a few more FROGS then shared a kiss and continued with fighting the countless waves of FROGS. Towards the end of the battle, things were looking grim. Both of them suffered countless gunshot wounds. The FROGS were closing in to deal their finishing strike. Luckily, Snake and Otacon had successfully deactivated the remainder SOP just in time, causing the FROGS to seize up and faint. After the mission had succeeded, and the two of them had healed up, Johnny and Meryl married with fellow Rat Patrol members Ed and Jonathan serving as the priest and best man, respectively.

Nickname
Johnny's nickname "Akiba" refers to the Akihabara district of Tokyo filled with stores selling electronics, manga, anime merchandise, and other products designed to appeal to the otaku subculture. "Akibakei" is Japanese slang similar in meaning to "otaku."

Unconfirmed history
Prior to FOXHOUND's revolt on Shadow Moses Island, Johnny served as the head computer technician on the base.

Behind the scenes
Johnny is a recurring comic relief character who first appears as an enemy guard in Metal Gear Solid. Johnny's character is never named in-game and is listed only in the end credits as Johnny Sasaki. Whenever Johnny is knocked unconscious in-game, his body always falls to the floor in the same position; face down with his rear in the air. Johnny's character returned in Metal Gear Solid: Integral, as a suspect in the lineup of "Mystery" Level 6. His tendency to humorously fall in the same aforementioned position when knocked unconscious, is used to identify him from the other soldiers.

Johnny's surname "Sasaki" comes from the game's character model designer, Hideki Sasaki. According to the developers' commentary in Metal Gear Solid: Integral, Sasaki was known among the staff for his slackoff behavior and the character was included in the game as an in-joke. This surname was only used in the first two Metal Gear Solid games and never actually mentioned in-game. Metal Gear Solid 4 simply refers to the character as "Johnny."

Johnny returns for a pair of voice-over cameos in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. In an early version of the story, his full name was to be Johnny Sasaki Slater and he originally had a minor role in the main plot in which his character, a Patriot spy, would die from a pacemaker malfunction after coming in contact with Raiden. The scene was retained in the final version, but Richard Ames took said place.

thumb|300px|right|Meryl and Johnny in Metal Gear Solid 4. In Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, Johnny's face is revealed for the first time in the series. His avoidance of mandatory injections in the game's story has resulted in speculation that he may have never actually received any gene therapy, during his time as a Genome Soldier.

Despite lacking nanomachines, and thus not being subject to SOP and its lockdowns, Johnny was seen utilizing the SCAR-H Rifle (although he never actually uses it), which was stated to be ID-locked and usable only for SOP PMCs.

Johnny's grandfather, the Soviet jail guard who befriends Naked Snake in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, was originally planned to make a cameo in the ending of Metal Gear Solid 4 as a guest attending his grandson's wedding with Meryl. This would've been the first time in the series that Johnny and his grandfather ever appeared together, but the elderly Johnny's cameo was scrapped and only the concept art was published.

In the Japanese version of Metal Gear Solid, Johnny is shown wearing just his boxer shorts after being knocked out by Meryl and having his uniform stolen. In the English version, and the Nintendo GameCube remake The Twin Snakes, he is completely naked and his private parts are censored by a blur. The PC port, based on Metal Gear Solid: Integral, and a flashback in Metal Gear Solid 4, show him in his boxers.

Game Informer ranked Johnny #7 in their list of the top 10 dorks of 2008. Game Informer also ranked Johnny #7 in their list of the top 10 most pathetic enemies based on his appearance in Metal Gear Solid.

Gameplay
Following the torture sequence in Metal Gear Solid, the player has three options in dealing with Johnny after he unlocks the cell door: Note that if attempting to confront Johnny directly in either of the first two instances, he is significantly more difficult to defeat compared to the other Genome Soldiers.
 * The player can knock him unconscious;
 * The player can kill him by breaking his neck (non-canon);
 * The player can ignore him, resulting in Johnny attempting to give chase, but rushing to the bathroom soon afterwards due to more stomach pains.

Johnny will also unlock the door of the cell if Snake hides under the bed, after returning from the bathroom. This serves as an alternate method to using the ketchup provided by Otacon, though it will only work if Johnny has not seen the trick previously during a failed escape attempt. Also, if Gray Fox ends up cutting down the door, Johnny will immediately run out of the bathroom to confront Snake. Unlike the other attempts, he cannot lock the player back up in the cell since the door is damaged.

In the remake The Twin Snakes, Johnny has a dog tag, although the player can't actually procure it from him. Instead, they have to take it from Meryl while she is still disguised as Johnny in the Nuclear Warhead Storage building's first basement. In the sequence after Meryl knocks Johnny out; if the player attempts to shoot the unconcious Johnny, the camera will turn away from from him and thus prevent him from being killed.

In Metal Gear Solid 2, Johnny does not make a physical appearance, though the player can listen to his conversations, with himself and with Emma. During Raiden's talk with Ames, where he uses the directional microphone to listen in on Solidus' and Ocelot's conversation, if the player points the mic at the bathroom door in the corner, he can hear Johnny talking to himself whilst on the toilet. Johnny can be found again during Raiden's sniper trial at the bottom of the Big Shell's Struts. When guarding Emma's advance with sniper fire, using the directional microphone while she is behind the second strut will trigger a conversation.

In Metal Gear Solid 4, during the battle in Advent Palace, Johnny will give Old Snake some ammo if he starts to run low. If Johnny dies, images of his past, including those from Shadow Moses, will flash on-screen, instead of Snake's. If this is caused by friendly fire from Snake, Otacon will erratically berate him, "Snake, what did you just do? Have you lost your mind?! What are we going to do now, Snake?" In addition, when Snake first encounters Johnny Sasaki in Act 1, pressing the X button will result in flashbacks to when Meryl held up Snake when he walked out of the DARPA Chief's cell.

He is also a playable character in Metal Gear Online, and has the M82A1 as his exclusive weapon. He is unlockable via the GENE expansion, and his skills include displaying all traps on the current map if playing as him and disarming traps and simultaneously turning them into useful items via pressing the Triangle button, and after he kills a certain amount of players he will lose control of his bowels causing a green gas cloud to form behind him, causing every character around him to start coughing. In addition, his eyewear can also be unlockable in the Rewards shop of Metal Gear Online. If he is tranquilized, he'll sometimes say "Pass me...the TP...please?", alluding to his bowel problems.

Johnny's bowel problems are given a brief reference in Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, where a random MSF soldier will say "Ohhh... my stomach..." on their profile on Mother Base's soldier menu.

Johnny Sasaki also appeared in Versus Battle.

"STRENGTHS: Skilled Sharpshooter When it Counts WEAKNESSES: IBS, Usually Klutzy, Not Always Dressed FEATURED FACT: Unenhanced with nanomachines unlike his Rat Patrol teammates, Johnny nevertheless became a versatile scout, sniper, data, & explosives expert FEATURED GAME: METAL GEAR SOLID: THE LEGACY COLLECTION"

- Johnny Sasaki's bio on Versus Battle

Appearances

 * Metal Gear Solid/Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes
 * Metal Gear Solid: VR Missions (non-canon)
 * Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty
 * Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots