Sokkyu Gou (alternatively spelt as Go), better known as Ippatsuman, is the main protagonist and title character of Gyakuten! Ippatsuman. He’s a radical departure from previous Time Bokan heroes in that he is a grown man who acts alone when he is needed initially through the use of a robotic double. As with most of the other characters his name is based off a baseball term, in this case “gousokkyu”, or in English terms “heavy ball”, a throw that can catch batters off-guard.

Gou was abandoned shortly after his birth and taken in by an orphanage where he found himself developing psychic abilities. This eventually led to him to work at the Northern Ostendel division of the Time Lease, operating in public as a maintenance worker and in secret testing the Psychic Robot program led by Kozou Higeno. When not working he spends time with the company of Ran, Harubow, and 2-3.

Gou is kind, caring, and compassionate as well as incredibly altruistic, spending free time taking care of the orphanage he grew up at and lending help to anyone in need. He’s also attracted the attention of many ladies, in particular Ran and later Mun-Mun. Though Gou avoids the random girls, he appears to be clueless to the advances of Ran whereas it’s obvious to everyone else.

Whenever Ran, 2-3, and Harubow encounter trouble in the form of the Clean Aku trio Gou is contacted by them to summon Ippatsuman, his friends initially unaware of the connection between the two.

When called Gou drops whatever activity he was doing and travels to an undersea lab below the Time Lease building, where he uses his psychic powers to control a Psychic Robot with enhanced strength and power than that of any human being. But since Gou is linked with the robot, he can still feel pain through it.

Other features as Ippatsuman include brief flight and being impervious to low-end weapons. His specialty are the Rainballs, special quick baseballs that can break through the toughest material. Even with all of this though, he seldom fought with those and had his limits against the giant mechas the Clean Aku trio would deploy.

Whenever a mecha would and did overwhelm him he would use his psychic link to combine his ship, the Dangan Head Unit, and the body of the Tokkyu-Saurus into the Gyakuten-Oh. This turnabout would often make short work of the Clean Aku trio’s mecha, after which Ippatsuman would vanish without a trace.

(Spoilers are contained in the next few paragraphs, view at your own discretion!)

Things take a nasty turn when Tamashiro, the president of Skull Lease’s Western Ostendel branch, catches a glimpse of Gou’s Psychic powers during a scuffle on the beach. On top of that Kosuinen, a member of the Clean Aku trio, had been analyzing Ippatsuman’s abilities and attempts to counter Ippatsuman through various means.

This leads to a trap set by Kosuinen and seized upon by Tamashiro, where the former takes a Time Lease client hostage specifically to lure Ippatsuman out. Gou is nearly killed when Tamashiro fires diamond tipped bullets into the Gyakuten-Oh and into Ippatsuman’s Psychic Robot body, leaving the former incapacitated, the latter destroyed, and Gou himself in critical condition.

This shocking event elated the Skull Lease and disheartened the Time Lease crew, whom had recently concluded that Gou was Ippatsuman. To everyone’s surprise, during another Time Lease hijacking Ippatsuman returns and stops the Clean Aku trio from disrupting another Time Lease contract.

After Gou’s friends reunite with him he also directly reveals his identity as Ippatsuman to the rest of the Time Lease crew, and they agree to help guard their secret. However, his apparent closeness with the Time Lease’s newly transferred managing director Haruka slowly begins to cause a rift between him and his friends.

With the Psychic Robot destroyed and the Gyakuten-Oh in a state of disrepair, Haruka is brought in to assist Gou with his transformation. He now wears an enhanced suit based off the previous Psychic Robot data and a new mecha called the Sankan-Oh, formed from the Dangan Booster Unit and the Tokkyu-Mammoth. With Ippatsuman stronger than ever, Tamashiro’s diamond bullets are no longer effective and the Clean Aku Trio have to order more powerful mechas to keep up.

However, though the suit is more durable it comes with a greater risk due to both Gou having to actually fight in person and any potential issues with the psychic link between him and Haruka. Her psychic wave is needed to summon the Sankan-Oh, and any interference between the two is painful and can be deadly.

From here on out Gou not only had to deal with not only the Clean Aku trio but now Tamashiro and Agent 000, who wish to destroy him and obtain the Psychic Robot data on the behest of the Skull Lease chairwoman Con Cordo. This also leads to Ran being captured and tortured by the Skull Lease, Haruka nearly being assassinated, and Gou himself constantly being led into traps, prompting his friends to rescue him.

This comes to a head when he breaks with his friends, supposedly leaves the Time Lease and seemingly marries Haruka. It turns out the whole event was a trick to distract the Skull Lease and finish the Psychic Robot program.

Unbeknownst to the Time Lease however, Haruka was a double agent unwillingly working for Con Cordo, in reality a malicious alien, who steals the Psychic Robot data.

When the Time Lease gang go to confront Con Cordo, Haruka, wearing an enhanced Psychic Robot suit of her own, overwhelms the nearly powerless Ippatsuman. With the help of his friends he is able to break Haruka free from Con Cordo’s grasp and use the Sankan-Oh to destroy the evil alien once and for all.

With Haruka’s whereabouts unknown and Higeno resigning to look for her Gou becomes the Technical Director of the Time Lease and begins to oversee the Ostendel Branch, starting with overseeing the repairs of the Tokkyu-Saurus.

In addition to cameos in the Banpresto games, Ippatsuman appears in the Wii versions of Tatsunoko vs. Capcom as an unlockable character in Cross Generation of Heroes and by default in Ultimate All-Stars. His fighting style, while incorporating things such as the Rainballs and Gyakuten-Oh, was practically unseen in the show proper. He is also the only Time Bokan character that didn’t originate from Yatterman.

In both of his endings, upon seeing how dedicated the Street Fighters are with raw power, Gou decides to hone his fighting skills without the use of his suit, leading Viewtiful Joe, Hurricane Polymar, and Tekkaman to question how much they rely on their powered suits. Cross Generation of Heroes shows that Gou’s training leaves him immensely strong without the Psychic Robot suit alone.