Brad Hunter

Brad Hunter (Ballad in the Japanese version) is a fictional character from Zoids: New Century. He is one of the main characters.

Brad Hunter
Brad Hunter
Appearances	Zoids: New Century
Debut	Zoids: New Century Episode 1
Affiliation	Blitz Team
Age	17
Primary Zoids	Command Wolf LC/AC (former) Shadow Fox (current)
Japanese Name	バラッド・ハンター (Ballad Hunter)
Voice Actors	Masaya Matsukaze (Japanese) Samuel Vincent (English)

Overview

Brad Hunter is a mercenary who works for the Blitz Team. He made his debut fighting alongside Leon and Leena Toros against the Tigers Team. Brad began the series piloting a blue Command Wolf LC, but later upgraded it to an AC variant. When Bit Cloud first joined their team, Brad often doubted the young junk dealer's skill and dismissed him as an amateur, but later came to befriend him.

After the destruction of his Command Wolf in episode 20, Brad would pilot the Backdraft Group's Shadow Fox for the remainder of the series, helping to hold off the Berserk Fury while Bit rearmed his Liger during the Royal Cup.

Manga

Brad features in the New Century manga. He plays a similar role as the anime, although no mention is made of him being a mercenary. There are also many omissions in the manga; for example, despite being shown on the fourth page, Brad's name isn't mentioned until chapter 3. He initially pilots a Command Wolf, but the Shadow Fox is shown briefly (it is never used in combat). Brad proves instrumental in defeating Pierce and Raid's Storm Sworders in chapter 3, where he uses flares to impede their vision.

Personality

Brad has a rather laid-back attitude, often seen lying around or leaning against the wall when nothing is happening, but displays determination in battle. He is on good terms with everyone in the Blitz Team, and while he initially dismissed Bit as an amateur, he soon became friends with him as well. Due to his mercenary nature, in certain situations he will only do something if he's paid (an example being in episode 4 where he only partook in the battle against the Backdraft Group to save Leena after Steve Toros promised him Bit's pay cheque from the next battle and yet another example in episode 21 where he had to be enticed with extra prize money to mount the Blitz Team's recently-purchased Buster Cannon on his Shadow Fox).

Brad and Naomi Fluegel develop feelings for each other early in the series, and these feelings carry on throughout the entire series.

Appearance

Brad Hunter Appearance

Brad Hunter is often seen wearing a long, sleeveless blue outfit with a turn-up collar. He wore brown gloves, black pants and long black boots with this outfit. When Brad is not in a battle, his leisure outfit consists of a greyish-blue vest over a blue singlet and tan pants. He has long, brown spiky hair and blue eyes that match his clothes. He also seems to have gold bands tattooed around his biceps.

Ability as a Zoid Pilot

Throughout the series, Brad showed a favor for mobility, a desire to stalk and lead his opponents into a desirable situation. In addition to the offensive advantage, this has enabled him to evade several attacks. Though he has found himself pinned down at times - in some cases, by choice - a strong weapon on his Zoid with a fair range of rotation makes such a situation managable, so long as he keeps his wits about him. Additionally, he upgraded his Command Wolf to give the cannon's a longer range of attack to great success and adjusted the Zoid's speed to compensate for the extra weight, showcasing not only a well-rounded Zoid, but a well-rounded pilot. However, his favor for mobility was the downfall of his Command Wolf - his decision to follow the more agile Shadow Fox led to the Zoid's destruction - an indication that Brad wasn't sychronized with his Command Wolf and didn't understand its limitations, and that his Command Wolf wasn't a proper Zoid for him. This problem seems to have been abolished by the end of the series, as he's never shown a problem piloting the Shadow Fox, and even asked if it wanted to go for a run.

When piloting his initial Command Wolf, a Zoid whose main weapon is the top-mounted gun capable of rotating, he showed a favor for short-to-mid-range combat, using his Zoid to its strengths. Often times he'd be within reach of his opponents, but would instead fire his gun, most likely due to the fact that his Command Wolf's ability for close combat is rudimentary, lacking close combat weapons beyond basic biting and clawing. Upon stealing the Shadow Fox, a Zoid with greater speed, mobility, and a Strike Laser Claw for close combat, he was shown to be capable of matching Bit Cloud and Liger Zero Jager in a Strike Laser Claw duel.

Brad's skills are often masked behind his demeanour - he doesn't strike a brilliant performance during the pilot rankings trials. This is most likely due to his pre-existing dislike of the Trials and the lack of a monetary reward, both of which would leave him poorly motivated, and thus lead to sloppy piloting, and this is before considering the effects of his apathetic relationship with the Command Wolf. However, he is shown to be more than capable of mastering the Shadow Fox within minutes, whereas the Backdraft pilots working with Laon for days or weeks consistently failed to unlock its potential.

In battle, he has a tendency to sustain heavy damage and yet remain standing and planning his counter-attack. This has worked to his favour several times and allowed him to perform extremely effective surprise attacks. In addition to his ability to weaken, if not defeat, opponents this way, it's been his means of focusing attention onto himself, a move which creates a window of opportunity for Leena to reload, Bit to change Liger Zero's armor, or anything else that would allow for his team's victory as well as his accumulation of personal points. However, this strategy hasn't always worked as well as Brad would have preferred. Most notably, Brad and the Shadow Fox took a particularly nasty Charged Particle Cannon from the Berserk Fury, knocking him out of the battle before Bit had finished rearming Liger Zero, and allowing the Fury to fire at the Hover Cargo.

Relationships

Brad has the following relationships with these people:

Bit: While he was initially skeptical of the idea of a junk dealer joining his team, Brad eventually became friends and comrades with Bit Cloud, though he often interjects into Bit's business, usually being drawn in with the incentive of prize money, and disregarding Bit's personal situations.

Leena: Brad's stingy personality frequently clashes with Leena's over issues such as focusing on ammo conservation or personal points in battle.

Leon: Before he left the team, Leon appeared to have a good friendship with Brad.

Dr. Toros: Brad often reminds the Doc to remember his pay, but all in all continues to respect him as the team's manager.

Jamie: Brad is good friends with Jamie, although he does not always follow his strategies in battle, sometimes preferring to work on his own tactics.

Naomi: When they first fought, Naomi took out his Zoid easily, causing Brad to get frustrated, but they began to develop feelings after Brad saved her from the Sand Stingray gang. Brad even offered to team up with her if he defeated her during their match in the Royal Cup (which he promptly does).

Zoids Legacy Database Entry

The following text pertains to information sourced from the game Zoids Legacy. This game used a translation format that differs from the one used by the Zoids Wiki. It also contains grammatical and typographical errors. As such, any quoted content that appears to be incorrect should be cross-referenced with the game before being edited.

"B. Hunter. A freelance warrior. Pretends to be a stingy man, but his heart is pure and gentle. Employed by the Blitz Team."

Trivia

• Brad's last name was never revealed in the anime, but supporting materials, such as Zoids Legacy and his New Century DVD profile, have listed it as Hunter.
• Brad doesn't like carrots, saying in episode 22 that they are "rabbit food."
• In Zoids: Battle Legends, his name is listed as "Ballad Hunter."
• Brad's name is listed as "Barad" on the box of his HMM Command Wolf model kit.

Characters in Zoids media

Anime Characters

Zoids: Chaotic Century (GF indicates a character who debuts in Guardian Force)

Zoids: New Century

Zoids: Fuzors

Zoids: Genesis

Zoids: Wild

Zoids: Wild ZERO

Video Game Characters

Zoids VS series

Zoids Saga series

Zoids: Full Metal Crash

Liger Zero: Mythical Silver Beast

Zoids Infinity series

Canon • Chact Spect • Lance • Zalka Torres

Battle Story Characters