Akihiro Kurata

Akihiro Kurata (倉田 明宏) is the primary antagonist of Digimon Data Squad.

Appearance
Kurata has black hair and wears glasses, a white lab coat over an olive green undercoat and dark grey pants.

Description
Kurata pretends to have a merciful side, but this is a ruse to hide his bigoted phobia of Digimon. His true personality is sadistic and megalomaniac, wanting to murder all Digimon and install himself as ruler of both worlds. His ruthlessness towards this goal has him blackmail and kidnap potential allies, as well as encouraging the violent, sociopathic tendencies of people like Kouki Tsubasa.

Etymologies
Name used in the franchise.
 * Akihiro Kurata (倉田 明宏)
 * Ja: Kurata (倉田). Japanese surname that means "warehouse field".
 * Ja: Akihiro (明宏). A masculine Japanese name that means "bright vast".

Fiction
Ten years before Marcus Damon joins DATS, Kurata was a member of a Digital World exploration party tasked with investigating the and rescuing Keenan Crier. To the disdain of his supervisor, Spencer Damon, Kurata consistently reacted with fear to the inhabitants of the Digital World, but insisted he was superior to Spencer. Eventually, the group became terrorized by, who chased them to the Infinite Ice Ridge. While Spencer held off SaberLeomon, Kurata used a makeshift space-oscillation bomb to open a portal to the Real World through which the rest of the expedition escaped.

Kurata's resentment of Spencer and phobia of Digimon led him to decide that all Digimon must be eliminated by allying himself with the powerful in order to conquer both worlds. So while Spencer negotiated an alliance with the powerful, Kurata worked towards invading the Digital World by creating —a soulless, artificial Digimon able to permanently delete other Digimon. Kurata led an attack force into the Digital World, using an army of Gizumon to ravage the Digital World and exterminate as many Digimon as possible. Among the casualties were Keenan's guardian,. Merukimon, believing that Kurata was operating on Spencer's orders, decided that the Humans had betrayed him and forced the humans to flee back to the Real World.

Kurata reappears after leads SaberLeomon's army in an attack on the Real World. Kurata uses a massive Digital Gate to return the army to their world, then reveals himself to DATS, portraying himself as a well-meaning ally. When SaberLeomon himself comes to the Real World, Kurata sends a Gizumon to execute him, to the horror of DATS. Though the team distrusted Kurata, only Richard Sampson really understood what Kurata was likely planning.

After this, Kurata travels with DATS to the Digital World in order to settle matters with Merukimon. However, Merukimon reveals the truth of Kurata's heinous past to DATS, so Kurata dispenses with the charade and uses a to fatally wound Merukimon. The DATS team attempts to fight back, but are not able to defeat Gizumon-AT or its digivolved form,, until Merukimon performs one last suicidal attack alongside the newly digivolved. Unfortunately, Kurata escapes in the chaos.

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In the Real World, Kurata deceived the Confidentiality Ministry, headed by Director Hashima, into believing that Marcus and the other members of DATS were traitors. Through this, he had the group members variously mindwiped or imprisoned (The former happening to Marcus, Thomas H. Norstein, and Yoshino "Yoshi" Fujieda while the later happened to Keenan, Sampson, Megumi Shirakawa and Miki Kurosaki.) However, thanks to their partners, Marcus, Thomas, and Yoshi manage to recover their memories just as Kurata sent a Gizumon-AT toward them. Undeterred from that defeat, Kurata blew up the DATS building and escaped with Gizumon-XT to the Digital World in order to put his genocidal plans into motion. He sent the Bio-Hybrids Kouki Tsubasa, Nanami and to deal with Marcus, Thomas, and Yoshi. He upgraded them further when they proved insufficient.

He planted Digital Gates that brought to the Real World to cause panic and give him control of the military. He had the Gizmon merge with a missile to destroy ElDradimon. Kurata got Franz Norstein on his side promising that he will cure Thomas' paternal half-sister/Franz's daughter Relena Norstein : the cure involved performing surgery on Relena to fuse her with Digimon data, thus turning her into a Bio-Hybrid. In addition, to ensure Thomas would not betray him he secretly had planted before a bomb device inside Relena's necklace (Thomas had to pretend to be on Kurata's side until the bomb was deactivated when the necklace was removed for the surgery to proceed). He later revealed to Thomas the Digimon and how he found his Digi-Egg and was using the deleted Digimon data to revive him. He planned to use the Great Demon Lord not only to subjugate the Digital World and destroy its Digimon at his leisure, but for his bid to rule the human world as well.

When Thomas breaks the Digimon Control Device, he reveals himself to have never been on Kurata's side to begin with. Enraged, Kurata merges with Belphemon by transforming himself into a Digisoul and transmitting it into the beast, transforming it into. He later temporarily loses control of the Demon Lord of Sloth, regaining control when his face appears on Belphemon's chest. Kurata and Belphemon then drain the city's electricity and swallow the space-oscillation bombs, causing Belphemon to grow and gain the power to rip holes between the Real and Digital Worlds using dark energy. Marcus and are able to destroy Belphemon when ShineGreymon digivolves to  and Kurata is returned to human form. Furious, he sets off a space-oscillation bomb to destroy the Digital World, but instead aggravates the spaces between the Real and Digital World. He was then shocked for what he had done as this is not what he had planned at all. As he floated helplessly into the space between the worlds, he then vanishes into an explosion of bright light.

Memories of every atrocity, misdeed and cold-hearted action committed by Kurata himself remain. Despite his downfall, he leaves behind a foul legacy of sorts that haunts just about everyone for the remainder of the series. Because of his ruthless Digimon genocide, Spencer suffers, as well as sparking the conflict with the and  later on. Ultimately, his reckless handiwork left both the human and Digital World close on the verge of total destruction.

Thanks to DATS, with the collision stopped and Professor Kurata deceased, King Drasil apologizes and harmony in the two worlds is finally restored.-->

Details
Kurata is possessed by his fear and bigotry against Digimon, irrationally seeking their extermination and reacting with such disgust as to affect a false allergy when forced to be around them. Despite claiming to be protecting humans against the "threat" of Digimon, he is overweeningly callous to the death and suffering of both Digimon and human casualties of his plots. He is hypocritically willing to exploit far more destructive Digimon in order to exterminate the comparitively peaceful population but also for his own gain. He frequently indulges his ego and pride whenever he thinks he is in control, but is quick to resort to fear and begging when he is the underdog.

When attempting to coerce people or hide his true intentions, Kurata pushes a facade of harmless affability, but it is insincere enough to annoy more forthright people.

Kurata has his own catchphrase, spoken in English: "It's showtime!". In the English dub, Kurata has a habit of proclaiming this and variations.

Digimon Masters
Kurata is an NPC.

Digimon Heroes!
When fighting Belphemon Rage Mode, ShineGreymon Burst Mode misidentifies him as "Kurata" to the confusion of Rosemon.