Taichiro Sugai

"I don't need to explain myself!"

- Taichiro Sugai

Taichiro Sugai (管井太一郎) is a character in Online Jack. He is an Assistant Professor at Chikuba University Medical School, and author of the book "Online Games Are Turning Our Children Into Dolls - The Dangers of Doll Syndrome".

.hack//Bullet
Prior to the events of G.U., Sugai was the director of the "Data Equipment Research Museum in Nishiarai, Adachi Ku He once questioned how humans interact with computers and the Internet. He published a collection of papers titled "Dall's Syndrome Warning," but at the time the AIDA phenomenon was disturbing the world, he was taken up sensationally and had to leave the conference. Seto the young man responsible for the Deadly Flash was one of his students while he was a university professor. The poetry he quotes about "hell" was learned in one of Sugai's lecture.

Online Jack
Salvador Aihara visits Sugai's apartment without warning late at night to find out where he did the research for his book. He quickly gets the door slammed in his face, but eventually finds the location from another source.

Later, when visiting Osamu Kawaguchi in the hospital, Sugai discovers that he is missing from his room, and that strange names are etched on the wall.

After doing some research, he discovers that these are the names of the Eight Phases of the Cursed Wave in the Epitaph of the Twilight, the poem the setting of The World was supposedly based on. He also uncovers that the "Sakaki" Osamu mentioned is a leader of Moon Tree, a huge guild in The World R:2, which all the known victims of Doll Syndrome are members of. He also notices strange electrical phenomena in the hospitals where Doll Syndrome patients are kept.

With the heavy advertising his book received on Online Jack, Sugai's book became an overnight success, with hundreds of thousands of copies being sold within a few short weeks. However despite becoming a celebrity, Sugai still remained devoted to helping people who were suffering from Doll Syndrome.

Trivia

 * In the English version of Online Jack, Taichiro Sugai is consistently referred to as an Associate Professor. In the original Japanese version, he is an Assistant Professor.