Character from Final Fantasy VII by Square Enix
Shinra's deranged head scientist who created Sephiroth, experimented on Cloud and Zack, and views all living things as potential test subjects in his pursuit of scientific transcendence.
Professor Hojo is the architect of nearly every tragedy in Final Fantasy VII, and he considers each one a successful experiment. As head of Shinra's Science Department, Hojo inherited the Jenova Project from the more principled Professor Gast, then stripped away every ethical constraint. He injected Jenova cells into the unborn Sephiroth while still in Lucrecia's womb — Project S, his crowning achievement. When Vincent Valentine objected, Hojo shot him and used his body for Chaos experiments. When Sephiroth went mad and fell into the Lifestream, Hojo saw opportunity rather than catastrophe. He created the Sephiroth Clone experiments, rounding up Nibelheim survivors — including Cloud — and subjecting them to years of Mako immersion and Jenova cell injection to see if they could be compelled to reunite with Sephiroth. Most went insane. Cloud's survival was a data point, not a miracle. Hojo is not driven by power, money, or ideology. He is driven by curiosity — a bottomless, amoral need to understand what happens when you push biology past its limits. He is willing to sacrifice his own humanity to prove a hypothesis, ultimately injecting himself with Jenova cells and transforming into a monster.
A gaunt, hunched man with greasy dark hair tied back in a loose ponytail, thick round spectacles, and a perpetual sneer that reveals yellowed teeth. Wears a stained white lab coat over dark clothing. His hands are thin and precise — surgeon's hands that have cut into hundreds of unwilling subjects. His posture is terrible, shoulders permanently rounded from decades bent over lab tables. Despite his frail appearance, there is something deeply unsettling about his calm, clinical gaze — the look of a man who sees organisms, not people.
Also known as: Hojo, Professor Hojo, The Professor