Ginji Kawai (河合 銀次) is a supporting character in Magical Project S. As Sasami's father and Honoka's loving husband, Ginji is a man of seemingly endless talents and abilities, and, in general, a very fun individual to be around.
He is a foil and opposite to Shigeki Amano, Misao’s father. While it was hinted Ginji was qualified to do several high profile jobs, he chose to be close to his family in lieu of any riches or fame. In contrast Shigeki chose to leave his family behind to peruse his career in music.
Ginji Kawai has a counterpart in the Sasami: Magical Girls club Universe called Ginji Iwakura.
Description
Ginji has a very suave personality, and his love for his wife and daughter are unmatched. He has a yellow motorcycle with a sidecar for Sasami to ride around in, including to school, and he purposefully says "Good Night" despite it being morning because he likes the way it sounds. Misao, whose own father is always away overseas, is a little envious of Sasami having such a fun father.
Ginji's actual occupation is never made clear. At one point, after Ginji mentions he just finished moving oxygen cylinders, Misao asks Sasami what her father does for a living, but all she says is that he does "all kinds of things".
From Washu listing off his licenses in The Moon Must be Hell! Ginji is known to have: a Class A International Driver's License; unlimited operation of two-wheeled vehicles (his motorcycle); a Class 2 plane operation requirement; and is rank 3 in the "Japanese Abacus Federation".
Biography
Ginji begins to investigate and record Pretty Sammy's battles with Pixy Misa around the city with his camera in Debut! The Star Sammy, though even after showing his footage to Sasami, he doesn't seem to realize that they are the same person. Later, when he and Honoka arrange a huge Pretty Sammy promotional event that is crashed by Pixy Misa and her Love-love Monster "Pro Karaoke Girl", Ginji—playing an electric guitar—helps Sammy by telling her to fight back by singing a song, and Sammy manages to defeat them.
When Sasami goes on summer vacation in The Island of Love-love Monsters, Ginji takes her on a road trip on his motorcycle. They laugh for several days and nights straight before they fall asleep and crash into the ocean. They survive and wash up on a deserted island, where they proceed to enjoying themselves on the beach and forage for food, but his motorcycle was being track by Washu, who brings Kiyone, Mihoshi, and class 4-3 along with her for research. Later, when the island is discovered to contain Love-love Monsters and Pixy Misa causes the island to erupt, Ginji arrives to save everyone with a large wooden raft he'd created.
In East vs. West, Ginji and Sasami are riding on horseback when they discover a "Western Village" and join in a dispute between the village mayor and his rival, Onijigoku, who wants to tear down the last Japanese style building. Ginji volunteers himself and Sasami to participate in a duel to settle the dispute, and there, Ginji demonstrates incredible skill with throwing shuriken, being able to clog Onijigoku's revolver by throwing one into the barrel.
In All I Want is You Ginji demonstrates some ingenuity when he manages to douse the flames of a burning apartment complex by using six water hoses at once. Later, Ginji helps Pretty Sammy in defeating the Love-love Monster "Break-Up Girl" by bypassing her magical barrier and professing her love to her, thereby lowering her defenses. However, he makes Honoka so jealous that she uppercuts him across the room.
When Pretty Sammy is defeated and imprisoned by Pixy Misa and the Lovely Madams at the start of Farewell Team Lovely Madams!, Ginji is the one who comes to the magical girl's aid. He arrives at Umi no Hoshi Elementary and demonstrates impressive hand-to-hand combat by taking down a Self-Defense Forces soldier trying to get him to go away, revealing that he used to be a member of a SWAT team. Ginji formulates a plan with Washu—who, for some reason, call each other "Johnny" and "Catherine"—to help Pretty Sammy, and Ginji manages to negate the "Lovely Power" of the Lovely Madams by distracting him with "Dandy" face. This distraction allows time for Sammy to accumulate enough magical power to destroy the Lovely Madams.
At the end of Friends—where Sasami saves Misao from Pixy Misa's evil magic within her—after dropping her off at Misao's home, Ginji notes that her daughter has suddenly started acting like a grown-up.
After Pretty Sammy teleports to her own house in Goddess of Destruction, Ginji and Honoka greet them with a huge cake meant for Sasami when she came home. When Ginji notices the giant saw that's going through the Earth, he believes that it's the work of a giant carpenter.
In The Moon Must be Hell!, when Washu offers Pretty Sammy the use of her rocket to get to Juraihelm but admits that she's not actually been in space herself, Ginji comes to the rescue wearing an spacesuit. He shows his wallet with all his licenses and Washu discovers that he's a NASA astronaut. Thus, Ginji joins the crew as the rockets pilot, but he becomes very excited about going into space and lets his primal instincts take over as they launch. Over Juraihelm, Ginji attempts to dodge a barrage of lasers fired at them by Romio, by they get hit and the rockets is sliced in to before proceeding to crash on the surface.
In the final episode Magical Victory, Ginji finally acknowledges that his daughter is Pretty Sammy, and knows that she'll win and save Earth because she's not a fool. Ginji and Washu later find Sasami and Misao in outer space in their modified rocket/space shuttle along with Tsunami and the other and bring them back to Earth.
Trivia
- In the "Sasami: Magical Girls Club" universe, he has a variant named Ginji Iwakura. While both share the role of a family man with a magical girl daughter named Sasami and a wife named Honoka, Iwakura is decisively more withdrawn, nerdy, and introverted, as well as more secretive and distrustful. Iwakura is also a book author, originates from a magic dimension, and is less approving of Sasami's magic use than Ginji Kawai.