Arana

Arana
Series Information
Name in Kana	アラナ Arana
Debut	Manga: Chapter 4 Game: Strider (NES)
Profile
Gender	Male
Hair Color	Black
Eye Color	Unknown (clear color)
Nationality	Spanish
Professional Information
Affiliation	Striders Strider Matic Unit
Strider Rank	Special A
Weapon	Razor wire, Assault Rifle

Arana (アラナ) is a character featured in the Strider Hiryu manga as one of two enemy Striders under Matic's orders, and the NES adaptation as a generic enemy faced in the Africa and Australia stages. His name is meant to be written like the Spanish word for spider (Araña).

A member of Matic's private Strider Unit, Arana mimics the spider's techniques, using an ultra-fine monomolecular filament to both capture and slice his enemies apart. He presents himself as arrogant and confident, having plenty of trust in his strategy and dismissing Kubira's warnings about Hiryu. Arana is also known for keeping tarantulas as pets, which are usually seen crawling all over him. He's very attached to them, even going out of his way to ask Hiryu to set them free on his deathbed.

Story

Manga

Arana (manga)

Arana and Kubira were given orders from Matic to take care of Hiryu and Kain after ZAIN predicted they'd attack the Amazon Research Institute next in their crusade against Enterprise. Arana prepared a trap for them in advance, wiring a large area of the forest near the institute with his sharp filament. Hiryu and Kain recognize this trap when a startled bird is cut in two after flying into one of the filaments. As they ponder over this technique, however, Arana makes his move and attacks them with his wires. Without time to react, Kain is ensnared in the wires and tied to a nearby tree.

Arana then appears from one of the tree tops and having Kain at gunpoint, orders Hiryu to come out of hiding. Hiryu appears with both hands empty, and surprises Arana from behind by using his Cypher in Boomerang mode, having thrown it before surrendering. It doubles around and strikes Arana in the back.

Having sustained a fatal wound, Arana requests a "souvenir for Hell" from Hiryu: he asks why Hiryu and Kain stayed so close to the explosion when the sensible thing is to get as far away as possible from it. Hiryu explains that they analyzed the computer terminal in order to place the bomb, after pinpointing the location of the ZAIN host computer in Enterprise's main headquarters through its satellite link. They knew the explosion would bring in rescue ships and afford them a quick trip to the headquarters. This surprises Arana, and he bursts into laughter shortly before dying.

Hiryu picks up some of Arana's wires and later makes use of them to survive his encounter with Kubira.

Strider (NES)

Stats
HP	2 HP

Note: as stated above, Arana is just a generic enemy without relevance and appears multiple times throughout, at times even in pairs.

On a disc recording, Matic assured Faceas Clay of his orders for the Strider Matic Unit to safeguard the ZAIN Terminal in Africa. During Hiryu's travel through the area, he faces both Arana and (what appears to be) Kubira as he makes his way towards the terminal. Arana appears again in the underground cavern in Australia.

This enemy appears hanging from trees and/or ceilings and only comes down when Hiryu approaches his position, after which he take shots at him with their rifles. The shots are aimed diagonally down but are easy to avoid.

Skills and Abilities

Arana is a skilled and cunning Strider that seems to favor ambushing and capturing his targets over a direct confrontation. The web-like razor wire he employs as his main weapon is incredibly sharp, shown when a startled bird is sliced in two by simply running into it. Arana can handle his sharp wires with great precision, capable of using them to bind his targets without cutting into them.

Another use he gives the wire is to set traps in open spaces, creating a "trap zone" with them in the form of a wire cage. He uses it in the same way a spider uses its web, awaiting for his unsuspecting victims to unknowingly run into the trap and be sliced apart. Since the filament is thin enough that's almost invisible to the naked eye, this trap zone is specially deadly if not discovered in time.

Gallery

Hanging like a spider

Arana with his pet tarantulas