Tadashi Hamada

"People keep saying he's not really gone, as long we remember him. But it still hurts."

- Hiro to Baymax, about Tadashi

Tadashi Hamada is a major character in Disney's 2014 animated feature film Big Hero 6. A gifted robotics student living in San Fransokyo, he was the older brother of Hiro Hamada and the creator of Baymax.

Tadashi's sudden death in a mysterious fire catalyzes the events of the film, leading Hiro, Baymax and Tadashi's best friends to band together to investigate the "accident" and catch the culprit responsible for it.

Background
Tadashi and Hiro were orphaned at a young age. Together, the two were raised by their overworked Aunt Cass in the Lucky Cat Café for ten years by the events of the film. Tadashi was a star student at the San Fransokyo Institute of Technology, where he studied alongside his best friends (Wasabi, Go Go Tomago, Honey Lemon, and Fred) under the tutalege of his mentor, the world-renowned Professor Robert Callaghan. Under Callaghan's guidance and with the funding of San Fransokyo Tech, Tadashi sought out to create useful technology that could change the world for the better―an opportunity he eventually seizes with the creation of Baymax.

Official Description

 * Tadashi is a good guy. He just is. He actually developed, built and programmed a state-of-the-art nursebot—a Healthcare Companion named Baymax that will likely help millions worldwide. But it's his role as big brother that makes Tadashi truly special. Every kid needs a guy like Tadashi looking out for him, and Hiro knows just how lucky he is to have him in his life.

Personality
Incredibly kind, encouraging and hard-working, Tadashi is considered the epitome of a great brother, nephew, and student, always there when people need him. He has an energetic sense of humor and can be silly and excitable.

Tadashi is very hard-working and intellectually gifted. He does not believe in "dead ends" and values hard work to accomplish goals. He also has a large understanding of health and medicine. Ever the optimist, he successfully balances this rising career in cutting-edge technology and providing moral and emotional support for his younger brother while keeping a good attitude and a happy smile. He also even appears to be athletic and he is known to have taught Hiro some karate; Baymax's statement that Tadashi was in 'excellent health' also indicates that he is physically fit.

As the only male figure in Hiro's life, he has carried the burden of responsibility from a young age, knowing that he had to be a good role model. Having to care for Hiro alongside their aunt Cass has made Tadashi gentle and understanding, though as the big brother, he can still be rough on occasion. He is also not above scolding Hiro or becoming upset with him, getting angry at Hiro's unwillingness to try and make something of his life, showing a slightly frustrating side to his personality not seen anywhere else. He encourages Hiro to be the best that he can be and supports him in his endeavors. He was also sneaky, as he promised Hiro he would take him to a bot fight but in reality took him to his university, claiming he "needed to get something" before they headed off in order to get Hiro to come to his university and become interested in it while technically keeping his promise of "taking him to the bot fight" without actually doing it.

However, he was also shown to have a silly, goofy side to himself. When he introduced Baymax to Hiro and Baymax asked if he is experiencing any pain, Hiro asked "physical or emotional", causing Tadashi to comically pout. When Hiro ran out of ideas, he told him, "Hey, I'm not giving up on you." grabbed Hiro and shook him upside down in order to shake some ideas into his head and stated that Hiro needed to "look at things from a different angle"―a philosophy that Hiro eventually adopts as his own during the film. He was also excitable, as shown when he was happy after finally activating Baymax (after 84 tests) and ran around and kissed Baymax.

Tadashi also values his aunt; he does not like to make her upset and is appreciative of all she has done to raise them, especially having done it alone. His concerns extend to the general public, developing Baymax with the sincere hope that the healthcare companion would help people all over the world. He is dedicated to helping others no matter what the cost is to him―a statement undeniably proven when he makes the ultimate sacrifice in an attempt to protect his teacher.

Physical appearance
Tadashi is a tall, slender, slightly muscular young man of a larger build than others in his family. He has large, warm brown eyes and neat black hair cut above his prominent ears. His face shape is different from those of his aunt's and brother's, with a longer face, larger jaw, and slightly larger nose.

His most notable physical trait is his preference for a black baseball cap with a red-and-gold San Fransokyo Ninjas lettering on it. He is rarely seen without this cap except for a few scenes, such as when he takes off his moped helmet; it is also off in many family photos that can be seen in his home.

Since he changes his clothes daily, he does not wear anyone outfit for much longer than others. However, he owns many similar articles of clothing, only varying in color. He owns several blazers, crew-neck t-shirts, and cardigan sweaters, usually in the colors white, black, tan, red, or various shades of green. He often wears mint-colored sneakers with white soles and shoelaces and occasionally carries a tan satchel.

When he introduces Hiro to his friends, he is wearing a white crew-neck t-shirt with the artwork of a ninja (possibly a San Fransokyo Ninjas logo—notice the lowercase 'n' around the ninja's head), along with a grey cardigan, brown pants rolled up around his ankles and his mint-colored sneakers. He wears the same shirt to bed that night, with green plaid pajama pants.

On the day of his death at the San Fransokyo Tech Showcase, he wears an olive green blazer over a black shirt, with a similar pair of rolled-up brown jeans. Before he runs into the burning building, his hat falls off of his head, which Hiro retrieves and keeps as a memento.

Big Hero 6
One night, in the city's illegal underworld, Hiro engages himself in a bot fight against a group of thugs, specifically the boisterous Yama. After facing a humiliating defeat, Yama seeks revenge by ordering his goons to attack the young genius, who is immediately rescued by Tadashi on his moped. The brothers make their escape as Tadashi reprimands Hiro for his actions, only to find themselves caught and arrested by the San Fransokyo police. Yama and his gang are forced to share a cramped cell with Tadashi, while Hiro has a separate cell to himself due to being a minor. Tadashi was not happy with this and silently glared at Hiro across from his cell for getting them into the situation. Fortunately, they are released on account of Aunt Cass, who scolds the two on the ride home.

Frustrated with Hiro's bot-fighting obsession, Tadashi takes his younger sibling to his school, the San Fransokyo Institute of Technology, in hopes of sending him down a better path. At the Institute, Hiro meets Tadashi's closest friends (Go Go Tomago, Wasabi, Honey Lemon and Fred), Tadashi's latest invention Baymax and Professor Callaghan (an aspiring master of robotics and Hiro's personal idol). The experience successfully manipulates Hiro into having a strong desire to attend the school.

To gain acceptance into San Fransokyo Tech, Tadashi suggests that Hiro participate in the school's annual science fair. Should his invention and presentation impress Callaghan, he'll be allowed enrollment. Unfortunately, Hiro reaches a creative rut until Tadashi steps in and advises that he look from a different angle. Tadashi's advice leads to the creation of the Microbots. On the night of the fair, Callaghan shows amazement at the sight of Hiro's latest invention, leading to the latter's acceptance into the school. After the successful presentation, Tadashi and Hiro have some time alone, during which the older brother congratulates the younger one on his accomplishment, showing pride in the new path that he's willing to take.

Just then, a fire breaks loose at the school and the brothers immediately rush to the action. While most civilians manage to escape, Tadashi learns from a survivor that Callaghan is still trapped inside the burning building. With no help around to save him, Tadashi volunteers his own life. A fearful Hiro immediately stops his brother, but reluctantly allows the decision upon seeing Tadashi's humanity and motivation to rescue his mentor. After rushing inside, the building violently explodes, killing Tadashi (even though his final moments are not shown, the junior novelization implies that he was crushed by a falling beam). After Tadashi's death, the people of San Fransokyo mourn his loss while a heartbroken Hiro falls into a deep state of depression. Over time, Hiro and his friends discover that the fire was caused by Callaghan as a coverup for stealing Hiro's Microbots.

Though mentioned several times during the events following his demise, Tadashi would not appear again until after Hiro's anger and frustration consumes him, leading Baymax to show a series of footage (which was recorded while Tadashi was in the process of building the healthcare companion) to comfort the boy. In it, it is shown that Tadashi had struggled to perfect the robot, each attempt ending with a major failure. Although there were many setbacks, Tadashi never gave up on building him. During the eighty-fourth test, Baymax was finally functional. With Baymax working properly, Tadashi stated his eagerness to use his creation to help others, as well as sharing his success with Hiro. The footage successfully heals Hiro's damaged heart, and as such, the young prodigy vows to use his intellect to change the world for the better, which he does by defeating Professor Callaghan and using the Big Hero 6 team to selflessly protect the city.

During the credits of the film, a newspaper shows a ceremony of a building dedication in Tadashi's name taking place, in which Hiro accepts the honor on behalf of his late brother.

Big Hero 6: The Series
In the television series, Tadashi is mentioned fairly often and occasionally appears via video recordings. As Hiro officially enrolls in San Fransokyo Tech (where Tadashi is considered a "legend" according to "Baymax Returns"), he is pressured by Professor Granville to live up to Tadashi's legacy and someday inherit his personal lab. Though Hiro is successful in earning the lab and cites Tadashi as a major inspiration, he makes it his goal to find his own path. Meanwhile, Honey Lemon, Wasabi, Go Go and Fred continue to fill the void left behind by Tadashi by acting as Hiro's guardians (alongside Aunt Cass). In addition to watching over the boy genius, they also work together to keep Hiro out of trouble and mischief. They are especially strict about Tadashi's wish to keep Hiro away from illegal bot-fights, as seen in "The Bot Fighter".

While trying to learn more about Professor Granville's past in "Mini-Max", Hiro visits Callaghan in prison to gather intel. During their meeting, Callaghan apologizes to Hiro for having caused Tadashi's death. Hiro notes that, despite knowing Tadashi would advocate forgiveness, he can't bring himself to actually forgive Callaghan yet. When Hiro found himself slipping back into his bot-fighting habits in "The Bot Fighter", Baymax showed a clip of Tadashi in which the latter expressed his concern over Hiro's bot-fighting obsession. Despite his reservations, Tadashi reminded himself that Hiro's a good person and will choose to do the right thing. This inspired Hiro to remain firm on his decision to quit bot-fighting. Tadashi's influence on Hiro puts a wrench into the scheme of Obake, who looks to have Hiro join his nefarious side.

In "Obake Yashiki", Hiro is sprayed with a gas that unknowingly placed digital imaging lenses onto his eyes. This gave Hiro—and only Hiro—the illusion that Tadashi is roaming about San Fransokyo, alive. Though confused and visibly shaken, Hiro finds himself too relieved to see Tadashi again to realize the dubious nature of the situation. As the brothers finally catch up, Hiro mentions Professor Granville and her belief that the former needs limits. Tadashi rejects this notion and claims that limitation will only slow Hiro down. When Hiro notes that he's currently working to fix Baymax, Tadashi declares that Hiro's intelligence should not be "wasted" on his old work. Knowing his brother would never say such things, Hiro gathers that he's talking to an illusion created by augmented reality. He quickly comes to realize that this was Obake's doing, but questions how the villain could have known so much about Tadashi to make the illusion so convincing. As it turns out, Obake had acquired Baymax's development footage and used them to familiarize himself with Tadashi's characteristics. Despite failing to coerce Hiro into the side of villainy once again, Obake compliments the boy genius on his deduction.

It is revealed in "City of Monsters" that Tadashi had assistance from a physician when creating Baymax. When Hiro claims that Karmi can't be a robotics and biotech genius, comparing her to Tadashi, Baymax shows him a video of Tadashi having assistant from needed that physician's input to articulate his medical skills.

Tadashi appears in a flashback in "The Present". He had created a snow machine, which he showed to Hiro, who pointed out that it would require a lot of energy and suggested adding insulation to reduce it. Tadashi then attempted the first test run of the machine in their bedroom, but it malfunctioned, causing an avalanche inside Lucky Cat Café. Months after that incident, during the period Baymax was created and programmed, Tadashi had fixed the snow machine and showed it while recording one of Baymax's tests, mentioning how he also took Hiro's note and thanked him for it. Tadashi had planned to give the machine to Hiro as a present for the following Christmas and wrapped it ahead of time.

In "Legacies", Trina's talk of her father Obake's legacy inspires Hiro to keep Tadashi's legacy alive instead. At the end of the episode, during a graduation ceremony at SFIT (in which Honey Lemon, Go Go, and Wasabi graduate from the institution), a large photo of Tadashi is behind the podium as Hiro delivers his speech about his big brother and desire to keep helping others. After Hiro wraps up his speech, he accepts Tadashi's degree from Professor Granville on his behalf.

Other appearances
In the series finale of At Home With Olaf, a short clip of Big Hero 6 featuring Tadashi, Baymax, and Hiro appears during a montage of heartwarming moments from Disney films playing in Olaf's song "I Am with You".

Manga
The prequel manga, Baymax, describes Hiro and Tadashi's childhood and provides an alternate version of the film. Beginning with his first meeting with Hiro at his birth, the first chapter elaborates on Tadashi's opinion on growing up alongside Hiro and what he wants for Hiro's life. As children, Hiro is always seen as the smarter of the two despite his age, and Tadashi originally expresses slight jealousy, though he grows out of it with age. Overall, he decides to not give up and continues to work hard as he creates his greatest work, Baymax.

His death in the manga is entirely different from the film. Instead, he dies protecting Hiro from a portal that Yokai activates from underneath the robotics lab, pulling Hiro to safety while a loose pipe knocks him over the ledge. After confessing his pride and love for Hiro, he is sucked into the portal, and is never seen again.

Hiro and Tadashi
Tadashi is the center of the book, alongside his brother. The book gives more insight into the Hamada brothers' closeness and the importance the relationship has on Hiro, as they build an "awesome robot" for Professor Callaghan's class. According to the book, the brothers are always coming up with secret rules for each other (at least 457 of them), and mentions Tadashi as being the one who gives Hiro the journals he uses to brainstorm inventions. This is also exhibited in the Hiro's Journal book ― the first page includes a letter from Tadashi, telling him that to use the notebook because "every invention needs to start somewhere".

Other books
Tadashi also appears in the Big Hero 6 Golden Books, which are condensed versions of the film for small children. The Little Golden Book does not detail the circumstances of his death or Callaghan's involvement in it, mentioning him only as the creator of Baymax and having been lost in an accident at school. However, the Big Golden Book (written for slightly older children) discusses Tadashi and his death at length, calling him the "best brother ever".

In a few publications, he is mentioned to be eighteen years old during the events of the film.

Trivia

 * Tadashi may have been based on Hiro's father in the comics, Tomeo Takachiho, whose death prompted Hiro to build Baymax to fill the void left in his heart.
 * Tadashi's character went through a few changes during development:
 * Early information regarding the plot somewhat implies that Tadashi was deliberately murdered by Yokai in some early drafts of the script.
 * Pre-release information also depicted Tadashi as already attending classes with Hiro and was also the man in charge of a science research team in which each individual would make different things, eventually leading up to a competition.
 * Artwork by the film's character designer Shiyoon Kim suggests that Tadashi wore glasses during development, and was also at one point designed to be older.
 * Tadashi has been assigned different ages from different sources.
 * In the film, it is implied that Tadashi is at least of the age of the majority (18 years old in the state of California, where Big Hero 6 takes place) because he is in the same cell as the other bot fighters. If he were a minor, he would have been assigned his own cell, as Hiro was.
 * In an interview, Daniel Henney stated the he believed Tadashi would be around 19 or 20 years old.
 * Japanese media prior to release gave Tadashi the age of 21 years.
 * According to the book Big Hero 6 (Disney Book of Secrets), Tadashi is 18 years old.
 * The colors of the logo in Tadashi's San Fransokyo Ninjas hat invert between the film and the illustrated books. In "Hiro and Tadashi", the N is red while the S and F are gold, but it is vice versa in the film.
 * According to the junior novelization, Callaghan was the last person Tadashi saw before his death.
 * In the manga version of Big Hero 6, Hiro was bullied by other children because of his intelligence. Because of this, Tadashi would protect him. In order to cheer Hiro up, Tadashi would give him a lollipop; this may have been the inspiration for Baymax to give his patients lollipops after treatment.
 * Avengers: Age of Ultron contains a possible reference to Tadashi; while Tony Stark is choosing a new A.I. to replace J.A.R.V.I.S., an A.I. named "T.A.D.A.S.H.I." can seen on one of the other A.I. cards.
 * Tadashi is a common Japanese name meaning "loyal" or "true", a name suited to his personality as he is loyal to his friends and family, and true to himself and to others.
 * Tadashi is pronounced slightly differently in its native language, being phonetically pronounced as "TA-da-shi" rather than "ta-DA-shi".
 * In the Korean dub of the film, Tadashi Hamada is renamed Teddy Armada to avoid any references to Japan and Japanese culture, due to the tension between Japan and South Korea.
 * Similarly, the mainland Mandarin Chinese version also renames him "Teddy", because of intense relationships between Japan and China.
 * It is revealed in "Small Hiro One" that the technology that allowed Tadashi to create Baymax was the creation of Wendy Wower, a SFIT alumni.
 * The logo on his hat is similar to the San Francisco Giants' logo.