ooc: Character info
Personality - Background - Abilities
CHARACTER INFO
CHARACTER NAME: Sanada Yukimura
SERIES: Sengoku Basara (anime)
RESERVED: Y
WISHLIST: N
PERSONALITY:
Yukimura is a hot blooded, go get ‘em type of personality. When not given any direction he’ll naturally dash into things headlong without much consideration for what could come of his actions. His forward approach, however, is due to his naïve nature and lack of life experience. He is also completely incapable of deception, for two main reasons. The first, and most important to him, is that he feels it is dishonourable to not face your enemies head on. He would much rather die honourably in battle than try to deceive an opponent just for an easy win. The second reason is, of course, that deception requires forethought. He lives completely in the moment, only occasionally taking time to reflect.
Despite his lack of decent decision making skills, Yukimura will follow orders exactly. This is largely based on his extreme adoration of Takeda Shingen, his mentor and leader, and while he will openly question Shingen’s orders when he finds them questionable, it takes only a few punches in the face and a verbal lashing to convince Yukimura that not only were the orders correct but that he was idiotic for not understanding them in the first place (in Shingen’s defence, the orders are always in the best interest of his men).
He is always respectful of others, speaking in a formal and humble way that largely belies his strength. Even when agitated, he’ll protest in a relatively polite manner by simply stating his disagreement with your opinions and then quickly moving on. Even while being polite, however, he always speaks his mind and will always honestly give his opinion. He tends to speak very passionately about battle and the relationship between two rivals.
For all of his excitability, Yukimura is actually quite a serious individual (whether others see him as serious is another thing entirely). He never jokes about or makes light of anything, and is intensely focused on winning battles for Shingen. This doesn’t make him temperamental, however, he just tends not to notice when others are joking or messing around with him (e.g. Sasuke lying about being engaged).
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TIMELINE: End of episode 6 (this is a 13 episode series, making episode six just shy of the halfway point.)
BACKGROUND: [I’m using the terms ‘lord’ and/or ‘warlord’ to refer to the rulers of each province, as those seem to be the best choices overall.]
The Sengoku Era. Also called the Warring States period, it was a time when each of Japan’s provinces either rose to power or fell to ashes. Alliances are broken as quickly as they’re made, and death and battle become everyday occurrences as each lord struggles to attain the position of supreme ruler. At the center of much of the conflict is the so called Demon King, Oda Nobunaga. His actions and violent nature are what will ultimately unite or destroy the other provinces.
Takeda Shingen, ruler of the province of Kai, has been taking the lands of nearby rulers in his bid for conquest. Next on his list is his long time rival Uesugi Kenshin, ruler of Echizen. Waiting until after nightfall, Shingen gathers his troops and calls on his trusted retainer and protégé, Sanada Yukimura. He tells Yukimura to take a group of soldiers and spring a surprise attack on Uesugi, however Yukimura protests that such an attack could ruin the Takeda reputation. Shingen is quickly able to convince the young man that this is the best plan, and so he blithely rides off.
Once he arrives at Uesugi’s camp, however, he finds that it has been long deserted, only to be occupied by a different lord, Oshuu’s Date Masamune. Upon questioning, Masamune reveals he intends to destroy Uesugi before moving on to his next target. Yukimura challenges him to a duel, stating that he won’t allow anyone to take on his master’s rival. A battle of truly ridiculous proportions ensues, with neither man being significantly stronger than the other. Before they are able to seriously injure each other, however, they are interrupted by Sarutobi Sasuke, a shinobi under Shingen’s rule and a friend of Yukimura’s. He tells Masamune that if he values his life, he’ll leave. Uesugi and Shingen have drawn a truce, deciding to temporarily ally in order to take on bigger foes, and that both will sweep in and attack Masamune’s forces if he remains. The warlord begrudgingly retreats, leaving a starry-eyed Yukimura behind.
Back at Shingen HQ, Yukimura is surprised to find out that his lord had been aware of Masamune’s attack, which of course was the real reason he sent his young retainer out on his own. When asked about the battle, Yukimura lights up and proclaims that he was greatly moved by his opponent’s strength and ambition, although he does admit that he felt it unlikely that he would have been unharmed had Sasuke not intervened. Said shinobi then arrives on the scene to deliver news of enemy movements, causing Shingen to put out an order to prepare for battle. Yukimura jumps up and asks if Shingen’s truce with Uesugi was in preparation for this, and when answered in the affirmative admits he would never have made such a consideration. Shingen sends him flying out of the room and into a stone wall a good ten to fifteen feet away, admonishing the young man for his stupidity. Shingen proclaims that one day Yukimura will take his place, and that he must always consider different tactics, although Yukimura is strongly opposed to the idea that he will ever rule.
While on their way to face the nearby forces of Imagawa Yoshimoto, the Takeda troops run across Masamune, who is trailed by the forces of yet another lord, Hojo Ujimasa. Hojo’s troops mistakenly believe that Shingen and Masamune are working together so they divert their attention, leaving Masamune free to pursue Imagawa. Yukimura and a group of soldiers are sent after him, while Shingen stays behind to defeat Hojo.
Masamune is only seconds away from killing Imagawa when Yukimura arrives on the scene, exclaiming that he won’t allow anyone but Shingen to take Imagawa’s head. Masamune attempts to shake the younger man’s confidence by mocking him for leaving his lord to die at the hands of Hojo’s troops, however Yukimura is unaffected. The two decide to fight over who will get to kill Imagawa, providing said lord with enough time to prepare two body doubles while his would-be murderers are busy worrying about one another.
The first to notice that there are suddenly three Imagawa’s in three identical carriages is Masamune’s retainer Katakura Kojuro, who breaks up the fight by pointing this fact out to his lord. With no clue which one is the real Imagawa, Masamune, Kojuro, and Yukimura each pursue a different carriage.
Sasuke manages to catch up with Yukimura and attempts to dissuade him from following the carriage any further. The chances of it being one of the doubles are high, and it would be a waste to use up any more time or energy to pursue it. Without warning, the carriage explodes, the fake Imagawa being thrown out onto the ground nearby. There, a woman in a black kimono shoots him in the head with a pistol before taking off on horseback.
Yukimura follows the woman, although he never catches up to her. Instead he, Sasuke, Masamune, and Kojuro walk right into the hands of Oda Nobunaga. Instead of showing fear, Yukimura seems excited to meet Nobunaga. He immediately begins to introduce himself, but a tense Masamune quickly tells him to shut up. Without saying a word, Nobunaga shoots a now mostly dead Imagawa, letting the corpse fall to the ground in front of his opponents. Rather than fighting, each group goes their separate ways, Yukimura and Sasuke both heading back to Odawara Castle where Shingen has defeated Hojo.
At Odawara, Yukimura congratulates his lord on winning the battle, although Shingen chalks it up to circumstance. He asks Yukimura what he thought of Nobunaga, to which he replies that although the Demon King certainly seemed powerful, he also gave off a sense worse than bloodlust. Yukimura proclaims that he still feels Shingen could defeat Nobunaga, but his master is quick to tell him otherwise. He questions Yukimura about why he fights and, finding the reason to be “so I can help you become ruler” he again admonishes his protégé, although in the end he gives up trying to beat any sense into him.
Again back at the Takeda stronghold, Yukimura is summoned by Shingen. Once there, he is introduced to one of Uesugi’s shinobi, Kasuga. Much to her surprise, Yukimura seems to know who she is. He greets her energetically, saying that Sasuke has already told him about her. He goes on to ask if they’ve set a date for their wedding. Kasuga is, of course, not engaged to Sasuke and immediately protests. Shingen takes a lull in the shenanigans to begin speaking, effectively silencing the other two. He reveals that he’s sent Sasuke as an envoy to the provinces of Mikawa (ruled by Tokugawa Ieyasu) and Oumi (Azai Nagamasa), hoping that they will join in an alliance to defeat Nobunaga. Yukimura pipes up, saying that just the Takeda forces alone should be able to defeat Nobunaga. Shingen doesn’t disagree; he knows he could beat the Demon Lord, but the consequences of doing so would leave him and his territories vulnerable to attack. Shingen also takes the time to mention that the growing alliance is due in large part to the efforts of the wanderer Maeda Keiji. Without any particular provincial associate, other lords were more willing to listen to the young man and agreed more readily to fight Nobunaga. Kasuga, sensing Sasuke’s return, quickly departs.
He comes bearing bad news. Both Tokugawa and Azai, for their own reasons, have refused to join the alliance, thus destroying the plan to surround Nobunaga and finish him off that way. Shingen dismisses the two, who wander off to talk. Yukimura confronts Sasuke about the engagement to Kasuga, saying that she denied it was true. Sasuke quickly covers by telling the other man that she was just trying to hide her embarrassment. Yukimura easily falls for the lie, going on to say that he just doesn’t understand women because they’re too complicated. They go on to discuss various battle plans, Yukimura admitting to his friend that aside from seeing Shingen become ruler of all Japan, his greatest wish is to face Masamune again in battle.
The next day Uesugi and Shingen combine forces and begin moving toward Owari (Nobunaga’s province), however they are halted by Tokugawa Ieyasu. Shingen, who seems to have been friends with Tokugawa in the past, decides to approach him and ask one last time if he’ll join the alliance. He brings Yukimura along to view the proceedings. The younger man is immediately ill at ease, not liking the fact that both he and his master are surrounded on all sides by Tokugawa’s forces, however Shingen calms him down.
The meeting is surprisingly friendly, although Tokugawa inevitably refuses Shingen’s request. He feels his chances of coming out on top are better if he remains on Nobunaga’s side. For his part, Yukimura can tell that neither Shingen nor Tokugawa truly want to fight each other, however they resign themselves to the inevitable battle. After leaving Tokugawa’s camp, Shingen tells Yukimura that they will go around and catch the enemy forces in a pincer attack. At this time, he also mentions Honda Tadakatsu, Tokugawa’s strongest fighter and the one said to be the strongest in all of Japan. In a surprising turn of awareness, Yukimura notes that Tokugawa’s forces are notably less than the combined armies of Uesugi and Takeda, and that he must have some kind of secret plan.
Not far away, Date Masamune is moving his forces toward Owari, hoping to be able to take Nobunaga out while Uesugi and Shingen face Tokugawa. He is stopped by Azai Nagamasa, one of the lords who originally refused to join the alliance. While Masamune and Azai fight, one of Nobunaga’s retainers moves in with a rifle squad. He plans to use the distraction provided by Azai in order to fire on and kill Masamune, however in the end only Azai is killed.
Having entered the fray, Yukimura comes across a dying soldier from Tokugawa’s side. A comrade runs up to the man, but he quickly fades away. In anger, the living soldier charges Yukimura, who has completely frozen up having just now realized that his opponents are not particularly different from him. Sasuke jumps in to defend him, followed shortly by Shingen. Because Tokugawa and Shingen are friends, it is difficult for Yukimura to categorize the opposing forces simply as “enemies” and be done with them. Shingen reminds him that he has always fought human opponents, and that he shouldn’t forget that fact.
By this point it’s obvious that Tokugawa can’t win with just his troops, so he calls on Honda Tadakatsu. Instead of being just a normal warrior, however,Tadakatsu is… a gundam. Really. This is a period in time long before something like the telephone was even invented, but somehow the Tokugawa clan was able to produce what is essentially a cyborg mini-gundam. And no one is surprised when they see it. Except the viewer, of course.
Like a moth to an open flame, Yukimura immediately moves to challenge Tadakatsu. By himself he can just barely keep up with the mech-warrior, forcing Sasuke and Shingen to come to his aid. With the other two providing support, Yukimura is able to lodge one spear into Tadakatsu’s shoulder region, dealing some fairly severe damage and breaking the spear in the process. Tadakatsu, whose range of motion has been limited by the damage, collects Tokugawa and temporarily leaves the battle. He quickly returns, however, to challenge Yukimura again and allow the Tokugawa forces time to retreat.
Before their fight manages to progress, however, Lady Nouhime (Nobunaga’s wife and the same black kimono woman from the battle with Imagawa) appears on the scene. Somehow, she has a rocket launcher hidden in her clothes, which she fires at both Yukimura and Tadakatsu. In order to save his opponent, Tadakatsu grabs Yukimura and throws him into the air, thereby avoiding Nouhime’s attack. Tadakatsu himself has sustained too much damage to be able to avoid the rocket, and takes the full force of the impact.
With Tadakatsu’s destruction the battle ends, and forces from all sides retreat. Shingen orders Yukimura to begin taking the wounded-regardless of clan-to Kai (Shingen’s province) for treatment. Being aware that Masamune also fought, and that Oshuu is significantly further from the battlefield than Kai, Yukimura follows his forces and asks Masamune to go to Kai. Unbeknownst even to Kojuro, Masamune was hit in the stomach by one of the shots fired by Nobunaga’s rifle squad, and is riding his horse while passed out. The injury is discovered when he slides out of the saddle, and he is quickly taken to Kai. While there, Shingen approaches Kojuro about joining forces. He is hesitant, but also realizes that there will be no other way to defeat Nobunaga, and a tentative agreement is reached.
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ABILITIES: All of his abilities should be fairly easily recovered just from experience/accidentally using them in self defence. For the most part his attacks don’t have names (one of the few that is named, Fire Wheel, occurs off-screen so I’m omitting it) and they’re all more or less completely outlandish, so I’ll try my best to describe them.
- Unnatural constitution: Yukimura is capable of taking a severe beating and living to tell about it. He seems especially immune to being punched in the face by burly men.
- Dual Spears: In battle, he wields two spears at once. This ability to attack and defend at a distance makes him a formidable opponent. Added to this is his surprising agility, which allows him to easily outmanoeuvre an average opponent and keep up with a more experienced fighter.
- Spontaneous Combustion: He can spontaneously light his spears/ body on fire, then launch himself at enemies for a highly combustible attack. Since it’s never canonically explained, I’m suggesting that it’s probably some kind of ki/chi/spiritual energy. Or perhaps just his FIERY SPIRIT.
- Crazy Red Aura: When his battle spirit really gets going, Yukimura is surrounded by a red aura that apparently disallows physics, making it possible for him to leap incredible heights and even fight while suspended in mid-air.
- Super Spin: He can spin at violent speeds, creating a small-ish tornado that sends enemies flying. Anyone standing too near would presumably be ripped to shreds by his spears.
- Acrobatics: Yukimura is very agile, and usually throws all sorts of spins, jumps, and tumbles into his fighting style.
- Horseback riding: Horses. He can ride them.
And the only two named attacks to appear on screen:
- Spear of Heavenly Might (this was the least cumbersome translation I could find): Involves shouting “Spear of Heavenly Might!”, spontaneously combusting, and throwing himself at enemies. It’s more effective than it sounds, I swear.
- Tiger’s Flame: Again, yelling “Tiger’s Flame!” and then flinging himself at the opponent, only this time it’s just his fist that’s on fire.
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