Genzo/Characters

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


A list of Characters from Genzo.

Good Guys

Genzo Tsujimura

The main hero of the manga, is a puppetmaster of great skill, capable of creating and assembling puppets so perfect that they're almost alive. After the death of his beloved wife Saki he has lost any will to live, and now is trying to build a puppet of her, so that he'll be able to commit suicide along with it and join Saki. However, the time passed with Kiku and Otsuru mellows him a bit.

Kiku Nagashima

The young and tomboyish princess of Kamigawa, Kiku meets Genzo when she employ his service in order to avoid a forced marriage with her Evil Uncle Genba. Later she becomes infatuated with Genzo and follows him around. She's a skilled swordswoman, trained by her own father from a young age.

Otsuru

A young girl from a village ruled by a former bandit, she had her hand cut and degraded to a feral state in order to protect the treasure of her foster father. She was fred and adopted by Genzo and eventually followed him around everywhere. She has a curved blade instead of her right hand.

Kagari

A character introduced in volume 2, she's the daughter of Ukyo Kunikanehide, a master swordsmith serving the Nagashima house who was killed by the monk Kyokai. After her introduction she's always seen around Kiku serving as her humble handmaiden.

Fuyu Momose

Daughter of Tatsugoro Momose, owner of a great saltern and former architect of castles. She's involved in the struggle between Genzo and Koshiro after witnessing the apparent death of her father.

Chiyomaru Tsukuda / Kiyone Urakami

The young heir of the Tsukuda family, a clan serving the former Urakami clan, is a pretty-looking boy who fights to protect the coast from pirates. Revealed to be actually Kiyone Urakami, the last Urakami and key to the treasure left behind by her family.

  • Angst: Considering that She had to live for about 15 years as a boy, this could be justified.
  • Blade on a Stick: Wields a hoko (japanese four-pronged pike) in his first appearence.
  • Cool Pet: Kohayamaru, a Okigondo. That would mean a large Wholphin.
  • Damsel in Distress: In Volume 4 she's tied and has a bag on her back containing a flask of oil and one of gunpowder.
  • Dude Looks Like a Lady: Even Genzo admitted that he was beautiful and shapeful. Justified when we find out that he's actually a real woman.
  • MacGuffin Girl: She's one of the few traces leading to the Urakami treasure.
  • Raised as the Opposite Gender
  • Scars Are Forever: As a baby, her father tried to save her from a burning ship, but she was scarred all over her body by the flames.
  • Taking You with Me: She tackles Kurojishi off a boat in order to save an unconscious Genzo. Too bad he survives and capture her.

Bad Guys

Genba Horinouchi

Kiku's villainous uncle who poisoned her cousin and future husband Tatsumaru so that she'll be forced to marry him instead.

  • Attempted Rape: On her own niece Kiku!
  • Blood Knight: He's said to be incredibly skilled in battle and Genzo sees a horde of howling spirits surrounding him.
  • Evil Uncle
  • Good Scars, Evil Scars: Has a large scar on his left eyebrow.
  • Oh Crap: When he sees Tatsumaru's puppet. And a even bigger one when Kiku's puppet turns into a gigantic blob of tentacled flesh and wrap him up.

Kyokai

A large and strong warrior Monk who likes to collect swords and loathes the modern warfare. After discovering that Ukyo Kanekunihide, the Nagashima swordsmith, forged a fake Samoji sword for the Taiko Hideyoshi and kept the real one, he steals the sword and blackmail both him and the Nagashima clan.

Koshiro Honebami

Saki's elder brother, he's the man who adopted Genzo in order to serve as heir of the Tsujimura puppetmasters, while he'll get fame by working with the samurais. He appears in Volume 2 where he tries to murder Genzo for letting Saki die.

Kurojishi

A large man wearing a huge Koma-Inu mask and probably a pirate leader. He's serving Maria Kurusu. Appears to be a very resilient and powerful man, though he often falls for Genzo's trickery.

  • An Axe to Grind: He even resorts to Dual-Wielding in order to chop people to pieces, when he's not shooting them.
  • Berserk Button: He really gets mad at Genzo after he made a fool of him in front of Maria.
  • Butt Monkey: The sheer number of times when he's caught in an explosion is utterly hilarious.
  • The Dragon: To Maria.
  • Implacable Man: Seriously, it takes a lot to slow this guy down.
  • Made of Iron: He did managed to survive a lot of explosions.
  • Malevolent Masked Man
  • No Body Left Behind: He's finally done for good when he gets tied to a puppet of Chiyomaru ready to explode in the middle of a burning ship. He can't be deader than that!
  • Oh Crap: When the apparently wounded Genzo rise up... with a puppet mask identical to the explosive one which got him earlier.
  • Undying Loyalty: To Maria.
  • The Un-Reveal: Whe never get to see how he looks like under his mask.

Maria Kurusu

Leader of the Kurusu clan, she's a strong willed half-portuguese woman who's plotting to overthrone Hideyoshi using a giant warship, and intends to recover the Urakami treasure in order to achieve her goal.

Yasuke

An old and wicked bandit leader who owns a legendary cursed sword called Yamiganemaru ("Metal Ring of Darkness") who was limped in battle by Kiku's father and since then plotted revenge on the Nagashima clan. He asks for an artificial leg to Genzo and after he's able to walk he tries to kill the puppet master and goes on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge against Kiku. He's eventually disarmed by Otsuru and impaled by his own sword wielded by Kiku.

Others

Seibei Tsujimura

Genzo's old teacher and Saki's father.

Saki

Genzo's deceased wife. She appears through the series as a ghost. She also animate Saki's incomplete marionette to save him from Koshiro.

Suguroku Tsukuda

Chiyomaru's adoptive father, he was a vassal of the local warlord Mataemon Urakami before his death in a fire. He asks Genzo to build a puppet of Chiyomaru in order to fake "his" death and so reveal back Kiyone. He's eventually captured by Maria Kurusu's men, as he know the secret of the Urakami treasure. In the end he's revealed to have been behind the events leading to Mataemon's death and betrays the group, only to get killed by Maria.

Gotsuden Characters

Oshizu

A young and plucky girl who writes horror and supernatural stories for a kawaraban [1]. She get's involved in Kenjiro's investigations.

Kenjiro Ootsuki

A grim, wandering samurai looking for a cursed blade. He's the son of Terumitsu Ootsuki, a great swordsmith. Wields a powerful and famed katana named Gotsumaru (Way of Karma).

Kenjiro:"Congratulations for the carefuly chosen words..."

  • It's Personal: His father asked him to set on a quest to find and destroy his cursed weapon, the Jintsumaru Tenganken.
  • Master Swordsman
  • "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Gives one to Denzaemon, pointing out that he's just using the sword's dark reputation as an excuse for his own murderous istinct.

Denzaemon Kogure

Big Bad of the Gotsuden short story. He's a vassal of the Daimyo. He's murdering women in a satanic ritual in hope of using black magic to grant a heir to his master.

  • Big Bad
  • Evil Weapon: Jintsumaru Tenganken, a blade which is said to have powers over illusions.
  • Half the Man He Used To Be: Is cleaved in half by Kenjiro.
  • Throwing Your Sword Always Works: Actually subverted: he throw a large, generic katana to his enemies, forcing them to parry, and then attack them with the Jintsumaru hidden under his cloak to kill them. The thrown sword itself isn't very dangerous: when Kenjiro's hit in the chest the blade's tip barely penetrate his sternum.
  • Jack the Ripoff
  1. old japanese newspaper wrote on a tile