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Friday, August 5, 2011

My Favorite Samurai X Character: Sanosuke!!!!

As I promised in my last post, here’s my post about Sanosuke Sagara!

QUICK FACTS
Birthday: August 6, 1860 (HAPPY BIRTHDAY SANOSUKE!!!!!)
Age (Today): 151 years old
Height: 1.79 m (about 5’10”)
Occupation: Mercenary (I suppose that’s the correct term for his job)
Important Family Members and Friends: Souzo Sagara (leader and great friend), Kamishimoemon (father), Naname (mother), Uki (younger sister), Outa (younger brother), Kenshin (best friend and mate), Kaoru (friend and mate), Yahiko (friend), Megumi (friend)
Weapon: Zanbato and Fists (yeah, he likes to fight bare-handed. Pretty awesome, huh?)
Seiyu: Yuji Ueda

ABOUT SANOSUKE
Nobuhiro Watsuki, the genius that created Sanosuke, was inspired in Sanosuke Harada, the captain of the tenth division of the Shinsengumi, when he created Sanosuke. In some scenes (supposedly), you can see the resemblance of Sagara’s face with Harada’s. Sanosuke’s jacket has a hate symbol towards the Meiji government. He hates them because of the death of his comrades and his mentor, Souzo Sagara.
A pic of Sanosuke HARADA:



BRIEF BIO
Sanosuke appears for the first time in the fourth chapter of the story, when he is hired to get rid of Kenshin. In those days, Sano (that’s how Kenshin tells him in the Latin American version of the animé, I don’t know if he gets called the same around the world) was a street fighter (not a member of the awesome game. Can you imagine Sanosuke fighting against Ruy, Ken, M. Bison, and the others?! It would be pretty awesome!!!!!) specialized in using a humongous weapon/sword called Zanbato. Kenshin manages to defeat Sano and breaks the Zanbato. After that they become the best friends (a cliché?).

During the fight, it is revealed Sano’s past. He came from a humble background and was a member of the Sekihoutai (a group of countrymen under the commands of Souzo Sagara) that supported the Ishin Shishi. When the Ishin Shishi felt that the Sekihoutai were not needed anymore, they killed all of them (except Sanosuke obviously) and cut the head of Souzo :(. Sanosuke adopts Souzo’s last name, and becomes SANOSUKE SAGARA!!!!!! Since then he has dedicated to fighting (Sanosuke for Street Fighter? Tekken? Super Smash Bros.? Mortal Kombat?) and afterwards, focuses in weaponless fighting. His fighting style is similar to boxing, though he occasionally uses his legs (kickboxing? UFC?)
When Kenshin travels to Kyoto (Tokyo’s anagram sister city) to defeat Makoto Shishio, Sanosuke follows him, and receives training from a monk. The monk teaches him a special attack called Futae No Kiwami, which is capable of easily destroying the hardest objects. With time, he discovers that the monk works for Shishio, so he decides to defeat him. He defeats him with a new version of the attack, which now includes a third blow extending the fingers. He also gets a thing with Megumi :P
After Kyoto, Sanosuke is very hurt by the continued use of his technique, so he starts using the Zanbato. When Kenshin is exiled to ostracism, Sanosuke travels Japan, where he reunites with his ​​family, the Higashidanis, from whom he was separated when he was 10 years old. The family is composed by Kamishimoemon (father), Nanam (dead mother), Uki (younger sister) and Outa (younger brother). A curious fact about the names of the family members is that in Japanese their names mean up-down, diagonal, right and center, respectively.
Among his greatest achievements is a fight in his hometown, where he  manages to defeat 200 men and injuring a "ishin" (pretty awesome huh?!). The poor dude had to be bandaged from head to toe. He It is said that anyone that fights with Sano sees the kanji in his back for weeks in their nightmares (like in the Sherlock Holmes movie: “Physical recuperation: 6 days. Mental recuperation: 6 months :P.
At the end of the manga, we learn that Sanosuke has to flee the Japanese police, and makes a long journey through the world, which leads to the far western United States and the steppes of Mongolia (in Danny’s post about Samurai X you can see the end of the manga, so check it out later!).



I hope you've liked this post as much as I had when writing it. Remember to comment!
 
(It's me Pérez!)
My next post: A great DC supervillian

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