List of Rurouni Kenshin characters
The manga series Rurouni Kenshin features a large cast of fictional characters created by Nobuhiro Watsuki. Set in Japan during the Meiji period, several of the characters are real historical figures who interact with the fictional characters.
The story begins in 1878 and follows a pacifist wanderer named Himura Kenshin, who was previously an assassin known as "Hitokiri Battōsai" working for the Ishin Shishi during the Bakumatsu period. After helping Kamiya Kaoru, the instructor of a kendo school in Tokyo, in defeating a criminal, he is invited by her to stay at her dojo. During his stay in Tokyo, Kenshin befriends new people including Myōjin Yahiko, a young child descendant from a samurai family who starts training under Kaoru, Sagara Sanosuke, a former Sekihō Army cadet who enjoys fighting, and Takani Megumi, a doctor involved with the illegal drug trade. He also encounters old and new enemies whose ambitions cause Kenshin to return to fighting, this time to protect the innocent.
Protagonists
Himura Kenshin
Himura Kenshin is a former legendary assassin known as "Hitokiri Battōsai" At the end of the Bakumatsu, he becomes a wandering samurai, now wielding a sakabatō, a katana that has a structure in which the blade and ridge are struck in the opposite direction to a regular katana, so if it is used normally, it will always be in a ridged state and will have much less killing power. Kenshin wanders the country offering protection and aid to those in need as atonement for the killings he once committed as an assassin. He meets a young woman named Kamiya Kaoru in Tokyo, who invites him to live in her dojo despite learning about Kenshin's past. Throughout the series, Kenshin begins to establish relationships with many people, including ex-enemies, while dealing with his fair share of foes, new and old.Kamiya Kaoru
Kamiya Kaoru is the instructor of a kendo school in Tokyo called Kamiya Kasshin-ryū. All of its students leave when many people are killed by someone claiming to be Hitokiri Battōsai and a practitioner of Kamiya Kasshin-ryū, damaging her school's reputation. The real Battōsai, now wandering pacifist Himura Kenshin, saves Kaoru from this murderous impostor. Kaoru invites Kenshin to stay at her dojo as she notes that he is a gentle person instead of a hitokiri. As the series continues, Kaoru develops strong romantic feelings for Kenshin, who is constantly haunted by his past deeds and believes he does not deserve happiness.Myōjin Yahiko
Myōjin Yahiko is an orphan from a samurai family who was forced to work as a pickpocket to repay the debt he had presumably owed, as his parents died before they could repay it. When Himura Kenshin rescues him, he decides to grow up to be just like Kenshin. But because of his strong beliefs, Kenshin will not teach the sword style he had learned. Therefore, Kenshin arranges for Yahiko to be trained in Kamiya Kasshin-ryū by Kamiya Kaoru. As the series progresses, Yahiko becomes skilled at swordsmanship and faces many opponents.Sagara Sanosuke
Sagara Sanosuke is a former member of the Sekihō Army. When the group was destroyed by the Meiji government, he became a fighter-for-hire to calm his anger by fighting. During his introduction in the series, he encounters the wanderer Himura Kenshin, who easily defeats him and can convince him to stop his mercenary work and instead start protecting people. Sanosuke becomes Kenshin's best friend and his partner in most of their fights.Takani Megumi
Takani Megumi comes from a famous family of physicians from the Aizu region. She became the assistant to a Tokyo physician who had created a deadly new form of opium. When the doctor was killed, she was forced to make the new opium for corrupt industrialist Takeda Kanryū for the past three years. After being freed and stopped from committing suicide by Kenshin and Sanosuke, she becomes a doctor to atone for her past misdeeds. She has a wicked sense of humor and enjoys flirting with Kenshin to make Kaoru jealous, but helps Kaoru come to terms with her feelings towards Kenshin. She is loyal to her friends and is always there to heal their wounds, especially Sanosuke, whom she often cautions about fighting. At the end of the series, she leaves Tokyo to open a clinic in Aizu.Nobuhiro Watsuki created Megumi as a "mature woman" but had no specific model in mind. In the first Rurouni: Meiji Swordsman Romantic Story one-shot, Megumi, Kaoru, and Yahiko were siblings. Despite this version and her final version in the main series being so different, Watsuki said they have the same spirit and are not so unalike. Although he admitted the one-shot's version of Megumi had a "lighter quality" because of her small role, he, therefore, gave her a more "earthy quality" in the main serial so she could make an impression. By the time of the publication of Rurouni Kenshin volume four, Watsuki felt disappointed as she did not turn out nearly the way he wanted. However, because she is entertaining to draw and is the only woman Kaoru can interact with, he planned to have Megumi frequently appear as a secondary character. Watsuki's used the young grandmother from Takeshi Obata's as the design model for Megumi. Her story arc has "redemption for her crimes" as its theme, and the author wanted to express Kenshin's determination through Megumi. Megumi came in fourteenth place in the series' second character popularity poll, and fifteenth in the third. She is portrayed by Yū Aoi in the live-action films.
Shinomori Aoshi
Shinomori Aoshi is the Okashira or leader of the [|Oniwabanshū], and a skilled swordsman who his comrades highly respect. After he is defeated by Himura Kenshin and his comrades are killed, he becomes obsessed with killing Kenshin to earn the title of "the strongest" for the pride of the Oniwabanshū. He raised Makimachi Misao, the granddaughter of the previous Okashira, under his protection as a member of the Oniwabanshū.Saitō Hajime
Saitō Hajime, based on the historical figure of the same name, was the leader of the third squad of the Shinsengumi during the Bakumatsu. He has a long-standing rivalry with Kenshin and firmly believes in "Swift Death to Evil." He goes by the name of Fujita Gorō and works as a Meiji police officer.Makimachi Misao
Makimachi Misao is a young kunoichi from Kyoto who was raised by the Oniwabanshū. She traveled to Tokyo searching for Shinomori Aoshi whom she is in love with. She wishes to learn what happened to Aoshi and his comrades and follows Kenshin to Kyoto, hoping to meet him again. When she learns of how Aoshi has become evil and obsessed with revenge, she decides to take over his title as "Okashira" and tries to forget him, but she can not. Kenshin promises that he will bring Aoshi back to her again.Hasegawa Ashitarō
Hasegawa Ashitarō is an orphaned 16-year-old boy just released from prison during the Hokkaido Arc prologue. He and Inoue were inspired by buddy films with Watsuki remembering the ideal designs needed for the protagonists to be likable citing Ushio & Tora as an example. The first chapter had little hints about Ashitaro being related to Rurouni Kenshin with the second one expanding it more. Since the young character Myojin Yahiko already matured in the original Rurouni Kenshin, Watsuki created Ashitaro in order to have him act more like him during early years. Born in Niigata Prefecture, he survived by stealing crops and foraging the mountains. Although claiming to have served five years in a Tokyo prison for dine and dash, it is suspected to have been for being a gofer member of Shishio Makoto's faction, which planned to take over Japan before disbanding when their leader died five years ago. He possesses Shishio's sword, Mugenjin, but due to his propensity for entering uncontrolled fits of rage, Kenshin asks him not to draw it. Ashitaro's given name was formerly written as , before he changed it to .Inoue Aran
Inoue Aran is a 16-year-old boy who grew up in the Westernized portion of Japan. He was jailed in Tokyo for three months for attempting to be a stowaway on a ship to the Americas. He is revealed to be half-Japanese with blond hair and suspected to be the son of a prostitute to foreigners. While travelling with Kenshin's group to Hakodate, he forms a friendly relationship with Takeda Kanryū based on their similar interests with business. Like Ashitarō, Aran was inspired by Ushio & Tora to be an appealing duo.Kubota Asahi
Kubota Asahi is a war orphan raised by the Yaminobu but claims to be a pacifist. Following their failure to kill Kenshin during the Bakumatsu, the Yaminobu lost status and were reduced to working as mercenaries for hire. Kubota was hired to Shishio's faction and later trailed Ashitaro to retrieve Shishio's sword. Despite her fear of Kenshin after learning that he killed his Yukishiro Tomoe in during the Bakumatsu, she is surprised to find well-meaning the former hitokiri has become and decides to assist him in his journey to Hakodate and find Kaoru's father.Antagonists
Hiruma Brothers
The Hiruma Brothers are crooks who scheme to take ownership of Kaoru's dojo. After Kaoru's father died, the elder brother Kihei collapsed in front of the dojo, and Kaoru took him in, becoming a kind of a live-in apprentice and gaining Kaoru's trust while trying to persuade her to sell the dojo. Gohei, the younger brother, is a former samurai who falsely uses the "Hitokiri Battōsai" and Kamiya Kasshin-ryū names to commit murders. The brothers use the Kiheikan, a former dojo in a neighboring town that has become a gathering spot for gamblers and rogues, as their base of operations. When Kaoru begins to discover the truth, the brothers attempt to kill her, but Kenshin easily defeats them after revealing himself to be the real Hitokiri Battōsai. Having escaped jail, the Hiruma Brothers appear again, hiring Sanosuke to fight Kenshin and planning to use a gun to kill a weakened Kenshin. When Kenshin defeats Sanosuke, he stops Kihei's bullet dead on the guard of his sword. When the brothers try to attack Kaoru and Yahiko, Sanosuke defeats Gohei and Kenshin injures Kihei into submission. Later in the series, they are employed as bodyguards by Fudōsawa, a yakuza in Sanosuke's hometown, and then by Tani Jūsanrō. Sanosuke easily beats them up on both occasions.Gohei is the only brother to appear in the first anime series and is more intelligent than his manga counterpart. He is a former student at the Kamiya dojo. Still, when Gohei insisted on using swords for killing and then unsuccessfully attacked the master of the dojo, Kaoru's father, he received a broken thumb and an expulsion. Gohei tries to take over the Kamiya dojo in the story, but Kenshin prevents him from doing so. Gohei hires Sanosuke to defeat Kenshin, but this fails. Later, he hires the Kisaki brothers to defeat Kenshin. Though they almost succeed, the brothers are beaten and Yahiko sends Gohei limping away after kicking him in the genitals.
Watsuki described the creation of the brothers as a "direct function of the story." Watsuki wanted "interesting villains to start things off with a bang" and made one "brainy" and the other "wild." He decided that the story involving the two coming together was taking "too many" pages, so he made the duo as brothers instead of being "circumstantially related." He used a manager and director from Takeshi Obata's sumo manga as a model for Kihei and a character he found in a magazine that made him think "Ooh, impact!" for Gohei. Watsuki stated that, unlike the faces of Kenshin and other characters, the faces of Kihei and Gohei are of basic shapes and therefore the two were easy to draw as a result. He said that he became fonder of the brothers as his deadlines approached.