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Name: Aoshi Shinomori Nicknames: Age: 26 Sex: male Height: 183cm Weight: 71kg Date of birth: January, 1853 Zodiac sign: Capricorn Blood Type: A job: Former leader of Oniwabanshu, now hunting down Kenshin weapon: Kodachi Fighting style: Kempo, kodachi- nito |
History: Aoshi used to be the leader of the Oniwabanshu until the massacre at Kanryu's place. It was not a fair fight and all four men died protecting their leader from the killer bullets. Aoshi got out alive, never getting over his friends' deaths, looking for revenge. He thinks that if he can beat Kenshin, he'll prove he is the strongest and in that way restore the honor of the Oniwabanshu, making his friends proud of him. A strange vision, that drove him to madness when it comes to defeating Kenshin. When he doesn't succeed in finding Kenshin, he eventually agrees with Shishio to wait for Kenshin in his lair, luring Kenshin to Shishio. After losing to Kenshin, Aoshi withdraws himself to a temple near Ayoia, for as long as I can tell. He remains there alone, meditating, with a daily visit of Misao to keep him company...
Commentary of Nobuhiro Watsuki:
As I said Beshimi's profile, the Oniwabanshu is a group that I somewhat created out of the blue. After having introduced Aoshi in the story, I didn't quite know what to do with him. I needed specific models for him. But continuing the story, I took the Shinsengumi as model for the Oniwabanshu, even though in historical coverages "Toshizo Hijikata", the leader of the Shinsengumi on whom Aoshi is based, is described from two different points of view. All depended on whether you liked him or not...
One of these was about Hijikata in "The burning sabre" of Ryotaro Shiba. In this story he is pictured as a warrior who fights til the end of his life, a story which I am very fund of. The other point of view makes him very human: he's a devil for the Shinsengumi, but in his heart he's tender and could even cry. I've taken the second model for Aoshi, because after all the Oniwabanshu is very close to the Shinsengumi. The last ones mentioned have lost a war without even being able to show the world their art, discipline and philosophy of combat. Their leader, who was always searching for the perfect combat, resembles Aoshi. I can't tell you yet if Aoshi will be a man fighting till the end of his days like Hijikata, but he wil reappear soon.
There's no specific graphical model for Aoshi, but as the story evolved, the image of Hijikata became stronger and stronger. His fringe also became longer and longer, but I think I'll keep this lenght. I have thought about redrawing him if Kenshin were to be published as comic books. But in fact changing his hair even more would make it look asif it were a wig! His coat is based on that of another character in an american comic book series...
The commentary of Mr. Watsuki was taken from the original rurouni kenshin french manga albums and translated in English. All rights reserved.
