|
Name: Hannya Nicknames: Age: Sex: male Height: Weight: Date of birth: Zodiac sign: Blood Type: job: member of the Oniwabanshu weapon: His arms, with a special optical illusion Fighting style: ehhh... |
History: Hannya was raised and trained by Aoshi when he was rather young (how old is Aoshi again?). He had survived the slaughter of some children in his home village and had been living on his own ever since. He was closest to Misao and he learned her the art of kenpo. He's very cool looking with his mask and in the manga you find out why he wears it. You even get to see him without...
Commentary of Nobuhiro Watsuki:
The model of Hannya wasn't really that of a ninja, it was more a mix between an elephant and spiderman. At first, in my project, Hannya had a face that was mutilated from birth. What would make him an elephant-man, is that his mother was attacked by an animal while pregnant of him. Deformed since birth, Hannya was persecuted and treated like a monster. Thus he needed to live alone in the mountains. One day he would meet Aoshi and become a member of the Oniwabanshu. He woudl've been a member who joined because he believed that being a member would make his life better and easier and fighting would be the only means of proving his existence. That was my Hannya in the original project.
But shortly before introducing him in the series, I had a discussion with my editor, the longest one ever! He said that Hannya's only motive to fight was because of his anomality and didn't find that fitting for a magazine with a male adolescent public. After the discussion, Hannya's origins changed and now it is what you find in the series. Hannya is a character that made me realise how hard it is to draw a manga that's aimed at a young boys' croud. His personality is based on that of Susumu Yamazaki, spy of the Shinsengumi. Many readers thought that Hannya was handsome without his mask, some even thought that he was Aoshi's twin brother! Others thought that he would be "Kunoishi". This last suggestion amused me a lot. I'll be sure to keep that in mind for a future character! (don't know when though!)
The graphical model for Hannya is nothing more than that of a skeleton. The fact that his eyes are of different sizes, goes back to my original idea about Hannya. And his form is becoming more and more squary, that badly that y assistants are calling him "the robot"
The commentary of Mr. Watsuki was taken from the origional rurouni kenshin french manga albums and translated in English. All rights reserved.
