Monday, January 24, 2011

Characters: Naruto part 4

Characters: Naruto-Hidden Mist Village

Here be spoilers. Any thing that has not been aired on the free version  * of Crunchyroll should be spoiler-tagged.
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    Zabuza Momochi 

Voiced by: Unsho Ishizuka (JP), Steven Jay Blum (EN)

The first major antagonist of the series, a renegade shinobi from the Hidden Mist Village hired to kill Tazuna the bridge-builder.
Before the series, he lead a coup attempting to oust the Mizukage and take control of the Village for himself; this failed, and Zabuza barely escaped with his life. Since then, he's been hiring out his sword to the highest bidder, hoping to raise enough funds for another go at the Mizukage.
Zabuza was one of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist (like Kisame), making him one the strongest ninja in the Hidden Mist Village before his defection. He knows a great deal of Water-Style jutsu and has the ability to shroud himself in mist, making himself invisible. Plus, of course, he's got a BFS. In a slight subversion of the Sorting Algorithm Of Evil, Zabuza was far too strong for Naruto or Sasuke as they were at the beginning of the series to take on; they had to leave him to Kakashi.
Zabuza attacked Team 7 twice during the Land of Waves arc, first with a collection of hirelings, then with his protege Haku. He battled Kakashi to a draw both times before Haku's Heroic Sacrifice caused him to turn on and kill his employer, Gato. He dies in the process, and asks to be buried along with Haku.
In Shippuden, Sasuke takes Suigetsu to Zabuza's grave so that Suigetsu can take Zabuza's BFS. Much later, Kabuto resurrects him and Haku with Edo Tensei, and he is not the least bit happy about it. He is quickly defeated by Kakashi.
  • Alas Poor Villain
  • Back From The Dead: He's rather pissed off about it too.
  • Badass
  • Badass Normal: Zabuza is one of the few enemies who managed to bring Kakashi to the point of burn out in a battle and a week bedridden. When the latter didn't have the Mangekyou Sharingan yet. And he did it with some standard water ninjutsu and well honed swordsmanship. No kekkei genkai, no familial technique, no tailed-beast. Just ability and balls. Actually, Kabuto sees him as strong enough to be worth resurrection.
  • BFS: Weapon of choice
  • Bloodbath Villain Origin
  • Contract On The Hitman: Gato hires a bunch of mercenaries to kill Zabuza, who has become a "liability". Backfires BIG time.
  • Cutlass Between The Teeth: See below.
  • Deadly Graduation: When he was a kid, he killed an entire graduating class of pre-genin, 100 total, despite not even being a student himself.
  • Ensemble Darkhorse: One of the most popular characters in the series, usually making the top 10 in every opinion poll if this troper recalls correctly.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: Expresses his disgust with Gato for double crossing him (and desecrating Haku's corpse), and is extremely pissed off because Kabuto brought him and several others back from the dead to use as mindless drones.
    :"This is bullshit, I don't want to fight for someone who would stoop this low."
  • Evil vs. Evil: The Mizukage against whom he made his coup (killing him in the process) was responsible for the cruel ways of the Mist Village. It's much later revealed thathe was actually manipulatead by one of the Big Bad.
  • Excalibur In The Rust: The Legendary sword Kubikiri Hōchō...is pretty much an oversized cleaver with a very slow Healing Factor. Compared to, say Kisame sword it can be quite a letdown... until you see why it got the name.
  • Fingerless Gloves
  • Heel Face Turn / Redemption Equals Death: When he realizes how much Haku meant to him, he charges Gato and his men, killing them but being mortally wounded in the process. His arms were both disabled, but he could still hold a kunai with his mouth to take out Gato.
  • Heart Is An Awesome Power: One of the deadliest ninja in the Naruto-verse. And he is by using... mist, basic water ninjutsu, a relatively normal BFS, and well fined skulking.
  • Hide Your Gays: His true feelings for Haku are never clearly spoken out, but there is... subtext. It is heavily hinted that their relationship might have been more thanmentor/student, especially when he requests to die next to Haku and wishes to go to the same place as him.
    Zabuza: "My dear Haku, are you weeping? You were at my side right from the start...and I'm at yours, now, at the end. If I could...if I were able...I would want to go...to the same place...on the other side...as you..."
    • It can also be seen as fatherly or brotherly love, though in a very unusually tender way. In fact, solely changing Haku's gender would have probably made the pairCanon.
  • I Cannot Self Terminate: Asks Kakashi to stop him and Haku as he feels his mind is being sealed away by Kabuto.
  • Implausible Fencing Powers: BigFancySwords are Awesome But Impractical in Real Life.
  • Making A Splash
  • Manly Tears:
    Zabuza: Kid, don't say anything. Your words cut deep... deeper than any blade. While he was fighting you, his heart was breaking in two. You see, Haku was always too soft and too kind. He felt pain and sorrow, and now, curse him, I feel them, too!"
  • Names To Run Away From Really Fast: The Demon of the Mist
  • Not So Stoic: Shows this at the end of his life, as he notes that not even he can completely kill his emotions.
  • Rasputinian Death: Only Zoro had taken so much damage and continued fighting. There is a reason why he is the Poster Man of HP.
  • See You In Hell / Taking You With Me: Pulls one of these on his traitorous employer Gato.
  • Starter Villain: at first
  • Unwanted Revival
  • Why Wont You Die: Last words of Gato. Pretty Justified.
  • Worthy Opponent: Considers Kakashi to be one. Acknowledges Naruto as one before his death.

    Haku 

Voiced by: Mayumi Asano (JP), Susan Dalian (EN)

Zabuza's Battle Butler. An extreme case of Dude Looks Like A Lady (or maybe a Villainous Crossdresser; resulted in Dropped A Bridget On Him for Naruto).
Haku was born in a cold village orphaned during the wars. At the time, there was a prejudice against people with kekkai genkai, and Haku, who had one, was left to die. Zabuza encountered him and, thinking he might be useful, took him in and raised him. After only a few years, Haku was almost as good an assassin as Zabuza himself.
An Anti Villain, Haku serves Zabuza because he lacks any other sense of purpose in life, claiming to be nothing more than Zabuza's tool. Zabuza treats him as such.
Haku's kekkai genkai allows him to fuse the water and wind elements to generate ice. He uses this ability to perform the devasting Demonic Ice Mirrors (Crystal Ice Mirrors in the dub) jutsu. Demonic Ice Mirrors generates a dome of mirrorlike panes of ice around his opponents, each with an image of Haku reflected in them. Haku can travel between the panes at high speed, attacking with needle-like senbon while in transit. The panes are all but indestructible, so Haku can fight defensively, avoiding damage and wearing his opponents down bit by bit. It takes the combined power of Sasuke's Sharingan developing and the Nine-Tailed Fox's chakra manifesting for the first time to break the mirrors.
Haku first appears after Zabuza's first encounter with Team 7 disguised as a Mist Village "hunter-nin", claiming that he's been assigned to kill Zabuza for betraying the Village. In reality, however, Haku merely stunned Zabuza, allowing the pair to escape unharmed. He later appears to give Naruto some advice (since Haku was wearing a mask during their first encounter, Naruto didn't recognize him), and then again at the arc's climactic battle on the bridge, where he engages Naruto and Sasuke while Zabuza faces down Kakashi (and poor Sakura, uh, looks on helplessly since she's stuck shielding Tazuna). After a lengthy battle, Haku jumps in front of Zabuza to protect him from Kakashi's Lightning Blade. Zabuza, realizing how much he valued Haku's companionship, ceases his pursuit of Tazuna and turns on Gato, killing him and lots of his minions in a desperate and badass Foe Tossing Charge before he dies.
Kabuto later resurrects him and Zabuza with Edo Tensei. He sacrifices himself (again) to prevent Kakashi from killing Zabuza.

    Fifth Mizukage 

Real name: Mei Terumi. The beautiful adult woman who is currently leader of the Village Hidden in the Mist and apparently new to the position. She does not remember the previous leadership fondly. Tends to coddle her younger bodyguard.
During the Kage Summit, she acts rather dodgy when asked about rumors that Akatsuki formed in her village, and when she finds out Danzo is capable of Mind Control she suspects him of using it on the previous Mizukage.

    Ao 

One of the Mizukage's body guards. Middle-aged and wears an eyepatch. Critical of his teammate Chojuro's indecisiveness, likely as a result of his upbringing during the time when the village was known as "the Blood Mist".
When Mifune suggest Danzo to lead the inter-village effort against Akatsuki, Ao reveals that he has a Byakugan under his eyepatch and uses it to discover that Danzo's eye and arm are that of a ninja he previously fought named Shisui Uchiha, who had the ability to control others minds without their knowledge. He then goes after Danzo's group when they flee, but falls for Fu's trap. Danzo isn't happy about him posessing abilities taken from a Konoha ninja.

    Chojuro 
The other bodyguard of Mei Terumi, the 5th Mizukage. One of the 7 Swordsmen of the Mist. Now that Zabuza & Kisame are dead, the only real one left. Frequently annoys Ao because he stutters and seems to lack self-confidence. His characterization makes him suspiciously similar to Hinata.

Characters: Naruto-Hidden Cloud Village
Here be spoilers. Any thing that has not been aired on the free version  * of Crunchyroll should be spoiler-tagged.
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    Killer Bee 

I float... like a butterfly. And sting like a bee! 'Cause I'm the Eight-Tailed Beast!


Voiced by: Hisao Egawa (JP), Reno Wilson (EN)

Host of the Eight-Tailed Ox and brother of the Raikage. A dark-skinned, light-haired muscular man with a penchant for rapping.
Sasuke's Team Hawk, sent to capture his tailed beast, engaged him in battle, but he easily kicks their asses andbeats the ever-loving shit out of Sasuke. He then transformed into his full Ox form, but Sasuke subdued it with Amaterasu — or so it seemed. Turns out Bee pulled a fast one on him, making them all look like idiots. He then goes off to take a vacation. The Raikage was pretty pissed about that. Now he's hanging out (actually on exile for security reasons) on an island with Naruto, whose attempts to get Bee to train him have thus far have them working well together, BY THE POWER OF RAP! (though it had to involve a Big Damn Heroes moment for the both of them with some old wounds of Bee's having to mend)
  • The Ace: Arguably, given that each of the chapters he appears in without fail has had him doing something awesome, funny, or both.
  • Adult Child: In the middle of a serious meeting on military matters, he's seen not paying any attention and scrawling down song lyrics — looking absurdly similar to a bored high school kid scribbling and not paying attention to class.
  • All Of The Other Reindeer: Averted as an adult. He's about as well-liked as they come. Played straight when he was a kid, though.
  • Bad Ass: And HOLY SHIT HOW.
  • Cloud Cuckoo Lander: If you have an extremely powerful demonic entity inside of you, and it is significantly more rational and sane than you are, you qualify for this trope.
  • Cool Shades
  • Crazy Awesome
  • Dark Skinned Blonde
  • Dual Wielding: He uses seven swords at once, and hold them in such places as in his armpits and between his legs, but not in his hands. He needs those to write down lyrics should he think of them.
  • Ensemble Darkhorse: He's gotten quite a few fans for his brief appearance, especially with those that don't like Sasuke.
  • Everythings Better With Spinning: One of his maneuvers while using all swords at once is to spin like a top.
  • Excuse Me While I Multitask: Frequently battles while in the middle of rapping, and sometimes even pauses to write down lyrics.
  • Flight Strength Heart: In addition to standard tailed beast host powers, his special power is salivating ink.
  • Friend To All Living Things: On the island of giant beasts, he starts by fist-bumping with a giant Gorilla and goes from there. Taken to its extreme when Killer Bee tries to comfort freaking Samehada after it forces Kisame to separate from it because Kisame had been forcing it to go against its will. Remember that Samehada has a rather startling number of entries on the High Octane Nightmare Fuel page and is generally regarded to be at least partially demonic.
  • Hey Its That Voice: In the English version, Killer Bee is Mudflap!
  • Lets Get Dangerous
  • Made Of Iron: The guy pretty much shrugs off, in order, a flying kick to the head, electrocution, and a jet-propelled, superhumanly strong fist to the face which left a dust cloud in which he was able to escape without noticeably slowing down. Heck, even his seal-acting tattoo says 'tetsu', which means 'iron'!
  • Not So Harmless: There's no way this rapping ninja could be danger... HOLY SHIT! Did he just gut Sasuke like a fish?
  • Punny Name: He's probably called "Killer Bee" because the Japanese words for "bee" and "eight" are homophones. In addition, his brother the Raikage is named A. Maybe their dad had trouble remembering names...
  • Scarf Of Asskicking
  • Scary Black Man
  • Shock And Awe: Can channel electricity into his swords.
  • Shout Out: To Jero, the unlikely African-American enka singer. When you think of Japanese postwar love ballads, you usually don't think of dudes wearing hip hop clothing (or rapping ninjas, for that matter.)
  • Spanner In The Works: He ends up massively throwing Akatsuki and Sasuke's plans out of whack. It's rather hilarious.
  • Throwing Your Sword Always Works: He's fairly good at throwing his swords (or for that matter a pencil) like daggers.
  • Uncle Tomfoolery: Subverted in that even when his antics are played for humor, he's far from incompetent.
  • Vibroweapon: Can turn any weapon into this by using that electricity to vibrate it at a high frequency. Even pencils.

    Fourth Raikage 

Real name: A. The leader of the Cloud Village and Killer Bee's older brother.
When he hears of Killer Bee's current demise at the hand of Akatsuki and Sasuke Uchiha, he calls a meeting of the Kages and sends Team Samui to the Leaf Village to inform them and request intel on Sasuke. While on the way to the meeting, Naruto talks to him and pleads for him to give mercy to Sasuke, but the Raikage ignores him. During the meeting he emphasizes that his village is the only one which has had no attachment to Akatsuki, but also causes a ruckus when he smashes part of the table and objects to Mifune nominating Danzo to lead the forces against Akatsuki. When Zetsu's white half interrupts with news that Sasuke is in the building, he promptly grabs him by the neck and strangles him until he loses consciousness. He then heads out with his bodyguards to confront Sasuke, and proceeds to knock Jugo unsconscious and attack Sasuke even when it costs him his arm to do so, and would have killed them both if Gaara hadn't intervened.

    Samui 
One of Killer Bee's students and the leader of their three-man cell.

    Karui 
Another of Killer Bee's students, a somewhat hot-tempered kunoichi swordswoman.

    Omoi 
Killer Bee's third student, who worries about many things.

    Yugito Nii 
The host of the Two-Tailed Monster Cat, a jonin of Kumogakure, who has since been captured and killed by Akatsuki in a mostly unseen battle. But Kabuto later resurrects her with Edo Tensei.
  • Badass: It's an entirely informed trait, but even Killer Bee, who has Badass in spades and is much older than her, seems to have looked up to her.
  • Meaningful Name: Her last name, "Nii", means second in Japanese.
  • Sealed Evil In A Can: As a Jinchuriki.
Characters: Naruto-Hebi
Hebi ("Snake") is the group that Sasuke forms when he's looking to exact his revenge against Itachi. After Itachi's death, Sasuke renames the group Taka ("Hawk/Eagle") and they join forces with the remainder of the Akatsuki. They only appear in Shippuden.
Here be spoilers. Any thing that has not been aired on the free version  * of Crunchyroll should be spoiler-tagged.
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    Suigetsu Hozuki 

Voiced by: Takashi Kondo (JP), Grant George (EN)

Former ninja from the Water Country. He and his brother wanted to be members of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist, but this was cut short when his brother died and he was captured by Orochimaru at some point and used for expirements. Something of A Blood Knight, as he was apparently some sort of prodigy for cutting off his opponent's limbs before beheading them, though apparently gets along with animals. Can transform into liquid to avoid damage. Takes Zabuza's sword, and wants to take Kisame's. His goal is evidently to take the swords of all the Swordsmen of the Mist.

    Karin 

Voiced by: Kanako Tojo (JP), Ali Hillis (EN)

Only female in Hebi. Has some sort of chakra-tracking ability. Wildly in love with Sasuke, just like nearly every other female in the series, but rude to everyone else. Not much of a combatant, but she can heal others by having them bite her. Overloaded with Fetish Fuel tropes. Former genin from the Hidden Village of Grass.
  • Abhorrent Admirer: Played with. She isn't exactly "unattractive" (even though Fanon would often describe her as such) but her eagerness to get in Sasuke's pants and his less-than-interested reaction towards her propositions make her one of these. Subverted in that she eventually gets over her infatuation.
  • All Girls Want Bad Boys: Begins slavishly devoted to Sasuke. Brutally Deconstructed when she almost dies at Sasuke's hands. Reality Ensues.
  • Anime Hair: Seriously, what's with her hair? It's long and straight on one side, but short and wild on the other. You could imagine how she would do that, but not why. Though her hair is obviously symbolic, referencing her Mood Swinger nature. And it seems that some real people have their hair which does this.
  • Bare Your Midriff
  • Be A Whore To Get Your Man: Exaggeratedly accused of doing this by SasuSaku fans, epecially the "whore" part, even though she is almost the complete opposite.
  • Betty And Veronica: Initially more the Third Option Love Interest but she eventually took Ino's place as the Veronica to Sakura's Betty.
  • Blind Without Em: Like so many Meganekko. It's shown in a flashback that she has severe myopia.
  • Boring But Practical: She practically embodies this trope. Sensing the location of whoever she wants isn't flashy or powerful, but it's pretty damn useful. Too bad it's notuseful enough to make her indispensible.
  • Clingy Jealous Girl
  • Curtains Match The Window
  • Dark Chick
  • Die For Our Ship: IN. FUCKING. SPADES from SasuSaku fans but also from SasuNaru fans to a lesser degree. It won't get better, as Sakura has been ordered to heal Karin after Sasuke tried to kill them both which she does. To further infuriate them, Karin not only lives but is seen smiling gently whilst being taken back to Kohona on Kakashi's back.
    • Designated Girl Fight: Due to this, SasuSaku fans are roaring for a showdown over Sasuke between her and Sakura, which unfortunately for them will never happen now in light of the most recent events.
      • Irony: A Meta example. Sakura stopped Sasuke from finishing her off and then healed her afterwards. Karin is very grateful and affiable afterwards to the point that she willingly goes with them without even trying to put up a fight. Brilliant Take That Audience, Kishimoto...
  • Evil Red Head / Fiery Redhead: Depending on if you count her as "evil" or not.
  • Fetish Fuel Station Attendant: Holy crap!
  • Heel Face Turn: Very possible outcome, as she finally realized she's better off without Sasuke.
  • I Sense A Disturbance In The Force: Her primary ability.
  • The Libby: Almost always portrayed as such in High School AU Fan Fiction.
  • Living Lie Detector: Can sense people's chakra being disturbed if they lie.
  • Looks Like She Is Enjoying It: Her special healing ability requires for the person who she wants to heal to bite her. Her facial expression while being bit is pretty interesting to say the least. Of course, the anime cranks this Up To Eleven.
  • Meganekko: Although she subverts the "sweet" part most of the time. Played straight when she was younger, from what we got to see.
  • Miss Yo Yo Knickers: Her unhealthy obsession with Sasuke and the fact that she once planned to drug Suigetsu and Juugo in order to rape Sasuke in his sleep has gotten her to be seen as such by rabid SasuSaku fans.
    • It doesn't help that Suigetsu once implied that she had previously did... "something" to Sasuke before. Whatever this "something" may be.
  • Mood Swinger: Most recent example: crying about how she was forced into working for Orochimaru and Sasuke one minute, then snarkily asking for something to eat in exchange for more info about Akatsuki the next.
  • Non Action Girl: She helps out with her sensor powers to discern locations and the nature of enemy jutsu. Just don't expect her to help at all in any physical capacity.
  • Rescue Romance: Sasuke saved her from a giant bear during the second part of the Chuunin examination.
  • Rescued From The Scrappy Heap: Partially. Used to be one of the most hated characters in the manga but her being so badly hurt by Sasuke and her warning Sakuraabout Sasuke intending to kill her made her strangely turn into a Jerk Ass Woobie for a good fraction of the fandom.
    • The fact that she actually got over him after all he did to her has also helped to pull her out of it.
  • Shadow Archetype: For a long time, she seemed to embody, Upped To Eleven, all the flaws of pre-timeskip Sakura. Like the latter, she also displays shades of Teen Genius.
  • Stalker With A Crush: Towards Sasuke.
  • Tsundere: Tsuntsun towards EVERYBODY, including Sasuke if there are other people around.
  • Yandere: On the other hand, she also considers drugging Suigetsu and Jugo to rape Sasuke while he's wounded and weak, and carries around his sweaty, discarded clothes on occassion.
  • Zettai Ryouiki

    Jugo 

Voiced by: Shuhei Sakaguchi (JP), Travis Willingham (EN)

Big guy whose personality flip-flops between a psychopath and a really nice guy. Can talk to animals. Orochimaru made his Cursed Seals by replicating an enzyme that his body produced.
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