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Jūbei Kibagami
Jubei the series
Name Information
Kanji 牙神獣兵衛
Kana きばがみ じゅうべえ
Rōmaji Kibagami Jūbē
Series Information
Debut Movie
Appearances Ninja Scroll
Ninja Scroll: The Series
Ninja Scroll Burst
Original Dub Kōichi Yamadera (Movie)
Rikiya Koyama (Series)
English Dub Dean Elliott (Movie)
Dave Rasner (Series)
Personal Information
Gender Male
Relations Kagerō (Love Interest)
Affiliation Yamashiro Clan (Former)
Status Active
"Wherever you go, the people are people, the sky is sky. Nothing changes."

Jūbei Kibagami, also can be romanized as Jūbē Kibagami, is a vagabond rogue ninja and the protagonist of Ninja Scroll. He is a character created by Yoshiaki Kawajiri and is a homage to the famed Japanese samurai folk hero Jūbei Yagyū.

Personality[]

Jūbei is a very good man, and helps people who need it the most. Despite a troubled past and living in a poverty-stricken country where one must break the laws of nature just to survive, Jūbei remains an honourable man with firm morals. It is doesn't really matter for him if they can't pay him much in return for the task. He is willing to do the highly risky task for small payments if his client is nice and genuinely needs help. Money doesn't matter to him unlike other mercenaries. Although he admits that he works for money, he is perfectly willing to retrieve an item for much less than it's worth if other people need the money more. His tragic past changed Jūbei Kibagami a lot and one can see that he is calm and very caring.

Looking like an ordinary person, he is often underestimated by his foes. He draws his sword for the innocent and needy, although he tends to get arrogant at time to his enemies. During combat, Jūbei is a pragmatist through and through, though this is out of necessity rather than personal preference; as a normal human with no supernatural powers, Jūbei is outclassed in every one of his fights with the Eight People of Kimon. Therefore, his modus operandi in each fight is to exploit his enemy's weakness or turn their own strengths against them. These include stabbing Tessai in the eyes (the one part of his body he can't turn to stone), taking advantage of Utsusu's blindness, knocking Mushizō into the water which results in him being stung to death by his own bees, or using Shijima's own weapon against him. All of this shows Jūbei to be very crafty, perceptive and resourceful, which may come from his days as an agent for the Tokagawa government, as Dakuan also shows these traits.

He is quite laid-back and jovial, frequently engaging in light-hearted humor, though this tends to be rather sarcastic. He's a cynic who doesn't lie to himself about the things he has to go through in the mission, but is also willing to fight to the end. His morals cause him to frequently butt heads with Dakuan, who frequently employs extremely ruthless methods and believes that to defeat the enemy, one must become the enemy.

Jūbei also has a strong dislike for people who view themselves as worthless or expendable, which is not only stated by him explicitly but shown in him frequently chewing out Kagerō for her reckless actions and seemingly complete lack of regard for her own life. In addition, despite flirting with Kagerō frequently, he refuses to have sex with her despite it being the best way to cure his poison, as he can tell she's in a terrible state and refuses to take advantage of that. Jūbei and Kagerō kept arguing with each other during their journey without even realizing what they were really feeling. They didn't always agree on things and there were a lot of love quarrel between them, even though the love wasn't confirmed between them till the last of the movie. Meantime Kagerō was stabbed by Jūbei's arc nemesis Genma Himuro, who disguised himself as Kagerō's lord. This was the moment when it really turn out that Jūbei also had feeling for Kagerō as he set out alone to take on the army of ninja and slaughtered them without any hesitation. After clearing the town infested with the Kimon ninjas, he goes back looking for Kagerō.

Appearance[]

Jūbei is a fairly tall, slim young man with short brown hair and a muscular build. He wears a dark-green man's kimono that he leaves open very loosely at the front, showing his chest, and a straw hat on his head. He always keeps his sword within arm's reach, even when he's bathing at a hot springs. After Kagerō succumbs to her wounds, Jūbei wears her headband in her honor during his final battle with Genma.

Biography[]

Past[]

Not much is know about Jūbei's childhood. What's know is that Jūbei once was a member of Yamashiro Clan. The clan was annihilated because of Genma Himuro who happens to be the antagonist of this story. Genma tricked the people of Jūbei's clan and his friends into killing each other and that's how he had to kill his friends to survive which weighs heavily on him, and Jūbei ends up being alone.

Although while Genma is escaping after playing his evil trick on the people of the clan, Jūbei steps in to get rid of him and decapitates Genma's head. With nowhere left to go and no person to lean on, Jūbei decides to be a mercenary for hire. He wandering around from village to village and town to town, picking up odd jobs and helping people. But it seems like trouble always finds him.

Ninja Scroll[]

When Kagerō is about to get defiled by Tessai, Jūbei steps in with the usual cool and calm attitude. He saves the lady and in the process making himself an enemy of the Eight People of Kimon. This is how Jūbei gets involved in the fight againt the Kimon, but its not really his business and to involve him even more in the fight Dakuan, monk working for the Toyotomi Government, poisons Jūbei with a substance that will kill him in couple of days. To avoid that Dakuan tell him that he will have to assist in taking down the Kimon People, and in return he will get the antidote along with 100 gold coins.

Ninja Scroll: The Series[]

Jūbei is a protagonist of the show. He is a wandering vagabond ninja who wants nothing to do but rest until one day, he got himself involved in a battle between the Hiruko and the Kimon People. Later, one of the Hiruko members gave him a Dragon Jewel in which he must give it to the Light Maiden, Shigure. Now he is on an adventure to give the Dragon Jewel to Shigure and to protect her from both the Hiruko and the Kimon Clan.

Abilities[]

He has no overt superhuman abilities, trusting only in his sword, smarts and peak physical skills to do the work. Still, he is behind most of the kills of the movie and series, although in no small part due to some help from his comrades and occasionally by sheer luck. While he is referred outright as a ninja and is shown to have worked for a ninja clan, his appearance, skillset and fighting style are those of a regular samurai. Then again, in real life the professions of ninja and samurai often overlapped, so the concept of a ninja looking like a samurai is not that odd. Though he is mainly known as a swordfighter, the climax of the movie reveals he is no way worse in hand-to-hand combat.

  • Master Swordsman: Jūbei is a master of the sword, being able to defeat lesser foes with little trouble and in spite of having no supernatural abilities is still able to fight on the same level as other, more unnatural foes.
  • Wind Slash Technique: In spite of Jūbei having no supernatural abilities, he has reached a level of skill with the blade that has allowed him to cut the very air with a slash, creating a vacuum. Typically used as an iaijutsu, the technique is extremely fast, difficult to dodge, and has great range. It is certain death to anyone struck by it.
  • Wire Usage: Jūbei's sword has a long, thin metal wire attached to it. This way it's extremely difficult to disarm him.
  • Tactical Prowess: Jūbei, knowing he's at a disadvantage to fighting people like the Eight Devils of Kimon, uses anything he can at his disposal in order to defeat his opponent. He values pragmatism above all, using the terrain, surprise attacks, and unorthodox methods. Furthermore he's a quick thinker able to devise strategies on the fly.

Gallery[]

Quotes[]

  • "Wherever you go, the people are people, the sky is sky. Nothing changes." (どこに行っても人は人、空は空。何も変わらねえよ。)

Trivia[]

  • "Kibagami" means "Fang God," which could be a lyrical way to describe his sword skill.
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