Kisaragi Saemon

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Kisaragi Saemon (japanese: 如月 左衛門, hiragana: きさらぎ さえもん, rōmaji: Kisaragi Saemon) a major character featured in the Japanese anime Basilisk Kouga Ninpou Chou (known in English as the Kouga Ninja Scrolls). Saemon was chosen by Kouga Danjo to be one of ten shinobi to represent their clan of Kouga Manjidani against the chosen ten of the Iga Tsubagakure.

Saemon is the older brother of the sexually attractive Okoi, whom he deeply cares for; in fact, one of his driving motives to be in the war is to avenge her death. Along with Kasumi Gyoubu, Saemon specializes in stealth and infiltration. By pressing another's face into a raised mound of mud or soft clay, Saemon can form a mold with which he can insert his own face into, taking their form and appearance for himself. This along with his talent for impersonating voices makes Saemon a master of disguise. His technique however is only effective cosmetically. It doesn't bestow him with any of a person's abilities or memories and anything with senses superior to a human's (as Hotarubi's snake proved) are able to see through it. Saemon is also one of the Koga's more capable fighters, at one point successfully defending himself against multiple opponents at once.

[edit] Battles

Saemon VS Yashamaru: A battle that was more a minor conflict. Throughout this "battle", Saemon would mimic the voice of Yakushiji Tenzen of Iga, in which tricked Yashamaru. After a slip of Saemon's voice, however, Yashamaru realized that he was being tricked, in which he then used his garotte cutting wires to slice up the stone wall that Saemon was behind. Saemon, however, was luckily saved by Gyoubu, who had crushed Yashamaru's neck.

Saemon VS Hotarubi: A battle that would take place at night. After Saemon had pursued Hotarubi for some time, he managed to turn himself in Nenki (who was at the time dead) as to trick Hotarubi. However, after Hotarubi had realized that he was really Saemon, she fought a rather vicious fight against Saemon, due to the fact that Yashamaru's death was truly due to Saemon, which was supported by the fact that Yashamaru was Hotarubi's love. Saemon ended up cutting off both of Hotarubi's arms, in which she then fell backwards off of a certain crag, imagining herself by Yashamaru's side before her death from the fall. After Hotarubi had died, thousands of beautiful pink butterflies arose from the crag, illuminating the sky; Saemon sees this and says it's not in him to kill females, but he did so because of his beloved sister Okoi's death.

Saemon VS Tenzen/Tokugawa officials: This was a battle that would take place at midnight on a bridge over a small creek. Saemon, who was at the time pretending to be Tenzen, was answering questions to a considerable number of Tokugawa officials. After the real Tenzen (who at the time was disguised as a Tokugawa official) appeared, he then ordered the officials to kill Saemon. This led into a rather minor struggle (due to the fact that Saemon was heavily outnumbered) where Saemon ended up being impaled by many spears through his stomach. After Saemon was near death at the side of the bridge, Tenzen personally delivered the final blow to Saemon, resulting in him pummelling into the creek, dead.

[edit] Alternate Information

Saemon is also a featured character in the Japanese live-action film SHINOBI Heart Under Blade. Within this movie, his whole body is wrapped up in a certain type of cassock, in which he wears a mask over his face. Instead of pressing a person's face in mud, he simply has to rub his hands on their face and then rub his hand on his own face, thus successfully mimicking their appearance.

[edit] Reference

Basilisk - the anime