Kouga Danjo

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Kōga Danjō (japanese: 甲賀弾正, hiragana: こうがだんじょう, rōmaji: Kouga Danjou) a character featured in the Japanese anime Basilisk Kouga Ninpou Chou (known in English as the Kouga Ninja Scrolls). As lord of Koga Manjidani, Danjo was ordered by retired shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu to chose nine other warriors besides himself to represent his clan against the chosen ten of the rival Iga Tsubagakure clan. Danjo greatly specializes in the use of poisoned throwing needles, which he can spit from his mouth with lethal precision.

In his youth, Danjo was in love with Ogen of Tsubagakure and, like his grandson Gennosuke and Ogen's granddaughter Oboro, sought peace between the clans through their marriage when a joint attack on Tsubagakure by his own clan and the forces of Oda Nobunaga made it impossible. Despite the fact the attack had occurred without his knowledge or consent, Ogen was unable to forgive Danjo for his clan's actions and their hopes for peace and happiness came to an abrupt end.

[edit] Battles

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Danjo VS Oda clan: This battle occurs exclusively in the anime. Set several years before the start of Basilisk, Danjo had gone to meet with his then-lover Ogen to officially set a date for their wedding when Nobunaga's forces launched a sneak attack on Tsubagakure village for unknown reasons. Danjo and Ogen arrived to help and Danjo slew many of Oda's soldiers with his needles and blindingly fast sword play but was forced to retreat after Ogen suffered a bullet wound to her right shoulder. This major wound in the whole of the Iga gave the Koga their opportunity to strike; one group of them attacking Danjo and Ogen after they fled to the safey of the nearby woods. Danjo threatened his kinsmen that he wouldn't allow them to go through with it, but the damage to his relationship with Ogen was already done.

Danjo VS Ogen: The first true battle of the Basilisk series between the selected Koga and Iga ten. After distracting Ogen with memories of the past, Danjo shot a needle out of his mouth and pierced Ogen's throat. Once Danjo had used her blood to cross off her name off the Iga's scroll (which he had silently lifted off of Yashamaru) he fired a second needle into Ogen's mouth, piercing the back of her neck and supposedly killing her. As knelt down to close her eyes, Ogen's hawk made a loud noise to distract Danjo, allowing the dying Ogen to deliver a killing blow to her former lover with the very needle he had struck her down with. This led to Danjo and Ogen sadly dying by each other's side on a river's bank before drifting off together into the afterlife.