Udono Jousuke

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Udono Jōsuke (japanese: 鵜殿丈助, hiragana: うどのじょうすけ, rōmaji: Udono Jousuke) a character featured in the Japanese anime Basilisk Kouga Ninpou Chou (known in English as the Kouga Ninja Scrolls). As one of Koga Manjidani's strongest fighters, he was selected by Lord Kouga Danjo as one ten elite ninja to fight against the chosen ten of the rival Iga Tsubagakure clan.

Good-humored, a little dumb, and extremely fat; Jousuke hardly fits the traditional concept of the ninja. And as he proved with his interactions with Akeginu; he's also a bit of a lecher. His obesity however is the secret to his technique as it grants his body the consistency of rubber; allowing him to bounce like a ball, roll over enemies like a living boulder, deflect physical attacks with ease, squeeze through openings impossible even for someone a quarter of his size, or even float into the sky by rapidly inhaling air to blow himself up like a balloon.

[edit] Battles

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Jousuke VS Rousai: This was the second conflict throughout the series and one of the more elaborate fights as well. After spying a hawk carrying something over the forest, Jousuke threw a knife to make it to drop its catch which turned out to be a scroll. Before he can further investigate though, Jouseke was interrupted by Rousai who claimed the hawk belonged to Lady Ogen and he had no right to read her message to the Iga. Intrigued, Jousuke takes the scroll and eggs Rousai into a "friendly" ninja competition with the scroll as the prize. The fight lasts through the night with Rousai continually chasing after Jousuke until confronting Oboro, Gennosuke, and the search party from Tsubagakure that had gone looking for them. One look into Oboro's Eyes of Ruin was enough to disrupt Jousuke's technique, and he received a firm knock on the head from Genonsuke as punishment for causing so much trouble.

Jousuke VS Akeginu: After being invited into the Iga's compound with Gennosuke, a drunk Jouseue was locked in an iron-clad room by Akeginu. Escaping through a narrow opening, Jousuke went to check on Gennosuke's safety, but was distracted when he noticed Akeginu stalking around the room he was formerly held in. After being seized and groped by the lecherous ninja, Akeginu wiggled free of Jousuke's grip (though it required shedding her robe to do so) and challenged him to a duel, saying that if he won she'd be his "wife" for that one night. Yet despite using her blood mist technique to conceal herself, Jousuke proved to be the better fighter; displaying incredible agility for a man of his size and deflecting her attacks off his layers of fat. Fortunetely for Akeginu, Oboro appeared and Jousuke agreed to break off the fight for fear of getting punished by Gennosuke.

Jousuke VS Jingoro: A short conflict that took place immediately after Jousuke's fight with Akeginu. Washing his face at a nearby spring, Jousuke came across Amayo Jingoro; whom Oboro had just caught attempting to assassinate Gennosuke and was seeking water to fully restore his solid form. Holding Jingoro above the water, Jousuke demanded to know what was happening with the Iga and Jingoro frantically confessed that the Hattori truce had been absolved, all the while discreetly absorbing the water vapor floating in the air. When he had regained enough strength, Jingoro turned around and sprayed Jousuke with a jet of mucus from his nostrils, surprising Jousuke enough to make him lose his balance. Guessing that Jingoro was attempting to fall into the spring and absorb more water, Jousuke attempted to use his balloon technique to float into the air, allowing Jingoro to leap into Jousuke's open mouth and smother him from the inside.