Yaiba
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| Yaiba | |
|---|---|
| 剣勇伝説ＹＡＩＢＡ (Legend of the Swordmaster Yaiba) |
|
| Genre | shōnen, comedy |
| TV anime | |
| Directed by | Kunihiko Yuyama |
| Studio | Shogakukan Productions |
| Network |  TV Tokyo ABC-5 TVI RTL7 later TVN(7) Etc...TV |
| Original run | 9 April 1993 – 1 April 1994 |
| No. of episodes | 51 |
| Manga | |
| Authored by | Gosho Aoyama |
| Publisher | Shogakukan Planeta DeAgostini Comics |
| Serialized in | Weekly Shonen Sunday |
| Original run | 1988 – 1993 |
| No. of volumes | 12 |
Yaiba (a.k.a. Kenyuu Densetsu Yaiba) is a shōnen manga series by Gosho Aoyama.
The light-hearted manga is about an adventuring samurai named Yaiba Kurogane (鉄 刃 Kurogane Yaiba) who knows how to be a samurai, and little else. Yaiba lives with his father, Kenjurou, in the forest. One day, while Yaiba was eating, a troop of gorillas came to attack. Yaiba and his father escaped and hid inside a box, but they didn't know that the box was full of pineapples and was going to be transported into the city. In the city, Yaiba finds out that he is a legendary warrior and has to fight the evil of a demonic looking high-school student named Takeshi.
Yaiba ran in Shogakukan's Weekly Shonen Sunday from #39 of 1988 to #50 of 1993 for 24 total volumes. It also came in 12 double volumes.
Yaiba also ran as an anime series that ran over 50 episodes, and encompassed the adventures Yaiba had in the first few runs of the manga. The show begins with Yaiba training to become a samurai in the jungle with his father and his two animal friends, Kagetora and Shonosuke. At a pivotal point, Yaiba's father announces that he is ready to return to Japan, and instructs him to find his old friend and rival, who just happens to be Sayaka's father.
The people that Yaiba meets along his journey to become a true samurai encourage him, train him, or inspire him to greatness, though at heart he is still a child, and his incredible skill with a sword is matched only by his kindness towards his friends. Though, he tends to leap before he looks, and his thick-headedness tends to turn potential allies into enemies, though his friends soon clobber him, and salvage the situation. This unlikely group embarks on a host of incredible adventures where they meet legendary figures from Japanese history, and finally overcome impossible odds, and put everything on the line, to save the entire planet from a threat not of this world. It's a story of love, friendship, hard work, and never giving up.
[edit] Characters
- Yaiba Kurogane (鉄刃, Kurogane Yaiba) – The titular character Yaiba is the protagonist of this manga. He is the Thunder God incarnate, and later the acquires the legendary Dragon's Orb. Since he fights without the Thunder Orb in the socketed Thunder God's sword, he was able to be spared the same fate of being possessed by the sword's owner that befalled Onimaru. Aside from his skills with the sword and his keen senses, he is also able to converse with animals.(Also note that he's 14 years old and also has the same personality as Son Goku, the main character fom the Dragon Ball series).
Yaiba's sword, "Raijin-no-Ken" (Sword of the Thunder God) has an orb within it marked with the Kanji for Thunder. Throughout his adventures in Japan, Yaiba finds several other orbs, some of which are:
- Water - This orb allows Yaiba to control water and shoots water from the tip of his sword.
- Fire - This orb allows Yaiba to shoot balls of flame from his sword.
- Change / Transform - Allows Yaiba to transform into different people and objects. He earned this orb from the Tanuki.
- Big - Let's Yaiba grow huge. The first time he used this orb, he grew large enough to leave the atmosphere. Oops...
- Ice - This orb allows Yaiba to shoot ice from the tip of this sword. It also allows him to freeze water into ice.
For a while, Yaiba was fighting without any orbs. While this left him vulnerable cause he had no divine assistance, it also let him master a technique known as the "Yaiba Zempuken" or "Yaiba Fan Sword" in which he spins the sword like a lawnmower blade by twirling it on his fingers in the hole that the orbs would usually go in.
- Sayaka Mine (峰さやか, Mine Sayaka) – Sayaka is the second protagonist of Yaiba and Yaiba's unlikely love interest. She originally had not intended to join Yaiba's journey, and simply found herself tied to Kagetora with Yaiba going towards the Thunder God's sword when she woke up. Later it is revealed that she is the Dragon Maiden incarnate, the key to Kaguya's true form.
- Seiyuu: Mitsuishi Kotono
- Takeshi Onimaru (鬼丸猛, Onimaru Takeshi) – Takeshi is the primary antagonist of Yaiba. Originally a gifted highschool swordsman, but when the fight he had with Yaiba ended in a draw, he made himself train harder. He eventually found a hidden basement containing the statues of Thunder God and the Devil Wind which was holding a sword. Upon wielding the Devil Wind sword, he was possessed and grew horns, turning into the Devil Wind incarnate. Although he uses the Devil Wind sword, he gave it to Yaiba upon acquiring the "Mao-Ken" Black Moon sword.(Also note that he looks like Tenshinhan from the Dragon Ball series with only a black dot on his forehead instead of a third eye). Like all good villians, Onimaru has entire hordes of faceless minions who are nothing more then humanoid black bodies with eyes, mouths, and a single horn sticking straight up from the center of their head.
Onimaru became the ruler of Japan when he mind-controlled the Japanese Diet. This typically explains how the authorities never really seem to bother two super-powerful beings with eldritch artifact weapons.
- Kaguya (かぐや) – The secondary antagonist of Yaiba, she is the Empress of the Moon and the ruler of a race of bunny people living on the moon. Unlike the other inhabitants of the Moon, who are all anthropomorphic rabbits she is a human who dresses like a Playboy bunny. She awakens after sensing the energy of Yaiba's Dragon Orb, and launches an invasion of earth using bamboo-styled spaceships. She had conquered the world a thousand years before the show begins, but the priest of the dragon god defeated her by cutting off her ears and sealing them within the spirit of the Dragon Priestess, and each Dragon Priestess down the line. Kaguya has many properties of a Gaki, a form of spiritual vampire, and as such she requires the essence of young girls to maintain her youth and power. A simple kiss from Kaguya drains the youth and energy from young girls and recharges Kaguya for a time. How long depends on how much of her world-cracking energy she chooses to unleash. Kaguya has minions of her own, including a nearly limitless population of gray furred rabbits dressed in sharp suit and sunglasses, very similar to the Yakuza style of look. They are incredibly polite, even to their captives, though they are completely loyal to Kaguya.
During one of their first encounters, Kaguya seals Onimaru in a block of stone very similar to how Han Solo was frozen in Carbonite. She even calls it her "Carbon Freeze Ray" and it turns Onimaru into a statue.
- Tsukikage - The effective General and Shogun of the Moon Bunny forces, Tsukikage is an anthropomorphic rabbit who acts with the full authority and trust of Kaguya. Like all the Moon Rabbits, he has the power to fly, and also the power to 'Gatai', or fuse, with other objects or even other people. He is incredibly competent, which is unusual in most television shows, and tolerates Kaguya's temper tantrums with almost limitless patience. At times, Kaguya gives Tsukikage her fan, a symbol of her authority and a focus for some of her power. The fan allows Tsukikage to fire Kaguya's trademark pink energy blasts. Tsukikage only voiced a concern with one of Kaguya's orders, which was to release Gekko from imprisonment in order to combat Yaiba.
- Seiyuu: Daiki Nakamura
- General Mongetzu - One of the Generals under Tsukikage, vying for the position. He is a huge rabbit with a sinister look to him, dressed in a different style of uniform from the other generals. This indicates that he's either a general of a different branch of the "Moon Army" that came down, or all the other generals were higher ranked them him. He concocts a plan to deliver Yaiba to Kaguya, which fails. Mongetzu then decides to take direct action by assaulting Yaiba directly. The fight ends up in a seafood restaurant where Mongetzu demonstrates the 'true power of the moon people' by brandishing a lobster, then yelling "Gatai!". Once the smoke clears, Mongetzu was now part lobster, with claws, gleaming red shell armor, and (as all Gatai forms have) big rabbit ears. The next Gatai Mongetzu attempted was with a propane tank, which gave him the power to breath fire. Yaiba defeated him using a combination of the "Big" orb and the "Fire" orb he had earned at this point, and blasted Mongetzu clear back to the Moon Bunny base. For his failure, Kaguya disintegrated him
- Gekko - The only black rabbit on the Moon, Gekko was bullied as a child. The only rabbit who would stand up for him was Tsukikage, and thus formed a brotherly bond between the two. Gekko often calls Tsukikage 'Annaki' which translates roughly as 'brother'. Gekko's style of dress is similar to Tsukikage's own, and he has a scar over one eye that keeps it shut. Gekko's tactics, unlike all the generals sent to stop Yaiba, are ruthless and direct. Gekko has no need for fair play and begins his assault at Sayaka's house while they're in the middle of dinner! Once determining that Gekko cannot beat Yaiba without some degree of magical weapon, Gekko goes to "Cell Sixty Six" to unleash the Mao-Ken sword, the blade responsible for turning the Moon from a lush bamboo forest into a barren wasteland. Gekko's proficiency and power with the Mao-Ken sword force Yaiba and Onimaru to join forces to combat him. Gekko's desire for victory was so great that he was willing to kill other Moon Rabbits, though it's entirely possible that the Moon Rabbits he killed were the ones initially responsible for his imprisonment.
- Seiyuu: Kazuki Yao
- Musashi Miyamoto (宮本武蔵, Miyamoto Musashi) – The legendary samurai Musashi took it upon himself to guard the Thunder God sword and lived as a hermit quite near it (although this is puzzling considering that the Thunder God's sword itself electrecutes all unworthy of it). Since his time on the mountain he has taught one student and started using two swords due to old age. Like all old men, he is lecherous. He serves as Yaiba's teacher, especially upon controlling the Thunder Orb.
- Seiyuu: Masaharu Satou
- Kojiro Sasaki (佐々木小次郎, Sasaki Kojirou) – Kojiro has been dead for a long time, having been buried by Musashi himself. However he was given new life by Onimaru, on the condition he kill Yaiba. After getting beaten by Yaiba while using the Thunder Orb, he then becomes friends with them in order to beat them. There is only one other time when he rejoins Onimaru, and he quickly rejoins Yaiba after mistakingly hitting his ally. Kojiro uses an enchanted sword that grows longer on his whim. He is also the natural playboy.
- Seiyuu: Juurouta Kosugi
- Dengumo – The demon spider Dengumo, Dengumo has become something of a sidekick to Onimaru. He calculates the expenses of financing high technological projects. After Onimaru becomes carbonated, he comes to live with Yaiba while loyally polishing his master. In the television series, Dengumo was called 'Kumo-Okoto'.
- Seiyuu: Tetsuo Sakaguchi
- Kagetora (カゲトラ) – Kagetora is Yaiba's friend tiger. He helps Yaiba in his training and lets Yaiba ride him when speed is needed. He is also shown a much higher intelligence than Yaiba when it comes to rock-scissors-paper. He was probably found on the same mountain where Yaiba and his father lived.
- Seiyuu: Hisao Egawa
- Shonosuke (庄之助, Shounosuke) – Shonosuke is Yaiba's friend vulture. He helps Yaiba in his training and is used by Yaiba when he needs to fly. Like Kagetora, he occasionally ups Yaiba. He was probably found on the same mountain Yaiba and his father lived.
- Gerozaimon Geroda (ゲロ田ゲロ左衛門, Geroda Gerozaimon) – The frog demon Gerozaimon is the first of Onimaru's demons to attack Yaiba, and was beaten by him when Yaiba called for his snake friends. When the second demon came and informed him he was to be disposed due to his uselessness, Gerozaimon was befriended by Yaiba. He uses his axe in battle. He also shows how good his tongue is against a battle with the chameleon demon. In the anime, his speech pattern forces him to either begin or end any sentence with "Gerro" which is Japanese for "Ribbit".
- Seiyuu: Kazunari Tanaka
- Kenjuro Kurogane (鉄剣十郎, Kurogane Kenjuurou) – Kurogane Kenjuro is Yaiba's father. He was only shown in one episode of Yaiba in the anime, whereas in the manga he accompanies Yaiba to tokyo. He doesn't stay very long though but occasionally comes back to check up on Yaiba.
- Seiyuu: Bin Shimada
[edit] Trivia
- Although Yaiba has now become a little known anime, it still appears as cameos in other works such as Detective Conan. For example, in volume 2 file 8 of Detective Conan, he appeared in a TV show Conan was watching.In episode 7, Conan is seen playing a Game Boy-like console, where his character in the game is Yaiba. In episode 25, Yaiba's main antagonist, Takeshi, appears on the cover of another video game. Conans companions in the Young Detective League are fans of a series called "Masked Yaiba" (Kamen Yaiba), another nod to the series.
- It appears Yaiba was highly inspired by Dragon Ball.
- It should be noted that in Yaiba's world, there are King Kong sized gorillas, tigers and vultures in Japan.
- There is a special OVA consisting all three of Gosho Aoyama's most famous works in one video. "Conan vs KID vs Yaiba".
- In the last episode before Musashi TV close,there are chi version of Edogawa Conan and Mouri Ran inside the TV.
