Shichinintai
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The Shichi'nintai (七人隊 Seven-Man Band), referred to in Viz's English dub as the Band of Seven or the Band of Seven Men but in Animax's English dub in its original Japanese form, the Shichi'nintai, are 7 assassins in the manga and anime series InuYasha. Naraku brought them back to life as bōrei (亡霊, zombie) with shards of the Shikon no Tama, in an effort to delay his powerful enemies seeking his destruction, while becoming a yōkai. All of them (with the exception of Ginkotsu) bear marks on their faces which represent something. Ginkotsu might have had a mark (as his left eye has markings on it) but with the mechanical enhancements, it is now impossible to tell.
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[edit] Kyōkotsu 凶骨
Kyōkotsu is the first of the seven to face a major character in the series. He terrorized the yōkai-wolf tribes, who were defenseless before his size and utter undeath reeking from his very own body. Kōga, upon hearing that the northern clan was under siege, hurried back just in time to save some survivors. He engages in a battle with Kyōkotsu before taking the Shikon Shard out of his forehead, thus ending his unlife. Kyōkotsu is the weakest of the seven, despite his massive size and fearsome looks. Before Kōga can get a firm grip on the jewel shard, it falls out and is taken up by a Saimyōshō and given to Bankotsu.
Kyōkotsu is, despite his appearance, a human. He's grown to an enormous size as a side-effect from eating the flesh of many yōkai.
Kyokotsu is voiced by Daisuke Gouri (Japanese) and Mark Gibbon (English).
Powers/Abilities : Size and strength
Kyō means "dark" or "evil" and kotsu means "bone". The marks on his face mean Power.
[edit] Jakotsu 蛇骨
Wielder of a snaky retractable sword, named the "Jakotsutō", Jakotsu is one of the more skilled fighters of the Shichi'nintai and a homosexual sadist. He is a somewhat stereotypical okama character (i.e., effeminately dressed homosexual). He seems to be the first of the Shichinintai to have come into contact with Bankotsu and was with him before the Shichinintai were assembled as a group. Upon meeting with InuYasha, he immediately develops a girlish crush, frequently swooning and petulantly protesting when he is denied confrontation with him. He also flies into a rage when Sango interferes in his first conflict with InuYasha. Bankotsu and Jakotsu are very close and according to Bankotsu, Jakotsu is the only one he really trusts in the world. Jakotsu always looks for an opportunity to fight against InuYasha. He finally gets a chance inside Mount Hakurei when InuYasha is reverted to his human form by the holy barrier. After a lengthy fight, Jakotsu loses to InuYasha (who has turned back in to a hanyō, due to the weakened barrier), who spares his life. Jakotsu happily accepted his fate that he died fighting the battle he wanted and his Shikon Shard is taken by the scheming Renkotsu, an action later avenged by Bankotsu.
In the Japanese version, Jakotsu is voiced by Ai Orikasa; in the English dub, he is voiced by Jenn Forgie.
Weapons/Attacks : He uses a snake-sword resembling a machete that whips out several linking blades twisting and turning in unpredictable ways.
Ja means "Snake" and kotsu means "bone". The marks on his face mean Death.
[edit] Mukotsu 霧骨
Mukotsu is a fat poison master, and the third Shichi'nintai that InuYasha and his companions meet. He abducts Kagome and, in the anime, tries to have a bizarre wedding ceremony with her but becomes angry at her and tries to kill her when she tries to remove his Shikon Shard. However, in the manga, Mukotsu attempts to rape Kagome before being interrupted by Sesshomaru. Mukotsu poisons Kagome, Miroku, and Sango, nearly killing them, but was soon killed by Sesshomaru, on whom his poisons have no effect.
Mukotsu is voiced by Tetsu Inada (Japanese) and Trevor Devall (English).
Weapons and Abilities : Uses a variety of poisons and acids to both attack and weaken his targets and protect himself.
Mu means "Fog" and kotsu means "bone". The marks on his face mean Poison.
[edit] Ginkotsu 銀骨
A mechanical-man, Ginkotsu is a tough opponent even for the Kaze no Kizu to defeat. Not much for talking, he commonly is heard merely saying "Gersh" (for "yes" mumbled incoherently) but when angered or speaking to Renkotsu he does use actual words. He barely survives his first encounter with InuYasha and is reconstructed into a siege tank with spider-like legs thanks to Renkotsu. Koga later in the series fought both Ginkotsu and Renkotsu. In the anime, after Renkotsu received a heavy wound to his left shoulder, Ginkotsu quite simply went berserk and began to unleash every weapon he had on Koga, even to the point of self-destruction. Ginkotsu's strong loyalty for Renkotsu caused him to sacrifice his life, shielding Renkotsu from the deadly explosion with his own shard of the Shikon no Tama. In the manga, he exploded because Koga had stuffed pieces of armor into his cannons, causing them to backfire.
Ginkotsu is voiced by Hisao Egawa (Japanese) and Mark Gibbon (English).
Weapons : wires to prevent an enemy from moving, launching grappler to bring enemies towards him or scathe them. Disk-blades that cut an enemy and return to their slots. Releases cannons and gun powder as well as act as a rocket plunging and exploding upon the enemy.
It is worth noting that the character is an anachronism. The technology required to build him did not exist in feudal Japan or anywhere else in the world at that time.[citation needed]
Gin means "silver" and kotsu means "bone."
[edit] Renkotsu 煉骨
Agile fire and explosive user, Renkotsu is the second in command and the intelligent one. He respects his leader just as much as any other member of the Shichi'nintai. However, with the corrupt power of the shard of the Shikon no Tama embedded in his neck, he starts to feel hatred and jealousy towards his leader and vows never to die again because of him by any means necessary. To do this, he requires possession of all the Shikon Shards Naraku gave them. He is first of the Shichi'nintai to find out some truth about Naraku and reasons that Naraku is not to be trusted. He finally comes to the point where he believes he is better than the others and eventually becomes a little over confident. After taking Jakotsu's shard, who was defeated by InuYasha, Renkotsu tries to kill Bankotsu. He fails, and Bankotsu takes Renkotsu's jewel shards, killing him, and leaving Bankotsu the last of the Shichi'nintai. Renkotsu is voiced by Tomokazu Sugita (Japanese) and Brian Drummond (English).
Weapons and Abilities :Was an expert with explosives and metallurgy who used bombs, cannons, and other artillery; created fire from his mouth by drinking a liquid; set wires hooked onto his hands on fire, thus pulling his victims into a net of fire. He was also a gifted stratgist, and possessed some skill at hand to hand combat although the only member of the group he surpassed in fighting skills was Mukotsu.
Ren relates to "metalworks" and kotsu means "bone". The marks on his face mean Deception. This could be related to his apparent ability to make his markings disappear in order to deceive InuYasha into trusting him to be alone with the poisoned and unconscious Kagome, Miroku, and Sango.
[edit] Suikotsu 睡骨
Suikotsu has two personalities: "Doctor Suikotsu" is good, kind, and respected by villagers; and "Suikotsu of the band of seven" is evil and blood-thirsty. Suikotsu of the band of seven tends to emerge when exposed to a great deal of violence or blood. Mount Hakurei's purity tends to favor Doctor Suikotsu.
Kikyo meets Suikotsu after returning from Mount Hakurei, and senses absolutely no evil within him. In time, Kikyo and the others face the evil man with an ominous face painting, the dual-claw wielding Suikotsu of the Shichinintai. Suikotsu's evil personality is subdued when he is struck by a purifying arrow in the neck, where his Shikon Shard was placed. As he lay dying, he reveals his past to Kikyo, while everyone else present on the scene listens. He requests that Kikyo remove his Shikon Shard to end his life, as he is able to recall all the terrible deeds he has committed while his evil half was in control, and truly regrets what he has done. Kikyo wishes him to find peace after death, but she is hesitant - then, Jakotsu uses his retactable sword from a distance and cuts out the Shard (which ended Suikotsu and Dr. Suikotsu's life), not wanting it to fall into Kikyo's hands.
Suikotsu is voiced by Hiroaki Hirata (Japanese) and Michael Donovan (English).
Weapons and Abilities : Uses a pair of shuko, neko-te tekagi or handclaws on each hand with exceptionally long blades,he also possessed phenomenal strength, agility, and savage combat skills due to his unique form of mania and bloodlust.
- Sui means "sleeping" and kotsu means "bone".
The marks on his face mean Rage.
- Suikotsu's evil half bears a resemblance to Wolverine from Marvel Comics.
- Because of his two personalities (one of which being a doctor, the other being a murderer), he is often considered an allusion to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
[edit] Bankotsu 蛮骨
As the leader of the Shichi'nintai, Bankotsu is referred to as "great big brother" (大兄貴, ō-aniki) by the other six assassins because he is the strongest member and the founder of the group, despite also being the youngest. He retrieves his giant halberd Banryū (蛮竜) from a castle whose previous lord participated in a plot to put an end to the Shichi'nintai because they were too strong and stirred great fear among the rogue military leaders. Although it takes the strength of three of the lord's strong soldiers to merely lift Banryū, Bankotsu wields it single-handedly, and is a significant challenge to InuYasha in one-on-one melee combat without his Tessaiga.
Bankotsu is also childlike at certain times. In his first appearance he is writing a death threat to a castle, but could never get the right wording and became increasingly frustrated. When Renkotsu and the others show up he tells Renkotsu to write the threat, and starts telling him what to write. He seems fond of the threat "wash your neck and wait," which may have something to do with the fact that he was originally killed by decapitation. Of course, the phrase "Wash your neck" also has a meaning of "Prepare for death" in languages in the Eastern countries, and the reason may be that.
Bankotsu also has a close relationship with his comrade, Jakotsu. Prior to Jakotsu's death, they share a sweet moment in which Bankotsu is brought to tears due to Jakotsu's trust and loyalty to him when Jakotsu gave up Suikotsu's shard of the Shikon jewel. The young leader then hugs his comrade saying, "You're the only one I can really rely on." This relationship is also part of the cause in his anger towards Renkotsu when he discovers it was Renkotsu who killed Jakotsu in order to obtain his shard.
Bankotsu is both the most powerful and final member of the Shichinintai to make his presence felt. Naraku revived him, and ordered him to kill InuYasha, but his first order of business is retrieving Banryu, his halberd, that had been taken by the lords that beheaded him and his Shichinintai 15 years prior.
The scent of bloodshed from that battle draws InuYasha and company to Bankotsu, who has the Jewel fragments of his fallen comrades Kyokotsu and Mukotsu. Bankotsu was able to fight InuYasha without backing down, but soon realized that he was not powerful enough when his halberd was nicked by InuYasha's Kaze no Kizu. He took the jewel shards Renkotsu stole from Kagome to repair his damaged blade, giving it the power to deflect the Kaze no Kizu easily.
Bankotsu soon realizes just how deceptive Renkotsu has become, killing him when he learned Renkotsu murdered Jakotsu. Now with 7 fragments in his body and two in his halberd, Bankotsu headed off to destroy InuYasha once and for all deep inside Mount Hakurei. But InuYasha slowly cuts the Shikon shards out of his body as the battle progresses until Bankotsu was cut in two, with Naraku stripping the remaining half of its shikon jewel shards.
By defeating Renkotsu who challenged him, Bankotsu obtains all of the 7 Shikon Shards given to the Shichi'nintai by Naraku, in addition to the 2 shards he took from Kagome and embedded in his weapon. A total of 9 shards was in his possession and his strength increased immensely. Altogether, Bankotsu slew 1,000 yōkai including 9 inside Mount Hakurei, and killed 1,000 warlords with his blade Banryū. Banryū, in turn, transforms into a demonic weapon ability to release physical manifestations of its users' hatred in the form of powerful demonic energy. However, this proves to be his downfall as InuYasha takes the opportunity and unleashes the Bakuryūha, crushing Bankotsu and shattering Banryū. (This attack and the more power-obsessed Bankotsu are only in the anime)
Bankotsu is voiced by Takeshi Kusao (Japanese) and Matt Hill (English), who is the same person that voiced Pantyhose Taro in Ranma 1/2.
Ban means "barbarian" and kotsu means "bone." It also translates as "thousands of lives." The marks on his face mean Youth.
[edit] 5 attacks of Bankotsu
Banryuusen (蛮竜閃 Banryūsen/Dragon Hammer) - The sword glows pink and it bashes away strong attacks like the Wind Scar. It is a very powerful physical attack. (Only appears in the anime)
Ryuuraisen (竜雷閃 Ryūraisen/Dragon Thunder) - Bankotsu is able to summon a thunderstorm and manipulate the lightning creating a number of lethal electric bolts that almost kills everyone on Hijiri Island. The attack cannot be fully controlled, and hits randomly around Bankotsu. (Only appears in the anime)
Kaze no Kizu (風の傷 Kaze no Kizu/Wind Scar) - Bankotsu can use an attack almost identical to InuYasha's Kaze no Kizu except it's pink. He only uses this attack in Episode 113 of the anime: The Sacred Vajra and the Mystery of the Living Buddha.
"Heat Blast" - In Mt. Hakurei when InuYasha and Bankotsu battle for the last time Bankotsu uses a series of flaming ball-like flashes that burn everything in sight, it even destroys most of the rock walls in the mountain.
"Hatred Ball" - Bankotsu's most powerful attack. The hatred built inside the halberd combined with the power of the 2 shikon shards inside Banryu creates a huge and powerful ball of swirling anger and fire. However, this all-powerful attack is his downfall: InuYasha uses the Bakuryuha to shatter the Banryu and then the Hatred Ball consumes Bankotsu. (Only appears in the anime)
