Seta Sōjirō

Seta Sōjirō is a male anime and manga character who features in Rurouni Kenshin.

Biography

Seta Sōjirō (Japanese: 瀬田 宗次郎) was the illegitimate son of a rice businessman and was left in the care of his much older half-brother. He was born in Kanagawa Prefecture in September of the first year of Bunkyū in 1861. As a child, Sōjirō was abused and beaten by his family as he was a constant reminder of his father's infidelity and the shame he brought upon his family. Sōjirō's father was never punished or shamed for it personally by his wife or adult children, and Sōjirō was an easy target for their anger since he was a defenseless child, and he would smile instead of cry to make them stop temporarily. One night, he ran into Shishio Makoto, who sliced a government official in half. Instead of killing Sōjirō, Shishio took shelter in a shed, and Sōjirō would bring him food and bandages. He gave Sōjirō a wakizashi to protect himself by killing his family, but he thought being killed by a sword would hurt too much, so he hid it under the porch. When his 'family' found out Sōjirō was harboring a wanted criminal, they planned to kill the boy and turn Shishio in, causing Sōjirō to snap and he had no choice but to kill his abusers before they could kill him. Sōjirō ended up slaughtering the five adults with great speed and strength, the result of believing what Shishio told him; 'The strong live and the weak die'. Afterward, when he stood in the rain, he seemed to be smiling about it, but he was crying and was angry with his family where in the aftermath he decided to go with Shishio.

Later on, Sōjirō killed Okubo Toshimichi under Shishio's order; his abilities made his presence unnoted. After Kenshin defeated Senkaku, Sōjirō engages in a fast duel with him, resulting in a tie. Then, Shishio ordered Sōjirō to bring him The Ten Swords from the East side of Japan. Sōjirō was the last member of Juppongatana that Kenshin must defeat before facing Shishio. He used Shukuchi's less potent forms to move fast enough to hit Kenshin, both managing to dodge the Kuzu Ryu Sen and slash him in the back using merely the second step behind the true Shukuchi. As the fight dragged on, however, Kenshin made Sōjirō question the reasons that made him fight alongside Shishio, and this made Sōjirō release his true emotions, allowing Kenshin to predict his moves and discover his advantages. Sōjirō got mad and rendered his emotional blankness null; the battle reaches the climax when Sōjirō challenges Kenshin to do the last technique to put an end in the duel, Sōjirō used Shuntensatsu, the combination of the full Shukuchi and his Battōjutsu against Kenshin's Amakakeru Ryū no Hirameki. The two attacks were comparable in overall speed, but Kenshin's ōgi was far stronger and instantly broke Sōjirō's sword and left him battered. Sōjirō declared that his loss showed he had been wrong, but Kenshin instead said that the victor isn't right by default, and he must discover his own truth before leaving the room to face Shishio. Sōjirō discovered the key to Amakakeru Ryū no Hirameki and informed Yumi to tell Shishio. Sōjirō asked for Yumi to return the Wakizashi given to him by Shishio. Then, he left the Juppongatana and became a traveler once Shishio died, intending to travel the next ten years to discover his true self while being on the run as a fugitive. Cho stated his confidence that Sōjirō would never be caught.

Overview

Personality and attributes

He was shown to typically be smiling but that there was no emotion behind it. In actuality, he subconsciously suppresses his emotions, making him difficult to read in combat, as stated by Kenshin. This façade gradually erodes when he realizes how strong of an opponent Kenshin is. He also adheres to the philosophy of "the survival of the fittest" and believes it to be an absolute truth. His dedication to this belief, however, leaves him emotionally vulnerable and naive when another's differing ideology conflicts with his own. When his true emotions surface, he appears to be unnerved, infuriated, and almost insane. This is a direct result of spending over a decade suppressing his feelings due to the trauma and abuse he suffered as a child.

As a child, he was a kind, calm and patient child who often smiled to avoid the abuse his father's family often caused due to him being a product of infidelity from his father and a prostitute, something that brought great shame upon his father's family. He would obediently follow their orders, no matter how ridiculous and labor-intensive, and endured much of their abuse and bullying, which was unjustified and cruel. He only broke this smile upon first meeting Shishio, whom he was scared of. However, he quickly grew attached to him, and Shishio taught him that the strong lives and the weak dies. When his family threatened to kill him to get the reward money and the fact, they wanted to get rid of him for good, a part of him snapped, and he had no choice but to kill them before they killed him. When he killed his older half-brother, the other members of the family were horrified, and he ended up slaughtering them all. While on the inside, he was crying because of what his family wanted to do to him and how they hated him for something that wasn't his fault, he outwardly smiled to hide the pain and grief because, despite their abuse and apparent lack of love for him, he still thought of them as his family. This abuse and trauma led him to become emotionless and always hold a smile, though he was broken on the inside.

Sojiro had a cold-blooded mentality who believed that the strong will live and the weak shall die (弱肉強食, jakuniku kyōshoku, an idiom for "survival of the fittest" or "law of the jungle").

Powers and abilities

Sojiro's fighting style is known as Tenken, which is his namesake in the Juppongatana. Termed by Shishio because it is if Sojiro was gifted by birth his prodigal swordsmanship, Tenken revolves around extreme speed and freeform agile footwork used to overwhelm and close distance on foes, before issuing a killing blow with little effort. Because of Tenken's prodigious standing, Sojiro often wields celebrated and touted weapons, be it from Saijo O-Wazamono ultimate grade cutting swords like Nagasone Kotetsu to legendary Kamakura Era Golden Age of Nihonto swords like the Kikuichimonji Norimune.

A skilled swordsmen, he knew the following techniques:

• Shukuchi (縮地しゅくち Reduced Earth?) :
• Shuntensatsu (瞬しゅん天てん殺さつ Blinking Heaven Kill?) :

He was a member of the Jūppongatana (十じゅう本っぽん刀がたな, Ten Swords?) that were a special attack force of elite warriors assembled and commanded by Shishio Makoto for the purpose of leading his revolutionary army against the Meiji government.

Notes

• Seta Sōjirō was created by Nobuhiro Watsuki and featured in the setting of the Rurouni Kenshin universe.
• The fact that Sōjirō had no emotions is also based on Shiba's version of Okita Sōji. Watsuki said that this concept became one of the most difficult aspects to reflect in the drawing. Okita died when he was young, but Watsuki decided not to kill Sōjirō in the story in order to atone for the murders he committed, but instead start living on his own instead of letting somebody make his decisions for him. He hoped to draw him in more of the next chapters but soon thought that would not be possible.

Appearances

• Rurouni Kenshin:

External Links

• Kenshin Wiki Entry
• Wikipedia Entry

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