Yaiba

Yaiba is the story of an adventuring samurai named Yaiba Kurogane, 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 Onimaru.

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, 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.

Yaiba Kurogane (鉄 刃, Kurogane Yaiba)

Voiced by: Minami Takayama[1]

The title character. He is the Thunder God incarnate, and later acquires the legendary Dragon's Orb. Since he fights without the Thunder Orb in the socketed Thunder God's sword, he was spared the same fate of being possessed by the sword's owner that had befallen Onimaru. Aside from his skills with the sword and his keen senses, he is also able to converse with animals. For some time, Yaiba was fighting without any orbs. While this left him vulnerable because he had no divine assistance, it also let him master several techniques: the Senpūken (せんぷう剣, Whirlwind Sword), in which he spins the sword like a lawnmower blade by twirling it with his fingers in the hole where the orbs would usually go in; the Kaminari Giri (かみなり斬り, Lightning Cut), in which he executes a downward slash in a furious zigzag pattern, and finally; the Kazaguruma (風車, Windmill Slash), in which he executes a full-body vertical spin in the air by sticking his sword between his feet, using the momentum to create a buzzsaw-like effect. Another technique, "The Wave of Wind Thunder", can only be used along with Takeshi Onimaru, for both Thunder God and Devil Wind Swords are needed in order to execute this technique. It is the resulting combination of Yaiba's "Lightning Blast" and Takeshi's upgraded Devil Wind Slash "Tornado Ripper".

Sayaka Mine (峰 さやか, Mine Sayaka)

Voiced by: Kotono Mitsuishi[1]

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.

Takeshi Onimaru (鬼丸 猛, Onimaru Takeshi)

Voiced by: Ryō Horikawa[1]

Takeshi is the primary antagonist of Yaiba, although he becomes Yaiba's ally later. 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. Onimaru has entire hordes of faceless minions who are nothing more than humanoid black bodies with eyes, mouths, and a single horn sticking straight up from the center of their head.

Kagetora (カゲトラ)

Voiced by: Hisao Egawa[2]

Kagetora is Yaiba's friend tiger. He helps Yaiba with 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.

Shonosuke (庄之助, Shōnosuke)

Voiced by: Ryō Horikawa[3]

Shonosuke is Yaiba's friend vulture. He helps Yaiba with his training and lets Yaiba ride him when he needs to fly. Like Kagetora, he occasionally ups Yaiba. He was probably found on the same mountain Yaiba and his father lived.

Musashi Miyamoto (宮本 武蔵, Miyamoto Musashi)

Voiced by: Masaharu Satō[1]

The legendary 400-year-old 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 electrocutes all unworthy of it). Since his time on the mountain, he has taught one student and started using two swords due to old age. He serves as Yaiba's teacher, especially upon controlling the Thunder Orb.

Kojirō Sasaki (佐々木 小次郎, Sasaki Kojirō)

Voiced by: Jūrōta Kosugi[1]

Kojirō has been dead for a long time, having been defeated, killed in a duel and buried by Musashi himself. However, he was given new life by Onimaru, through Spiderman's reviving Ritual (or rather, it was the stench coming from the foul-smelling ingredients used for the reviving ceremony that brought Kojiro back, as well as the Hakki's facial slapping), on the condition that he kill Yaiba. After getting beaten by Yaiba while using the Thunder Orb, he then becomes friends with them in order to beat them. Kojiro uses an enchanted sword (Washing Pole as he calls it) that grows longer on his whim, and thus the maximum length that the sword can attain is limited only by Kojiro's imagination. It doesn't seem to be particularly durable as the other mystical swords shown in the series, since various characters (even those with no mystical powers or weapons to begin with) have been known to cut the sword all the way down to the guard with apparent ease. Thankfully, Kojiro's sword's ability allows it to recover the severed blade simply by lengthening itself indefinitely. Perhaps the sword's only true weakness is the fact that it is very sensitive to salt water (even to teardrops); even a slight splash will cause it to spontaneously lengthen against Kojiro's will, making it inadvisable to use in a battle where a large body of salty water happens to be nearby. He is also a natural playboy – one of the series' many running gags. Kojiro usually needs to be manhandled by others in order to "help" him subdue his overwhelming idiocy. Despite this, he serves as one of the shows more prominent sword fighters in the series

Jubei Yagyu (柳生 十兵衛, Yagyū Jūbei)

Voiced by: Takaya Hashi[1]

Jubei was revived by Onimaru and defeated Kojirō Sasaki by kicking Kojiro's overextended sword straight down to Sayaka Mine's house. Before he defeated Yaiba, Musashi yelled at him and withdrew himself from attacking to join with Yaiba's group. What Onimaru didn't know about is that he is Musashi's disciple. He tends to be suicidal, as he always attempts to commit seppuku if he commits an error or feels that he did something dishonorable. When Jubei got drunk thanks to Musashi, who forcibly makes him drink sake (Japanese rice wine), Onimaru takes advantage of the situation and summons a demon while he's in a drunken state to turn him into a werewolf which has the same skills (albeit heightened to a degree) like a normal Jubei but is murderous and loves drinking sake. He can revert to Jubei when he's knocked out cold, but when he gets drunk again, he'll change into a werewolf.

Gerozaimon Geroda (ゲロ田 ゲロ左衛門, Geroda Gerozaimon)

Voiced by: Kazunari Tanaka[2]

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 "Gero" (ゲロ), which is Japanese for "Ribbit". In the manga, he is shown to be somewhat easily depressed, having fallen to a state of despair after Snakeman told him that Onimaru already gave up on him. As a result, Gerozaimon brutally beats up the Kuro Oni who came with Snakeman in blind despair.

Namako-Otoko (ナマコ男, Sea cucumber Man)

Voiced by: Tsutomu Kashiwakura

Like Gerozaimon, he used to be one of Onimaru's demons. On his way to Izu he gets lost and is found by Yaiba's group. From then on he is always with them, usually seen on Sayaka's shoulder. He usually ends his sentences with "Zura" (ズラ).

Kaguya (かぐや)

Voiced by: Rika Fukami[1]

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 appears as a human dressed 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, 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 suits and sunglasses, very similar to the Yakuza-style look. They are incredibly polite, even to their captives, though they are completely loyal to Kaguya. Her true form is that of a colossal, hydra-like monster whose real face is on the "body". She eventually merges with her people and planet Earth, but is sealed by Yaiba using Ryuujin's power. She reappears during the Yamata no Orochi arc where she reluctantly helps Yaiba against Onimaru.

In 1993, Yaiba, along Ghost Sweeper Mikami, received the 38th Shogakukan Manga Award for the shōnen category.[31]

• Detective Conan
• Magic Kaito

• Yaiba (manga) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia