Sengoku Basara/Characters/Uesugi Clan

Uesugi Kenshin
"Voiced by: Romi Park (Japanese), Alessandro Juliani (Devil Kings), Greg Ayres (anime), Dino Andrade (Samurai Heroes)"

""The heavens whisper to me... to take up arms.""

Head of the Uesugi clan from Echigo, Takeda Shingen's main rival. He is also a devout follower of the war-god Bishamonten. Has a very young and effeminate appearance, but don't let this fool you. He's ridiculously fast and one heck of a fighter.

Known as Frost in the Devil Kings. - "Mook: "AH...AHHHH! THE WAR GOD IS HEEERRRRRREEEEEEE!!""
 * Ambiguous Gender: Borderline. In an anime voice commentary, sound director Iwanami Miwa says he asked producer Kobayashi Hiroyuki if Kenshin was male or female, and he didn't get a straight answer. So apparently everyone, including the staff, just assumes he's male...
 * It doesn't help at all that aside of his female seiyuu, in the games his lines are written entirely in hiragana, which gives him a decidedly feminine aura (traditionally women used mainly or only hiragana in writing).
 * Badass
 * Badass Longcoat
 * Bishounen: He's prettier than any of the female characters.
 * Bishie Sparkle
 * Bling of War: His outfit is decorated with blue crystals.
 * Cross-Dressing Voices: Only in Japanese. Standard work for Romi Park.
 * Cultured Warrior: Kenshin talks like a philosopher most of the time. In the anime he's often shown performing tea ceremony.
 * Demoted to Extra: He goes from PC to NPC in Sengoku Basara 3 due to Shingen's absence. He returns to PC status again in Utage along with Kasuga.
 * Dramatic Pause
 * The Dreaded: A fairly benevolent example, but just listen to the sheer terror in the voices of the soldiers who announce his arrival in 3.


 * Fragile Speedster
 * Friendly Enemy: His respect for Shingen is legendary. The incident when Takeda's trade routes were blocked and Kenshin secretly provided them with salt is mentioned multiple times.
 * Historical Beauty Update: Seems like Capcom is taking hints about how historically Kenshin seems to have an ambiguous gender.
 * Iaijutsu Practitioner: His speed relies on quick draws and he always returns in to the sheath.
 * Graceful Loser: In the movie. His forces defeated, and Shingen preparing to liberate him of his head, he actually compliments his long time rival.
 * An Ice Person
 * Icy Blue Eyes: Likely to reflect his cool personality, and match his outfit.
 * Incoming Ham: He's pretty flashy most of the time, but this is taken to extremes in SB3 when he literally sky-dives onto the stage out of nowhere.
 * And he one-ups that in the expansion, descending a staircase of ice from the sky and making it shatter dramatically when he reaches the bottom.
 * Japanese Pronouns: 'Watakushi'
 * Keigo: The slightly archaic, "refined and cultured" variety.
 * Lady of War: A male example at that, but his moveset is impeccably, effortlessly graceful.
 * Mission From God: According to Kenshin it is Heaven's will that he take up arms and conquer the country.
 * Nerves of Steel: Kenshin barely ever loses his composure, and reacts to every situation with the same calm and aloof air.
 * In The Movie he faces execution without so much as batting an eyelid.
 * Never Gets Drunk: Lucky, since he drinks like a fish.
 * Odd Friendship: With Keiji. They're very close but all they seem to have in common is a love of alcohol.
 * Older Than They Look: Though his age is never specified, he's a similar sort of age to Shingen, who actually qualifies as a Cool Old Guy. Who'd have thought it...
 * Physical God: Maybe. He's given a lot of divine qualities, but can die like any other human.
 * Red Baron: The War-God of Echigo
 * Red Oni, Blue Oni: The Blue Oni to Shingen's Red Oni.
 * The Rival / Worthy Opponent: To Shingen.
 * Something About a Rose: Often accompanied by a rose-covered background. Though this may just be Kasuga's overactive imagination.
 * Stealth Mentor: In the anime particularly, he keeps an eye out for Masamune, such as giving him strength to fight by holding his army up at a bridge.
 * Super Speed: The main reason he's seen as a god. And unlike the ninja or Mitsunari he isn't using Flash Step... he's running so fast that time slows down around him.
 * Taking the Bullet: Took in the anime.
 * Warrior Monk: In the name of Bishamonten, he shall kick your ass!
 * Weather Dissonance: Cutscenes in Utage show it snowing wherever he goes, even in the desert.

Kasuga
"Voiced by: Natsuko Kuwatani (Japanese), Venus Terzo (Devil Kings), Stephanie Sheh (English)"

""My life belongs only to that man.""

A kunoichi in the service of Uesugi Kenshin, as well as his potential love interest. She also has fierce Belligerent Sexual Tension with Sarutobi Sasuke. Often regarded as the games sex symbol.

Her name in Devil Kings is Venus. She did not exist in Real Life. -
 * Absolute Cleavage: All the way down to her crotch!
 * Action Girl <- -> Faux Action Girl: Really depends which continuity you're following.
 * Big No: In the anime, after
 * Bodyguard Crush/Subordinate Excuse
 * The Danza: In Devil Kings, Venus is voiced by Venus Terzo.
 * Demoted to Extra: Like Kenshin, she's an NPC in Sengoku Basara 3. She returns to PC status in Utage along with Kenshin.
 * Embarrassing Rescue: In the anime, she was so flustered when Sasuke saved her that she fell out of a tree.
 * Flash Step
 * Japanese Pronouns: 'Watashi'
 * Jiggle Physics: The lack of this in earlier games is rather jarring, however it was put to rights in 3 with some realistic bounce.
 * Light'Em Up: Allows her to create illusions.
 * Love At First Sight: She falls in love with Kenshin while attempting to assassinate him.
 * In Love With the Mark: For about two seconds before she switched sides.
 * Luminescent Blush: Any time Kenshin so much as LOOKS in her direction, complete with erotic moaning. And roses.
 * Male Gaze: Often subject to this. Particularly in the anime and manga.
 * Ms. Fanservice: Out of all the girls, her figure gets the most focus, and her outfit really takes the cake.
 * Naked First Impression: In one of the drama CDs Sasuke first saw her while she was bathing, and from then on starts coming to help whenever she's in trouble.
 * Ninja
 * Highly-Visible Ninja: Perhaps the most attention-grabbing ninja ever. Sasuke also notes that she gets too worked up emotionally and forgets to be on form.
 * Only One Name
 * Power Blonde: Say what you will about her looks, but she's anything but stupid and a very competent fighter.
 * Reluctant Warrior: She really just wants the fighting to end. Sasuke has mentioned that at heart she's too kind to be a ninja.
 * Roaring Rampage of Revenge:
 * Sexy Backless Outfit: Her catsuit is slitted down the back as well.
 * She Fu: Very graceful, fast and acrobatic.
 * Spy Catsuit: And as if her default attire wasn't bad enough, her alternate outfit in SB2 is just a bunch of leather straps and a muffler.
 * Stripperific: How does she not to fall out of that thing when jumping around trees all the time?
 * Third Person Seductress
 * Tomboyish Sidetails: Very short boyish hair, waist-length tails.
 * Tsundere: She's all tsun tsun around Sasuke, but becomes very dere dere around Kenshin. In the third game she constantly berates Keiji for his laid-back attitude, but freaks out and starts crying if he dies.
 * In season 1 of the anime she does briefly show her dere side for Sasuke when she tells Sasuke that she thought he would appear when she blew the "whistle" he had given him. In season 2 as well, when he's trying to defend himself from Fuuma's assault.
 * Undying Loyalty: Well, her life exists only for Kenshin etc.
 * Unusually Uninteresting Sight: In the anime, no matter how often or how expressive her, um...reactions to Kenshin's praise are, no one seems to think anything of it.
 * Keiji actually lampshades it in an episode: "Are you really a shinobi? Don't the others in your village think you're weird?"
 * Vapor Wear

Naoe Kanetsugu
"Voiced by: Atsushi Imaruoka (Japanese), Jim Johnson (anime), Tony Oliver (Samurai Heroes)"

""I'm invincible, I cannot die!""

Though not a playable character, he's quite a prominent mook with a modest popularity. Basically, this guy has an overinflated ego, always exclaiming that he's "INVINCIBLE!!", only to go down like a chump. This trait is endearing enough that he's become like Sengoku Basara's official Joke Character. -
 * Born Lucky: As a supporting character in Sengoku Basara 3, he boosts your character's luck as long as he isn't KOed. Very useful for farming rare materials, but keep him far away from Basara arts.
 * Would also explain how he survives getting turned into a firework. And possibly why Kenshin keeps him around in the first place.
 * Catch Phrase: "ORE WA MUTEKI!!!" ("I'M INVINCIBLE!!!")
 * Chew Toy: Apparently he even gets beaten up by kids, and according to Keji, a dog.
 * In the anime, he tries a full frontal assault against Honda Tadakatsu, boasting he's completely invincible, only for Tadakatsu to swat him away like a bug and send him flying into a mountain.
 * Elite Mook: That's as far as he can get.
 * Fearless Fool: The only guy other than Yukimura brave/stupid enough to take on Hondam single-handed.
 * Joke Character: And how! While other officers take at least a combo to defeat, he only needs about 2-4 hits at most. Several characters can actually oneshot him.
 * Nice Hat: At least he still retains his love-crest helmet.
 * Small Name, Big Ego: Fear this invincible warrior, with his invincible spirit and his invincible sword. This invincible man is so invincible, he has even gained the nickname Mr. Invincible!
 * Take That: He's probably Capcom's way to say to Koei: "How dare you turn our poster boys Date Masamune and Maeda Keiji into Orochi's henchmen! Henceforth, we shall take the buddy of your poster boy, and turn him into Joke Character per excellence forever! HA!"
 * This Cannot Be!: When KO'd, he is so incredulous that he shouts "AN INVINCIBLE HERO CANNOT DIE!"