Vagabond/Characters

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Main Characters

Shinmen Takezo/Miyamoto Musashi

The series protagonist, Takehiko Inoue's take on the lengendary sword saint Miyamoto Musashi.

Tropes:

• Badass
• Blood Knight
• Can't Hold His Liquor
• Mook Horror Show
• One-Man Army: Musashi cuts down more than 70 highly trained and nationally respected Yoshioka swordsmen. Basically the entire school. And that's after he took out their leader, nominally the best of them, at the start of the battle, by diving right into their center. This single-handedly catapults him to a national figure and doubles as a Crowning Momentof Awesome.
• To Be a Master: Deconstructed. His driving motivation is to become "unrivaled under the sun", but the closer he gets to achieving this goal the more realizes how little the title means.
• Took a Level in Badass: Keeps getting more and more Badass over the course of the series.
• Villain Protagonist: Starts off as an amoral thug, who challenges people to death matches for the sake of personal glory.

Hon'iden Matahachi

Takezo's childhood friend who persuades him to leave Musashi village and join the war, thus setting of the events of the story. A decent person deep down, Matahachi continually lets himself and others down due to his very weak moral fiber.

Tropes:

• Can't Catch Up: Not that he really tries anyway.
• Character Development: Subverted time and again. Finally played straight after the death of his mother.
• Dirty Coward: And it fuels his inferiority complex to Takezo.
• Glory Seeker: Leaves Miyamoto village and go to fight in the battle of Sekigahara to make a name for himself. He fails pretty badly.
• Miles Gloriosus: He borrows Kojiro's identity for a while to live of his reputation.
• The Hedonist

Sasaki Kojiro

Musashi's rival. Portrayed as a Bishonen, deaf mute.

Tropes:

• Badass
  • Handicapped Badass
• Blood Knight
• Bishonen
• Character Focus: The first arc featuring Kojiro took up about a third of the then-twenty volume series by the time it was done.
• Man Child
• The Unintelligible

Miyamoto Village

Otsū

Takezo and Matahachi's childhood friend.

Tropes:

• Arranged Marriage: With Matahachi

Tropes:

• Selective Obliviousness: Refuses to acknowlegde that Matahachi was the one who betrayed Otsu.

Shinmen Munisai

• Abusive Parents
• Posthumous Character

Yoshioka School

Tropes:

• Aloof Big Brother
• Arrogant Kung Fu Guy
• Big Brother Instinct: While he remains an Aloof Big Brother, he still ultimately cares for Denshichiro. He even tries to kill Musashi in a sneak attack to prevent him from fighting Denshichiro.
• Bishonen
• Combat Pragmatist: Not above ambushing people. See Big Brother Instinct.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass
• Iaijutsu Practitioner
• The Hedonist: Prefers spending time in the pleasure quarters over running his dojo.

Tropes:

• Badass: Fought both Musashi and Kojiro and lived to tell about it. He wasn't so lucky in his rematch with Musashi.
• The Big Guy
• Honor Before Reason: He insists on fighting his rematch with Musashi even though he is clearly outmatched and stands nothing to win.
• Overshadowed by Awesome: Skilled and dedicated swordsman, but hopelesly outranked by his brother and eventually Musashi.

Recurring Characters

Tropes:

• Cool Old Guy: Only 36, but definitely gives off this vibe.
• Trickster Mentor: To Musashi.