SHINOMORI AOSHI

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SHINOMORI AOSHI (first season)

You will notice that this page doesn't just focus on Aoshi, but on all the Oniwa Banshu as well and their interactions with Kenshin and the other characters. I found that I simply couldn't tell Aoshi's story without explaining about all the other characters related to him as well. I know that officially this should be Aoshi's page alone, and that not everyone might appreciate the extra information given. However, like I do in all my other character pages, I explain their history and how they met Kenshin. It just so happens, that Aoshi's story has more to it...

Shinomori Aoshi is first introduced as the head bodyguard of Takeda Kanryu, a business man and a mafia member(Yes, the same drugdealer mentioned in the Megumi page.) During the Bakumatsu, he was part of the Oniwa Banshu a group that was in charge of protecting Edo castle, a very important base for the government. At the age fifteen, Aoshi was given the leadership of the Oniwa Banshu.The group was defeated however2 when the castle was attacked and burned by the Ishin shishi (Kenshin's group).

After the war was over, the Oniwa Banshu members remained together. The day came however, when Aoshi, the leader of the Oniwa Banshu along with four other members seperated from the rest of the clan. They eventually end up working for Kanryu and their first run in with Kenshin and the others is when they are ordered to bring Megumi back. The first member we meet is Beshimi. After some pawns of Kanryu's get beat up by Sano in the gamling house he shows up to take her in himself. He then gets beat up pretty badly by both Kenshin and Sanosuke.

Kanryu condemns Beshimi's failure and hints that Beshimi should be punished. This is when we first meet Aoshi. Shinomori Aoshi tells Kanryu that his men are his problem not Kanryu's. He then orders Beshimi to go to the dojo and to take Hyotoko with him. Hyotoko attacks the dojo. Sanosuke starts to fight him but is burned by the flames that Hyotoko shoots out of his mouth. He manages to get away but is in pretty bad shape. Kenshin then steps in and when Hyotoko shoots flames at him, he spins his sword so fast in front of him that the flames can't get through. He does this until Hyotoko runs out of oil. When Hyotoko refills his supply of oil, Sanosuke takes over after thanking Kenhshin for giving him a breather. Sano punches Hyotoko and pulls the bag of oil out of his mouth. Hyotoko charges at him and Sano knocks him out.

Beshimi is horrified that Hyotoko lost and decides to kill Megumi. He shoots a poison dart at her but Yahiko jumps in front of her and gets hit himself. Kenshin is very angry and jumps to attack Beshimi. But Kenshin doens't even touch him; Beshimi is saved by Hannya. Hannya carries Beshimi and Hyotoko off; telling Kenshin that they will meet agian.

*note: I'll skip through this section a bit because it's already explained in the Megumi page.
Later, Hannya takes Megumi to have a talk with Kanryu. After he threatens her, Aoshi, who is standing unnoticed against a tree asks Kanryu why he doesn't just take her now. "Is it because you're afraid of facing the Battousai?" Kanryu then responds that if she comes on her own, not even the Battousai can do anything. He continues saying that Kenshin is a mere hitokiri, nothing else. Aoshi repeats these words to himself, as if he knows they aren't true. Hannya tells Aoshi that they have a rat (he means Sano who was watching Kanryu talk with Megumi). Aoshi answers that it's okay.

The next member of the Oniwa Banshu we meet is Shkijo He is the guy that attacks Megumi and Sano at the gate of Kanryu's mansion. He fights with a huge iron ball attached to a chain. When Sano breaks the chain, he continues to fight with his bare hands. He is very strong and has a huge, muscular body with scars all over him. Their fight doesn't take long. Shkijo headbuts Sano.can barely stand up after it. But when Shkijo attacks him again, Sano blocks and counter attacks.

While Sano finishes off Shkijo, Beshimi shows up and captures Megumi. The 'Kenshin-gumi' (Kenshin, Kaoru, Sano, and Yahiko) penetrate the mansion to find her. Kanryu looks at them from his window. Kanryu tries to bribes Kenshin and the others nto becoming his gaurds. Hannya tells him that bribing won't work. Kanryu then tells them to go home and he'll send them Megumi later (yeah right). Here Kenshin gets angry and after a display of power (he cuts a huge lightpole with his sword) tells Kanryu that he will come for him after he gets Megumi. Hannya, who seems to have a very good perspective on things tells Kanryu that by playing Kenshin for a fool, he has made him very angry. Kanryu then orders Hannya to defeat the Battousai. Here, Hannya gets angry. He grabs at Kanryu and tells him that no one orders him but his boss, Aoshi.

Aoshi comes in. He tells Kanryu that he will defeat Battousai only to prove that the Oniwa Banshu are the strongest warriors. Kanryu tells him that they have a contract. Aoshi basically says that he doesn't care what happens to Kanryu. He takes Megumi and starts to leave. Kanryu asks what he is supposed to do. Aoshi tells him to go count his money ^_^. Aoshi locks Megumi in a room and gives her her knife. He tells her that her friends have come but they won't survive long enough to rescue her. He leaves after telling her that she can either kill herself or wait for Kanryu to do so. Kenshin and the others are looking for her when they run into Hannya. Kenshin fights him but he has a tough time at first. Hannya has horizontal lines tattooed on his arms. These tattos make his arms seem shorter then they actually are and make his attacks hard to block. Kenshin defeats this by taking a defense stance and letting Hannya attack first. He uses his sword to measure Hannya's arm then puches him. Now that he knows the secret behind Hannya's attacks, Kenshin defeats him and moves on to fight Aoshi.

Kenshin and the others finally arrive at the hall where Aoshi is. Sano, overconfident chap that he is, attacks Aoshi and ends up in an unconsious state. Kenshin isn't much betterwhen he fights him. He manages to remain concious though. At first it seems that Kenshin has no hope in defeating Aoshi. Aoshi fights with a Kodachi, a small sword that is bigger than a Kunai (dagger) and smaller than a Katana (sword). Because this weapon is commonly only used as a defensive weapon, Kenshin assumes that Aoshi uses a defensive style. He is clearly mistaken though because Aoshi charges at him first. It is then made clear that although Aoshi uses a defensive weapon, he opts for an offensive fighting style. His more dangerous moves include the 'water flow movement' which is a very slow, but deadly technique used to confuse the opponent, then finishes it off with the 'Kaiten Kenbu'. Kenshin is hurt pretty bad. Aoshi talks about how, since he defeated the Battousai, the title of 'strongest' should now be bestowed upon the Oniwa Banshu. It is made clear that the only reason Aoshi is fighting Kenshin is to have the glory of saying that he defeated the Battousai.

Aoshi wants the people to remember the Oniwa Banshu as being the strongest warriors of the era, and in order to do this, he has to defeat the strongest warrior, the Battousai. Kenshin gets himself back together again and reattacks Aoshi. By shortening the length of his own sword, he matches the length of Aoshi's kodachi (he moved his hand up along the sword, holding it from the blade instead of from the handle.) As Kenshin defeats Aoshi, he tells him that if Aohsi wants the title of strongest so badly, he can have it; all Kenhsin wants is to live peacefully.

The rest of the Oniwa Banshu choose that moment to show up. Aoshi picks himself up and insists that he will continue fighting. Kenshin asks him why he is doing this. In this era, no one really cares about titles anymore; Aoshi doesn't have to fight, he can find another way to live his life. Aoshi doens't answer, the rest of the Oniwa Banshu speak instead. They say that fighting is all they can do; they look like feaks and society won't accept them. They tell of how the government offered Aoshi a job, but he refused and chose to stay with them instead. Aoshi replies that he wanted to grant them the title strongest, so that they will be remembered.

Kanryu barges in at that moment. He is totally pissed at the way Aoshi spoke with him. He has with him a gatling gun and starts shooting at everyone. He shoots at Hannya, but Aoshi jumps in front of him, and gets shot in the legs. The Oniwa Banshu crowd around him, worried. Kanryu expresses his intent on killing everyone in the room (Kenshin-gumi and the Oniwa Banshu). He shoots at Aoshi first (remember, Aoshi really pissed him off before), but Skijio jumps in front of Aoshi, sheilding him and getting shot in a dozen different places. Aoshi is horrified; Shkijo says that he is glad he was able to use his body to sheild Aoshi. Kanryu, @*!&% that he is, asks who's next to die. Hyotoko says he'll make sure it's Kanryu who dies next and attacks him. Of course, he's no match for the gatling gun and gets shot down. But, Beshimi, who was hiding behind him jumps up and starts to flick his poison darts on Kanryu. He also gets shot and the dart misses, hitting the string of ammo instead. Three of Aoshi's group have now died and he is hurt in both legs.

Kenshin (who was dodging the bullets while carrying Yahiko) and Sano (who was also dodging while carrying Kaoru) are both...well, angry would be a huge understatement. Kenshin can't do much since he doesn't have his sword (it got thrown away from him earlier and he gets shot at whenever he goes near it.) Hannya appears, telling Kenshin to get his sword. Hannya takes his chance at Kanryu, running at him as a distraction for Kenshin; he yells out good bye to Aoshi who unsuccessfully protests this suicidal act. Hannya is killed, but Kenshin has his sword and is running towards Kanryu. Kanryu starts to shoot at Kenshin, but the string of ammo stops due to the dart that Beshimi shot before he was killed; it got stuck in the ammo. Kenshin takes this chance, cuts off the gatling gun's wheel so that it is now useless. He then hits Kanryu in the face with his sword (using the blunt side of course). Though Kanryu isn't dead, his face is deformed probably forever.

After Kanryu is dealt with, the Kenshin-gumi go to rescue Megumi. Kaoru however is reluctant to leave, she watches Aoshi sitting on the floor, mourning his comrades. Kenshin comes back and tells Aoshi that their lives weren't wasted, they helped defeat Kanryu. They then leave Aoshi alone. He is devastated and utters a silent scream to the sky. Later, when the police arrive at the scene, they find no trace of Aoshi or the bodies of his comrades.Sano and Kenshin contemplate meeting him again. The scene then switches to the mountains. Aoshi addresses the graves of his friends, telling them to wait; he will earn them the title of strongest.
And so ends Aoshi's story at least, the beggining half of it. He doesn't show up agian until the second season.

ABOUT AOSHI:
AKA: Okashira (leader/boss in Japanese)
AGE: 26
HEIGHT: 189 centimeters
WEIGHT: 72 kilo's
APPEARENCE: Black hair, aqua blue eyes
OCCUPATION: (first season) Leader of Oniwa Banshu.

COMMENTS:
Aoshi...The impression I got of him from the first season is that he is a cold man who calculates every move he makes. He is very serious and calm and can seem pretty emotionless. Key word: seem. He expresses himself through actions rather than with words. He doesn't say that he cares for his men, he proves it. Kanryu wanted to punish Beshimi when he failed to caputure Megumi; Aoshi however gave him another chance. There is also the fact that he stood by them instead of taking up the governments job offer. It's obvious that he loves his men, and they love him in turn. I mean, would you die protecting someone you don't care about? When Kanryu first started firing his gun, Aoshi jumped in front of it to protect his men and got shot in the legs. After that, all his men died in a team effort to beat Kanryu. I mean, there's loyalty for you. Aoshi's reaction to his men's death says it all. He was close to them and loved them all.

All images courtesy of A Secluded Shrine to Hannya

Shinomori Aoshi is first introduced as the head bodyguard of Takeda Kanryu, a business man and a mafia member(Yes, the same drugdealer mentioned in the Megumi page.) During the Bakumatsu, he was part of the Oniwa Banshu a group that was in charge of protecting Edo castle, a very important base for the government. At the age fifteen, Aoshi was given the leadership of the Oniwa Banshu.The group was defeated however2 when the castle was attacked and burned by the Ishin shishi (Kenshin's group).
	After the war was over, the Oniwa Banshu members remained together. The day came however, when Aoshi, the leader of the Oniwa Banshu along with four other members seperated from the rest of the clan. They eventually end up working for Kanryu and their first run in with Kenshin and the others is when they are ordered to bring Megumi back. The first member we meet is Beshimi. After some pawns of Kanryu's get beat up by Sano in the gamling house he shows up to take her in himself. He then gets beat up pretty badly by both Kenshin and Sanosuke.
Kanryu condemns Beshimi's failure and hints that Beshimi should be punished. This is when we first meet Aoshi. Shinomori Aoshi tells Kanryu that his men are his problem not Kanryu's. He then orders Beshimi to go to the dojo and to take Hyotoko with him. Hyotoko attacks the dojo. Sanosuke starts to fight him but is burned by the flames that Hyotoko shoots out of his mouth. He manages to get away but is in pretty bad shape. Kenshin then steps in and when Hyotoko shoots flames at him, he spins his sword so fast in front of him that the flames can't get through. He does this until Hyotoko runs out of oil. When Hyotoko refills his supply of oil, Sanosuke takes over after thanking Kenhshin for giving him a breather. Sano punches Hyotoko and pulls the bag of oil out of his mouth. Hyotoko charges at him and Sano knocks him out.
	Beshimi is horrified that Hyotoko lost and decides to kill Megumi. He shoots a poison dart at her but Yahiko jumps in front of her and gets hit himself. Kenshin is very angry and jumps to attack Beshimi. But Kenshin doens't even touch him; Beshimi is saved by Hannya. Hannya carries Beshimi and Hyotoko off; telling Kenshin that they will meet agian.
*note: I'll skip through this section a bit because it's already explained in the Megumi page. Later, Hannya takes Megumi to have a talk with Kanryu. After he threatens her, Aoshi, who is standing unnoticed against a tree asks Kanryu why he doesn't just take her now. "Is it because you're afraid of facing the Battousai?" Kanryu then responds that if she comes on her own, not even the Battousai can do anything. He continues saying that Kenshin is a mere hitokiri, nothing else. Aoshi repeats these words to himself, as if he knows they aren't true. Hannya tells Aoshi that they have a rat (he means Sano who was watching Kanryu talk with Megumi). Aoshi answers that it's okay.
	The next member of the Oniwa Banshu we meet is Shkijo He is the guy that attacks Megumi and Sano at the gate of Kanryu's mansion. He fights with a huge iron ball attached to a chain. When Sano breaks the chain, he continues to fight with his bare hands. He is very strong and has a huge, muscular body with scars all over him. Their fight doesn't take long. Shkijo headbuts Sano.can barely stand up after it. But when Shkijo attacks him again, Sano blocks and counter attacks.
While Sano finishes off Shkijo, Beshimi shows up and captures Megumi. The 'Kenshin-gumi' (Kenshin, Kaoru, Sano, and Yahiko) penetrate the mansion to find her. Kanryu looks at them from his window. Kanryu tries to bribes Kenshin and the others nto becoming his gaurds. Hannya tells him that bribing won't work. Kanryu then tells them to go home and he'll send them Megumi later (yeah right). Here Kenshin gets angry and after a display of power (he cuts a huge lightpole with his sword) tells Kanryu that he will come for him after he gets Megumi. Hannya, who seems to have a very good perspective on things tells Kanryu that by playing Kenshin for a fool, he has made him very angry. Kanryu then orders Hannya to defeat the Battousai. Here, Hannya gets angry. He grabs at Kanryu and tells him that no one orders him but his boss, Aoshi.
	Aoshi comes in. He tells Kanryu that he will defeat Battousai only to prove that the Oniwa Banshu are the strongest warriors. Kanryu tells him that they have a contract. Aoshi basically says that he doesn't care what happens to Kanryu. He takes Megumi and starts to leave. Kanryu asks what he is supposed to do. Aoshi tells him to go count his money ^_^. Aoshi locks Megumi in a room and gives her her knife. He tells her that her friends have come but they won't survive long enough to rescue her. He leaves after telling her that she can either kill herself or wait for Kanryu to do so. Kenshin and the others are looking for her when they run into Hannya. Kenshin fights him but he has a tough time at first. Hannya has horizontal lines tattooed on his arms. These tattos make his arms seem shorter then they actually are and make his attacks hard to block. Kenshin defeats this by taking a defense stance and letting Hannya attack first. He uses his sword to measure Hannya's arm then puches him. Now that he knows the secret behind Hannya's attacks, Kenshin defeats him and moves on to fight Aoshi.
Kenshin and the others finally arrive at the hall where Aoshi is. Sano, overconfident chap that he is, attacks Aoshi and ends up in an unconsious state. Kenshin isn't much betterwhen he fights him. He manages to remain concious though. At first it seems that Kenshin has no hope in defeating Aoshi. Aoshi fights with a Kodachi, a small sword that is bigger than a Kunai (dagger) and smaller than a Katana (sword). Because this weapon is commonly only used as a defensive weapon, Kenshin assumes that Aoshi uses a defensive style. He is clearly mistaken though because Aoshi charges at him first. It is then made clear that although Aoshi uses a defensive weapon, he opts for an offensive fighting style. His more dangerous moves include the 'water flow movement' which is a very slow, but deadly technique used to confuse the opponent, then finishes it off with the 'Kaiten Kenbu'. Kenshin is hurt pretty bad. Aoshi talks about how, since he defeated the Battousai, the title of 'strongest' should now be bestowed upon the Oniwa Banshu. It is made clear that the only reason Aoshi is fighting Kenshin is to have the glory of saying that he defeated the Battousai.
	Aoshi wants the people to remember the Oniwa Banshu as being the strongest warriors of the era, and in order to do this, he has to defeat the strongest warrior, the Battousai. Kenshin gets himself back together again and reattacks Aoshi. By shortening the length of his own sword, he matches the length of Aoshi's kodachi (he moved his hand up along the sword, holding it from the blade instead of from the handle.) As Kenshin defeats Aoshi, he tells him that if Aohsi wants the title of strongest so badly, he can have it; all Kenhsin wants is to live peacefully.
The rest of the Oniwa Banshu choose that moment to show up. Aoshi picks himself up and insists that he will continue fighting. Kenshin asks him why he is doing this. In this era, no one really cares about titles anymore; Aoshi doesn't have to fight, he can find another way to live his life. Aoshi doens't answer, the rest of the Oniwa Banshu speak instead. They say that fighting is all they can do; they look like feaks and society won't accept them. They tell of how the government offered Aoshi a job, but he refused and chose to stay with them instead. Aoshi replies that he wanted to grant them the title strongest, so that they will be remembered.
	Kanryu barges in at that moment. He is totally pissed at the way Aoshi spoke with him. He has with him a gatling gun and starts shooting at everyone. He shoots at Hannya, but Aoshi jumps in front of him, and gets shot in the legs. The Oniwa Banshu crowd around him, worried. Kanryu expresses his intent on killing everyone in the room (Kenshin-gumi and the Oniwa Banshu). He shoots at Aoshi first (remember, Aoshi really pissed him off before), but Skijio jumps in front of Aoshi, sheilding him and getting shot in a dozen different places. Aoshi is horrified; Shkijo says that he is glad he was able to use his body to sheild Aoshi. Kanryu, @*!&% that he is, asks who's next to die. Hyotoko says he'll make sure it's Kanryu who dies next and attacks him. Of course, he's no match for the gatling gun and gets shot down. But, Beshimi, who was hiding behind him jumps up and starts to flick his poison darts on Kanryu. He also gets shot and the dart misses, hitting the string of ammo instead. Three of Aoshi's group have now died and he is hurt in both legs.
Kenshin (who was dodging the bullets while carrying Yahiko) and Sano (who was also dodging while carrying Kaoru) are both...well, angry would be a huge understatement. Kenshin can't do much since he doesn't have his sword (it got thrown away from him earlier and he gets shot at whenever he goes near it.) Hannya appears, telling Kenshin to get his sword. Hannya takes his chance at Kanryu, running at him as a distraction for Kenshin; he yells out good bye to Aoshi who unsuccessfully protests this suicidal act. Hannya is killed, but Kenshin has his sword and is running towards Kanryu. Kanryu starts to shoot at Kenshin, but the string of ammo stops due to the dart that Beshimi shot before he was killed; it got stuck in the ammo. Kenshin takes this chance, cuts off the gatling gun's wheel so that it is now useless. He then hits Kanryu in the face with his sword (using the blunt side of course). Though Kanryu isn't dead, his face is deformed probably forever.
	After Kanryu is dealt with, the Kenshin-gumi go to rescue Megumi. Kaoru however is reluctant to leave, she watches Aoshi sitting on the floor, mourning his comrades. Kenshin comes back and tells Aoshi that their lives weren't wasted, they helped defeat Kanryu. They then leave Aoshi alone. He is devastated and utters a silent scream to the sky. Later, when the police arrive at the scene, they find no trace of Aoshi or the bodies of his comrades.Sano and Kenshin contemplate meeting him again. The scene then switches to the mountains. Aoshi addresses the graves of his friends, telling them to wait; he will earn them the title of strongest. And so ends Aoshi's story at least, the beggining half of it. He doesn't show up agian until the second season.
ABOUT AOSHI: AKA: Okashira (leader/boss in Japanese) AGE: 26 HEIGHT: 189 centimeters WEIGHT: 72 kilo's APPEARENCE: Black hair, aqua blue eyes OCCUPATION: (first season) Leader of Oniwa Banshu.	COMMENTS: Aoshi...The impression I got of him from the first season is that he is a cold man who calculates every move he makes. He is very serious and calm and can seem pretty emotionless. Key word: seem. He expresses himself through actions rather than with words. He doesn't say that he cares for his men, he proves it. Kanryu wanted to punish Beshimi when he failed to caputure Megumi; Aoshi however gave him another chance. There is also the fact that he stood by them instead of taking up the governments job offer. It's obvious that he loves his men, and they love him in turn. I mean, would you die protecting someone you don't care about? When Kanryu first started firing his gun, Aoshi jumped in front of it to protect his men and got shot in the legs. After that, all his men died in a team effort to beat Kanryu. I mean, there's loyalty for you. Aoshi's reaction to his men's death says it all. He was close to them and loved them all.