Tatsumi is the leader of the Bakufu's Yaminobu onmitsu and a master of Jutsu-Shiki Muteki-Ryū, a martial art he taught to Inui Banjin.
Appearance[]
Tatsumi is an muscular old man with long white hair that extends past his shoulders, wild eyebrows, a mustache, beard, sunken cheeks, and wrinkles around his eyes.
Tatsumi wears a black sleeveless shirt with a dark colored sash around his waist, black pants, black fingerless gloves, and black shoes.
Personality[]
Tatsumi has shown a strategic side by preparing a three-step attack involving the introduction of a spy to determine the target's abilities & weaknesses, a multi-tiered debilitation attack to dull the target's senses, and using his spy to foster the weakness of sentimentality in the target in case no other weaknesses can be found. He relies on brains as much as body, formulating the strategy to use Tomoe to create a weakness for Battosai and the set-up of barriers in the 'Binding Forest'.
Relationships[]
- Yaminobu: Tatsumi was the leader of the Yaminobu.
Abilities[]
Tatsumi is a skilled martial artist and a master of the Justu-Shiki Muteki-Ryu. Tatsumi was able to take on Kenshin, but had to dull Kenshin's senses first and even had to change his tactic when Kenshin was able to still over power him with his senses dulled.
History[]
When he fights Battosai, he at first goes in for the kill with his most powerful move, but switches tactics when the weakened Kenshin still proved to be able to strike back at close range. Instead he chips away at his strength with lesser but more malleable attacks. He shows a last gesture of mercy to Kenshin, offering him a choice between a quick and painless death and a prolonged, grueling one. Nearly blinded, deafened and staggering from blood loss, Kenshin lunged at Tatsumi intending to take him down with him, but Tomoe got in the way and was cut down with Tatsumi.
Jinchu Arc[]
His death is later used as an excuse by Inui Banjin to join the Jinchu campaign.
Trivia[]
- In the OVA, he is represented as a physically-fit old man with a ninja outfit who gives Kenshin the beating of his life before Kenshin kills him. His character cares a lot about the Tokugawa values. It should also be noted that in the OVA, he is the only talkative member of the gang.
- In the manga, he is depicted as someone twice his size much like many of Kenshin's other enemies and is portrayed more brutal (he says they'll kill Tomoe after Kenshin's defeat).
- His name is not revealed directly in the Trust and Betrayal OVA, only being credited with the same name as his manga version in the ending credits. He still remains devious and meticulous as in the manga, but is also portrayed as a deep and thoughtful individual, expanding his loyalty to the Tokugawa Shogunate, by claiming that the nation of Japan itself would decline into a land of unruly chaos and anarchic carnage without its rule, and being driven to kill Kenshin to avenge his underlings as opposed to simply doing so because he was ordered to. Tatsumi saw that he was foiled by love.