Usui Uonuma was a member of the Jūppongatana, and a former hitokiri.
Appearance[]
Usui has black hair that is brushed back, a small mustache, white eyes, and scars around his eyes.
Usui wears a light brown robe with dark brown trim with eyes pattern, a blue belt with an eye pattern in the center, white long sleeved shirt, white pants, white socks, sandals, an eye-shaped earring on each ear, and a blindfold with the kanji of "Shingan".
Personality[]
Usui is an arrogant, haughty, and bloodthirsty opponent who enjoys killing his victims. He refers to it as entertainment and hates it when his fun is interrupted. He is sadistic and cruel, taking particularly pleasure in psychological mind games with his prey by pretending that he can read into their innermost thoughts. He has an inferiority complex against Shishio since the latter took away his sight. This loss is his reason for joining the Jūppongatana, under the condition that he has the chance to kill Shishio whenever he wants. However, as deduced by Saitō, Usui knows that if he ever fought with Shishio again, he would lose, and so only pretends to look for an opening to kill Shishio in order to save face while taking out his frustration on weaker opponents.
Relationships[]
- Shishio Makoto: Shishio was Usui's rival and enemy. Years ago, Shishio blinded Usui on a fight and as a result, Usui developed a strong hate towards him and sought revenge. However, after realizing that the gap between him and Shishio was ever constant, Usui would end up under Shishio's employ as part of the Jūppongatana.
- Itoi Isagawa: He is Usui's junior.
Abilities[]
During his time with the government, Usui is shown to be using an ordinary katana. However, he changes weapons after battling Shishio and joining the Jūppongatana. Throughout his role in the manga, he uses a spear called "Rochin" and a shield called "Tinbe".
Usui possesses the ability to sense movements and emotions through hearing, which he calls his "Mind's Eye" (or Shingan as it's written on his blindfold), because of his fight with Shishio.
First, he uses the shield to deflect the opponent's attack, keeping it in front of the opponent's face in order to block their sight. While they are blind to any attack, he uses the spear to quickly stab any part of the body of the opponent.
Weapons[]
Usui uses a spear, with a sphere on one end, as his main weapon. However, if the sphere gets destroyed, he splits the spear in half and uses it with the shield.
- Rochin - A short spear that has a sphere attached to one end. If the sphere is destroyed, the spear can he split in half.
- Tinbe - A turtle carapace used as a shield with an eye close to the top of said shield. Usui uses the Tinbe to divert an incoming attack.
"Pōken Pō Gyoku Hya Ka Ryō Ran"
Technique[]
- Pōken Pō Gyoku Hya Ka Ryō Ran - A technique that uses both the blade and the mace at the end of his spear to rapidly attack the opponent with multiple piercing strikes (from the spear) and bludgeoning blows (from the mace).
History[]
Usui Uonuma was a swordsman of the government; like Kenshin and Shishio, he was a manslayer. However in a fight; he loses his eyesight after a battle with Shishio and is left for dead. Blind and thus deemed worthless, he was discarded. Driven by thirst and deprivation, suddenly, Usui hears the sound of a stream to which he ran towards. After arriving, he realized how far he had walked to get to the stream and wondered how he was able to hear it. Soon, he realized he had developed hearing that surpassed human limits. He then joins the Jūppongatana under the condition that he may attempt to kill Shishio at any time.
Kyōto Arc[]
Usui is first mentioned when Sawagejō Chō was being interrogated by Saitō as to which of Shishio’s men could have killed fifty policemen in one or two hours. He is described as the second strongest of the Jūppongatana.
When Usui arrives at Shishio's compound, he kills several of his army and attempts to kill him. When he gets to Kyōto in order to help creating Kyōto's Grand Fire, he finds out that the reason Kyōto wasn't being burned to the ground was Makimachi Misao. He attempts to kill her, but is stopped by Yūkyūzan Anji.
When Himura Kenshin, Saitō and Sanosuke are on their way to find and fight Shishio, they find that their second opponent is Usui. Saitō stays behind and fights him, killing him.
Development and Reception[]
The idea of a blind swordsman came from an assistant, while Watsuki was inspired to create a "Terminator T-800" styled stalker who would actively hunt for Kenshin in Kyōto's city streets. As such, Usui was supposed to fight Kenshin right after Chō, but the plot went in a different direction, and he ended up fighting Saitō. The model for his figure (in terms of design) is Tao Pai Pai from Dragon Ball. He also has a turtle carapace shield, which is based on the shell Master Roshi uses (also from the same series).
In Live Action film[]
Mitsu Murata portrayed Usui in Rurouni Kenshin: Kyōto Inferno.
Trivia[]
- Usui is the only character in the series who is blind.
- The Japanese characters on his blindfold say "心眼", which can be translated as "Mind's Eye".
- Usui claims the Ryukyu Islands as his homeland; however, it is not mentioned whether he sees himself as Ryukyuan or Yamato-Japanese (the latter of whom typically consider Ryukyuans to be related to the Yamato, and therefore do not recognize them as a separate ethnic group[1]).
Gallery[]
