Shishiwakamaru (死々若丸 Shishiwakamaru?) (lit. translates as dear young lion), is a demon swordsman that participated in the Dark Tournament. In the English anime his name is presented as Shishi Wakamaru. A former member and the poster-boy of Team Uraotogi, he is now an ally of Yusuke Urameshi.
Appearance[]
In his human form and his partial transformation, his hair is violet-blue, pale skin, with long tresses tied in a loose ponytail and two large bangs sticking straight up from a widow's peak, before falling back down and parting equally on both sides of his face. In his human form, he is also quite handsome and attractive in his usual appearance, that of a male teenager or young adult, which makes him very popular with demon girls, whose popularity among women is only equalled to that of Kurama's.
Transformations[]
Imp form[]
Shishi's real form is a tiny imp with two horns on the sides of his forehead and grimacing teeth. While in his imp form, he adopts a smaller bird-like form, changing his skin tone and clothes hue from lavender mist to light pastel purple color. Instead of using his trademark katana, his sword is changed into a needle of a very strong material.
Human form[]
Most of the time, he adopts a human form, similar to a samurai in clothing as he wears a white uwagi and a light-blue zubon tied off with a red obi. In human form he is handsome in appearance. He wears a katana with which he uses most of his techniques.
Partial transformation[]
When he occasionally gets angry or excited, he shows partial traits of his true form, such as horns and fangs. He can also reveal his partial transformation by choice, to cause either surprise or intimidation.
Personality[]
During his time in the fighting ring or in front of large crowds, Shishiwakamaru would present himself as a calm and charismatic young man, as a means of attracting as many admirers as possible, or "pleasing the public" as he puts it. It is explained that Shishi's only reason for participating in the tournament was a means of becoming famous. To do this he was willing to fight Toguro. He was also prone to mocking his opponents and even intimidating them by revealing his horns and fangs. Shishi directly swears to Urameshi, that he shall make him eat his spiteful words and calls Kuwabara a loser and says he is ugly to his face. No less than his other teammates, Shishi was arrogant and overconfident in his own strength.
Despite his arrogant, almost pompous behaviour towards his colleagues and adversaries, however, Shishiwakamaru was in fact the only true fighter in Team Uraotogi. Genkai remarks that Shishi was far more powerful than Suzuki ever was. He is ruthless in all his battles, but also logical. Shishi only used his Cape of no Return against Kuwabara, knowing that he was weaker than him. On the other hand, against opponents such as Genkai and the A to S rank participants of the Demon World Tournament, he strictly resorted to his demon katana, to insure any chance of a possible victory.
While fighting Genkai in the tournament, Shishiwakamaru seemed to lack any code of honor, seemingly improvising his moments in which he attacked. In truth, Shishi was smart enough to understand that fighting is not something to laugh about. One must never forget his own reasons for fighting and must never show any signs of weakness. Genkai approves of this, as she claims that she herself is neither good nor evil but merely following her own ambitions. Her honest words ended up touching the demons heart. Shishi admits that in their fight he had developed romantic affections for the old woman and stating that if she was fifty years younger he might have had a chance with her, with Genkai quipping, "Well, aren't I a lucky one."
In his full demon form, he seems a little more excitable, but he regains his composure when returning to his more humanoid form.
Synopsis[]
Dark Tournament Saga[]
Shishi conducted a new way to decide what team members would fight in the semi-finals. He would roll two dice, each face having a different members name, with a free space for the team to choose who would go. Shishi steps up to fight Kuwabara, whom he defeats in one turn using the Cape of No Return. Afterwards, he rolls the dice and chooses to fill in for a free space, and Hiei steps up to take the missing Masked Fighter's place. However, she shows up at the last second and decides to fight.
Shishiwakamaru, angered that the mystery of her mask is hiding him from the spotlight, decides to remove it. Everyone is sent into turmoil when they see an aging woman rather than the young girl they had before. Shishi attempts to have her disqualified, but the committee rules it fair. Nobody understands why, until the Younger Toguro announces that she is indeed the human psychic Genkai and her technique was able to halt and temporarily reverse her aging.
Continuing the fight, Shishiwakamaru uses the chorus of a thousand souls to nearly destroy the audience. Genkai is left running around the stadium, avoiding his attacks but just as Shishi tries to kill her, Genkai reflects the energy released by the sword back at him, rendering the technique useless. Shishi partially (just enough to be threatening) reveals his true form, but Genkai overpowers him by reflecting his energy on him again and refers to him later as 'the LATE Shishiwakamaru' upon defeating him (despite the fact that he's still alive). Shishiwakamaru appears for the last time in this arc (in the manga) as one of the survivors of previous battles watching over the battle with Yusuke and Toguro. While his teammate Suzuki is on the side full of supporters of Yusuke (i.e. Jin, Chu, Rinku, Touya, M1, M2, M3), Shishiwakamaru is on the other side of survivors who presumably support Toguro (i.e. Dr. Ichigaki, Risho, and strangely Bui).
Three Kings Saga[]
Shishiwakamaru is now seen training in a cave, along with Chu, Rinku, Toya, Jin, and Suzuki, under Genkai's tutelage, and have all surpass their own potential. Kurama comes to visit, explaining that he has contacted them in order to find a way to keep Yomi in check as Raizen's inevitable death grew ever-closer.
Six months go by before the six of them are introduced to Yomi, each of them with power levels of approximately 100,000-123,000, making them all Upper A Class demons (middle S Class demons in the manga). Yomi applauds Kurama's work and appoints Kurama his new second-in-command, and the six become part of his personal guard.
After Raizen dies, Yusuke appears at Gandara to unveil his plan for the Demon World Tournament Tournament, to which the six of them eagerly jump on.
At the Tournament itself, though he made it through the preliminaries, Shishiwakamaru is defeated in the main tournament by Hokushin in the anime. He may not have lost to Hokushin in the manga, however, if he did beat Hokushin he would've eventually lost to Kokou. After the tournament, he says goodbye to Yusuke with the rest of Kurama's demons and Yusuke's demon allies as they go off to train for the next tournament.
Epilogue[]
Both in the final chapter of the manga and in the Two Shots / All or Nothing special, Shishiwakamaru is seen in some part of Demon World after the events of the Three Kings Saga. He is on a cliff with Jin, Touya, and Suzuki. He shows confusion when his three training partners sneeze at the exact same time.
In the Eizou Hakusho OAV, Chu, Jin and Suzuki's silhouette can be seen just before the second Demon World Tournament begins, along with two featureless shadows that are presumably Touya and Shishiwakamaru.
Items[]
- Darkness Item: Cape of No Return (闇アイテム・死出の羽衣, Yami Aitemu: Shide no Hagoromo, translated as Dark Item: Feathery Robe of Deathly Emergence): A clear cloak that Shishi keeps around his shoulders. It has the ability to manipulate space; anyone or anything that gets caught in it is sent to another location in the three worlds.
- Banshee Shriek Sword (魔哭鳴斬剣, Ma Koku Mei Zan Ken, translated as Magic Killing-Wail Cutting Sword): Mutating from Suzuka's Trial Sword (試しの剣, Tameshi No Ken, translates as Sword of Trials; The Trial Sword in the English Dub) when exposed to Shishiwakamaru's energy, this weapon is fueled by the spirits of long-dead demons in order to power its attacks. With its power, Shishiwakamaru is capable of summoning the souls of long since past demons, using these as either projectiles or even materializing them into barriers.
Powers and Abilities[]
Fighting Style[]
Swordsmanship: Shishiwakamaru carries a katana with him at all times, and made extensive use of it during the Dark Tournament. He mainly fights with Iaidō, the Japanese style of swordplay associated with drawing the sword from its scabbard striking or cutting an opponent, removing blood from the blade, and then replacing the sword in the scabbard. His skills with the sword are shown during his fight against Genkai when she was posing as the Masked Fighter in the semi-finals of the Dark Tournament. Combined with his speed and swiftness, Shishiwakamaru was able to force Genkai on the defensive (although Genkai had given the bulk of her power of Yusuke prior), and slice apart her mask.
Abilities[]
Bloodlust: Initially, Shishiwakamaru seemed to be a calm, calculating fighter who fights efficiently without any unnecessary motions, teleporting Kuwabara away rather than wasting energy fighting him. This was to maintain his "cool, handsome image" for his fangirls. If he thinks defeating an opponent will improve his reputation (i.e. Genkai), however, he completely changes the way he fights and goes all out. First he limits the opponent's movement by trapping them, and then ruthlessly and brutally attacks without any restraint while laughing maniacally, not caring if his attacks are killing the audience or not. Touya describes him as "fighting to the end, daring and headfirst." After his training with Genkai, however, he seems much more controlled, as he maintains his composure better while also gaining better aim with his ghosts.
- Metamorphosis: Similar to the case of Koenma, he can metamorphose his "true" form, which is that of an imp with horns and a smaller size in that of a young a human form, similar to a samurai in clothing. He can also partially transform and adopts a more demon manish form with his horns instead, but remains big in size. While in his imp form, he can use Flight at will without consuming his Demon Energy and can evade easier and faster the opponent's attacks.
Known Techniques/Moves[]
- Shrill Call of the Reaper: By rapidly spinning his sword, a horrible sounding wail is emitted from the Banshee Shriek Sword. According to Shishi, those too weak to resist the song will have their souls stolen.
- Chorus of a Thousand Skulls (爆吐髑触葬, Baku To Doku Shoku Sō, translated as Vomiting Explosive Skull Ramming Burial): By hitting the ground with the reddening blade of the Banshee Shriek Sword, Shishiwakamaru can summon hundreds maybe even thousands of ghoulish spirits of long since dead demons, in order to surround the battle area. They don't discriminate and will destroy anything in their path, though they mainly seem to target weaker demons. Until his training with Genkai, he can only guide the skulls to his target if he has a little amount of energy (due to taking the Spirit Reflection Blast head-on). Otherwise, he loses control and they fly out and attack at random. At the end of Shishiwakamaru's battle with Genkai, he summoned the ghoulish spirits through the ghoulish face of the sword. After his training with Genkai, he learns a more powerful version of this technique called Chorus of Ten Thousand Skulls (戒髑触波斬, Kai Doku Shoku Ha Zan).
- Cage of Hell (怨呼障縛壁, On Ko Shō Baku Heki, translated as Binding Shield Wall of Resentful Shouting): Shishiwakamaru uses the Banshee Shriek Sword to create a cage of demon souls to trap his opponent by calling on the screams of the dead. He's able to freely pass through the cage to attack, but his opponent is unable to pass. It is speculated that threshold will result in instant death. He can also transform into his true imp like form when the situation demands it.
Trivia[]
- Shishiwakamaru is based on Minamoto no Yoshitsune, whose childhood name is Ushiwakamaru (牛若丸).
- In the original Japanese dialogue from the manga, during Shishiwakamaru's fight against Genkai, he claims to have actually met the historical figure Saitō Musashibō Benkei, Yoshitsune's retainer. He simply refers to him as the "famous Benkei" and states that once he saw the Banshee Shriek's true form, Benkei had walked away from the fight.
- Shishiwakamaru's Cape of No Return is a reference to Yoshitsune disguising as a woman with a cape. Koto also indirectly refers to this.
- It is possible that Shishi's Cage of Hell technique might be in reference to his own name. The word maru can be translated as either ward or castle wall, and Shishi's technique slightly resembles a courtyard's walls.
- In the blu-ray English version, Shishiwakamaru's voice has a distortion filter added whenever he partially transforms, primarily during his fight with Genkai. In the original dub there was no such effect.
- Despite not having met with Yusuke Urameshi at all (like his companions Rinku, Suzuki and Touya) until the Demon World Tournament arc of the Three Kings Saga, Shishi is respectful and was on Yusuke's side every now and then.
References[]
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e v | Team Uraotogi | |
Members: | Makintaro | Kuro Momotaro | Ura Urashima | Shishiwakamaru | Suzuki |