This is the list of the characters that appear in the 2007 manga and anime miniseries Afro Samurai , the television film Afro Samurai: Resurrection , the video game adaption and other related media.
Child Afro Samurai Voiced by: Crystal Scales (anime), Kari Wahlgren (video game)
Teenager Afro Samurai Voiced by: Phil LaMarr
Adult Afro Samurai Voiced by: Samuel L. Jackson
Afro Samurai is the main protagonist of the series, who mourns for his father as a child and wears the Number Two headband on a quest to kill Justice and reclaim the Number One. As an adult, he often smoke hand-rolled cigarettes, drinks lemonade and has a deep calm voice.
Voiced by: Samuel L. Jackson
Ninja Ninja is Afro's partner, who mostly speaks in a normal voice while Afro refuses to reply in conversations. Ninja Ninja wears a ninja motif and has white hair. As the series progresses, Ninja Ninja watches Afro seeking vengeance. At the beginning of Episode 5, it is revealed that Kuma apparently kills Ninja Ninja who saves Afro. About halfway through the episode, Afro confronts Justice who states that he watched him shed his "imaginary friend."
In the collector's DVD, interviews with the staff and writers concede that Ninja Ninja is indeed imaginary. However, even though Ninja Ninja is "imaginary," he appears to have some form of presence in the real world, as well. When Brother 2 of the Empty Seven spies on Afro, Ninja Ninja can be clearly seen from Brother 2's point of view through the binoculars. Ninja Ninja also interacts with items around him constantly such as catching Afro's spliff in his mouth, moving a hanging pillar inside Otsuru's home, putting Otsuru's comb into Afro's hair, eating the food that was intended for Afro given by Brother 3 (as seen in the Director's cut) and throwing the Afro-Droid's microchip at Afro to cut in two. The idea of Ninja Ninja having at least a partial existence, in reality, is once again brought into light when he is 'killed' by Kuma. Because Kuma was such a skilled warrior and had the intent to cut down Afro on the sword strike that killed Ninja Ninja, it would seem odd that he would pause from his attack and have a conversation with Afro if there was not a reason to give pause which strengthens the idea that he was taken aback by Ninja Ninja sacrifice before attacking Afro again. Additionally supporting his real-world presence is the scene in the video game in which he knocks the hand of one of the Empty Seven off of a ledge, killing him, as is the scene after Sword Master's death in which one of the many clones of Ninja Ninja grabs Sword Master's mouth and moves it up in down, pretending he is a puppet.
In Afro Samurai: Resurrection, Ninja Ninja is confirmed to be emanated from the Number Two Headband in conjunction with the wearer's mind, restored to Afro with the band itself.
In the video game, Afro battles Ninja Ninja in his mind in order to regain his humanity which he lost as a result of being the Number Two.
Voiced by: Yuri Lowenthal
Jinnosuke is a swordsman wearing a cybernetic teddy bear helmet (the same design as Otsuru's teddy bear from their time as children in their dojo) earning him the nickname "Kuma," (Bear in Japanese). He wears black keikogi, hakama and toe strapping metal geta sandals and wields twin katanas. He also considers Afro Samurai to be his best friend and brother. In the series, he blames Afro for killing their master and even taking the Number Two headband. Jinno mourns for the others from the dojo, suffers his wounds at the Midnight Battle Under the Bodhi Tree and falls from the cliff. He is rescued by Dharman who creates his robotic body. Afro seemingly destroys his life-support system to defeat Jinno, but he recovers his body, straps it with the rest of all ranked headbands as bandages and sees to fight with Afro who wears the Number 1 headband.
In Afro Samurai: Resurrection, he works with his younger sister Sio, who lived with her foster parents as a child. Jinno shortly had muted his voice and cannot converse with Sio, until Rokutaro seemingly kills Afro. Jinno and Sio are impaled and killed by Rokutaro, before Jinno's electricity from his robotic body travels through Sio's blood and resurrects Afro.
In the video game, Jinno's transformation into Kuma is not explained and does not recognize Afro after confrontation. He recovers his memory of the schoolyard massacre as the two battle each other and then appears to die at the conclusion.
Voiced by: Greg Eagles
Afro's father and owner of the Number One headband who is decapitated by Justice, who mentions to Afro about the assassins fighting each other to the death for the headbands. Justice wears the Number One headband to become god, while Afro wears the Number Two for revenge.
In Afro Samurai Resurrection, Sio and Jinno take Rokutaro's jawbone and help Dharman use it to resurrect Rokutaro. Sio kills Dharman for the loss of her henchmen leaving the mental recreation incomplete and makes him angry. After choking and seemingly killing Afro, Rokutaro impales Jinno and Sio with Afro's broken sword. Jinno's robotic body then uses electricity on Sio's blood near Afro to resurrect him. Afro defeats the cloned Rokutaro and takes both headbands.
Voiced by: Terrence C. Carson
The Sword Master is a one-eyed samurai adopting to train orphans as graduated warriors. He informs Afro Samurai that wearing special rank headbands would lead to murderous survival. At the cliff near the Bodhi Tree, the Sword Master wearing the Number Two headband, insists Afro to kill him. After the rest of all assassins and students were killed, Afro executes the Sword Master dead and takes the headband.
In the video game, the Sword Master and his older brother found and adopted Afro, who later kills the daimyō , suspecting him to be the Number Two. As he dies, the daimyō reveals the true identity of the Number Two. The incident triggers the schoolyard massacre carried out by the daimyō's men as an act of revenge.
The official site reveals that the Sword Master was Rokutaro's friend which helps explain the basis for his advice and world view.
Voiced by: Liam O'Brien
Shichigoro is the owner of the Number Two headband and Kotaro's stepfather. Like the Sword Master, Shichigoro hides it and meets Afro, who saves Kotaro from the assassin. On the night for the Japanese rap parade festival, Shichigoro battles Afro before killing Sio's ninjas for stopping the party. Shichigoro inadvertently kills the DJ and Afro impales them dead.
In the manga, he and the Oden Shop Master used to work for the Empty Seven. Shichigoro betrayed the Empty Seven after the Oden Shop Master botched an assignment and had to protect him from the Empty Seven's Cleaners.
Voiced by: Zachary Gordon
Kotaro is Shichigoro's adopted son, who sadly vows revenge after Afro kills Shichigoro. In the manga, Kotaro is killed by Afro. In the anime film, Afro hands the Number 2 headband to Kotaro and tells him to fight when they are ready.
Voiced by: Kevin Michael Richardson
Takimoto is a mysterious person who greets Justice in Afro Samurai: Resurrection.
In the manga, he holds a similar duty to Justice that the Empty Seven and Kuma held in the anime, protecting the "Number One" and defeating the current "Number Two." Although he explains himself as having the goal of observing the order of the world, seeing Afro about to reach the throne room made him ready to interfere. He even interacted with Ninja Ninja.
Depending on the possible third film, it is unknown if his motives and goals will be carried to the anime, since many of the characters have similar but slightly altered parts in the manga.
Brother 1 Voiced by: Phil LaMarr
Brother 2 Voiced by: John DiMaggio
Brother 3 Voiced by: Phil LaMarr (Afro Samurai), Jeff Bennett (Afro Samurai: Resurrection)
Brother 4 Voiced by: Terrence C. Carson
Brother 5 Voiced by: Phil LaMarr
Brother 6 Voiced by: Greg Eagles
The Empty Seven (無無坊主) is a group of six monks who believe that attaining both ancient headbands will lead to immortality and godhood. They employ robots and mercenaries to do their dirty work, since the monks themselves have greatly inferior fighting skills when compared to Afro and Justice possibly due to their age difference. Brothers 1 through 5 look like identical wizened old men with long beards, dressed in robes with some other accessories:
In the video game, Brother 7 is said be God himself and that one becomes a God by sacrificing the other six Brothers where they each fell into the rotating blades. Brother 2 does this while attempting to use Afro to take his place. However, Afro Samurai defeats the rest of the brothers, after his fight with Jinno while Brother 3 throws his own blood into the rotating blades before leaving the rest to the Empty Seven's robots.
Okiku Voiced by: Kelly Hu
Otsuru Voiced by: Tara Strong (anime), Lexi Jourdan (video game)
Otsuro is a young woman who specializes in the art of healing, cooking and adores fireworks. As a child, she meets Afro in the shrine after he lost the Number Two headband, and took him to the Sword Master's dojo. That night, Otsuru finds herself to witness that the rest of the assassins and the Sword Master's pupils are killed. Otsuru survives and joins up with the Empty Seven Clan as an agent working for Brother 1.
Years later, Otsuru saves Afro, who survives Soshun's poisonous crossbow infection and Brother 6's RPG explosion on the cliff. Though Otsuru changes her name to "Okiku", she spends time with Afro at the bamboo forest. She uses her unique ability to siphon memories from anyone's dream and copies Afro's sword style for the Afro Droid. She attempts to kill Afro, but she realizes her mistake. Brother 2 then kills Otsuru for helping Afro and betraying the Empty Seven.
In the video game adaptation, Okiku is the assassin who works for the Empty Seven Clan. Brother 2 and Brother 6 later kill her for helping Afro avoid getting captured and after falling in love with him.
Voiced by: Phil LaMarr (normal version), S. Scott Bullock (Director's Cut version and "Afro Samurai: Resurrection")
Dharman is an insane cyborg scientist employed by the Empty Seven Clan to build their machine-ninja army and the Afro-Droid. He repairs Jinnosuke's body with his protective "Teddy Bear" helmet. His name comes from the fact that he closely resembles a Japanese Dharma doll. When Afro defeats Jinnosuke, it is likely that Dharman was the one who repaired and rebuilt him. He was assumed by many fans to be Brother #7, as indicated when Brother #1 refers to him as "brother," but the official site states that this is in fact not the case. He also does not like to think of himself as part of the group, referring to them in the third person in the second-to-last chapter.
In Afro Samurai: Resurrection, Dharman works for Sio in her vicious plan to get revenge on Afro. Using advanced bio-technology, he is able to create a clone of Afro's father from a jawbone that Sio stole from the warrior's grave. He rebuilds Sio's foster family members Bin, Michael and Tomoe into cybernetic warriors. Dharman is aroused by Sio's seductive beauty and sadistic nature as she toys with him although he scolds her for interrupting Rokutaro's resurrection process. Before resurrecting Rokutaro, Sio stabs to kill Dharman for insisting her henchmen into fighting with Afro.
The Afro-Droid is a semi-sentient robot copy of Afro Samurai created by the Empty Seven Clan. Otsuru created it from combat data siphoned from Afro's mind, and reproduces all of his learned techniques and abilities. While Afro Samurai and Afro-Droid are identical, Afro-Droid is equipped with guns, lasers and explosives. In the third episode after fighting through from the air to the ground, Afro destroys the robot and the memory chip.
Voiced by: Ron Perlman
The villainous gunslinger who kills Rokutaro and takes the Number One headband. At the end of the miniseries, he stays at the throne room to live at Mount Shumi where Afro cut his pair of arms along with the third one behind holding a sword for execution. After Justice regenerates himself and declare that all ranked headbands on corpses would remain there, Afro slices his body to smaller pieces.
During interviews for the DVD, it is stated that Justice and Rokutaro were in fact part of the same swordsmen clan and friends. However, their differing views on the headbands and how to end the violence plaguing the world eventually drove them apart, leading to the final confrontation between them.
In the manga and video game, Afro discovers that Justice is long-dead at the lair. Afro forcingly confronts his guilt for revenge. Afro resists the sins to break free from his past and kill Justice.
He also appears in Afro Samurai: Resurrection without speaking, one being crucified in Afro's dream with Rokutaro and the other meets Takimoto in the afterlife.
Adult Sio Voiced by: Lucy Liu
Young Sio Voiced by: Ariel Winter
Lady Sio is Jinno's younger sister appearing in Afro Samurai Resurrection. She asks Jinno to kill Afro, but Jinno refuses, calling Afro "his brother" of the sword and had a stronger bond. Unlike Otsuru, Sio and her brother are orphans while Afro and Jinno went to train with the Sword Master, Sio apparently lives with her wealthy and powerful foster family who had their own castle and their replaced daughter who treats Sio as the princess. Sio dislikes and learns that when Afro was young, he killed them though the words of her servant, Tomoe, imply that their lands were destroyed in the chaos that after Afro takes the Number One headband, which means that her family's death is not Afro's fault. Rokutaro impales Sio and Jinno's damaged body with the broken sword.
Voiced by: Mark Hamill
Bin is Sio's protector. When Sio was young, he was part of her foster family and always made people laugh because of the funny mask he wore. But after the town where he lived was destroyed (Sio blames Afro for this event), he was almost killed and was reconstructed by the mad professor Dharman as a cybernetic fighter (similar to Jinno's situation). Now no longer laughing, but a hateful shell of the man he once was, he wears the same humorous Hyottoko mask that he had in the past to conceal his robotic appearance. Bin usually carries a boom box that can fire metal spikes and is capable of turning his left hand into a blade and his right hand into a laser cannon as well as using his robotic feet to make huge leaps. He and the other henchmen despise Afro because they consider him responsible for their loss of humanity and desire to kill him in order to prevent Sio from becoming a murderer. After the other two henchmen are destroyed, he grabs Afro's leg with his last strength and wants to detonate himself in order to kill him but Afro disposes of him by kicking his head off.
Similar to Bin, Michael was part of Sio's foster family and used to entertain people by dressing in a dragon costume. He was also reconstructed by the scientist Dharman as a cyborg after he had suffered nearly fatal injuries. He wears a cloak and a red dragon mask which fires flames and rockets when it opens its mouth. After Afro dispatches the mask and the cloak covering his body, it is revealed that the only organic parts that are left from him are his head and torso, the rest of his body being cybernetic and having attached a pair of long, metallic chains and a huge machine gun on it. After his fellow henchman, Tomoe, grabs Afro and begs him to shoot them with his machine gun, he at first refuses to do it, fearing that he might kill her, but at Bin's request he decides to fire at them. Afro instead uses Tomoe as a human shield, and therefore she is completely destroyed by Michael's bullets. He is killed by Afro, who first destroys his metallic legs then cuts him in half with his blade.
NOTE: Michael does not have a voice actor as he cannot speak, being able to communicate only through his glasses that serve as a digital display for words and images.
Voiced by: Grey DeLisle
Part of her foster family, Tomoe was a woman who was seen holding a shamisen (guitar-like Japanese instrument) and was very kind to Sio (teaching her to dance among other things). Like the other two henchmen, she became a cyborg assassin after the tragic event that occurred in her town. She wears a wide hat and holds the same instrument that she used to sing at in the past, now being capable of turning it into a deadly weapon. Also, she wears a Noh Mask that resembles her old appearance in order to hide her burnt face. Her jet-propelled cybernetic feet allow her to fly, and her enhanced muscular tissue adds more power to her strikes, thus making her a worthy opponent. She is able to injure Afro with her weapon, and after she grabs him with her enhanced arm, she is willing to sacrifice herself by telling Michael to shoot them with his machinegun. But Afro manages to poke her eyes out and use her as a shield in the way of Michael's bullets. After being torn apart by the bullets, her damaged cybernetic body explodes, thus ending her life.
The following were exclusive to the Afro Samurai video game:
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