Bakumatsu Rouman: The Last Blade: Washizuka Keiichiro

Keiichiro is a man with a temper. He's very foulminded, and annoyed most of the time, and says all manner of rude things to his opponents. He grumbles a lot, and his taunt is him hmphing and then wiping his blade clean with a cloth. (As if you're such a bad fighter that he can casually clean his weapon while he waits, ne? ^_~) He's lots of fun, with his gruff manner, and I enjoy playing him for that alone.

His moves, however, I have more trouble with. I'm very used to the good old quarter-circle and zig-zag moves, and Keiichiro's are mostly up-down and back-forward moves. He has a double projectile, though, which is great for opponents only expecting one, and a very long reaching stabbing move, as well as a stabbing uppercut. He's also very fast on his feet, and running him around a lot is a great way to confuse the hell out of your opponent. ^_^

In the second game, he is still the same old grumbling Keiichiro; still fast on his feet and quite aggressive to play as, and against. He got some nice followups to some of his moves, and he still loves to draw huge kanji in the air when doing specials. ^_~

Last Blade 1 Story: Keiichiro is a member of the Shinsengumi, a group of people true to the history of Japan and the oldstyle Samurai art of fighting. Keiichiro believes in these things very strongly, and does his duties to the utmost. After his last mission ends succesfully, he is given the assignment of researching the Gates of Hell, and journeys to discover what is happening there.

Last Blade 2 Story: Many people died in a natural disaster, like that of the earlier defeat of Kagami; Keiichiro set off to continue his investigation of Hell's Gate. Several men had returned after the earlier investigation, with the knowledge that they must seek out a girl, the Sealing Maiden. And so Keiichiro left searching for her, and for the truth.

Useless but fun facts: Keiichiro's birthdate is May 20th, 1835, making him 28 years old at the time of the first game. The kanji for his name means something like eagle's nest (for Washizuka) and joyous first son (for Keiichiro).