Himura Kenshin

The lead character in the anime series Rurouni Kenshin. Although he looks and sounds like a girl (his voice was done by Mayo Suzukase, who's female), he is really the Hitokiri (assassin) Battousai, formerly the most deadly swordsman in Japan. However, he took a vow never to kill again and became a rurouni, a sort of wandering samurai. He fights with a sakabatou, a sword with the sharp edge on the wrong side.

Physically, he's short and doesn't look very strong. He wears his long red hair in a pony tail down his back. The only thing to indicate he can fight at all is the cross-shaped scar on his cheek, and his cold, deadly attitude when he gets mad. The rest of the time he acts very laid-back, even comical. His favorite expression is "Oro?".

In the manga and anime, Rurouni Kenshin, the protagonist Himura Kenshin was an assassin for the Choshuu Isshin Shishi, whose objective was to overthrow the shogunate, who had ruled Japan for 300 years. Using the ancient sword school, Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu, Kenshin killed from the shadows with his lightning fast battoujutsu, or sword drawing technique. Because he was a master of sword drawing, he was nick named Battousai.

So Battousai killed, never giving a thought about the lives he took. To him, they were obstacles to the new era, to be cut down without mercy. At the tender age of 15, he had already killed over 100 men.

After a series of tragic events, Himura Battousai threw down his daisho and took up the Sakabatou, a katana with a the blade on the inside and the dull edge on the outside. He wandered Japan for ten years after the Bakumatsu no Douran ended until he ended up in Tokyo.

There he was accosted by a young woman with blue eyes and a hard bokken. Kenshin helped the young woman, Kamiya Kaoru to fight some thugs who were trying to force her to sell her kenjutsu dojo. Kaoru was grateful and asked Kenshin to stay at the dojo with her.

Happy at the idea of having a home for the first time in over a decade, Kenshin took up her offer. So began the great adventure.