Okada Izo

Okada Izo (, Okada Izō) is a major antagonist featured in Ryu Ga Gotoku Ishin!/Like a Dragon: Ishin! based on Akira Nishikiyama and the real-life historical figure . He is a key member of the Tosa Loyalist Party, and the right-hand man of its leader. Okada is the party's most brutal and effective killer, which earned him the nickname of "Izo the Butcher" (, Hitokiri Izō).
== Profile ==
=== Appearance ===
Okada is a tall, thin man with a gaunt face and shoulder-length, slicked, black hair. His most distinct physical feature are his sunken-in eyes and the near-constant eye-bags beneath them, which indicate he does not sleep much. 
=== Attire ===
He wears long black hakama and a black kimono, along with a thick black scarf covering his neck to protect it from sword slashes. 
=== Personality ===
Okada is a quiet but intense man, prone to violent outbursts. Amongst his colleagues in the Tosa Loyalist Party, he is described as having dark eyes which "harbor bloodlust" behind them.
He is a devoted follower of Takechi Hanpeita and he longs for him to accept him as a brother. His devotion is such that he kills anybody Takechi orders him to without question and even allows himself to be captured and tortured by the Shogunate in order to feed them bad information as per Takechi's plans. Correspondingly with his admiration for Takechi, Okada loathes Sakamoto, since he is the only person whom Takechi actually does consider his brother and equal, thus provoking violent jealousy in Okada.
== Background ==
Okada was born into a low-rank family of samurai from the Tosa Domain. His dissatisfaction with the Edo government after the United States forced the Tokugawa Shogunate to sign unequal trade agreements with them prompted him to join the Tosa Loyalist Party, a local alliance of samurai which wanted to return direct rule over the country to the Emperor. He quickly became Takechi Hanpeita's most devoted follower and most trusted warrior.
== Involvement ==
=== Ryu Ga Gotoku Ishin!/Like a Dragon: Ishin!: 1866-1867 ===
However, in 1866, Sakamoto, Takechi's best friend who had spent the previous two years studying swordsmanship in Edo, returned to Tosa and joined the Kinno-to as well. Due to their prior bond, Takechi appointed Sakamoto as his second-in-command on the day of his return. Several members of the party were opposed to this appointment, Okada among them. These dissatisfied party members confronted Sakamoto outside the Kinno-to's headquarters after a meeting and Okada challenged him to a duel. Despite Okada's skill, Sakamoto bested him but did not kill him.
Soon after, the Tosa Loyalist Party would be thrust into chaos when an assassin murdered the group's leader, Yoshida Toyo, on the eve of a planned coup against local daimyo, Yamauchi Yodo. Yoshida's murder (and the framing of Sakamoto for the crime) led to Takechi taking over as the party's leader. This outcome had been the intended one all along since, in reality, Takechi had hired Inoue Genzaburo to assassinate Yoshida because he believed he was too moderate and the Kinno-to would be better off under his more radical leadership.
In the ensuing months, Sakamoto would travel to Kyoto in pursuit of the assassin and Takechi would try to salvage the Kinno-to's operations without Yoshida's government connections. Ultimately, Takechi would form a secret alliance with Yamauchi to work together to destabilize the Shogunate. In the interest of the destabilization, Okada killed many Shogunate officials, becoming one of Japan's most wanted men.
In 1867, a disguised Okada would approach Sakamoto in the streets of Kyoto to invite him to a meeting with Takechi in the slum district of Mukurogai. When Sakamoto went to the meeting at the appointed time, Okada confronted him and revealed himself as the messenger who sent for him. He duelled Sakamoto once again, ostensibly to test if his swordsmanship was still good enough to serve Takechi's cause. Sakamoto would defeat Okada, after which Okada led him to the shack where Takechi awaited.
A few weeks later, Sakamoto had infiltrated the Shinsengumi (under the alias of "Saito Hajime") out of suspicion that one of their leaders was Yoshida's assassin, and had become Captain of their 3rd Unit because of his outstanding combat skills. When one of the group's informants received a tip that Okada was hiding in an illegal gambling hall, 6th Unit Captain Inoue Genzaburo invited Sakamoto to accompany him and Captains Tani Sanjuro and Suzuki Mikisaburo to capture the assassin. Tani and Suzuki arrived at the gambling hall first and rushed in to attack Okada, only to die to his katana. Once Sakamoto and Inoue arrived, Sakamoto duelled Okada for the third time and once again beat him. Once Okada was too battered to continue fighting, Sakamoto convinced him to surrender rather than be killed.
Under torture, Okada provided information about where the Shogunate could supposedly find Takechi. Acting on this information, Yamauchi's men would allegedly capture Takechi and force him to commit seppuku. In reality, this was all a ruse perpetrated by Takechi, Yodo and Okada to fake Takechi's death and throw off the Shogunate forces who were hunting him. Soon after, Okada killed the guards holding him captive and escaped custody.
Out of fear that Sakamoto might eventually learn Inoue was Yoshida's assassin and that Takechi hired him, Takechi lured Inoue into a trap and had Okada murder him. Soon after, Takechi approached the Shinsengumi's Military Advisor, Ito Kashitaro, with a proposal: Takechi wanted to take the Emperor away from his shogunate guards in order to facilitate a war against the Shogunate, but he needed a massive distraction that would leave the Imperial Palace mostly unguarded to do so. Takechi asked Ito to forge orders from Commander Kondo Isami to trick the Shinsengumi into starting fires all over Kyoto as that distraction and, in exchange, Takechi would have Kondo killed and Ito given the funds to start his own pro-Emperor special police force. Ito agreed and Okada was given the task of both killing Kondo and kidnapping the Emperor when the plan was set in motion.
On the agreed upon night, Ito's men started the distraction fires. Okada snuck into Commander Kondo's home in Gion and fatally wounded him, but left him alive so he can deliver a message to Sakamoto, whom Okada knew would come to see Kondo. Okada had decided to defy his orders to kidnap the Emperor immediately after Kondo's murder, since he wanted to kill Sakamoto to prove that he was worthier of Takechi's respect. Accordingly, he told Kondo to tell Sakamoto to meet him outside the Imperial Palace.
After receiving the message from a dying Kondo, Sakamoto confronted Okada outside the Imperial Palace. Sakamoto accused Okada of being the one who had been pretending to be him and masterminding the conspiracies against the Shogunate, prompting Okada to reveal that Takechi was the real mastermind. Sakamoto already suspected this but dreaded the possibility too much, so he refused to believe it. Okada was insistent and mocked Sakamoto for refusing to accept the truth. Okada and Sakamoto duel one last time and Sakamoto wins again. However, unlike in their previous battles, Sakamoto struck a fatal blow. In his dying moments, Okada expressed regret that despite his devotion, he was never able to be a true brother to Takechi like Sakamoto was. He also warned that Takechi's plans were likely to get him killed and begged Sakamoto to stop him before it was too late, and finally succumbed to his wounds.
== Fighting Style ==
=== Ryu Ga Gotoku Ishin! ===
Okada is fought four times throughout Ishin!. As a user of the Nakanishi-ha Ittō-ryū swordfighting style, Okada is a smooth, graceful swordsman. Although his moveset is initially rather basic, eventually it evolves into one consisting of long combos with a variety of different attacks.
His combos are four in number, including:
* his Rush Combo comprised of an upward diagonal left slash, a downward diagonal left slash, a spinning upward jumping slash-downward falling slash, a spinning sword thrust (all fights), and pirouetting horizontal leftward slash-downward diagonal left slash (3rd fight onward);
* a combo consisting of an downward diagonal left slash, an underarm sword thrust, and an upward diagonal right slash;
* a combo made up of a running jump-vertical downward slash, a right leg sweep into a spinning upward vertical slash, and a low thrust-high thrust (3rd fight onward); and
* a combo consisting of a backwards pirouette sword thrust, a spinning downward diagonal left slash, a downward diagonal left slash-horizontal rightward slash, a horizontal leftward slash, and a diagonal downward right slash (4th fight only).
His other attacks are listed as follows:
* a spinning underarm reverse-grip thrust,
* a spinning low rightward slash,
* an upward sword parry knockback as a guard reversal (3rd fight onward), and
* a precise downward sword thrust as a downed attack (3rd fight onward).
He emits a red aura in Heat Mode.
Izo's moveset would later be reused by Koji Shindo in Yakuza Kiwami, as well as some of the Gladiator Games contestants in Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise, and Kengo in his second encounter in Judgment.
=== Like a Dragon: Ishin! ===
Izo's moveset is not much different to how it is in the original Ishin!, with only one additional attack where he points his blade at Sakamoto, before slashing and summoning a purple whirlwind that surrounds his body. He only uses this attack in his penultimate and final fight. However, his downed attack has been removed from his moveset. 
Izo has a white Heat Mode aura in his first two boss fights, which is swapped out for a purple aura in the third and fourth.
== Trivia ==
* Okada is one of the Four Hitokiri of the Bakumatsu, a group of infamous assassins who played an important role in the fall of the Tokugawa Bakufu. In Like A Dragon: Ishin!, all four hitokiri are portrayed by members of the Nishikiyama Family.
==Gallery==
===Ryu Ga Gotoku Ishin!===
Akira Nishikiyama (Nishiki) (Okada Izō).png
RGGI! - Character Render - Okada Izo.jpg|Full-body Ryu ga Gotoku Ishin! render of Okada
RGGI! - Character Render - Okada Izo (Tosa).png|Full-body Ryu ga Gotoku Ishin! render of Okada in Tosa
okadaishin.png
Okadaakira.png
Okada.png|Tosa Loyalty Party crest (Okada Ver.)
===Like a Dragon: Ishin!===
LADI! - Character Render - Okada Izo.png|Full-body Like a Dragon: Ishin! render of Okada
LADI! - Character Render - Okada Izo (Tosa).png|Full-body Like a Dragon: Ishin! render of Okada in Tosa
=== Ryu Ga Gotoku Online ===
RGGO - Card - SSR Okada Izo.png|SSR Okada Izo
RGGO - Card - SSR Okada Izo (Decisive Battle).png|SSR Okada Izo (Decisive Battle)
RGGO - Card - KSR Okada Izo (Ishin Kiwami).png|KSR Okada Izo (Ishin Kiwami)
== References ==
Category:Tosa Loyalist Party
Category:Ryu Ga Gotoku Ishin! Characters
Category:Like a Dragon: Ishin! Characters
Category:Ryu Ga Gotoku Ishin! Antagonists
Category:Ryu Ga Gotoku Ishin! Bosses
Category:Like a Dragon: Ishin! Bosses
Category:Ishin Shishi
Category:Historical Figures
Category:Ryu Ga Gotoku Online Characters