Kikuchiyo (Samurai 7)

Kikuchiyo is a major protagonist in the anime Samurai 7. He is voiced by Kong Kuwata in Japanese and Christopher Sabat in English.
==Biography==
Having grown up a farmer, Kikuchiyo had a very hard life. His suffering eventually caused him to develop a resentment to both bandits and farmers, so he decided to become a samurai. In time, he was also turned into a cyborg by Masamune.
He roamed the city in hopes of helping people, finding a family whose child was being held hostage. He attempts to save the child from the samurai, but said samurai reveals himself to have explosives, causing Kikuchiyo to hesitate. Before the situation could get any worse, Kanbei arrives and saves the kid, but not before slashing Kikuchiyo's head off. Agitated, Kikuchiyo starts demanding an actual fight with Kanbei, only for the legendary samurai to walk off, leaving Kikuchiyo to return to Masamune for repairs.
After getting back into shape, he has a run in with the farm group with Komachi being quick to happily approach him and invite him in their battle against the Nobuseri. After which, they find out Kirara had been abducted by Ukyo, prompting Kiku and Katsushiro to find and save her. After which Ukyo summons so goons to fight them, and the two inexperienced Samurai are overwhelmed and forced to tell Kirara to run. Despite this, Kiku manages to best them with one arm while Katsushiro is getting back up. However, his body starts to break down due to overexerting himself just as Masamune arrives figuring Kikuchiyo was being careless.
On the way back, they have a run in with Katayama Gorobei who reveals he once was a samurai who has since become an entertainer. While Katsushiro is unamused, Kikuchiyo is curious. Upon which, Gorobei makes a bet with Katsushiro which gets Kiku interested in seeing. After seeing Goro's abilities, the group returns to the farmers to find Kanbei, much to Kiku's annoyance.
After hearing Katsushiro lament over his loss, Kiku believes Kanbei to be at fault and complains about the old samurai refusing to help the Kanna villagers before being told otherwise. After which, Kanbei states that he alone will not be enough and suggests a total of seven samurai. Kiku believes the group already has three only for Kanbei to reject them due to them lacking true samurai spirit, much to Kiku's frustration. Despite this, they tell Kanbei about Gorobei, whom Kanbei recruits upon seeing the man able to anticipate a trick set up to test him. Then they get attacked with Kanbei ordering Katsushiro to protect the group. Kikuchiyo joins Kanbei and Goro in fighting the attackers. Gorobei attempts to make a deal, but the attackers dishonor the agreement, forcing the group to go all out against them. While Kiku struggles, Kanbei and Goro slay the attackers.
After which, Kiku is forced to clean up a building he destroyed during the defense. As the group continue their search for more samurai, Kanbei gets attacks by a samurai named Kyuzo, sent by Ayamaro. Noticing this, Kikuchiyo attempts to help, only for Kyuzo to send him down onto the floor.
With the lack of new recruits, Kiku grows frustrated until they find another. A friendly samurai named Hayashida Heihachi, who volunteers to chop wood for Masamune to pay for some goods. This gets Kiku to admire the new guy and they recruit him on the spot before finding out that Kanbei's group had been looking for him as well.
In an attempt to prove himself, Kiku provides a scroll to claim himself a capable samurai, but the group points out the scroll claims him to be only 13 years old, much to his humiliation. He later attempts to challenge Heihachi, but backs off when he calls him a samurai, causing the two of them to become good friends. With this, Kanbei asks Kiku to help them find more samurai. There, they run into another one of Ayamaro's samurai. Upon which, Kiku gets to see what Heihachi is capable of, and the group manage to escape.
When Ayamaro's son is murdered, the blame is pinned on a samurai due to the death being by a samurai's sword, with an order sent out to have all samurai arrested. Kiku ends up being one of the unlucky ones to be captured as he is locked up with some other samurai. However, Kiku soon reveals he intentionally got captured to free the other captured samurai to recruit. Upon bring them to Kanbei though, the first samurai rejects them all and knocks them all out singlehandedly, proving them all worthless to the cause. With Ayamaro's soldiers after them, the group make their escape with Masamune's help.
To keep Masamune from getting in trouble for helping them, Kanbei ties him up, and Kiku beats him up to make it look like they forced him to help them. They eventually manage to give the guards the slip using a plan put together by Kanbei, but Kiku is unable to jump in time. Unknown to the group (but highly anticipated by the samurai), Kikuchiyo survived.
He manages to elude the empire guards and make his way to where the rest of the group are taking refuge from the empire, but not without leading the empire to them. The group take off to the village with Kanbei's old friend Shichiroji joining them as another samurai for the team. However, Ukyo's squad is on their tail. They manage to escape when they come across and area run by beings known as the guardians, whom Ukyo's group don't dare to mess with.
Kikuchiyo overhears Kanbei acknowledge Katsushiro as the fifth samurai, he believes himself to have a chance only for Kanbei to tell him to go home before he gets hurt. Shortly after, they discover the guardians to be trading partners with the Nobuseri, which causes Rikichi to go berserk. They soon learn that Rikichi let the Nobuseri take his wife as he rants toward the inhabitants for letting the guardians use them. Although Kanbei attempts to get him to stop, Kiku convinces him to let Rikichi let it all out. As the group assure Rikichi they will save his wife Sanai, Kikuchiyo runs off to investigate the trade with Komachi following him. Realizing how dangerous it would be, Kiku sends her back to the rest of the group. The moment he begins, he gets ambushed and captured by Kyuzo and Hyogo. However, Kyuzo betrays Hyogo and helps the group free Kikuchiyo, which earns him the position of the sixth samurai.
Eventually, the party makes it back to the village. Most of the villagers welcome the samurai except for Manzo, who becomes so nervous that he sells the samurai out to the Nobuseri to save his own skin. However, the Nobuseri prepare to kill him anyway with the samurai arriving in time to save him. There Kikuchiyo goes into a tirade about how corrupt society is with everybody in every faction having some form of corruption to them while inadvertently revealing himself to have once been a farmer. This moment of humility is enough to get Kanbei to finally acknowledge Kiku as part of the group and the final samurai for the team.
With the team finally complete, the samurai prepare for battle. As they train the farmers to fight as well, Kikuchiyo is place on guard duty where he notices Rikichi taking off with a sword. Curious, he catches up with him to find out the farmer wishes to be able to fight as well. When Rikichi asks for a body like his, Kiku assures him that he doesn't truly want to become a machine samurai for his wife and trains him to be able to fight without the need to become mechanical like him. As they train, the Nobuseri arrive, prompting Kikuchiyo to join up with the other samurai for battle. After fighting off the first wave, Kanbei cuts off Kiku's head so as to prep a trap for the next wave involving the farmers surrendering them to the bandits.
With this, the samurai and Kirara are taken away by the Nobuseri. With the trap layed out, each of the samurai take action from within the enemy ship. Afterward, the group return to the village to plan the next stage while Kikuchiyo entertains the kids. Upon the arrival of the bandits during a storm Kiku and the other samurai fight while protecting the villagers. However, the fight takes a toll with Gorobei being struck down.
As the villagers work to rebuild and harvest before the war continues, Kikuchiyo attempts to help out. Unable to help, he visits Gorobei's grave to express his greivances to his fallen comrade while pondering if he died in vain. Heihachi let's Kikuchiyo know that to be for him to decide and that they should focus on continuing to maintain peace within the village of Kanna. Then Kikuchiyo asks what a Samurai really is, which Heihachi tells him to look at his own reflection.
Eventually, after being deep in thought, Kikuchiyo decides that he shouldn't lay around and chooses to go to the capital like Kanbei did to save Sanae, and he convinces Katsushiro to join him. After being given some rations from Heihachiu and Shichiroji, the two of them plus Kirara and Komachi head out to the capital together.
On the way, they find out Ukyo acquitted all samurai and had them sent to protect farm villages like they are doing, causing them to get suspicious over what he is doing. When they return to the city, they find out that Kanbei has been arrested for the Envoy murder and sentenced to beheading while also reuniting with Masamune. Kikuchiyo is given a new sword, and he prepares to go help Kanbei alongside Katsushiro. However, he is convinced to save the women as Kanbei would likely find a way to save himself. In order to do so, they knock out some guardians and take their uniforms to gain access to the capital, leaving Komachi with Masamune.
Once inside, Kiku is quick to throw off the disguise and attack Ayamaro. Upon hearing the details of how the trades between the capital and the guardians works, he starts destroying the rice in rage. When Katsushiro goes of to help Kanbei, Kiku and and Kirara force Ayamaro to lead them to where the women are. However, the guards see through Kiku's disguise due to it not actually fitting him. Before a brawl can occur though Tessai arrives with Kanbei and Katsushiro and orders the guards to release all the women the former Amenushi held prisoner under Ukyo's orders, much to the surprise of everybody.
Kanbei then lets the group know that Sanae is pregnant with the late emperor's child when she refuses to go with them. However, she reveals the child has died when she fell into grief over the Amenushi dying.
After they get out, Kiku finds out that Kanbei let his guard down upon finding out Sanae had genuinely fallen in love with the former emperor and proceeds to tease him for it. This gets him and Katsu a smack from the blunt side of Kanbei's sword.
Eventually, the group left the place to check on other villages before eventually finding the remains of a Nobuseri that had been destroyed by Ukyo. There, Kiku declare his willingness to die in battle, which causes Komachi to cry. To cheer her up, he gives her his "family" scroll. She then asks for the two of them to get married when she grows up, which Kiku happily accepts. The samurai then split up from Kirara, Komachi, Rikichi, and Sanae to go face the Capital.
When Ukyo orders the main cannon to be fired, the samurai use it to their advantage to board the capital. Kiku misses but is saved by Shichiroji. At first, they think they manage to capture Ukyo, but they soon find out to have simply caught farmers that were forced to look like him in order to throw the samurai off, so they allow them to go only to witness them get cut down by Tessai. Kikuchiyo attempts to fight, but is overwhelmed. However, Kyuzo arrives in time to save them as does Katsushiro. As the fight with Tessai draws to a close though, Kyuzo is accidentally killed by Katsushiro in an effort to save Kanbei, and Katsu informs the group that Heihachi died in battle as well.
After grieving for their fallen comrades, the group declare their intent to finish Ukyo off once and for all. They corner the emperor, and Kiku is able to identify him by his scent as he doesn't smell like a farmer. However, he acknowledges Ukyo was a farmer once and tell him he knows what the life of a farmer is like. When Ukyo attempts to lie about his actions, Kikuchiyo isn't fooled and gets ready to finish Ukyo off, only for the Capital to crash and throw him off balance, allowing Ukyo to shoot him and beat him with the gun.
Kiku survives and saves Kanbei from an even more unhinged Ukyo, sending them both off of the Capital. Kikuchiyo falls onto the ship with the farmers which is found by Ukyo. Kiku punches Ukyo off the ship and slays the Nobuseri he was with before telling Rikichi to take him in front of the capital. He then sends them away, grabs a Nobuseri sword, and uses it to slash the capital in half. The intensity of the impact ends up being so strong that it ends with Kiku's body completely melting down to the point nothing except his feet are left. His remains are found by a heartbroken Komachi and Kirara, and he is given a memorial with the other fallen samurai.
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