Shiro Tokisada Amakusa

*In this Japanese name, the family name is "**Amakusa**". "**Shiro**" is his given name, and "**Tokisada**" is his* imina*, a posthumous personal name.*

**Shiro Tokisada Amakusa**, sometimes called **Shirou Amakusa** or simply **Amakusa**, is a recurring boss and playable character in the *Samurai Shodown* series and the first known agent of the series' major villain, Ambrosia.

## Story

Prior to the events of *Samurai Shodown*, Amakusa is resurrected by the dark god Ambrosia. He incarnates into the world of the living in preparation for his own revival. He soon ursurps the evil that held Shizuka Gozen and gains more power. To fully incarnate with his power, he uses the body of Shinzo Hattori (one of Hanzo's sons) and possesses him. His main plot involves him stealing the Palenke stone, which he intended to use to bring Ambrosia to the mortal world. Haohmaru prevents this from happening by defeating him. In Galford's ending in the same game, it is shown that Amakusa isn't truly evil, thanking Galford for freeing him from Ambrosia's clutches.

Upon his resurrection in *Samurai Shodown IV*, his spirit splits into two halves: one good and one evil. Amakusa seeks to reunite with his more powerful and malevolently evil other half, who was bent on dominating Shimabara and eventually the whole world, as well as reining in this evil power, but was unsuccessful as his evil counterpart was slain by Kazuki. His continued existence after his evil half is destroyed is mostly because of his host body Shinzo.
During the events in *Samurai Shodown II*, he saves certain characters from Mizuki's wrath but because of the demise of his evil half, he isn't as powerful as he once was and is defeated, leaving only Shinzo's body for Hanzo to claim.

## Personality

He's a mad and vengeful spirit, resurrected by Ambrosia as a being of destruction to put up a new world order. Once he is relieved of the dark god's possession, he reverts to his living persona as a kind and merciful soul of righteous constitution. He is a narcissist by nature, which is what originally lured him to Ambrosia's temptations.

True to the historical Christian Amakusa, he speaks of sin, mercy and salvation, especially in later appearances.

## Powers

* **Levitation** - Amakusa has the power to levitate his weapon and other characters off the ground.
* **Teleport** - Amakusa can teleport himself.
* **Multiple Attacks**: Amakusa can deliver several slaps at once.
* **Fire Projectile**: Amakusa has the ability to project a fiery image of a demon.

## Fighting Style

Amakusa fights his opponents by attacking them with a levitating gem. He can direct the gem with an impressive range, able to smash his enemies from the air and ground level from nearly any distance easily.

At times, his gem may not compensate for opponents close to him so he also has hand attacks that often involve a multi-hitting slap attack. To confuse his adversaries, he may also teleport and hover above them before diving upon them with a damaging attack. He also projects fiery projectiles in the image of demons or electric balls to his foes, making him a formidable long-distance fighter.

He has slow jumping speed and can be laggy in the air, but possesses powerful basic attacks in exchange. Also, he can triangle jump.

Being up-close to your opponent can be a problem when playing as Amakusa, so he tends to play a mostly keep-away game, and relying on reflexes to attack or counterattack.

## Fanon Appearances

### Game Appearances

* Neo Geo Battle Arena - Possible boss
* The King of Fighters: Crossover Calamity - Possible final boss