This is a list of characters from the manga/anime Bamboo Blade. The show aired from October 2, 2007, to April 2, 2008, with 26 episodes being released. It has had many spin-offs and comic/manga stories created.
A large amount of the surnames are taken from various winners of the All Japan Kendo Championships.
Muroe Private High School Toraji Ishida /
Also known as "Kojirō", he is the kendo instructor, and also a teacher of politics and economics, at Muroe High School. He is the main protagonist of the series as well as the male lead. He is perpetually impoverished and lives from paycheck to paycheck, often taking handouts of food from his students. He is offered the chance of a lifetime from an old senpai ― a year's supply of sushi if his female kendo team can beat his senpai's in a practice tournament. This inspires Kojirō to put an effort into training his team, much to the delight of his most dedicated student, Kirino Chiba. The only person who knows the real reason for Kojirō's inspiration is Yūji Nakata, who calls him "pathetic". Kojirō's parents own a convenience store, but it is revealed that they used to own a store that sold sake. Kojirō's parents look young for their age, and his mother acts young (she makes a hobby of collecting cute things). Despite Kojirō's poverty, he somehow owns and maintains a high-performance car. In high school, he was a member of the kendo club. At that time he defeated his senpai, Kenzaburō, at a tournament to win a trophy. Though he has little affinity for the trophy itself, he cherishes the memory of his victory over Kenzaburō. Although he told Kenzaburō his victory was due to luck, he personally believes the reason he won was he was stronger than his senpai.
Tamaki Kawazoe
Tamaki Kawazoe is a first year high school student and the female lead of the story. She is nicknamed "Tama-chan" for short. Despite being a kendo prodigy, she does not see it as a hobby, but rather just as a chore honed at her home, which happens to be a kendo dojo led by her father. She refuses to join the school's Kendo Club because she thinks it is unnecessary, but she temporarily becomes a member in order to fight off a bully. She despises injustice due to her overdeveloped sense of righteousness and fair play inspired from watching tokusatsu as a child; her favorite is Blade Braver. She remains a big anime and tokusatsu fan despite her age. At first, she is very shy and unsociable, but she begins to overcome her shyness and open up to her teammates more often after holding a part-time job at Miyako's acquaintance's store. Kirino, Sayako (and for that matter, most girls in the story) find her very cute, often putting Tamaki's hair up in ponytails or making her fight in kendo matches just because they want to see her fight. She knows Yūji before the beginning of the series, and she has been called "Tama-chan" by him since their childhood although she does not like the nickname very much since it makes her seem childish). She is described as being the strength of the group by Kojirō. Tamaki lost for the very first time in the Kanto High School Kendo Tournament to Rin, Tamaki's arch-rival stemming from the Blade Braver series. Her loss was partly because Rin used a stance which reminded her of her late mother causing her to lose focus and concentration temporarily. In elementary school, she reached the top three in the national kendo match. She plays the position of General (Taishou) in the competition.
Kirino Chiba
Kirino Chiba is a second year high school student and the captain of the kendo club. Energetic and enthusiastic, she dreams of leading the team to the nationals. Her family owns a deli named "Chiba Deli". Kirino is very happy that Kojirō has finally begun to put more effort into training his kendo team, but she is oblivious to the real reason that her teacher has suddenly begun to train the team enthusiastically. She is proud that she is the captain of the kendo club and is more responsible than she appears. For example, she picks up the shinai when the other members leave them lying around on the floor and chides the other members for not picking up after themselves. Kirino seems to find Tamaki quite adorable; she and Sayako will often treat Tamaki as a "little sister" type. Examples of this are playing with Tamaki's hair, not listening to her kendo lectures, and making Tamaki fight merely because she wants to see her fight. Despite that, she has great confidence in Tamaki. She is described as being the heart of the group by Kojirō. She also shows a strong emotional attachment to Kojirō as displayed in the last anime episode when he comes back as the club's instructor. She plays the position of Second-in-Command (Fukushou) in the competition.
Miyako Miyazaki
Miyako Miyazaki is a first year high school student nicknamed "Miya-Miya". She is introduced as a very pretty and friendly girl, and to the surprise of many, the girlfriend of Danjūrō. However, in reality, she possesses a very dark and sadistic personality, but she hides it in order to be together with Danjūrō. In the manga, she also smokes in school and hangs out with two girls that are possibly delinquents, but she is not seen doing so in the anime. When Miyako shows her more sadistic side, she is surrounded by a black aura and acts in a rather eerie and cruel manner, but she instantly switches back to her friendly façade when others are approaching or calling her name. Having only joined the Kendo Club because Danjūrō was in it, she initially finds it boring, but she later enjoys it after realizing she likes to hit people. She has rather quick and powerful strikes, but she at first does not use any other moves other than attempting to strike her opponents in the head in the anime. In one episode of the anime, however, Miyako was shown to strike at the other areas on her opponent although none of the strikes counted due to incorrect posture. She is very afraid of her middle school classmate, Reimi Odajima. This is due to a love relationship incident that resulted in Reimi stalking her ever since. As the series goes on, her kendo skills begins to improve tremendously, and she finally managed to score a kote point against Azuma in the 22nd episode. She plays the position of Second-Vanguard (Jihô) in the competition.
Sayako Kuwahara
Sayako Kuwahara is a second year high school student described as being random and spontaneous, often changing her interests and goals. During her first year, she joins the Kendo Club, but she would sometimes disappear for short periods of time, claiming to quit. She and Kirino have known each other since elementary school, and Kirino often calls her "Saya". She is one of the tallest members on the team; others poke fun at this by "mistakenly" calling her a boy. In the storyline, she was seen to improve her footwork tremendously after a brief teaching session from Tamaki. Sayako, like Kirino, thinks that Tamaki is cute; she and Kirino will sometimes do silly things to Tamaki, such as playing with Tamaki's hair, not listening to her kendo lectures, and making Tamaki fight merely because she wants to see her fight. She is rather pessimistic and always claims to pursue death the moment she fails at something. In the anime, her writer's hobby is seen when telling stories, such as explaining why Asuma quit kendo in a dramatic fashion; her friends gave her three points since they found her "story" uninteresting. In the manga, she is seriously against high schooler smokers, confiscating Miya-Miya's cigarettes (before they were introduced each other in the kendo club the next day), leading to a bad start between them, that was resolved when Miya apologized to Saya, promising not to smoke again inside the school and leaving the pack of cigarettes she was carrying at the time to Saya, telling her to "hold them for her". Saya later forgot to throw them away and his little brother will caught her with the pack on her hands, making her family think she was a smoker and ending in a funny scene (her mother reacted by punching her in the face and his father skipped work for the first time to scold her). In another occasion, she argued with some girls from the Kamazaki highschool kendo club, who were smoking, before the practice match. The girls reacted very angry, but before something happened Miya-Miya intervened and told Saya to leave them alone, mocking the girls by telling them that smoking was kids' stuff and that she dropped it after Middle school, making them even angrier. They later, fought against these girls on the practice match. She plays the position of Center (Chûken) in the competition.
Satori Azuma
Satori Azuma, a class 1-3 high school student in the anime, is the fifth and the last person to join the Kendo Club. She is very talented in kendo. In fact, Satori is the second strongest in the club, with Tamaki being the strongest. Despite her diligence, she is very bad with her studies. It is revealed her glasses are fake; she thought she would get smarter by wearing them. She decided to quit kendo after middle school in order to concentrate on her studies. Because she is rather naïve, she is tricked by Miyako Miyazaki into joining the club, thinking that Kendo will help her improve her studies. Satori is comically clumsy, as demonstrated in the ending sequences and previews in the anime. She plays the position of Vanguard (Senpou) in the competition.
Yuji Nakata
Yūji Nakata is a kind, cheerful, and helpful first year student who joins the Kendo Club. He was a member of his junior high school's kendo club and had also attended the Kawazoe Dojo. He had reached the top five in the prefectural games during junior high. In the Q&A of the manga, Tamaki asserts that he is stronger than Toyama. He is almost on par with Tamaki in skill, and he has defeated Satori Azuma once. Yūji has used kendo to scare away some gangsters although he panicked after the gangsters had run off. He is also the only person who knows of Kojirō's true reason for training his kendo team with more gusto than before. He also possesses considerable academic skill; he scored fourth out of all the freshmen on the regional exams.
Danjuro Eiga
Also known as Dan-kun, Danjūrō Eiga is a round and plain-faced (and somewhat goofy-looking) first year who joins the Kendo Club with Yūji. He originally wanted to join the Ping Pong Club, but there was no such club in the school. He shocks Yūji and Kojirō when he brings his pretty girlfriend Miyako, whom they assumed had the same cartoony look, to join the club. While he finds the basic training to be "boring" (possibly because he wants to impress Miyako), he is rather proficient in scorekeeping, as shown in one episode of the anime. While he generally comes off as rather dim-witted, it appears he is perceptive to the character Miyako does not want him to see. In Episode 11, he was hinted to also have his own "dark side" during a staring contest he had with Kojirō. However, his "black mode" was subtler than Miyako's "black mode," and his aura only showed in his eyes. He has no past experience with Kendo, but he is improving very quickly, even to the point where Yūji thinks Danjuro might surpass him before they graduate. Yūji has even remarked in an episode of the anime that Danjūrō "are meant for kendo". Eiga is arguably the smartest member of the Kendo club because he scored 2nd place is the Muroe High School Regional exams for freshman. By the end of the anime series, it is revealed that he is the new captain of the Kendo Club.
Akira Toyama