Characters / Sengoku Basara Date Clan

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Date Clan | Takeda Clan | Maeda Clan | Uesugi Clan | Oda Clan
Azai Clan | Tokugawa Clan | Toyotomi Clan | Western Clans
Nation Of Xavism | Other Characters | Area Warlords
Crossover
Teppen (2019)

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Date Clan

Debuting in Sengoku Basara 1

Date Masamune

Date Masamune

Voiced by: Kazuya Nakai (Japanese), Kirby Morrow (Devil Kings), Robert McCollum (anime), Reuben Langdon (Samurai Heroes)
Live actor: Yūki Kubota (1st to 5th stage plays), Eiji Takigawa (6th and 7th stage plays), Daichi Yamaguchi (8th and 9th stage plays), Akihisa Shiono (10th and 11th stage plays), Shūto Mashima (12th stage play onwards)

"Now give it all you've got and let me enjoy this!"

Young, cool but Hot-Blooded leader of the Date clan from Oshu Province. He's out mostly to conquer the land and get on a good fight while he's at it. He's also a guy who values style, therefore his army look very delinquentish and he likes spouting Engrish speeches.

His Devil Kings counterpart's name was Azure Dragon.

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• Adaptation Dye-Job: The Ranse Ranbu manga made his hair white. The first two seasons of the anime made his eyes gray (though in Judge End they've gone back to being brown like in the games).
• Anachronism Stew: In anime and manga, he plays a major role in the Battle of Okehazama. Historically, he hadn't even been born at the time.
• Animal Motifs: Dragons, obviously. Though others with less respect for him, like Hideyoshi, will instead compare him to a snake.
• Badass Arm-Fold: How he rides a horse.
• Badass Biker: His anime horse has handlebars and Harley Davidson exhaust pipes... in the Sengoku Era.
• Badass Longcoat: Gets a white one in Sanada Yukimura-den.
• Batter Up!: His joke weapon in 4.
• Battle Cry: Anime-only so far.
  "Big Boss of Oshu, Date Masamune! Full speed ahead!"
• Benevolent Boss: No one in the Date army gets left behind if he can help it. As Yukimura puts it, Masamune is loyal to his subordinates, and they in turn are loyal to him.
• Berserk Button: Harming his followers, especially Kojuro, will set Masamune off on a bout of Unstoppable Rage. Case in point: the majority of Masamune's story path in SB2 has him chasing after Hanbe for hurting Kojuro. Never mind that Hanbe was aiming for Masamune and Kojuro took the hit, never mind that Kojuro was apparently only lightly harmed by said hit (he continues to follow Masamune for the remainder of the story), but just the fact that his faithful retainer was harmed at all set Masamune on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge which only ended when the entirety of the Toyotomi army had been crushed.
  (At Kojuro's death) "You have no idea what you have just unleashed!"
  • The anime makes the following the one time he loses his cool when dealing with Mitsuhide:
  "You used someone as a shield, just so that you can finish him, along with your enemies, from behind? There are things that you should, and shouldn't do!"
  • He also does not take kindly to being beaten by Mitsunari, and sets out on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge. This is especially prevalent in Judge End, where he's so blinded by his rage that he almost kills Yukimura because he hallucinates that he's Mitsunari. It takes a pep-talk from Kojuro to snap him out of it.
• Blood Knight: He frequently picks one-on-one battles just for the hell of it, whether they're necessary or not, to prove his strength.
• Boss Subtitles: "Chief of Oshu"
  • "Masamune Date - Ready to Party" for Samurai Heroes.
• Calling Your Attacks: With Engrish to boot!
  • JET-X!
  • WAR DANCE!
  • CRAZY STORM!
  • PHANTOM DIVE!
  • JUMPING JACK BREAKER!
  • DEATH FANG!
  • MAGNUM STEP!
• Character Catchphrase: Masamune always loves a good "party" when he gets the chance. And though not to the point of Verbal Tic, he does sometimes end his sentences with the phrase "you see?"
• Cool Horse: Anime-only. It's not just any Cool Horse, but a Motor-Horse.
• The Charmer: He's charismatic enough that most characters can't help but be drawn to him. From the third game, Magoichi seems to bring out the smooth-talker in him too.
  Masamune: "Go easy on me now, boss lady..."
• Deadpan Snarker: Sometimes, usually when he's threatening someone, but also jokingly too.
  "We wouldn't want anyone else with a scary face like yours hanging around now would we, Kojuro?"
  • In the anime dub he rarely says anything that isn't snarky.
• Defiant to the End: In the anime, when Nobunaga threatens to stab his eye out, Masamune tells him to go on and try it.
• Determinator: In season 2's finale. Gets thrown through several walls, nearly strangled to death, is shoved into a stone castle wall and punched so hard that the whole castle is destroyed and collapses on top of him. He still manages to defeat the Big Bad.
  • Made even worse in the Samurai Legends manga, where Hideyoshi dislocates Masamune's shoulder (forcing him to fix it himself to keep fighting) and almost drowns him.
• Dual Wielding: How about wielding six swords at once instead of just two swords, HA? Or six Alastors, heh?
• Expy: Personality-wise, he's one of Dante of the Devil May Cry series, and, while he lacks guns, some of his moves resemble DMC moves, such as Stinger and High Time. As well as having Alastor as his weapons in the earlier games and the above-mentioned Actor Allusion, he even gets a Dante costume (complete with white hair and Alastor) as DLC in the fourth game.
• Eyepatch of Power: Even if you're into historical accuracy, if you do not put an eyepatch on Date Masamune, you're doing it wrong.
• Eye Scream: Masamune's missing eye had to be gouged out in his youth. In the anime Nobunaga tries to gouge out his other eye during their Final Battle.
• Friendly Enemy: When they're not feeling compelled to try and kill each other, he and Yukimura seem to get along fine. Then again, they also genuinely enjoy fighting each other.
• Full-Name Basis: Always calls Yukimura by his full name.
  • He has switched to First-Name Basis once or twice during their climactic final duel.
  • He's also switched to Last-Name Basis when he's angry with him.
• "Get Back Here!" Boss: There will always be a stage where you have to get in a horse race with him (since the Date are expert horsemen and he lives in the mountains), making it to the goal before he does. The same applies to Kojuro, though in his case the goal is to kill him before he reaches Masamune.
• Glass Cannon: His "6 Claws" mode gives him a huge attack boost at the expense of his ability to block and sidestep, thus making him quite vulnerable to attacks.
• Gratuitous English: Masamune loves his Gratuitous English.
  Masamune: "ARE YOU READY GUYS?!"
  Lackeys: "Yeah!"
  Masamune: "PUT YA GUNS ON!"
• Grin of Audacity: Usually flashes a crazy grin when he's enjoying himself. His chibi in the Mini Sengoku Basara shorts often features one.
• Handicapped Badass: In fact, it makes him even more badass than before!
• Hellish Pupils: For no apparent reason, aside from his association with dragons. Not present in the anime.
  • They also show up quite a bit in fanart, along with his having an eye of gold.
• Historical Hero Upgrade: The historical Masamune was certainly much more ruthless, but... hey, this is Basara.
• Historical Beauty Update: It's rather doubtful◊ that the real Masamune was as maddeningly attractive as this one...
  • Time for a historical fun fact! Some time ago, Date Masamune's remains were dug up and measured. He was approx 159cm tall. Not much, considering most of his fangirls are taller. But it was the average height during his time.
• Homoerotic Subtext: His retainer Kojuro and rival Yukimura are the most prevalent (in Sanada Yukimura-den, he outright calls him "MY LOVER" in Engrish), but Motochika, Ieyasu, and Katsuie are also noticeable. He's shipped with everyone though.
• Hot-Blooded: Yukimura influences him.
  "Guess I got a little too heated up. I gotta stay cool."
• How the Mighty Have Fallen: Has to pick himself up and recover his former reputation after Mitsunari delivers his first crushing defeat in SB3.
• I Can Still Fight!: Does this in the anime after his soldiers are kidnapped. Despite having been shot only hours earlier, he acts like everything's okay and decides to stage a rescue attempt. Kojuro knows he is in no condition to go anywhere and knocks him out (not without a duel first, however).
  • Does it again in the second season when he attempts to fight Hideyoshi in a rather ragged condition. It goes about as well as you could expect (well, a little better, considering Hideyoshi spared his life).
  • Does it yet again in Judge End after fighting Mitsunari; Even though he's seriously injured (his wounds actually reopen at one point), he intends to have a showdown against Mitsunari.
• Indy Ploy: Although he does come up with strategies, Masamune seems to find it more fun to charge in first and make things up as he goes along.
• Invincible Hero: He shows huge signs of this in the second season of the anime. Not so much in the games, where consequences of his defeat by Mitsunari Ishida shape his storyline for the third game (and his overall role in the plot is much less significant).
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He's a great guy underneath that cocky, disrespectful teenage Blood Knight persona. Honestly.
• Large Ham: Becomes loud and boisterous whenever he's fired up. He especially likes making a big entrance.
• Jack of All Stats: In the games. Average attack, average defense, average attack speed, average reach. Has a good mixture of Spam Attacks, powerful single strikes, dash attacks, a ranged attack, and a Super Mode that turns him into a temporary Glass Cannon.
• Japanese Delinquents: A whole army of them.
• Kamehame Hadoken: Masamune's "Hell Dragon" skill. As a bonus, it appears to be modelled after Ryu's Denjin Hadoken.
• Leitmotif: Theme of Date Masamune.
• Mr. Fanservice: The fans go absolute crazy over him and Capcom damn well know it. How else do you explain his amount of fanservice steadily increasing since the first game?
  • In the anime he tends to get beaten up just so he can walk around in bandages for a while.
• My Horse Is a Motorbike: His black horse from the anime is Trope Namer. However, it's not a real motorbike, just a horse with handlebars.
• The Nicknamer: In the anime dub. Examples include "Kid" and "Red" for Yukimura, "Flower Boy" for Keiji, "Muttonchops" for Hideyoshi, and "Captain Lavender" for Motochika.
• Pet the Dog: He has his moments with Itsuki and Tsuruhime in the games, and Oichi in the anime. Seems he can't leave a girl in distress alone.
  • Off the battlefield he also has his moments with Yukimura, surprisingly.
• Red Baron: The One-Eyed Dragon and the Big Boss of Oshu. It turns out that Kojuro gave him the latter one.
  • As of 4, he's now calling himself the Dragon King. Although he ditches it for Big Boss again at the end of his normal route.
• The Rival/Worthy Opponent: Towards Yukimura.
• Rousing Speech: They certainly inspire his troops.
  "LET'S PARTY!"
• The Scream: Happens at least in the third manga when Mitsunari slaughters a good portion of his army and severely injures Kojuro. Complete with bloody backround. Rather cruel turnpoint for the previously cocky and invincible One-Eyed Dragon. See it here.
• Secret Stab Wound: When he is shot in the stomach at Nagashino, he successfully hides the injury until several miles from the battlefield, only revealing himself by fainting and falling off his horse.
  • Not only that, it was implied that he spent half the journey unconscious. That's right, he was on his way back to Oshu while he wasn't even awake.
• Shirtless Scene: Anime Episode 8. He got muscular just for the occasion.
• Shock and Awe
  • An Ice Person: One of his alternate weapons in Sumeragi is called Hyouryuu (Ice Dragon), which changes his element from lightning to ice.
• Smoking Is Cool: In the Samurai Legends manga he occasionally smokes a pipe and has since done so in quite a lot of doujins and fanart.
• The Starscream: Claims to Yukimura that he is this to Ieyasu.
• Super Mode: The Six Claws stance, which gives him a more powerful moveset, though he sacrifices the ability to defend.
• Take Over the World: His ultimate goal, although unlike Nobunaga or Hideyoshi he bears no ill will and wants to make it a place of peace.
• There Was a Door: "Ah, sorry, I forgot to knock!"
• This Cannot Be!: If you beat him during the horse race, he says this in Engrish for good measure.
• Trash Talk: Does plenty of this, even when it's not in his best interests. If Masamune's not taunting them, you can assume he respects his opponent.
  • It gets him in trouble when he insults Hideyoshi's memory in front of Mitsunari, a dangerous man by anyone's standards, who goes mad with rage and promptly hunts Masamune down. Then Masamune digs himself even deeper by taunting Mitsunari.
• Wise Beyond Their Years: He has moments which show why he's considered a worthy leader despite being only around 20. These moments become more frequent during the course of the series.
  • Plus he looks even more mature in comparison to Yukimura who, despite being only a little younger, gets treated like a child by Masamune.
  Masamune: (To Yukimura) "Age before beauty, kid."
• Wolverine Claws: He does the trope one better by wielding three Dragon Claws in each hand.
• Would Hit a Girl: When speaking with Naotora, Masamune claims that he'll take down anyone who challenges him, whether they be man or woman.

Debuting in Sengoku Basara 2

Katakura Kojuro

Katakura Kojuro

Voiced by: Toshiyuki Morikawa (Japanese), Travis Willingham (English)
Live actor: Tomokazu Yoshida (1st to 8th stage plays), Masahiro Inoue (10th stage play onwards)

"I am prepared for anything."

Masamune's Number Two, retainer and overall right-hand man, introduced as an NPC in Sengoku Basara 2. Loyal, devoted and extremely protective of his master, and serves as a calmer counterpoint to the Hot-Blooded Masamune. He is arguably just as cool though.

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• Adaptation Dye-Job: The franchise can't seem to agree whether his hair is black or brown.
• Alliterative Name: Only in English (since in Japanese it's "ka" and "ko").
• Badass in Distress: He spends most of season 2 of the anime as a Toyotomi captive.
• Badass Longcoat
• Boss Subtitles: "Kojuro Katakura - Doing Work"
• The Consigliere: Far more level-headed and cautious than Masamune, who he tries to keep in check and teach about the ways of war. Also comes up with all the army's battle strategies.
• Demoted to Extra: Becomes an NPC once again in SB3 after only becoming playable for an expansion and PSP game. Then he's playable once more in Utage.
  • Also in the Ranse Ranbu manga, at least in the first volume. Partially justified as it was based on the first game (and he appeared in the second one).
• Determinator: According to Ieyasu, he should have been dead long before deciding to take on the entire Tokugawa army. And he's still standing afterwards.
• Diagonal Cut: One of his favoured moves.
• Face of a Thug: He's very intimidating, and looks it too, but underneath he's righteous and quite kind-hearted.
  Itsuki: "Your face might be scary, but really you're a good person."
• Good Old Fisticuffs: In Berserk Mode he can also attack with punches and kicks. His hand-to-hand combat skills are shown to be devastating in the anime.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: The scar on his face. We're never told how he got it.
• He Knows Too Much: In Motonari's blue path, Kojuro works out the former's intention to manipulate Mitsunari and Motochika to his advantage. Naturally, Motonari has him killed in order to maintain his charade.
• Homoerotic Subtext: He is utterly devoted to Masamune and would rather die than let him come to harm.
• Hot Men at Work: Quite frequently subject to this, due to his passion for vegetables.
• Improbable Weapon User: About the only aversion in the whole series; Kojuro wields a traditional daisho, a katana/wakizashi pair, in the traditional samurai manner.
• Invincible Hero: If Masamune can't fight a certain opponent, rest assured that he will pwn them for him. It's inevitable. Just ask Mitsuhide, Hisahide and Hanbe...
• Leitmotif: Right Eye Of The Dragon
• Love Bubbles: In Mini Sengoku Basara, when taking care of his vegetables.
• Mangst: If he angsts at all, it's quietly and sternly, and he never lets it get in the way of everyday life.
  • In his SB4 ending, he cries a Single Tear.
• Meditation Powerup: Routinely meditates for a moment during his taunt.
• My Greatest Failure: In the anime, he sees his inability to protect his lord at the Battle of Nagashino as this.
• Named Weapons: His katana, the Black Dragon.
• Nice Guy: Outside the battlefield or Masamune's service, he spends his time with townsfolk helping them harvest the rice fields.

• Number Two: He actually seems to be far more involved in day-to-day running of the province, and there's also the implication that he's stronger than Masamune.
• Older Sidekick: Has a good ten years on his master, yet follows him devotedly and (mostly) without question.
• Papa Wolf: Dare to hurt Masamune or his subordinates, and Kojuro will destroy you.
• Perpetual Frowner: The number of times he's been caught smiling can be counted on one hand.
• The Power of Friendship: His strength is renewed during the Utage story mode thanks to the souls of his dead troops bonding together to help.
• Precision F-Strike: Kojuro drops a pretty blunt one of these when he enters Slaughter Mode in 2:
  Koujuro: "I'll fucking kill you."
  • In fact, he drops them a bit too often...
  Kojuro: "Hey you, don't be fucking around now."
• Real Men Wear Pink: His hobby is vegetable gardening, and no one even attempts to mock him for it. He takes it very seriously.
• Red Baron: The Dragon's Right Eye.
• The Rival: His designated rival is Hisahide, though Kojuro sees him as more of an Arch-Nemesis.
  • As of Sengoku Basara 4, Sasuke is Kojuro's official rival. Hanbe also returns as a rival in the same way as he was in 2.
• Shock and Awe
• Sword Beam: "Narukami", one of his most powerful attacks, which can also be upgraded. Employs this in the anime to defeat Matsunaga and Mitsuhide.
• Sword Drag: When in Berserk Mode he does this constantly, which displays his marked lack of composure. In the anime he uses it to intimidate Hanbe and some mooks.
• Sword Plant: He plants his katana in the ground before doing a surprise attack with his other sword.
• Team Dad: He constantly worries about Masamune's antics and acts as his voice of reason.
• Undying Loyalty
• Unstoppable Rage: After Hisahide steals Masamune's swords, kidnaps some Date troops and injures Masamune, he sends Fuma out to intercept Kojuro, who's so pissed he enters "Berserk Mode" and proceeds to completely brutalize him.
  • And in season 2, after escaping Toyotomi, he hunts down Hanbe to make him pay for cutting Masamune's back.
• Yakuza: His whole attitude is based on this concept. In Heroes his alternate design took this further, complete with tattoos.

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