A graphic novel series created by French artist Hub. Set in a Fantasy Counterpart Culture of Medieval Japan, it follows the journeys of Okko, a Rōnin dedicated to hunting down the demons that plague the wartorn Empire of Pajan. He's accompanied by Noburo, a gigantic fighter who hides his face behind a mask, Noshin, a drunken monk who is actually a rather capable spellcaster, and Noshin's young apprentice Tikku, who is indebted to Okko after the ronin attempted to help him rescue his sister from kidnappers. They travel from place to place, rooting out evil wherever they find it.
The series has been praised for its immensely detailed artwork and well-researched setting. It's divided into several volumes or "cycles", each named after one of the classical elements of Water, Earth, Air, and Fire, and the titles somewhat reflect the setting of each story: the Cycle of Water takes place on a chain of small islands, the Cycle of Earth occurs in a mountain range, the Cycle of Air in a valley tormented by yearly cyclones.
A tactical game based on the comics, Okko: Era of the Asagiri was released in 2008. The Red Joker then published Okko Chronicles after raising €195,149 in a
Kickstarter campaign in 2017.
The Red Joker funded Okko - Oni Hunters card game through Kickstarter in 2020 as part of their Versus line of games.
Not to be confused with OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes.
This comic series contains examples of:
- Abusive Parents: Lady Kiritsu was fascinated by her hanyo son Noburo and the potential for power he held from birth to the point that she quickly started neglecting his normal human twin, Okko. She soon absconded with Noburo who she raised by herself, leaving Okko to be raised by his father. Years later, when Okko finds her again, we see that she feels no remorse for her treatment of him.
- Accidental Incantation: While lamenting that Father Zinu's personal sake stash is just out of his reach, Noshin sarcastically recites sutras in frustration which somehow causes a host of water kami to manifest from the sake. When Father Zinu asks how Noshin was able to invoke the forces of nature he is forced to admit he doesn't really know.
- Action Girl: Setzuka and Windreaper.
- Adventures in Comaland: After being impaled by an undead horseman, Noshin, dreams of frolicking half-naked in the snow, chasing after a flying sake bottle until the aforementioned horseman emerges to impale him again.
- Affectionate Nickname: Daimyo Oyatsu's son refers to his fiance, Lady Kochika, as "dewdrop pearl".
- Alcohol Hic: Regularly accompanies Noshin's speech.
- And I Must Scream: The fate of Setzuka's missing scouts, who are found encased in tree bark.
- Annoying Arrows: Noburo doesn't even feel 'em.
- The Apprentice: Tikku becomes Noshin's disciple by the end of the Cycle of Water.
- Badass Boast: Okko pulls one after killing the Satorro swordmaster in the Cycle of Water.Okko: In all my many duels those who chose to strike me from behind lived to draw but one breath of regret.
- Ban on Magic: Communion with kamis to influence the forces of nature runs contrary to the beliefs of the Monks of the Silver Plum and is forbidden within their monastery.
- Battle in the Rain: Okko and Noburo's battle against Kubban.
- Boisterous Bruiser: Windreaper is loud and cheerful, but will happily beat you into the floor if you cross her.
- Body Horror: The vampires in the Cycle of Water. They remove the heads of their victims and root their bodies in the corpse's neck, appearing as the head of the corpse and controlling the body from there.
- Masuku, the shapeshifting spy who manipulated events in the Cycle of Fire, gained his abilities when clan Ataku's acupuncture experts and marionette masters placed silken filaments under his pores to make his outer flesh more malleable. The process was incredibly painful and his flesh would bloat and bubble unnaturally as a result of the many treatments. Even after he established a link between his mind and the silk under his skin his flesh still appears to boil and bubble grotesquely every time he shapeshifts.
- Brawn Hilda: Justified with Windreaper who wields a heavy Japanese Tetsubo◊, a weapon that only a taller-than-average, unusually musucular woman could use in Real Life.
- Butt-Monkey: Noshin is on the receiving end of a great deal of misfortune, often (but not always) for comedic effect.
- Carry a Big Stick: Windreaper's weapon of choice is a massive tetsubo mace.
- Chekhov's Gun: The haunted shamisen in the Cycle of Air. Turns out, when you break it over someone's head, it creates a tornado on the spot!
- Cool Mask: Noburo's red oni mask.
- Covert Group with Mundane Front: The Troupe of the Seven Salamanders.
- Crapsack World: The empire of Pajan is wracked by constant conflict as warring clans and their ambitious daimyos constantly seek to gain ascendancy over each other. You could well end up one of many corpses strewn about the bloody battlefields that increasingly appear throughout the land, or you could find yourself among the throngs of desperate refugees trying to flee the violence. And if you're lucky enough to be far from the warzones you may yet fall prey to the many monsters and demons roaming the land.
- Creepy Crows: The sigil of the Walkers of Karasu, a sect of necromancers who serve as the antagonists of the Cycle of Earth, is a Raven.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Okko kills his mother by plunging her own sword into the top of her head and down through her body.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Kubban beats Okko handily in their first duel, severing his hand and very nearly killing him outright.
- Death by Childbirth: Averted, this is what Okko was told became of his mother, he later learned that she abandoned him and his father, absconding with his twin brother.
- Depraved Dwarf: Lady Boshida.
- Determinator: Noburo, again—in the very first fight scene in the series, he gets smashed through a wall of a burning building. It takes him all of ten seconds to get back onto his feet and leap towards the escaping pirate ship. The pirates shoot him several times with arrows, and he falls into the ocean—only to angrily climb out of the water the next morning, rip the arrows out and attempt to set off after the ship again. It only gets better from there.
- Kanji's mother continues her relentless stalking of Okko even after contracting Plum Disease.
- Downer Ending: In the very last cycle, Okko realizes he's too old to continue his errant life after he accidentally kills a man (a noodle merchant running after them because they forgot their chopsticks), retiring to a monastery. Along the way, we learn more about his childhood, including the fact that he once killed another child in a swordfight (the son of one of his father's retainers) and that Noburo is his brother. And after the group parts ways, the mother of the boy he killed finally gets her revenge (after years of sleeping with random Rōnin so they'd kill Okko) when she's rescued by a poet to whom she recounts (her version of) the events, completely destroying Okko's reputation (not that it matters to him, since he's in a monastery).
- Drunken Master: Noshin. They don't call him "The Sake Monk" for nothing.
- Evil Matriarch: Okko's mother, Lady Kazuki Kiritsu, had pretty much become this by the time he finds her at the end of the Cycle of Emptiness. She has no regrets about abandoning him, belittles him for being a weak human unlike his Hanyo brother and to top it all off shows she has no qualms about trying to kill him.
- Fake King: Masuku becomes this after replacing Daimyo Oyatsu.
- Fanservice: The moment Okko and company come upon Setzuka bathing naked in a pond.
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture: Japan, natch. Might be a bit Wutai as well, with some definite Tibetan and Chinese influences.
- Oddly played with as well—Pajan's main religion is regular, real-world Buddhism, despite the fantasy setting.
- The Faceless: Noburo is never seen without his mask.
- Given Name Reveal: Masuku's birth name was Saibankan before he was given his shapeshifting abilities and became a spy for clan Ataku.
- Gratuitous Japanese: Characters are prone to replacing a word with its Japanese translation.
- Hair-Trigger Avalanche: While following Setzuka alongside Okko and Windreaper, Tikku causes one of these by calling after her, causing her and Nuuk to be briefly buried by snow.
- Handicapped Badass: Setzuka is quite a capable fighter despite missing an arm. Eventually she loses the other, though, and has to retire.
- Okko himself becomes one after losing his hand during his first battle with Kubban.
- Heartbroken Badass: Kubban was so incredibly dejected by Katzuki being arranged to marry Takeda that the Samurai felt he had nothing left to lose, giving him the courage to face and defeat the sorcerer Pang Lho. To make matters worse it appeared Katzuki died in the act of giving birth to Takeda's son. However, this turned out to be a lie and the woman he'd loved had survived for many years after the fact, but by the time he learned this she had already died, for real, at the hand of her own son.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Nuuk the nezumi blows himself up to kill the necromancer controlling the zombie army at the end of the Cycle of Earth.
- Human-Demon Hybrid: Noburo is revealed to be a Hanyo, a cross between a human and a Yōkai.
- Human Shield: Kubban ties the much smaller Noshin to his own armoured body, making it difficult for Noburo to attack him without endangering the monk.
- Humanshifting: Masuku can mentally control the silken threads running under his skin to make his features resemble anyone he chooses.
- Hunter of Monsters: Okko and his companions.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Happens to Noshin after being run down by an undead horseman.
- Kubban does this to Okko during their first duel.
- Noburo busies himself doing this to the Kappas inhabiting the Orchid Isle.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Okko's not actually the nicest guy around, and tends to be aloof and dismissive, even with members of his own group. Nonetheless, he's a very capable leader, and cares for his companions greatly. He just doesn't show it much.
- Kick the Dog: When Lady Midakko slaughters the remaining Geisha abductees with a katana just for the fun of it.
- Kids Raiding the Wine Cabinet: Even as a boy, Noshin could never get enough sake.
- Kill and Replace: Masuku did this to Lady Shijima.
- Chamberlain Adaka and Ambassador Myodo seek to do this to Daimyo Oyatsu but are unable to find a good candidate until they get ahold of Masuku.
- Kill Steal: When Kubban kills Okko, Magato screams that he's "stolen my duel". Subverted in that Okko survives, and Magato does everything he can to keep him alive so that they can fight their own duel.
- Knight Templar: Kubban the demon hunter. He'll happily murder anyone who stands in the way of his job, and his philosophy boils down to "If it's not human, it's my job to kill it". Needless to say this doesn't go over very well with Noburo.
- Lady-In-Waiting: Lady Shijima for Lady Kochika.
- Large Ham: Windreaper.
- Lightning Bruiser: Noburo is easily the strongest, most resilient and even physically largest of Okko's party but also possesses ninja-level agility and responsiveness.
- Living Legend: The Bunraku-clad Oni hunter Kubban Kiritsu, mostly on account of his legendary battle with the sorcerer Pang Lho.
- Okko himself has become this by the series end, though not necessarily in a positive way.
- Made of Iron: One of Noburo's many strengths.
- Magical Flutist: The Karasu Necromancers play tunes with their flutes to raise and control their undead servants.
- Mama Bear: After a young Okko kills her son, Kanji's mother obsessively stalks the Ronin for years seeking an opportunity for vengeance. She seduces so many men in the hopes that one will be able to kill the young Ronin that she ends up contracting "Plum Disease". Even after contracting her illness (which ultimately proves to be fatal) she does not relent in her pursuit of Okko and kills his lover Naoki.
- While she ultimately fails to kill Okko she does pass on her story to a poet who spreads it far and wide, destroying Okko's reputation.
- Man in the Machine: Kubban, who is permanently enclosed within his specially made Combat Bunraku.
- Mark of Shame: Tikku's forehead is branded with the mark of the thief in the first Cycle, which he carries for the rest of his life.
- Master Swordsman: There are a few of these running around the world of Pajan, what with the setting being based on feudal Japan. Okko himself is the most prominent example, handily defeating most opponents who challenge him with the notable exception of Kubban, who was more experienced and had the advantage of a custom Bunraku.
- Matricide: We learn in the Cycle of Earth that Okko is rumoured to have killed his own mother.
- This is confirmed in the Cycle of Wind during a conversation between Okko and Kubban, and later in the Cycle of Emptiness we see it is true, though it was self-defence... kind of.
- Missing Mom: In the Cycle of Emptiness we see that Okko's mother was absent for much of his youth, having apparently died while giving birth to him. This later turns out to not be true and he sets out to find her.
- My Sister Is Off-Limits: Tikku once vowed to become a Samurai to protect his sister from her admirers.
- Mysterious Veil: Lady Midakko wears one of these when she visits the Red Lotus to chose a new body.
- Mystical Pregnancy: The sorcerer Pang Lho places a curse on Lady Kiritsu and her family line, once she became pregnant she experienced intense nightmares where she was tormented and even sexually assaulted by Oni. Eventually, she gave birth to twins, one of whom was a Hanyo.
- Naginatas Are Feminine: Thoroughly averted with Noburo.
- Narrator All Along: Tikku, although this becomes obvious by the end of the first volume, so it's not much of a spoiler.
- Nasal Trauma: Okko inflicted this on Noshin after their very first encounter, causing him to wear his distinct bandage over his nose ever since.
- "Not So Different" Remark: Before Tikku kills them, the Satorro vampires inform him that they don't understand how their actions are any worse than the atrocities committed by humans on a daily basis. It doesn't stop him from killing them.
- The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Magato feels this way regarding Okko, and goes to great lengths to keep the ronin alive after he is nearly killed in his duel with Kubban.
- Our Spirits Are Different: The Kami are powerful spirits that represent one of the four classical elements: water, earth, air or fire. With the right sutras and offerings, their powers can be invoked to achieve specific effects ranging from simply providing information relevant to their given domain to summoning massive tsunamis.
- Our Vampires Are Different: The main villains of the Cycle of Water are actually a couple (literally) of penanggalan vampires from southeast asian folklore.
- Out-Gambitted: Kubban uses Noshin as a human shield in his fight with Noburo, who responds by threatening to burn the demon hunter's prized trophy collection, forcing him to release the monk.
- Pining After Protagonist's Parent: Kubban was deeply in love with Okko's mother.
- Powered Armor: The Combat Bunraku, huge wooden puppets controlled by a pilot inside via a series of ropes and pulleys.
- Rat Men: Nuuk, Setzuka's nezumi companion.
- Revenge Before Reason: Daimyo Oyatsu is so obsessed with avenging his son's death at the hands of Okko that he pays more attention to the manhunt than he does the ongoing war with clans Ataku and Bashimon, which means his clan is badly losing.
- Roaring Rampage of Rescue: The Cycle of Water follows the characters' efforts to rescue Tikku's kidnapped sister.
- Scenery Porn: Hub is a brilliant artist, and nowhere is this reflected better than in scenes like the floating Satorro Castle or the mountain vistas in the Roof of the World.
- Secret Art: Okko repeatedly uses a technique that involves turning his back to an opponent, inviting them to attack and then counterattacking.
- This fails him in his first duel with Kubban.
- In the cycle of Emptiness we learn that he developed this technique as a boy due to how often his frustrated sensei would make him stand in the corner and face the wall. This prompted him to get better at using his other senses to perceive what was going on to his rear, to the point where he could sense and react to what was happening behind him with better awareness and precision than he could with things happening right in front of him.
- Seppuku: Given how thoroughly based on feudal Japan the world of Pajan is this happens from time to time.
- Daimyo Oyatsu orders the entire White Guard to commit Seppuku for failing to protect his son.
- Sex for Services: Kanji's mother frequently offers her body as a way to get other men to try their hand at killing Okko.
- Significant Anagram: The country is named Pajan, an anagram of Japan, after which is culture is modeled.
- Stalker Shot: We get quite a few throughout the Cycle of Emptiness of Kanji's mother stalking Okko
- Stalker with a Crush: Masuku towards Lady Kochika.
- Superhero Trophy Shelf: Kubban travels with a collection of trophies taken from every demon he has slain. There is only one empty space remaining, that he intends to fill with Noburo's mask.
- Superstition Episode: In the first volume of the Cycle of Air, Noburo gets separated from the group after a dead bird falls from the sky at his feet as they cross a bridge. Interpreting it as a bad omen, Noburo insists he will not cross the bridge until he receives a more positive sign, forcing the rest of the party to continue without him.
- "Take That!" Kiss: Lady Kochika kisses Tikku in front of her fiance in the hopes he will be enraged enough to cancel the marriage, it works too well.
- The Teetotaler: A younger Okko swore to never touch another drop of sake in his life after waking up one morning to find his lover, Naoki, slaughtered with his own sword. He blames himself, believing that the alcohol had made him violent, though in truth it had been deliberately tainted by Kanji's mother.
- Third-Party Deal Breaker: Ambassador Myodo convinces Okko and his companions to turn over the shapeshifting Masuku to her, intending to use him to replace the increasingly ineffectual Daimyo Oyatsu. In return she promises that he will be able to roam the Empire freely once again, implying she intended to make the imposter Daimyo rescind the bounty on Okko's head. However, once Masuku has replaced Oyatsu, having his own reasons to hate Okko, he decides to keep the bounty in place.
- Unbalanced By Rival's Kid: Subverted with Kubban, initially. When he encounters a young Okko at his mother's grave he treats the boy with kindness and respect and even gives him a print depicting Lady Kiritsu's likeness when Okko says he never knew what she looked like. However, Kubban's attitude towards Okko appears to have changed after he learned that not only had Lady Kiritsu been alive for years after her supposed death, but that Okko had eventually killed her anyway.
- The Un Favourite: Lady Kochika's older, less attractive sister.
- Okko himself is revealed to have been this to his mother, who preferred Noburo.
- Walking the Earth: The protagonists.
- We Can Rebuild Him: A custom Bunraku was fashioned for Kubban that essentially served as his new body after he was badly maimed in his duel with the sorcerer Phang Lho.
- Wedding Episode: The first volume of the cycle of fire revolves around the marriage of the heir to clan Pajan to Lady Kochika of clan Yommo.
- Where Are They Now: The Cycle of Earth spends a page or two explaining what happened to Windreaper and Setzuka after they left the group.
- Women Prefer Strong Men: Wherever the party go, local prostitutes always seem particularly attentive towards Noburo.
- You Killed My Father: Inverted with Magato—Okko killed his father fifteen years before, and he attempts to avenge him by challenging Okko to a duel.
