Okada Izō
Info
Bio-Data
- Class: Assassin
- True Name: Okada Izō
- Gender: Male
- Source: Historical fact
- Origin: Japan
- Alignment: Chaotic Evil
- Height: 174 cm
- Weight: 65 kg
Meta
- Scenario designer: Keikenchi
- Character design: lack
- CV: Yoshino Hiroyuki
- Main appearances: Fate/Grand Order
Stats
| Parameters | Values |
|---|---|
| Strength | C |
| Constitution | D |
| Agility | B |
| Magical Power | E |
| Luck | E |
| Noble Phantasm | C |
Class Skills
Presence Concealment: [B]
The skill to erase the own presence. If activated, perception is almost impossible even for Servants. However, the effect drastically fades when attacking.
Personal Skills
Hitokiri: [A]
A swordsmanship skill specialized in killing people with a katana.
It’s a practical swordsmanship whose goal is only winning, and it’s unrelated to the mentality of seekers of the way.
Therefore, strong, brittle.
Indomitable and Nimble in Fencing as a Falcon: [A]
Words that appraise Izō’s sword during the dōjō training period in Edo.
Izō learned several schools, but since he left every dōjō halfway without training seriously, he didn’t reach full mastery of the arts.
Izō’s eyes reflected every school, every swordsman from a dōjō as of a lower rank, and it was actually like that.
Eye of the Mind (Fake): [C]
Avoidance of danger through intuition · a sixth sense. Also called foreboding, prediction of danger through natural talent. It also has resistance against corrections due to visual interference.
Noble Phantasm(s)
Shimatsuken: Sword of Settlement
- Rank: C
- Type: Anti-Unit Mystic Sword
- Range: 1
- Maximum number of targets: 1 person
Hitokiri Izō, unorthodox sword. A Noble Phantasm that was able to reproduce sword techniques he saw once as his own sword techniques.
At the time of summoning he even has the sword techniques he memorized in his past life, but it’s possible to seek a further strengthening after the summoning by seeing new sword techniques.
However, there are limits to the sword techniques that can be reproduced, things that are anything other than Anti-Unit, and things that depend on the characteristics of a Noble Phantasm can’t be reproduced.
Character
Pronouns
First person pronoun: わし (washi)
Second person pronoun: おまん (oman) / おんし (onshi)
Third person pronoun: おまんら (omanra) / おんしら (onshira)
Personality
Hitokiri Izō. A young man in his mid-twenties with dark eyes. He’s extremely fond of sake and gambling, and has a rough and hasty personality.
He looks down on people for his genius with the sword, and hates greatly being made light of.
He doesn’t like using the head and there are occasions in which he depends on the decisions of others, and he tends to obey blindly fellows who make him enthusiastic once.
Originally he’s unsophisticated with a chivalrous spirit and has a kind personality, but since he was used as others pleased and abandoned in the end he is twisted.
He intensely detests Ryōma, but that part is like the inversion of a friendship of bygone days.
If you get on with him he surprisingly feels like a nice guy, but perhaps because he’s violent and not smart, he’s the type that is used as people please.
Likes
Sake, women, gambling.
Dislikes
Ryōma. Self-important fellows. Fellows who look down on him.
Attitude Towards Master
Relatively friendly to the Master.
An Assassin that properly protects the targets of escort, uses any means for the sake of his goal, strangely enough has a side that is eager to work, and is unexpectedly easy to get along with.
Dialogue Examples
「What the? Assassin…? Don’t get it wrong, my class is 『Hitokiri』」
「That sword, …I’ve learned it」
「This is the first time we meet. Then, ……die」
「Tenchū!」
「WHAT THE HEEEEEEEELL!!?!?」
Historical Character and Figure
A country samurai from the Tosa Domain of the closing years of the Edo period, Okada Izō. The hitokiri of Tosa that is counted as of the Four Great Hitokiri of the Bakumatsu together with Tanaka Shinbei, Nakamura Hanjirō, Kawakami Gensai.
He studied under Takechi Zuizan[3], followed Takeichi in his travels to Edo, and learned several fencing styles such as Ono-ha Ittō-ryū, Kyōshin Meichi-ryū, Jikishi-ryū fencing style, etc.[4]
After that, he joined the Tosa Kinnōtō[5] formed by Takechi, and went to the capital with Takechi and others.
In the Tosa Kinnōtō, dedicated to the imperial restoration movement, he performed a collective punishment called Tenchū against the members of hostile forces, and from those deeds he would be called and feared as 「Hitokiri Izō」 for posterity.
Initially he built a favorable relationship with Takechi, but they naturally distanced themselves due to his roughness and quick temper, and started losing his place in the Tosa Kinnōtō.
He later ran away and headed to Edo, and freeloaded under Takasugi Shinsaku[6]. Even though Takasugi went to the capital by feudal decree, Izō returned to the capital as well, but at that time he drowned in sake and women and since he started falling in debt repeatedly, he was abandoned by those around him.
At one point, he worked as an escort for Katsu Kaishū[7] with the introduction of Sakamoto Ryōma but it didn’t last long, and he eventually ruined himself to the point of being homeless.
When the power of the Tosa Kinnōtō declined with the later political change, Izō, who had become a homeless wanderer, was captured and transported to Tosa.
In an investigation at Tosa, he made several confessions regarding the murder of Yoshida Tōyō[8] and a series of assassination cases in the capital, and those who were newly arrested due to that appeared one after another.
Even plans by his comrades to poison Izō surfaced, but they weren’t put into practice. In the frist year of the Keiō[9] era, May 11th of the leap year, he was beheaded, and his head mounted into a pike in front of the prison. Age of death 28 years.
「The heart that did all in its power for you was a bubble of water that disappears and after that only a perfectly clear sky remains」[10]
Character in FGO
The owner of a non-standard talent with the sword that could imitate any fencing just by seeing it, Okada Izō.
That even fearsome natural talent released Izō into the world of the Bakumatsu[1] as a matchless hitokiri.
Famed as a master of Tenchū[2], Izō was a prominent Assassin in the history of Japan that participated in numerous assassinations, but couldn’t attain greatness as a swordsman because of that.
The Bakumatsu was the era in which the act of 「cutting down people with a katana」 was performed the most, and the sword technique of the 「hitokiri」 who represents that era, Izō, is comparable to the Saber class despite being an Assassin.
His skill with the sword, which was appraised as 「indomitable and nimble in fencing as a falcon」is a genuine natural gift, but he single-mindedly concentrated on his talent and didn’t refine it.
Rather than a master fencer he’s a hitokiri by the book, the type that doesn’t dislike despicable actions if they are for the sake of winning.
The trend of the times or fate may have been unfortunate, and the extraordinary genius of the sword, despite being a genius didn’t fulfill the refinement and development of that talent because of that.
He had a relationship of close friends with Ryōma when they were alive, and there was such a thing as him working as an escort at Ryōma’s request. But the flow of times would definitely separate them two before long.
The joint struggle with Ryōma in Guda-Guda Strange Tales of the Imperial Holy Grail originally was an unlikely incident in his life, but because of that it may have been the first time he swung his sword for the sake of a friend.
Standard Weapons
Japanese katana (according to himself, a nameless katana that cuts really well)
Related Characters
Sakamoto Ryōma
He was a close friend from the same province, but since he thinks he betrayed him, he hates Ryōma intensely.
Oryō-san
She often beats him so he doesn’t like her. That said, it’s a strange relationship in which both can quarrel all right without feeling inferior.
Okita Sōji
Disagreeable so he hates her. She thinks highly of herself because her skill with the sword is superior.
Hijikata Toshizō
Disagreeable so he hates him, 2.0. On top of that since he was chased by the Shinsengumi when he was alive, his impression is the worst.
Li Shuwen
He thinks he’ll someday show him a world of pain, but he’s quite out of his reach.
Okita Alter
She often embezzles the oden of the side dish for his sake.
Nagao Kagetora
Somewhat scary so he doesn’t get too close to her. I mean, is that a person?
Takechi Zuizan
A patriot of the Jōi faction that leaded the Tosa Kinnō Party. A person that had a great impact in Izō’s life.
Comment from the Illustrator
While the thing I was the most conscious about while designing the FGO version was following the image of Izō-san in the original work Koha-Ace, each Ascension stage respectively had great changes. Initially, I thought of an outfit with a military cap and an inverness cape for the 1st stage, but it was FGO-nized while being advised by Keikenchi-sensei, and he turned into an assassin that wears a scarf to conceal his face. (But I really like the original design, so it’d be nice if there was someday a chance for it to come out) Thereafter, feel free! It’s what they said, so the 2nd stage is the hitokiri mode that shook Kyōto, the 3rd stage has the image of Izō-san in his golden age (like when he escorted Katsu-sensei). Also, while I was looking at reference data about Izō-san, I felt a side of him that wasn’t just a thug like for example his feeling of admiration towards Niten-sama (Miyamoto Musashi). Incorporating these elements into each stage, it turned into the final design. (lack)
TL Notes
1: Final years of the Edo period, in which Japan abandoned its isolationist foreign policy and the Tokugawa shogunate was changed by the empire of Meiji government. (1853 – 1868).
2: Divine Punishment. The phrase used by Takechi Hanpeita to refer to the killings made by the hitokiri under his command.
3: Birth name of Takechi Hanpeita.
4.1: Ono-ha Ittō-ryū: One of the oldest forms of Ittō-ryū, created by Ono Jiroemon Tadaaki, who instructed Tokugawa Hidetada and Iemitsu together with Yagyū Munenori. Ono was said to be superior to Munenori as a swordsman.
4.2: Kyōshin Meichi-ryū: A popular style in the Bakumatsu period, specially popular among swordsmen from Tosa.
4.3: Jikishi-ryū: This one was harder to find information about. It was a style created in the 17th century by Yamanaka Heinai Shigemasa after studying different styles from houses all across Japan.
5: Tosa Loyalist Party, a political party that followed the sonnō jōi ideology, being in favor of the absolute rule of the emperor and the expulsion of barbarians from Japan.
6: Relevant figure of the Meiji Restoration. He created an irregular militia called Shotai, in which anyone could be enlisted regardless of their status and profession, and commanded a unit of 300 men known as Kiheitai. You may have heard about him if you’ve watched Gintama.
7: Statesman and naval engineer in favor of the Westernization of Japan. He almost was killed by Sakamoto Ryōma as a rōnin, but after persuading him, became his mentor.
8: Retainer and temporary lord of Tosa. He was the favourite of the Tosa daimyō, Yamauchi Yōdō, who ordered the investigation of Yoshida’s assassination.
9: May 1865 – October 1868. Period previous to the Meiji era.
10: Okada Izō’s death haiku. His Bond 10 CE makes a small reference to it.
Material Images
(Lib will add after publish)
Dialogue
| Occassion | English | Japanese |
|---|---|---|
| Summoned |