Samurai Deeper Kyo combines Japanese history and mythology.

Samurai Deeper Kyo. V.1, The Demon Awakens. V.2, Curse of the Tokugawa. V.3, Sea of Trees. V.4, Nobunaga’s Ambition. V.5, Fire and Ice. V.6, A Shift in Time.
TV series (26 episodes), 2002. Director: Junji Nishimura. V.1-2, 5 episodes/125 minutes; v.3-6, 4 episodes/100 minutes. Price & format: DVD bilingual $29.95. Distributor: Anime Works/Media Blasters.

Japan’s century-long Era of Warring States ended with the Battle of Sekigahara in October 1600, leading to the Tokugawa Shogunate, which ruled Japan until 1868. By 1604 the Shogunate was only newly established. Many powerful lords who had pledged loyalty to Ieyasu, the first Shogun, plotted to betray him and either attempt to become Shogun themselves, or to destroy the new central government and return to the chaos of the civil wars to retain their local power. The true history is documented, but to the peasants and commoners of the period, it was all a time of confusion overlaid with superstition. Legends arose of lords’ ninja assassins with supernatural killing powers; of samurai with magic swords; of scheming lords selling their souls to foreign devils for aid (accepting firearms from Portuguese and Spanish traders before the new Shogunate outlawed all Western influences). Samurai Deeper Kyo blends both the history and the mythology into a dramatic fantasy adventure full of the insecurity of the period.

Yuya Shiina is a young woman orphaned in the wars, trying to survive as a bounty hunter both to earn a living and to search for the man with a cross-shaped scar who murdered her brother. She is bringing in Kyoshiro, a comically inept minor deadbeat when a snake demon attacks Kyoshiro. He transforms into “Demon Eyes Kyo, slayer of a thousand men” to defend himself. The fiery-eyed Kyo has been trapped inside the body of Kyoshiro, who had been a heroic samurai, since the Battle of Sekigahara. Kyo sets out on a quest to retrieve his own body, followed by Yuya who has no idea what is going on but hopes to collect the huge bounty on the notorious Kyo. She also feels he may lead her to the cross-scarred murderer.

Yuya (and the viewer) are soon led into a world of intrigue and death. They are joined by many companions such as Lord Yukimura, a cheerfully joking effeminate killer who can pass as a woman; Benitora, an extroverted clown who turns out to be the son of Shogun Ieyasu who has rejected his father’s scheming politics; various samurai and ninja in the service of one lord or another; and numerous demonic self-proclaimed “gods” who hope to control humanity by murdering and posing as the lords and generals. Not only are there “good guys fighting bad guys”, but there is murderous jockeying for power within each faction. Who is loyal and who is a traitor? Who is honorable and who is an opportunist? Who is human and who is a disguised monster? It is not until episode 10 that the underlying plot tying together the individual episodes begins to become clear, and the true personalities and motives of the characters surrounding Yuya are revealed.

Samurai Deeper Kyo, based upon a manga by Akimine Kamijyo, was a 26-episode TV serial animated by Studio Deen, broadcast July 1 through December 23, 2002. The American DVDs contain extensive liner notes brochures describing the actual historical events and real personages which appear in their legendary forms in the drama, such as the mystic master ninja Hanzou Hattori (1541-1596; a loyal spymaster/assassin for Ieyasu Tokugawa although he actually died before Tokugawa’s creation of the Shogunate).