The legendary samurai epic by Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima has a blood-spilling cast:

!!Ogami Itto

The former executioner of the Shogun. Was framed by Retsudo of the Yagyu Clan and sentenced to die. Instead, Itto takes his son Daigoro with him on a quest to avenge themselves against the Yagyu.

* AdaptationalWimp: Downplayed. In the manga, Itto's mission to kill a radical priest involved developing the ability to suppress one's negative emotions and make people unable to do the same hesitant to fight; defying the concept of "Mu" to be able to strike down a holy man. In ''Baby Cart In The Land Of Demons,'' Itto doesn't bother developing this power - [[CompressedAdaptation Not that it matters, since he just ambushes the priest at a river later and kills him with few hang-ups.]]
* AntiHero: By Samurai standards. Ogami constantly skirts the rules of Bushido and is willing to endanger Daigoro in shady ways to get the upper-hand on foes.
* AbusiveParents: Skirts this line a lot, as detailed below. He has many noble qualities and does not go out of his way to be cruel or otherwise abusive to his son. In fact, he otherwise raises his son well. However, he does still expose his young son to violence and death at a very young age regularly and routinely puts Daigoro's life in danger as part of his assassination contracts. Much of this can be chalked up to walking the Path of ''meifumado'' but it still does not win him any parent of the year awards.
* AssassinOutclassin: Does a whole lot of outclassing. It takes the entire series [[spoiler: and every ''last'' resource Retsudo has for him to finally be outclassed.]]
%%* BestServedCold
%%* CarpetOfVirility
%%* CatchPhrase
* CombatPragmatist: The baby cart alone is filled with numerous hidden blades, back-up weapons and booby traps. And that's ignoring the man himself, who's willing to throw his sword, exploit sun glare, the environment and even ''his own son'' to defeat his foes.
* ConsummateProfessional: Itto ''will'' frequently ask for the 'why' of the job that he's taking on before deciding to take it though. Not so much out of moral concerns as because he wants to know exactly who is going to be upset with him.
* CrusadingWidower: The death of his wife (and the tainting of his house name) is what drove Itto onto the path of ''meifumado'' in the first place.
* DeathGlare: Given how emotionless he usually comes off, a permanent scowl is practically his default expression. Ironically, it's his son that's perfected the art.
%%* {{Determinator}}
%%* FamilyHonor
* FightingYourGod: In the film adaptation of ''Baby Cart In Peril,'' Itto and Daigoro are praying at a temple shrine. In a rare burst of rage, Itto grows angry and actively shouts that he'll fight Buddha if he has to; slicing the statue he and Daigoro were praying to. Subverted however as an assassin was hiding inside of the statue (with more stowing away in the ceiling), making the outburst necessary.
* HitmanWithAHeart: Subverted. While Itto has a deeply compassionate side, especially for people who are in straits similar to his own, he is still a ruthless assassin. So long as his conditions (five-hundred ryo and explaining the reason behind the assassination) are met, he will carry out his contract, even if the target is practically a living saint. He only refuses under very particular circumstances:
** In only one circumstance will Itto refuse to carry out an assassination, even if his client can pay the requisite fee. Namely, an ''adauchi'', which is a vendetta where the relatives of a murdered samurai seek vengeance on the killer. As Itto explains to the son and daughter of a murdered samurai, he cannot interfere in an ''adauchi'' since it's the victim's relatives who have to kill the murderer of their loved one. Who in this case is a powerful crime-lord in Edo with hundreds of minions. However, Itto points out to the children that they ''can'' hire him to kill the crime-lord's sub-commanders, which will goad him out of safety and into a very favourable kill-zone for the vengeful children...
** He also refuses to take payment in the following circumstances: 1) He will not take payment in an assassination involving the loyal retainer of a daimyo that Itto executed as Kogi Kaishakunin, since Itto considers the situation to be the result of fate, 2) When Itto is hired by impoverished peasants who have no coin, Itto settles the problem by saying that each grain of the rice that the peasants have so pain-stakingly cultivated must be worth a ryo, so he will carry out his task in exchange for eating a bowl of rice, and 3) when someone provides a valuable service for Lone Wolf--such as helping him crack one of the secrets of the Yagyu letter--he'll sometimes give back the payment (though even in that case he insisted the payment be made, if only for a couple minutes before he returned it).
* IdealHero: PlayedWith. Itto impresses everyone with his nobility, dedication and honorability. However, he's not this by the established standards of Bushido: he's willing to fight dirty, use his toddler son as a pawn regularly (which enemies call him out on) and debases himself in ways no Samurai otherwise would. People ironically find themselves respecting Itto more than judging him for adhering to his principles at the expense of his former station’s code of conduct.
%%*IGaveMyWord
* ImplacableMan: Once Itto solves the secret of the [[spoiler: Yagyu Letters]], he makes for Edo. At the same time, Retsudo has basically set a ''massive'' bounty on his head and publicly proclaimed him a criminal. The daimyos muster their entire armies against Itto and, in general, treat his movements as though he were an advancing army. Absolutely ''nothing'' stops him.
* InHarmsWay: Itto frequently does this even if it doesn't involve pay, because it's the right thing to do.
* NiceGuy: As long as you're not one of his targets or don't deliberately antagonize him, Itto, while hardly the life of the party, seems like pretty good company. Most notably, he never once lords his status over the commoners and is quick to recognize and praise samurai-like qualities in people he meets, from all walks of life.
* NobleDemon: Somewhat paradoxically, Itto’s abandonment of honor and dignity is so total that it essentially becomes a code in and of itself. Itto abandons Bushido and a samurai’s dedication to preserving their honor, being willing to use whatever tricks or tactics he needs to get the job done. However, he applies that same attitude towards himself, being willing to do tasks and endure indignities that pretty much any other samurai would rather kill themselves than be subjected to. He’s willing to do the work of peasants, and even accepts a prospective prostitute’s punishment in her place to win her the right to go free. Itto’s complete commitment to fulfilling his quest is such that it earns him a great deal of respect from many of the people around him, despite his dishonorable actions.
* OneManArmy: Invoked almost word for word InUniverse. One samurai makes it a point to face [[spoiler: his former sensei]] with nothing less than fully armored, mounted samurai.
* PapaWolf: Played With. Itto is willing to exploit Daigoro's youth in very shady ways to achieve a goal and repeatedly trusts the child to take care of himself for at least days on-end. However, if Daigoro is endangered for reasons he hasn't planned, ''Buddha help you.''
* ProfessionalKiller: Taking the path of ''meifumado'' forces Itto to become a sellsword to survive. He's very good at it.
* RevengeBeforeReason: Itto fully acknowledges this, knowingly dispensing with his samurai honor for the sake of taking revenge on Retsudo and the Yagyu. He plies his skills as an assassin. If it serves his purpose, there is no tactic he won't use, no trick he won't resort to. He'll use any means at his disposal, even his own son, to get the upper hand. That said, there are some lines that even he won't cross.
* {{Ronin}}
* TheStoic: Even by {{Jidaigeki}} standards, Itto is an "act first, talk later" sort of man. He's more content to keep silent and tune out the world around him.
* VillainProtagonist: Itto skirts the very edge. He doesn't go out of the way to be cruel or malicious, but he's not worried about the morality of the contracts he accepts, and isn't inclined to help anyone who isn't paying him. And of course he utilizes his son for his assassination jobs, putting the boy into ludicrously dangerous situations. As Itto explains to anyone who asks, since he and his son walk the Path of ''meifumado'' ("The Road to Hell"), they are beyond conventional human notions of normality and morality.
* WalkingTheEarth: Or more specifically, feudal Japan.
* WouldHitAGirl: Kills more than a few in his quest for revenge, [[spoiler: including Retsudo's illegitimate daughter.]]
* WouldHurtAChild: A rare (debatably) non-villainous example. To him, opponents are opponents, no matter their age. Played straight with Daigoro however, who he tends to use as a pawn against enemies.

!!Daigoro

Itto's three-year-old son, who accompanies his father on their wanderings upon the assassin's road. In spite of his age, Daigoro often serves as an asset during many of Itto's assassinations, prompting opponents to lower their guard or even restrain their own efforts to avoid hurting the child.

* AdaptationExpansion: In the 2002 TV series, Daigoro often has plots (sometimes even entire episodes) to himself; usually involving a woman taking pity on him and showing him love.
* BadassAdorable: People remark about how cute Daigoro is a lot. He helps his father kill people. Crosses into KillerRabbit on a few rare occasions.
* CheerfulChild: Is generally this, despite the life he leads on account of his father's profession.
* ConsummateProfessional: Daigoro learned from the best, after all.
* CreepyChild: Invoked in-universe.
* DarkAndTroubledPast: More like a dark and troubled ''life'', starting from the moment he was born... from his murdered mother's corpse.
* DeathGlare: Why cute lil' Daigoro is frequently described as creepy, as he is able to give out a glare known as ''shishogan'' that most adult swordsmen are unable to achieve throughout their lives.
* FalseInnocenceTrick: In the film ''Baby Cart In Peril,'' Daigoro pretends to drown to lure a deceptively-kind SamuraiCowboy into the water to save him. It's only after the man's abandoned his weapons that he realizes he's been had; struck down by Itto before he can re-arm.
%%* FamilyHonor
* IGaveMyWord: Another trait that he learned from his father. In one notable incident, a thief gave him a wallet she had stolen right before her arrest, promising him a coin if he kept silent about it. Daigoro kept his word - even when facing torture by the police.
* InHarmsWay: Follows his father's example.
* KidSamurai: Daigoro is frequently remarked to be a very good one.
* KillerRabbit: Daigoro seems like he's just an adorable kid, but he's definitely his father's son. He's quick-on-the-draw with implements of the baby cart in the films and even draws his father's sword on bullies trying to extort him in the 2002 TV series. He's also the one that [[spoiler: cuts Retsudo down in the climax of the manga, stabbing him in the heart]].
* MissingMom: In most versions of the story, Daigoro's mother is cut down by the Yagyu during their attack on his house, becoming the CynicismCatalyst that drives him and his father down the path of ''meifumado''. A RecurringElement in the 2002 TV series is women taking pity on Daigoro and spending time with him; showing him the love he couldn't receive from his birth mother.
* MoralityPet: Is this to his father, along with other people that he encounters whenever he's separated from his father.
* {{Ronin}}: Is this along with his father, as they were exiled from the ruling Tokugawa clan on account of the false evidence against him.
* TroublingUnchildlikeBehavior: Daigoro is capable of the ''shisogan'' (a DeathGlare that's rarely achieved by even the most experienced swordsman) at only three years old. This results in him standing out from other children in a bad way that's remarked upon repeatedly. He's also killed people before the few times he's aimed at during combat, usually with the implements of the baby cart.
* WiseBeyondTheirYears: Daigoro's a very mature little four-year-old. Itto's a good parent if anyone is to judge by how well behaved and intelligent this four-year-old is. There's even a storyline that focuses on how different Daigoro is from other children.
** In some ways, Daigoro is considered to be his father's equal, if not outright superior. He has often been described as having the ''shishogan'' or "the eyes of a swordsman able to place his heart in the nothingness of Mu," an attribute many lesser swordsmen throughout the story aspire to. And Daigoro has them at the tender age of ''three''.
* WouldHurtAChild: The victim of this a lot. Sometimes, it's Itto himself putting his son in a vulnerable position to exploit enemy honor. Other times it's the less-scrupulous going after him themselves.
** In the second film, the leader of the Ura-Yagyu tries holding Daigoro hostage as leverage against Itto. Itto tells his son to prepare for death instead of giving in; allowing the Yagyu to plunge the kid into the water below. He survives after his dad pulls him from the river.
** In the fourth film, Jubei Yagyu notices how Daigoro stands out from other children and tails him for a bit while he's looking for his dad. He notices Daigoro's resourcefulness, will to live and the ''shisogan'' stare that only an experienced warrior could achieve; drawing his sword on the kid to gauge his response. Itto arrives before he can do anything else, though.
** In the fifth film, Daigoro allows himself to be publicly spanked to spare a thief that trusted him the humiliation.
** In Volume 20 of the manga, Abe-No-Kaii attacks Daigoro while he's relieving himself. He fails to kill him, though.

!!Yagyu Retsudo

The head of the Ura Yagyu, the Shogun's assassins. Retsudo uses his position to secretly control the Shogunate from the shadows. In order to assume more complete control, he schemed to acquire Itto's position by disgracing him and his clan. In spite of his scheming nature, Retsudo is a master swordsman and Itto's only true equal throughout the series. He is also a master strategist and is skilled at several ninja tactics as well.

* ArchEnemy: To Itto, being the one that orchestrated the Itto family's downfall during a power-play.
* BigBad: The overseer of the Yagyu clan that's made it his life's mission to cut Ogami Itto down and permanently cement his clan as supreme rulers of Japan by any means necessary.
* BigOlEyebrows: In both the manga and later installments of the film series. Retsudo has bold, bushy eyebrows to compliment a pair of scheming eyes.
* CombatPragmatist: Much like Itto, Retsudo is willing to do whatever it takes to get the job done. In his case, he’s all too happy to fully utilize the absurd network of resources that the Yagyu Clan has at its disposal. In the two of his three final duels against Itto, Retsudo makes extensive use of human wave tactics by having Itto fight and kill all of Retsudo’s subordinates first. In the final case, he forces Itto to fight through a gauntlet of his Kusa, who are rigged to act as suicide bombers when he cuts them down, and are armed with iron-shod sheathes and focus on attacking Itto’s sword, after one of their agents, who’d masqueraded as a sword polisher, secretly hammered a small flaw into Itto’s sword. As a consequence, Itto goes into his final duel against Retsudo with a broken blade and a fatal injury.
* EnemyMine: At one point in the manga, he and Itto set their feud aside and collaborate to prevent Abe-No-Kaii Tanoshi from flooding the entirety of Edo.
* EvenEvilHasStandards: In ''White Heaven In Hell,'' Retsudo stumbles onto a dying Hyouei forcing himself onto his own sister in an attempt to impregnate her with a Tsuchigumo heir just so the Yagyu can't do the same. Retsudo is disgusted and sinks his blade into both of them.
* EvilOldFolks: Retsudo's an old man at the start of the series, and he doesn't get any younger as Itto destroys more and more of his security apparatus.
* EyepatchOfPower: Like his famous relative Jubei, Retsudo's down an eye, and it serves to give him a striking physical appearance that makes him stand out from his relatives.
* NobleDemon: Retsudo is a scheming and shadowy man driven by ambition, envy and greed, but he is unwaveringly loyal to his clan and holds himself to certain standards of honorable conduct as a ''bushi.'' In the end, he and his enemy are both relics of the dying age of the samurai, doomed to be washed away by time.
* OutlivingOnesOffspring: When he first tried to frame and destroy Itto, it cost Retsudo one of his children. [[spoiler: By the end, it's cost him ''all'' of them, and his grandchildren besides, his whole family line.]]
* PyrrhicVictory: [[spoiler: By the end of the manga, he's lost all of his children, most (if not all) of his agents, inadvertently caused the destruction of the Kurokuwa ninja, lost most of both his and the Yagyu Clan's credibility, and expended ''staggering resources'' just to kill one man. Though he eventually succeeds in killing Itto, he's much worse off than he was before making Itto an enemy; never mind gaining the control over the shogunate he desired. Which is perhaps one reason - among many - why he lets Daigoro fatally wound him in the end.]]
* TheSpymaster: Is this for the Tokugawa shogunate, allowing him to wield a lot of power behind the scenes. It was his son Gunbei's mistake during his duel with Itto that allowed the latter to win the post of Kogi Kaishakunin, thereby depriving Retsudo full control of the shogunate's security apparatus and setting in motion the events of the series.

!!Abe no Kaii

The Shogun's ''kuchiyaku'' (food taster), who is personally responsible for inspecting the food that is served to the Shogun for any sign of poison. Because of this, Abe no Kaii is an expert on poisons and, thus, an expert on poisoning others. He is assigned to help Retsudo kill Itto by the Shogun, but secretly schemes behind their backs to kill both Itto and Retsudo thus allowing him to become the force controlling the Shogunate behind the scenes. Unlike Retsudo, who is at least a Bushi and holds himself to certain standards of honor, Abe no Kaii holds nothing but disdain for the warrior code and will stoop to use any tactics to get what he wants and is also a gutless coward who always thinks of himself first.

* AdaptedOut: Abe-no-Kaii does not show up in the film adaptations of ''Lone Wolf & Cub.''
* BaldOfEvil: Has zero hair and zero morals; perfectly willing to hurt a kid and flood a whole city just to keep his position.
* CampingACrapper: In Volume 20, he attempts to invoke this by attacking Daigoro while he's doing his business. He fails.
* DarkAndTroubledPast: His paternity is uncertain due to the fact that around the time he was conceived his mother went mad and ran away, coming back twenty days later, "reeking of many men." As a result, his father Abe Genmotsu, the previous ''kuchiyaku'' to the Shogun, treated him coldly, never being sure if Kaii really was his son. Kaii's mother never recovered, and spent the rest of her days in a locked room in constant sexual heat, pleasuring herself. As if all this weren't bad enough, Genmotsu subjected his son to a [[TrainingFromHell training from hell]], forcing Kaii to always carefully inspect his food, drink and bowl lest he suffer a painful poisoning. With all of this, it is small wonder that he ended up a [[SelfMadeOrphan self-made orphan]].
* DirtyCoward: He runs and screams in terror at the drop of a hat and is deemed by both Itto and Retsudo to be too pathetic to be worth killing. This lasts all the way up until [[spoiler: Retsudo successfully disgraces him by burning the kitchens of the Shogun's castle, which results in Kaii being sentenced to seppuku. He's so terrified at the thought of cutting his own stomach that he initially tried to spare himself the pain by swallowing his own poison, but is too cowardly to even do that. However, he manages to subvert the trope at the last moment by graciously accepting Itto as a ''kaishakunin''.]]
* FaceDeathWithDignity: Downplayed. Total sleaze though he may have been throughout the story, Abe-no-Kaii's actual death in Volume 26 is remarkably somber. Once [[spoiler: Itto arrives and Abe realizes that he won't be able to strike him down, Itto advises Abe to accept his end with dignity. Abe uncharacteristically takes this advice and allows Itto to execute him gracefully as a ''kaishakunin''.]] He does however die LaughingMad, making his death more "defiant" than "dignified."
* {{Foil}}: To both Ogami and Retsudo:
** Itto was unjustly framed by the power-grabbing of the Yagyu and forced into becoming a Ronin but despite his occasional amorality, he is mostly heroic. Abe-No-Kaii meanwhile has a DarkAndTroubledPast but grew into a degenerate, honorless DirtyCoward with respect for nobody but himself. Itto struggled for his position as executioner and continues to struggle just to survive to the very next day, all in a desperate attempt to wreak vengeance against the Yagyu Clan. Abe-No-Kaii lives a cushy job as the Shogun's taster, indulges in all of his fetishes and wants with no restraint and abhors the struggles samurai go through. Itto [[ThenLetMeBeEvil abandons his honor and his dignity to avenge his wife and family name]] whereas Abe-No-Kaii has everything he could ever want and nothing to fight for beyond his own simple pleasures.
** Retsudo and Abe-No-Kaii are both schemers that prefer directing others to do their dirty work while exploiting the ignorance of the upper-classes to these ends. What separates the two is motive: Retsudo is loyal to the Yagyu Clan, can actually fight when he's forced to and [[NobleDemon holds himself to at least a few standards]] even as he gleefully tosses men to their doom in his attempts to defeat Itto. Abe-No-Kaii is a DirtyCoward with nothing but disdain for Japanese "honor," barely any fighting skills of his own, no standards whatsoever (he tries to kill Daigoro while he's pooping and poisons Itto's and Retsudo's blades in the hopes they both drop) and is loyal solely to himself; chickening out of real fights and almost worming his way out of his own execution. Retsudo is working toward a goal with his madness, whereas Abe-No-Kaii is just mad.
* {{Gonk}}: As close as this series gets to it. He's fat and ugly, complete with puffy lips and sadistic leer that he throws around at everyone.
* TheHedonist: Abuses his position and uses his mastery over drugs to enslave several women, who he then forces to have sex with him on a regular basis. He otherwise tries to live it up in whatever way he can.
* NonActionGuy: He has no respect for the warrior's code and prefers to kill people with his poisons than actually get into fights.
* NotSoHarmlessVillain: For all of his indulgences, Abe-No-Kaii is a master of poisons that interferes repeatedly in the feud between Retsudo and Itto and nearly drowns the ''entirety of Edo.''
* MasterPoisoner: Just as the series' logic goes that Itto, being the shogun's own executioner, needs be a MasterSwordsman, so too is this specialized expert in preventing poisonings also an unparalleled expert in poisoning others.
* SelfMadeOrphan: How he became the Shogun's new ''kuchiyaku''.
* SpannerInTheWorks: A massive one for the final arc. He forces Itto and Retsudo to postpone their final reckoning no fewer than ''three'' times. [[spoiler: First, he forces an end to Itto's battle with Retsudo and his Yagyu army by triggering a massive flood through Edo that forces Itto to sacrifice the arsenal of bombs he'd bought using his assassination fees in order to create a makeshift dam. The second time, he finds Itto's and Retsudo's swords, which they'd left behind, and coats them with poison, forcing them to put off their final duel yet again. Then, he steals the Yagyu Letter from Itto and Daigoro and brings it to the Shogun, which leads to Retsudo being imprisoned, forcing him and Itto to postpone their duel ''again''. It also gives Retsudo reason and time to call in all his Kusa, which ultimately results in Itto's death.]]