Literature / Samurai Girls

Sen, Jubei and Yukimura

"Do not worry. Don't be afraid. For in Great Japan... guardian deities do exist."

— Opening Narration

The story takes place in Japan in the early 21st century, in an alternate reality where the Tokugawa Shogunate has remained in power and any foreign influences that tried to force their way into the country were pushed back or destroyed. In this reality, skilled swordsman and Ordinary High-School Student Muneakira Yagyu plans on attending school. However, on his first day there, he ends up becoming allied with the gender-swapped reincarnations of Yukimura Sanada and Goto Matabei as they rebel against the oppressive student council ruled by the domineering Sen Tokugawa and her servant, a Meido-fied Hattori Hanzo who leads a loyal band of girl ninjas.

Samurai Girls (Hyakka Ryouran Samurai Girls) is a Light Novel series written by Akira Suzuki and illustrated by Niθ, which was published under the HJ Bunko label from 2009 to 2014 for 17 volumes. The series was later adapted into an anime that premiered in October 2010, and a second season entitled Samurai Bride followed in April 2013. Crunchyroll has licensed streaming for both seasons, which can be legally viewed here for those living in the US and Canada.

Do not confuse with the Kalafina single "Hyakka Ryouran", which serves as an ending track to Katsugeki/Touken Ranbu.

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Tropes:

• Absurdly Sharp Blade: The girls cut through some B-29 bombers rather effortlessly in the beginning of the first season.
• Accidental Kiss: Happens in episode 4 of the first season, between Yukimura and Muneakira.
• Action Girl: Hanzo, Jubei, Sen, Yukimura and Nia.
  • Dark Action Girl: Gisen, Musashi, Houzouin and Keiji.
  • World of Action Girls
• Action Prologue: The opening scene for the first episode shows several B-29 bombers being cut down literally by the samurai girls.
• A Day in the Limelight: Kanetsugu, resident Butt-Monkey and typical side character, gets a lot of focus in episode 3 of season 2 when she becomes the fifth Master Samurai Muneakira awakens.
• Affably Evil: Musashi. She wants Yagyu Dojo gone, but in the meantime she will enjoy their Maid Cafe.
• Almost Kiss: Poor Yukimura, at least she got one at the end.
• Alternate History: The Tokugawa Shogunate, for some reason, is still in power.
• Anachronism Stew: It looks mostly like traditional samurai action mixed with advanced technology. And magic.
• Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: Jubei does this for the Dark Samurai in episode 12 of season 2, although Musashi tries to fight it for a short while.
• Ax-Crazy: "Dark" Jubei, though she is more focused.
• Back from the Dead: For the second anime season: Musashi, Kojiro, Mataemon, and Inshun. Dark Jubei doesn't return until episode 6.
  • Gisen also reappears in episode 4, but doesn't seem to have any malicious intent towards them this time around, largely because her master can't be revived for about another hundred years.
• Bad Boss: Both Sen and Yoshihiko shows rather nasty tendencies towards Hanzo and Nia respectively. Sen shows she's not actually very nasty at all when it comes down to it, and Yoshihiko eventually grows out of it thanks to some astounding loyalty and love from Nia.
• Battle Aura: A light inky aura is around anyone who has their Master Samurai powers activated. The 'proper' Master Samurai and their Generals have black auras, the 'artificial' Master Samurai have purple auras, while Gisen has a white aura. The Dark Samurai have blue aura and Keiji has a red one.
• Battle of the Still Frames: Episode 5 of season 2, when Hanzo recaps all the events of the maid contest that took place, such as an academic battle, art battle, and sleep battle.
• Beach Episode: Episode six, which turned into this because of Sen's insistence on taking way too many things for what was supposed to be a stealth mission, and triggering the alarm which caused all of the main girls to show up thinking it was a burglar. Sen then explains the sneakiness and items as a beach trip.
  • Episode five in Bride, includes a contest between the Protagonists and the Dark Samurai.
• Berserk Button:
  • Do not call Yukimura flat, Kanetsugu learned this the hard way.
  • Jubei's powers begin to reawaken in episode 5 of season 2 after seeing Musashi attack Muneakira when he tried to stop the contest.
  • Men should be wary of even accidently touching Maeda Keiji, less they get pulverized by her.
• Between My Legs: Episode 1 of Samurai Bride, of Sen as she enters the scene.
• BFS: Mataemon Araki wields one and it can grow in size.
• Big Bad: Yoshihiko, until Gisen revealed the true big bad, Shirou Amakusa.
• Bittersweet Ending: Muneakira and company, including Yoshihiko and Nia, defeats Gisen/Shirou, but at the cost of Jubei (both personalities, even) blowing herself up with Gisen in space.
  • Made into more of a happy ending in the Blu-Ray/DVD version, where after the credits Jubei returns to Earth and shares a kiss with Muneakira.
• Blessed with Suck: Let's take a look at this from another perspective. Muneakira kisses one of the girls, and she gets powered up. Unfortunately, Muneakira gets to be chained with an invisible force to the point he can't even fight. Now, if an enemy is savvy, then they'd gun for Muneakira already with no guard or whatsoever. This doesn't seem to apply to Sen and Yukimura - only "Evil" Jubei provokes the vulnerable mode so far.
  
  It's revealed towards the end that Muneakira's ability as a general is still imperfect at the beginning of the series so his contracts are imperfect and carries major drawbacks, both in power output and the mentioned weakness. After Muneakira mastered the ability, he no longer suffers the weakness.
• Blow You Away: Yukimura can control very powerful winds with her fans.
• Brandishment Bluff: Gisen does this to Sasaki Kojiro in episode 4 of season 2. The latter is all to aware of the power of the former's "Evil Eye" ability (as seen in the first season), and backs off from Jubei when Gisen threatens to use her power. Which is fortunate for those two, as Gisen lost her power much like Jubei being unable to summon "Dark" Jubei, and both would have been in serious trouble had her bluff not of worked.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall:
  Yukimura to Kanetsugu: "Don't speak during the serious scenes!"
• Butt-Monkey:
  • Muneakira, due to lots of accidental perversion and the fact that his Unwanted Harem is composed of Action Girls who get really scary when mad. Though in his case, it may just be a matter of perspective.
  • Hanzo is the source of a lot of comedy, but it fades once Kanetsugu is introduced.
  • Kanetsugu is the biggest one. Jokes are constantly played on her expense.
• Can't Catch Up: Despite being fairly competent ActionGirls, both Matabei and Hanzo are outclassed by the master samurais, and for much of the series are utilized largely for support roles. They both get upgraded to master samurai in episode 9 of season 2.
• Cassandra Truth:
  • Any time Muneakira is caught in an embarrassing situation with another woman, usually Gisen. No matter how innocent he is, or what he says, Sen and Yukimura think he's a pervert.
  • Played with regarding Kanetsugu in episode 6 of season 2, when she claims to be helping the girls to meditate by constantly irritating them in various ways. Unknown to them however, is that Kanetsugu for most of the episode is actually Keiji Maeda, who really is trying to train them. However, given Kanetsugu's Butt-Monkey status, anything she says isn't taken too seriously by any of the girls aside from Jubei, who's often too Cloud Cuckoo Lander to realize it.
• Censor Splatter: Most of "special" scenes are covered in ink splatter, although the blu-ray release averts this.
• Clean Pretty Reliable: Muneakira attempts this on Kanetsugu in episode 3 of season 2, after the latter was tossed into a river by a dark samurai. Once she regains consciousness, she begins to realize that he still cares about and trusts her despite all the trouble she's caused, thus enabling her to become a master samurai when he "kisses" her while attempting to revive her.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: Sen and Yukimura.
  • Taken up to eleven for laughs in episode 8.
• Covert Pervert: ...hell, practically everyone in the main cast. This is mostly evident through the voiced mangas.
• Credits Running Sequence: Jubei does this in the first season's closing credits after walking a bit first.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: The girls, once in Master Samurai mode, generally deliver these to their opponents.
  • The "Dark Samurai" girls deliver one to the regular characters in the first episode of season 2. Its also heavily implied they did the same to Nia in the beginning, as they use her credit card in the maid cafe.
• Cute and Psycho: Jubei appears to be like this.
• Dark Is Not Evil:
  • "Dark" Jubei is not really all that evil, contrary to popular belief. Then again, it was pretty obvious from the start.
  • Also the color of Muneakira's aura, or a 'proper' General/Master Samurai aura in the anime.
• Debut Queue: Each girl in the first season gets an episode or two which introduces them and focuses largely on their antics.
• Deliberately Monochrome: In the anime, the final battle between Jubei and Gisen is completely devoid of color.
• Depower: By the end of episode 1 in season 2, Muneakira's General power is gone due to magic seal inflicted to him. It wasn't even that powerful to begin with, but now he can't even lift a sword.
• Does Not Know Her Own Strength: Yukimura after becoming a Master Samurai for the first time.
• Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male: Episode 8 cranks it up in standard love comedy fare.
• Duality Motif: In the final episode of the first season Jubei gets one eye coloured for each of her two personalities, signifying that both are in power. Asskicking ensues.
• Dual Wielding:
  • Hanzo wield two blades that can connect similiar to Cao Pi.
  • Jubei, Nia and Musashi more conventionally dual-wielded swords.
  • Yukimura has her fans.
• Dwindling Party: The main girls get killed off and absorbed by a deadly shikigami in episode 12 of season 2. However, they get resurrected at the end after Jubei defeats it.
• Eleventh Hour Super Power: In episode 12 of season 2, Jubei becomes the fabled "Samurai Bride", and utilizes the powers associated with it to defeat the shikigami as well as free the Dark Samurai from its hold.
• Engrish:
  • Kanetsugu seems fond of this. It's lampshaded.
    Kanetsugu: "Noo! I AM MY COTTAGE desu wa! "
  • From episode 3 onwards, Sen regularly calls Yukimura an "Odeko Biichi" (Forehead-Bitch.)
• Enemy Civil War: The Dark Samurai's teamwork begins to fracture around episode 8 of season 2.
• Evil Is Not Well-Lit: Musashi and friends reside in the graveyard where they were revived.
• Evolving Credits: In the second season, as new characters are introduced in the episodes, they are added either as a maid, or a customer during the closing credits.
• Face Fault: Lampshaded by Kanetsugu in the 7th episode.
• Fanservice:
  • There's frequent panty shots and close-ups of breasts throughout, not to mention the outfits.
  • The DVD version does not have ink spots; everything is visible.
• Flash Step: Sasaki does this in episode 5 of season 2 during a Smashing Watermelons competition.
• Forehead of Doom: Yukimura has a rather pronounced one.
• Gainax Ending: During the final episode. During the final battle, Jubei blows herself and Gisen up by flying up into Earth's atmosphere. Then, in the Blu-ray version, she comes back in the epilogue.
• Goggles Do Something Unusual: Hanzo's glasses can come quite handy for checking up power levels. Also used to detect enemies that don't show up on the visible spectrum.
  • Gender-Blender Name: Which Frenchman would name his daughter Charles d'Artagnan?!
• Good Is Not Nice: "Dark" Jubei, who's more of a Jerk with a Heart of Gold than bad person.
• Gratuitous English: The many types of kisses. Also, Kanetsugu loves using it.
• Gratuitous French:
  • Yoshihiko in the opening of episode 9.
  • Justified in episode 11 ("The Samurai from France") when he flirts with the pretty new transfer student Nia (Charles d'Artanian◊).
• Gratuitous Latin: The Ominous Latin Chanting discovered in Yoshihiko's files and repeated by Gisen is Mark 1:15 in Latin.
• The Greatest Story Never Told: The world does not know of Jubei's sacrifice and they will never know. What's worse, the Yagyu Dojo is on the verge of shutting down by season 2. Dude, Where's My Respect?, indeed.
• Happiness in Slavery: Hanzo, to Tokugawa.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Jubei, BOTH of them.
• Hero's Slave Harem: Defied trope via Insistent Terminology. The Central Theme of the series is that the heroes argue that the relationship between samurai and their general is not slavery — that even if a samurai is sworn to protect and obey their general, this comes from a place of mutual respect, trust and bonding rather than servitude. The villains, however, are particularly those who see no difference, and use samurai as disposable tools, fodder and even sex slaves. However, this debate coincides with the fact that the master samurai introduced are all women and most serve the protagonist, Muneakira Yagyu.
• Historical Domain Character: Almost every named character in this show is a Gender Flipped version of a legendary warrior from Japanese history (and one French Musketeer).
  • Serial Escalation: By the beginning of season 2, characters that are straight in the realm of legend have appeared, namely Musashi and Kojiro.
• Historical Gender Flip: What Strike Witches does for WWII and Koihime†Musou does for the Three Kingdoms period is what this show does for Feudal Japan.
• Impossibly Cool Clothes
• Improbably Female Cast: So far only Muneakira and Sen's older brother Yoshihiko are the only males in the series.
• Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: Kanetsugu.
• Insult Backfire: When Sen tries to invoke A-Cup Angst towards Yukimura's small chest, the latter invokes Petite Pride instead, saying Muneakira would rather enjoy her small bust over Sen's larger cup size.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Sen and Yukimura, eventually. They acknowledge their feelings for Muneakira, but recognize that he doesn't return them.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: In the fifth voiced manga, Muneakira notes that Master Jubei's name has been abbreviated to "M. Jubei" when he looks at the script. He mistakes that since now that she's an "M" and she was an "S" before, he believes she and all the other master samurai take part in S&M...
• Lightning Glare: Sen and Yukimura do this to each other in episode 4 of the first season a couple of times.
• Made of Explodium: Note to invading fighter/bombers: make sure your aircraft cannot be destroyed by girls with melee weapons.
• A Magic Contract Comes with a Kiss: This is how generals power up the Master Samurai.
• Magical Eye: Gisen's patched eye is red. She can also use some powerful spells with it.
• Male Gaze: Close-ups of breasts and undergarments are a common sight.
• Marshmallow Hell: Gisen likes to subject Muneakira to these. Sen and Yukimura will usually also arrive shortly afterwards before Gisen can get too far.
• Meaningful Name: All of the girls in Muneakira's harem are named after famous warriors from that period, while Nia is acutally named after... a Musketeer?
• Meido/Maid Cafe: Yagyu Dojo have to reinvent themselves in the first half of season 2 because the government no longer funds them, thanks to a "mortgage crisisinvoked".
• Memetic Molester: Invoked: Kanetsugu sees Muneakira as this.
• Most Definitely Not a Villain: Infiltration and spying are not Kanetsugu's strong suits.
• Naginatas Are Feminine: Sen wields a naginata.
• Naked First Impression:
  • Jubei is nude when she first appears to Muneakira. Gisen also.
  • Yukimura Sanada and Goto Matabei when Muneakira first walks into them, with his camera flashing.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: In episode 5 of season 2, Sen tries to rig part of the contest in favor of their team, such as when trying to face off the dark samurai against other characters that would be most suited against them. However, Kanetsugu constantly tries to interfere, and ends up screwing things up each time.
• The Nicknamer: Jubei names everybody. She calls Matabei "Beta", and Yukimura "Yukki", though she went through a few nicknames (all of them bad) before deciding on that one.
• Ninja Maid: Hattori Hanzo, she commands a whole squad of ninjas but she's the only one who dresses in a full Meido outfit.
• The Nose Knows: Matabei has a sense of smell of canine level.
• Not Cheating Unless You Get Caught: Yukimura and Sen in episode 5 of season 2. They planned on using Sen's brother as the sponsor of the maid battle to cheat and give their team an advantage in points. However, Muneakira sees Sen impersonating her brother, and the second time they do it, the audience has already left. And although they technically lose the final match, Musashi walks away disregarding the disqualification for leaving the tournament grounds, after seeing Jubei's powers reawakening. So their team ends up winning by default.
• Out of Focus: Matabei suffers from this until she and Hanzo are forced to kiss Muneakira.
• Paper Fan of Doom: Yukimura's weapon in her civilian and Master Samurai forms. The super one has wind powers.
• Please, Don't Leave Me: Jubei begs Muneakira not to abandon her in episode 3 of the first season. She has such a sad and pathetic look on her face that Sen lets him deal with it, and he promises her he won't leave.
• Plot Tailored to the Party: Episode 10 had the girls dropping off one by one to make their way to save Muneakira.
• Power Levels: Jubei is over 5 million!
• The Power of Love: In episode 10 Sen claims that the reason master samurai and generals haven't appeared in years is because people have forgotten the importance of love in the bond between generals and their master samurai.
• Readings Are Off the Scale: The power level of the newly revived Musashi and friends. They are above even the Master Samurai.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Yuki and Sen prove a more straight example of the trope in Episode 8.
• Rich Bitch: Sen seems like it at first, but it's not really true.
• Running Gag: One of the more prominent ones has Yukimura's forehead shining.
• Samurai: Samurai with superpowers!!
• Say My Name: Juuubeeeei! Muneakira! Sen-hime-sama! Juuubeeei! Princess! Yoshihiko-sama! Yukimura! Juuuubeeei! Nia! Juuubeeeeeeeeeei!!!!
• Schizo Tech: Steam trains with digital cameras in the early 21st century appear here.
• School Swimsuit: The primary design of Yukimura's outfit, and she explains its advantages with enthusiasm.
  "Sukumizu saikyou!"
• Scooby Stack: The main heroines do this in season 2's ending.
• Secret Test: In episode 6 of season 2, Kanetsugu is extremely upset that they decided to close down the maid cafe, since all of the dojo's bills were paid off thanks to winning the contest in the previous episode. They then decide to focus on ki training instead, so Kanetsugu takes it upon herself to make things difficult for them, such as pouring oil onto the floor while they're attempting to meditate to distract them, or making them sit in extremely hot bath water. The other characters think Kanetsugu is just being her usual Jerkass self, until Sen notices something rather unusual about her behavior. Turns out that Kanetsugu was actually Keiji Maeda, and she was a Trickster Mentor who was utilizing various things to get their ki more focused. However, despite obviously saying that she was trying to help them with their ki meditation various times, only Jubei took it seriously, and as a result was the only one to really learn anything from the training. Meanwhile the real Kanetsugu was tied up inside a small shed, and is angry at Maeda afterwards.
• Serious Business: Yukimura trying to kiss Muneakira in episode 4 of the first season. Sen thwarts every attempt she makes at it. Then they do an Accidental Kiss at the end due to Sen's overreactions.
  • Also played straight regarding Matabei and Hanzo kissing Muneakira. They both try a practice kiss multiple times on each other throughout the series, but Hanzo always ends up pushing her away at the last minute. They finally get over this problem in episode 9 of season 2, after realizing that they're hopelessly outclassed without Muneakira turning them into master samurai.
• Shorter Means Smarter: Yukimura is the smartest of the harem.
• Shout-Out:
  • When Jubei is trying to find her transformation phrase, she strikes a Kamen Rider pose.
  • Naoe Kanetsugu usually makes references to Western culture when speaking in English.
    • YES WE CAN!
    • I'll be back.
  • At the very beginning of episode 4, Muneakira can be seen wearing Jagi's helmet for a brief moment.
• Slasher Smile: "Dark" Jubei. More like slasher grin.
• Smashing Watermelons: Episode 5 of season 2 has a competitive one, Sasaki vs Sen. The former effortlessly reaches the watermelon while skillfully dodging the mines, while the latter trips on her first step, then somehow manages to hit Muneakira's head instead of the watermelon.
• Spit Take: Yukimura does this in episode 5 of season 2 when Sen trips while blindfolded during the Smashing Watermelons contest. She does it again a few scenes later, along with Muneakira, when Sasuke steals the mic Sen was using to impersonate her brother during the contest.
• Split Personality: There's the Cloudcuckoolander Jubei, and there's the badass Jubei.
• The Stoic: Nia is an interesting example. She's more genuinely just not showing her emotions, rather than trying to hide them.
• Stripperific: The girls generally wear clothes that expose their underwear and emphasize cleavage, not to mention the other design choices.
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality: Nia, according to Yoshihiko in one of the Next Episode Previews.
• Super-Deformed: Jubei in the closing credits of Season 1. The entire cast for most of the closing credits of Season 2.
• Supernatural Gold Eyes: Jubei after activating her Action Girl mode.
• Superpowered Evil Side: A subverted example. "Dark" Jubei is ruthless in battle, but always stays on the good guys' side.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial: Kanetsugu tries to blend in with the beach maids in episode 6 of the first season, clevering thinking her Paper-Thin Disguise would fool the maids. However, the head maid immediately outs her as an outsider, and Naoe instead tries to claim she's a new maid, and definitely not someone trying to blend in to spy on others.
• Tempting Fate: In episode 1 of season 2, after returning from some training, Muneakira mentions to Matabei that MaidCafes are all the rage right now. And that they couldn't possibly have any nearby. Matabei then has a disappointed look as they reach the top of the stairs to the dojo, to reveal...a maid cafe.
• Thick-Line Animation: The characters are drawn with a thicker outline than is usually seen in anime.
• Took a Level in Badass: Muneakira takes several throughout the series.
  • In the second to last episode, he frees himself from the chains that bind him whenever Badass!Jubei appears.
  • During the last episode, along with everyone else, but Muneakira's transformation from a flustered everydude to a determined commander is especially striking.
• Tsundere:
  • Sen Tokugawa. She even gives a class on how to be one in the second voiced manga.
  • Her brother Yoshihiko doesn't acknowledge Muneakira or anything. He's just helping him to protect Great Japan.
• Turned Against Their Masters: Nia defies Sen's older brother after being moved by Sen and Yukimura's speech about The Power of Love and loyalty to their general Muneakira.
• Unexplained Recovery: Nia and later Gisen in the anime.
• Unlucky Childhood Friend: Sen to Muneakira.
• Unpopular Popular Character: Kanetsugu can't get respect from anyone in-universe, but in a poll taken before the anime started, she was at the top, and once the show began, continues to be adored by the fanbase.
• Unprovoked Pervert Payback: Muneakira is subjected to these, such as in episode 8 of the first season when Gisen attempts to seduce him, and as Sen and Yukimura think about past incidents, they hit him some more as they drag him through the dojo. He will also sometimes be subjected to this when another girl seems to show too much interest in him.
• Unwanted Harem: Muneakira gradually acquires more women as the series goes on, whether he wants to or not.
• Urine Trouble: Inverted; a younger Naoe pees on an earthworm, apparently to get rid of a bad luck curse.
• Villainous Breakdown: Yoshihiko becomes more and more unhinged as Nia refuses to obey him, but he gets better eventually. Gisen, on the other hand...
• Weaksauce Weakness: Matabei apparently has this towards baths.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Yoshihiko, in the end. He intends to amass Master Samurai to fight Amakusa, not for himself.
• White Hair, Black Heart: Yoshihiko is a subversion, who turns out to be quite a decent guy after being introduced as a ruthless leader.
• The Worf Effect: In the first episode of Samurai Bride, the heroes are swiftly defeated by the Dark Samurai, whom they are unable to lay a single attack on. It's also implied at the beginning of the same episode that the Dark Samurai also defeat Charles and her small army of mook samurai offscreen.
• Yandere: Sweet Jesus, Gisen.
  Gisen: I did it to devour you, big sister! I'm going to eat your bones, blood and soul so I can become one with you! If I do that, I'll be able to serve Shiro-sama by myself just fine.
• You Shall Not Pass!: While Jubei attempts to revive Kanetsugu after she was tossed into a river by a dark samurai, both Jubei and Sasuke attempt to stop her from passing. They buy just enough time for Jubei to regain consciousness and realize that Muneakira does care about her, thus enabling her to become a master samurai after he "kisses" her while trying CPR.

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