History Main / Samurai

* Most of Creator/AkiraKurosawa's filmography have samurai as the main characters:

* ''Franchise/{{Zatoichi}}'', the blind swordsman, is ''not'' technically a samurai - he's actually a low-class masseur and gambler - but the films are still considered codifiers of the Samurai genre. Zatoichi has all the traits of the typical {{Ronin}}; wandering from [[AdventureTowns town to town]] and [[WeHelpTheHelpless helping the helpless.]] There have been twenty seven films, including a crossover with Yojimbo, and a 100-episode TV series.

* Western example: Katana (Tatsu Yamashiro) from ''ComicBook/BatmanAndTheOutsiders'' and related series/teams.
* Hondo-Cit Judges in ''ComicBook/JudgeDredd'' are modeled on samurai. Their equivalent of the chief judge is even called the Shogun.
%%* The appropriately named ''ComicBook/Ronin1983''.%%Administrivia/ZeroContextExample
* ''ComicBook/SamiTheSamuraiSquirrel'' is [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin exactly that]].

* Silver Samurai of Creator/MarvelComics.
* Many characters in ''ComicBook/UsagiYojimbo''. The series is set in a period of (relative) peace, meaning most samurai are out of a job and many are resorting to banditry or other criminal endeavors.

* ''VideoGame/LeagueofLegends'' has Yasuo, a recent samurai-turned-{{ronin}}, and Master Yi, who is closer to a monk in the story, but includes mostly samurai visual elements.

** Imperial warriors from are high-tech Samurai, with rifles and beam katanas.
** The Tsunami tank crew even refer to themselves as samurai (in their role as cavalry, the Tsunami being an amphibious tank), and according to the background info study calligraphy, poetry at the same time as they study tactics an train with the tank.

* ''VideoGame/RedAlert3'':
** The Empire's basic footsoldiers are bushi wielding beam carbines and EnergyBlades that can one-shot infantry via banzai charge.
** Their tanks even moreso, actually referring to themselves as samurai (though in their role as cavalry rather than swordsmen), and it's mentioned they also take calligraphy classes in addition to training with the tanks.

* ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack'': Jack, naturally. (Many fans, however, have pointed out that Jack fits the title of "ronin" better, at least according to traditional terms, as he is a Samurai with no liege.)

* Puccini from ''VideoGame/RhythmStar'' is a samurai, [[CultureChopSuey which is an odd decision given the fact that he is based on a real-life Italian man]].

* Puccini from ''VideoGame/RhythmStar'' is a samurai, [[CultureChopSuey which is an odd inspiration given the fact that he is based on a real-life Italian man]].

* Samurott from ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'', an odd combination of this and a ''sea lion''.

* ''VideoGame/TotalWar'' brings us ''[[VideoGame/ShogunTotalWar Shogun]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/TotalWarShogun2 Shogun 2]]'', both set in the UsefulNotes/SengokuPeriod, and as such they feature many varieties of samurai, from [[BowAndSwordInAccord Archers]] and [[SwordandGun Gunners]], to various types of cavalry, to the StoneWall [[BladeOnAStick Naginata]] wielders. ''Shogun 2'' has a pair of {{Expansion Pack}}s to cover other periods of Japanese history: ''Rise of the Samurai'' for the Genpei War, and ''Fall of the Samurai'' for the [[UsefulNotes/MeijiRestoration Boshin War]]. In the latter, it's possible for traditional armies of samurai to prevail over ranks of riflemen supported by gatling guns and artillery, but by no means easy.

* ''VideoGame/{{Warframe}}'': The game is shamelessly {{Animesque}}, so it's very easy to invoke this archetype. Excalibur Umbra is top of the list, as his [[WeaponSpecialization signature weapon]] is a large katana that is required for his story missions.

* In ''LightNovel/LogHorizon'', Samurai is one of the Japanese server's two exclusive classes (with the other being the [[ShrineMaiden Kannagi]] class); as a melee class it features incredibly powerful attacks that are offset by having long cool-downs and can also function well as a tank by making use of abilities that draw aggro onto them. Touya, one of the main characters, is the main Samurai player in the story.

* ''VideoGame/{{Warframe}}'': The game is shamelessly {{Animesque}}, so it's very easy to invoke this archetype. Excalibur Umbra is top of the list, as his [[WeaponSpecilization signature weapon]] is a large katana that is required for his story missions.

->everyone started hiring samurai. (correction: rich important people hired samurai. poor people who could not afford to hire samurai [[CaptainObvious did not hire samurai.]])

%%* ''Literature/TheHagakure: The Book of Bushido''.

* Many characters in ''ComicBook/UsagiYojimbo''. The series is set in a period of peace, meaning most samurai are out of a job.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bdpv2ue.jpeg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:"Bushido is realized in the presence of death. This means choosing death whenever there is a choice between life and death. There is no other reasoning." - [[Literature/TheHagakure Yamamoto Tsunetomo]], paraphrased]]

A popular misconception holds that the samurai were the counter-culture to the {{ninja}}; that is, whereas samurai tend to came from the upper classes and were [[KnightInShiningArmor honorable warriors who fight face to face and use no "dirty" tricks]], ninjas tend to be from the lower classes, were skilled at [[CombatPragmatist unorthodox warfare]] and would not hesitate to use backstabbing, poison, or spying to gain the upper hand. This is commonly seen in works featuring ninjas, [[SamuraiInNinjaTown in which samurai and ninja were either depicted as mortal enemies, or ninjas being mercenaries hired by the samurai to do the unsavory wetwork honorable samurai would not do]]. However, the aforementioned depiction is not historically accurate. In RealLife, while some ninjas were mercenaries, most ninjas were actually samurai themselves. The idea that the ninja were something separate from the rest of Japanese society came about during the Edo period (a 250 year long period of ''peace''), after Tokugawa Ieyasu became shogun and unified the country. Edo-period samurai started assuming the values of the court-aristocracy, while simultaneously resurrecting centuries-disused aspects of the samurai honor code from before the Mongol invasion, and didn't like to talk about ''actual'' warfare--they also pretended they were primarily swordsmen, while the main roles of the samurai in war were actually {{Horse Archer}}s, archers and spearmen. Furthermore, warfare in the UsefulNotes/SengokuPeriod involved extensive use of gunpowder weapons, another useful implement of war the samurai distanced themselves from during the Edo Period--albeit the infantrymen who used them, who carried the technical label ''ashigaru'', were nevertheless recognized as the lowest rung of the samurai hierarchy. Many modern historians believe the entire concept of ninjas being the counter-culture to the samurai was invented by Edo-period novelists to avoid showing recently gentrified samurai involved in anything remotely dishonorable.

* ''VideoGame/GhostOfTsushima'': Jin Sakai is the only surviving samurai on a mission to protect Tsushima Island during the first Mongol invasion of Japan.

* Given that ''VideoGame/SekiroShadowsDieTwice'' is set in the late Sengoku Era, it's no surprise that many of your toughest foes are samurai from the Ashina clan [[spoiler:and the Interior Ministry]], including the BigBad and [[spoiler:the final boss]] themselves. However, also true to the setting, ''Sekiro''[='s=] samurai are {{Combat Pragmatist}}s whose entire combat philosophy can be summed up as "victory before honor". [[spoiler:A few of them will even pull on a gun on you if given the chance.]]

* ''VideoGame/{{Warframe}}'': The game is shamelessly {{Animesque}}, so it's very easy to invoke this archetype. Excalibur Umbra is top of the list, as his [[WeaponOfChoice signature weapon]] is a large katana that is required for his story missions.

* [[ComicBook/DaughtersOfTheDragon Colleen Wing]] was trained as a samurai by her grandfather and has samurai ancestry on her mother's side of the family.
* Western example: ''ComicBook/{{Katana}}'' (Tatsu Yamashiro) of the various [[ComicBook/BatmanAndTheOutsiders Outsiders]] teams in Franchise/TheDCU.

* The appropriately named ''ComicBook/{{Ronin}}'' series by Creator/FrankMiller.

* ''LightNovel/ReignOfTheSevenSpellblades'': Nanao Hibiya was a samurai in Yamatsukuni, the setting's [[FantasyCounterpartCulture counterpart]] to UsefulNotes/SengokuPeriod Japan. Notably, despite being a teenage girl, she prefers a tachi to a naginata, and was brought to Kimberly Magic Academy by a visiting Union mage who plucked her from a battlefield where she was fighting a LastStand in an army's rearguard.

* Atomic Samurai from ''Manga/OnePunchMan'', an S-Class hero (the number 4) practitioner of iaitsu. He is a formidable swordsman with exceptional speed and strength.

* Hatz from ''Webcomic/TowerOfGod''. Even though he is Korean, he follows a strict code of honor similar to that of a samurai. Also, he wields katana.

* In ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'' Miko and the rest of the Sapphire Guard are samurai. Though as she tried to explain to Elan that's not her character class (see D&D), their class is paladin and samurai is simply a title.
* ''Webcomic/NoNeedForBushido'' has aplenty.

[[folder:Web Original]]
* Hashimoto Daichi from ''Literature/GreekNinja'' is one.
[[/folder]]

->everyone started hiring samurai. (correction: rich important people hired samurai. poor people who could not afford to hire samurai did not hire samurai.)

->everyone started hiring samurai. (correction: rich important people hired samurai. poor people who could not afford to hire samurai [[CaptainObvious did not hire samurai.]])

->everyone started hiring samurai. (correction: rich important people hired samurai. poor people who could not afford to hire samurai did not hire samurai.)