Everything's Better with Samurai

Man, wouldn't the movies have been even better with this?^note And it almost happened in the early drafts. To an extent, Darth Vader's armour is based on samurai gear.

"Hey, That's not fair! How come he gets to be a samurai? That's so much cooler!"

— Odd Della Robbia, Code Lyoko prequel "XANA Awakens"

The tendency of some writers to just throw in a samurai for the heck of it, even in modern urban Japan or a western world without a Japanese Counterpart Culture. And also the fact that people tend to dig the samurai. Who doesn't dig Sanger?

This is NOT the same as Katanas Are Just Better, this refers to samurai, even when they appear without katana (Sanjuro, for instance).

Rule of Cool may be responsible...

See also Wutai, Gratuitous Ninja, Samurai Cowboy, Western Samurai.

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Examples

Advertising

• This 90s commercial for Murphy's stout had a group of samurai ride into an Irish village pub and order Murphy's. With the unorthodox way of drinking the from bottle and the theme tune from Yojimbo, never before or since has drinking a bottle of stout look so badass.

Anime & Manga

• Meta Knight in Kirby's anime of the game would talk about Musou ("peerlessness"). One time he stands to fight for Kirby, declaring I WILL BE YOUR OPPONENT as leaves blow by.
• Twilight Suzuka in Outlaw Star. Slightly less out-of-nowhere, at least in that it's no stranger than the Chinese Magic-using Space Pirates they already introduced.
• Hatz from Tower of God, obsessed with honor, glory and halbok, the Korean variant of Seppuku, and Dual Wielding katana.
• Mr. Bushido in Mobile Suit Gundam 00 — who is actually American (although both America and Japan are technically part of the same country in 00's superbloc-dominated future). Additional to it, a samurai mobile suit. 3, in fact.
• The Halo Legends short The Duel shows the Elites wearing samurai clothes when not in combat, and The Dragon is even dressed in full samurai-esque armor (he's also the only Elite to use a metal sword instead of an energy one). Despite the artistic license, Elite culture does canonically have similarities to that of feudal Japan.
• Toudoh in Code Geass is another future samurai.
• In Fairy Tail, Erza Scarlet occasionally goes into a samurai get-up (albeit a revealing one).

• The second arc of New Getter Robo which has the characters get stuck in an alternate-universe Heian Japan, just to fit armies of samurai into a Humongous Mecha anime.
• Setsuna of Negima! Magister Negi Magi, a half-bird demon, Demon Slaying, lesbian-in-denial Samurai in an Urban Fantasy. Also one of the most popular characters in the series, whose prominence was quickly raised after her introduction in the fourth volume.
• Lyrical Nanoha:
  • Signum from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's and onward obstinately calls herself a "knight", whereas her warrior code (not to mention her fighting style) is obviously based off the samurai. But then again, most Japanese writers confuse the two at least somewhat.
  • Micaiah Chevelle of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha ViVid is an even straighter example. She's a Mid-Childan who's also a traditional samurai, complete with katana, dojo, Japanese attire, and an Iaijutsu fighting style. A bit of a surprise, what with Mid-Childa being an alien world with a European-like society.
• In Naruto, the Land of Iron has samurai, instead of the Ninja in Hidden Villages most other nations rely on. For added goodness, in relation to trope picture, the regular samurai of the Land of Iron wear armor similar to the Stormtroopers.
• Pokémon: The Series:
  • The episode "Challenge of the Samurai".
  • Oshawott/Mijumaru and Dewott/Futachimaru, who have both appeared in the anime as of the latest episode in Japan, have their origins in samurai. (More blatant in Dewott than in Oshawott, though) Ash even gets an Oshawott of his own. Fans are hoping it will finally avert the trend of water-type starters Ash owns never evolving. It doesn't.
  • Even the final evolution to this line, Samurott/Daikenki, is based off a samurai, though they have the capacity to dual wield the seamitars, and spend most of their time as quadrupedal Pokemon.
• Lupin III creator Monkey Punch wanted a more Japanese character for his ensemble. Enter Goemon Ishikawa XIII...
• Digimon has several notable examples, including the most well-known one, Musyamon/Mushamon. Other examples include Yashamon, one of V-mon's armor evolutions, Zanbamon, a Ultimate/Mega level digimon whose lower body is a war horse, Tactimon from Digimon Fusion, and Gaioumon, who is a samurai Greymon.
• The One Piece world is largely Western-influenced, but sparse Japanese samurai elements exist within it.
  • "Samurai" is the name given to warriors from Wa-no-Kuni (a Fantasy Counterpart Culture island to feudal Japan). The first one to appear is Ryuma, and later "Foxfire" Kin'emon and "Evening Shower" Kanjuro.
  • Zoro is reminiscent of one, being a katana wielding swordsman who is later revealed to descend from Wano.
• From The Seven Deadly Sins, there is Simon who is a samurai-themed knight in an otherwise Arthurian manga.
• Masamunya from The Gothic World of Nyanpire is a cat and also a Samurai and carries a sharp sword. He has a secret crush on Nyanpire but is too shy to admit it to him. However even though he's a samurai, he barely uses his sword besides being threatening.◊
• Played with in Samurai Pizza Cats, since they were actually Ninja in the original source material, but were converted to Samurai when it was dubbed, perhaps due to this trope.

Comic Books

• Black Moon Chronicles: Murata is a samurai in an otherwise western fantasy setting. Since it is based on an old D&D campaign, you can blame the Oriental Adventures on this.
• Judge Dredd: Hondo City Judges are deliberately modelled on samurai; their equivalent of the Chief Judge is even referred to as the Shogun.
• The Outsiders: Batman's original Outsiders team had fairly standard-issue superheroes... and Katana, a steely-eyed female samurai.
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: While the Shredder is actually a ninja, his shiny armor is samurai-inspired. His conflict with the turtles thus provides a visual analogue to the (alleged) viciousness between samurai and ninjas. (In reality, more samurai hired ninja than they cared to admit.)
• Teen Titans: Bushido, a young warrior with... well, powers of the samurai, apparently. He was among the fatalities in Infinite Crisis.
• The Tick: The comics have Paul the Samurai, despite all the other heroes being over the top cape and cowl style. His primary role is to be there to recommend that he and anybody associated with him commits seppuku at the slightest failure.
• Transformers: Bludgeon, a Decepticon whose Pretender shell (in Marvel's run) and actual body (in IDW's run) is modeled to look like samurai armor with a kabuto helmet and skull-like face. He's always depicted as fighting with a giant katana using the Cybertronian martial art Metallikato even though his action figure came with a gun. Also prone to calling his opponent "Fool!"
• Wolverine: Silver Samurai.

Films — Animation

• In Epic (2013) the Leafmen's armor seems to draw a lot of inspiration from the samurai. Referenced with Ronin's name. His helmet is also an obvious tribute to Date Masamune.
• Gisaku is an animated film set nearly entirely in Spain and constantly tells the viewers how awesome Spain is. And yet it has a samurai as protagonist.

Films — Live-Action

• In Alien, for the design of the EVA suits used by the crew of the Nostromo, Mœbius was inspired by samurai armors, which lead to Ron Cobb coining the movie's fictional MegaCorp "Weyland-Yutani" with a Japanese owner in mind. Originally Ridley Scott had already planned on a Japanese aesthetic for his SciFi reimagining of Tristan and Iseult, which carried over into Alien.
• In Brazil, Sam's later Dream Sequences have him fighting a giant samurai with an armor made out of the parts of his telephone, symbolizing the crapsack reality he hates living in. Then, after defeating him, Sam discovers that the samurai has his own face. Apparently, "samurai" is supposed to be a play on words because it can be read as "SAM-U-R-I" (Sam, you are I).
• Sucker Punch, in a Rule of Cool nod to Brazil, has Baby Doll fighting not one, not two, but THREE giant samurai in a dream sequence.
• Real Steel is a movie about wrestling androids and the main character initially controls "Noisy Boy", the samurai design of which makes it by default one of the slickest looking robots in the film, but also makes its destruction much bitter to watch.
• Red Sun is a western with a samurai thrown in. Better than it sounds. Considering who plays the samurai (Toshiro Mifune), it should be.
• Six String Samurai is an epic After the End tale where the King, Elvis Presley, has died, and samurai Buddy Holly travels to "Lost Vegas" to take his place. Standing in his way are Bowlers, Communists, and The Grim Reaper aka Slash from Guns N' Roses.
• Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai is a film revolving around an African-American assassin who follows the Code of the Samurai.
• Star Wars:
  • Darth Vader's character design was heavily based on samurai armor.
  • Bandai took it one step further and released the Tamashii Nations Movie Realization figure line, in which Darth Vader was converted into a literal samurai. There're also Ashigaru Stormtroopers and Ronin Boba Fett.
• Samurai Purinsesu Gedo Hime. She's actually more of a Ninja, but still takes the name of Samurai.
• Attempted with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III. The fact that it was a Franchise Killer indicates it wasn't enough.
• Not used or invoked in the film itself, but Gareth Edwards, director of Godzilla (2014), has said that if this incarnation of Godzilla were a human, he would be "the last samurai".
  Gareth Edwards: He's an ancient warrior who's the Last of His Kind, and his kind has long since died out. He lives a very solitary lonely existence and he's very happy to keep away from everyone, but we keep doing things to force him to return and put things right.

Literature

• Though Neal Stephenson's series The Baroque Cycle takes place mostly in 17th century Europe, it features Gabriel Goto, a Japanese Jesuit who just happens to be deadly with a katana. In all fairness, the series features characters from just about everywhere and most of them are badasses.
• There's also get a randomly-placed samurai in St. Leibowitz and the Wild Horse Woman.
• James Bond encounters Ernst Stavro Blofeld, calling himself "Dr. Guntram Shatterhand", for the final time in You Only Live Twice, who wears samurai armour in his "Garden of Death" to avoid getting pricked by a poisonous thorns or fall victim to similar fates as its suicidal visitors.
• The Dresden Files novel Death Masks gives us Shiro Yoshimo, the Japanese Knight of the Cross — perhaps not formally a samurai (it's never elaborated on), but certainly living up to the trope in being both a highly honorable person and an artist with the blade.
• A particularly ironic example, Hamburgler from Warrior Wolf Women of the Wasteland and Barbarian Beast Bitches Of The Badlands was McDonaldland's most deadly warrior, wielding a katana and an admiration for the samurai's method of killing, even making a sword from aluminum and killing someone with it in his youth. Later in life, he becomes the psychopathic leader of McDonaldland's Gestapo-like police force the Fry Guys. He eventually had plastic surgery done on him to look like the Hamburgler (the "Devil"-figure in McDonaldland's national religion) to inflict fear in the public.
• Victoria's setting features a mild Days of Future Past tendency, and since Japan has also embraced its own variant of retrofuturism, the samurai ethos and ideal is strong with the Japanese officers encountered by the protagonists. Like typical Corporate Samurai, they make use of modern technology and even clothing, but also of (ceremonial) katana swords and bushido.

Live-Action TV

• Power Rangers / Super Sentai
  • The Samurai Fan Man monster in Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers.
  • The Sixth Ranger of Power Rangers Ninja Storm is called the Samurai Ranger (the Ninpuu Sentai Hurricaneger version, however, is a ninja like the rest of the team).
  • Samurai are, obviously, the theme of Samurai Sentai Shinkenger and Power Rangers Samurai.
  • There is also an actual samurai from the Sengoku period of Japan going by the name of Utsusemimaru/Kyoryu Gold in Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger.
• In Kamen Rider Gaim, both Gaim himself and Zangetsu are modeled on samurai, and their Transformation Trinkets include a katana-pistol as an extra weapon usable in all forms (a feature that was removed from later models). A third Rider, Kurokage, is based on a feudal Japanese footsoldier, and his gear is later mass-produced for use by Mooks. Meanwhile, Gaim's rival Baron is themed on an English knight.
• Saturday Night Live has John Belushi's recurring character Samurai Fatubi, doing an impression of Toshiro Mifune's ronin characters in modern, American settings.
• Tales of the Gold Monkey has Todo, Princess Koji's Samurai henchman.
• Highlander has the episode "The Samurai", where Duncan is shown to have been secretly mentored by a samurai during Japan's isolationist period. When it was discovered, the samurai committed ritual suicide and gave Duncan his sword.
• Westworld: The season 1 finale has several characters break into a wing of the Westworld park's backstage with samurai armor and weapons displayed and two samurai hosts dueling with katana. The "SW" logo on the walls teases that there is a Samurai World section of the park.

Music

• Barenaked Ladies: In "One Week", there's the line "Like Kurosawa, I make mad films, 'kay, I don't make films, but if I did they'd have a Samurai."
• Camui Gackpo the Vocaloid is a Dancing Samurai. No, seriously, that was the title of his first song.
  • To elaborate, his design is samurai/traditionally-inspired, complete with shoulder armor, a ponytail, and a musical katana, and in fan depictions is often depicted talking like a samurai, sometimes with a giant eggplant steed to boot.
• Hodgy Beats of OFWGKTA has a song titled "Samurai" on his Untitled EP
• Verdena's third album "Il Suicidio Dei Samurai" ("The Suicide Of The Samurai") and its final song.
• Smile.dk seems to love this trope. Firstly used in the debut single "Butterfly", it was later referenced in songs like "Doki Doki", "A Geisha's Dream", "Doo-Be-Di-Boy".
• The music video to "Sonne" by Farin Urlaub. The lyrics just imply he lost his girlfriend (with no reference to Japan at all), the video interprets it as she has been murdered by the samurai competition and he's out for vengeance. And it's awesome.^note  Urlaub is a known Japan enthusiast.
• Drum & bugle corps example: The Cavaliers' 2008 "Samurai" show.
• Iron Maiden's album Senjutsu, fitting of the Gratuitous Japanese title, has a Samurai Eddie.

Professional Wrestling

• Perhaps thinking too literally, but many Japanese wrestling feds rely on Samurai! TV to showcase their product. So, in essence, many things are better with samurai.
• Legendary in England (or at least to those who care about pro wrestling 1960s\70s England), The Masked Samurai, Kendo Nagasaki! He's also known up in the Canadian Stampede promotion and the Japanese RJPW. He wore full kendo gear in addition to his completely concealing mask and even had a (blunt) sword!
• Hiro Matsuda was nicknamed "Mr. Samurai" in the 1970s when he was in Championship Wrestling From Florida.
• All Japan Pro Wrestling trainee Shiro Koshinaka was known as Samurai Shiro during his stays in CMLL and later, Pro Wrestling ZERO1 in the new millennium.
• In 1987 CWF would be at it again, along with Jim Crocket Promotions, featuring the Samurai Warriors #s 1 and 2.
• CMLL had two brothers with the gimmick of Guerrero Samurai. The second one took the first's place after his unfortunate passing in 1990.
• New Japan Pro-Wrestling trainee and Universal Wrestling Federation Japan booker Shinji Sasazaki was simply known as "Samurai" in Jerry Lawler's Championship Wrestling Association. Ironically, NJPW had a gaijin simply known as Samurai Warrior around the same time.
• NJPW trainee Osamu Matsuda took up the helmet and gimmick of "El Samurai" in 1991 while wrestling in Universal Wrestling Association (well, Lucha Libre Internacional, which was functionally the same thing). He'd later take the gimmick back to his native Japan and start the Samurai Gym with Ryusuke Taguchi, Tetsuya Naito and Yujiro.
• Dirty White Boy's nemesis and the 1994 SMW television champion, Kendo The Samurai.
• Trained by TAKA Michinoku out of the Kaientai Dojo and seen among Dramatic Dream Team, Pro Wrestling ZERO1 and perhaps most appropriately, Big Japan (least appropriately in Ice Ribbon), Isami Kodaka is known as "The Death Match Samurai" and even carries a (sheathed) samurai sword.
• His name may be spelled with a Y but everyone knows a certain Gran Apache student by Samuray Del Sol because of this trope.
• Último Samurai has two stereotypical samurai ponytails woven into his mask.
• A regularly seen face around the UK, especially the Scottish Wrestling Alliance, or maybe not considering he's usually wearing a helmet, Black Samurai Jr.
• AJPW stable "Samurai Japan" ironically only had one Japanese man in it, MAZADA. AKIYOSHI (also known as Super Kendo) and YAMADA were from the Dominican Republic, while TANAKA was Mexican.
• Dave Kobayashi and Jamie D, "The Samurai Pizza Cats" of the UK's Wrestling Association of Rugby.
  • "Samurai Pizza Cat" one of Shotzi Blackheart's most common nicknames.
• TVW's New Orient Express tag team, Super Samurai Warrior and Super Samurai Warrior #2.
• Jimi Mayhem, Vendetta Pro Wrestling's Shogun Of Harlem. Is he an example of this trope? "Sho'nuff!"
• Wonder Ring Stardom wrestler Act Yasukawa has a modern day samurai gimmick based on the fact her previous sport was kendo.
• Debuting in 2012 for the German Wrestling Federation and later, the Mad Wrestling Association in Lübeck, Schleswig-Holstein was Zero Samurai, before he took up the Franz Engel gimmick later.
• A masked luchador known as Dragón Samurai popped up around Celaya, Guanajuato Mexico in 2014. His age and skill suggests he's been at it for quite awhile though...

Tabletop Games

• Mutant Chronicles, the Mishima MegaCorp is a Feudal Japan in Mercury, they have Samurai units who strictly follow the Bushido code to the letter.
• BattleTech features samurai themed battlemechs in the Draconis Combine, and they come with mech sized katanas. The Combine's warriors are themselves called samurai and expected to behave as such: they attempt to fight in single combat whenever possible, carry swords, and if they screw up badly on the battlefield they're even expected to commit seppuku.
• Warhammer 40,000: The Craftworld Eldar have curved swords, naginata-like polearms and guns that fire monomolecular shuriken, and some of their warriors, such as Prince Yriel, have back-banners, as do wraithlords. The Path system in their society also bears a number of similarities to the tenets of Bushido. If that wasn't enough, they view humans as hairy barbarian upstarts and isolate themselves on their planetoid-sized colony ships.
• Pathfinder features samurai as an alternate class for the core fighter class with a focus on combating single enemies and using discipline to enhance defense. In-universe, samurai come from Tian Xia, a Fantasy Counterpart Culture Wutai.

Toys

• Bandai released the Tamashii Nations Movie Realization figure line, which portrays movie characters in a feudal Japan aesthetic. It begins with Star Wars characters such as Boba Fett, Darth Vader and the Stormtroopers. Later on, the line extended to comic book characters such as Spider-Man.

Video Games

• Sanjuro in .hack. Despite having little bearing on the plot, a popular character who was added to the .hack//Legend of the Twilight anime.
• Sanger (and Wodan?) in Super Robot Wars. Also a very popular character. Even draws a katana during his attack animations, despite attacking with a BFS (he uses a Motion-Capture Mecha).
• Kai in Luminous Arc. This is strange since the entire world is western, and he fights in a unit full of more convectional medieval soldiers. To increase his relationship values you have to answer his questions with stuff that corresponds to the Bushido. Mel, the Torrent Witch, is a big fan of samurai... to say the least.
• Final Fantasy:
  • Final Fantasy V and Final Fantasy Tactics both have Samurai jobs despite having no Japan-like area. FFT's Samurai has an absurdly broken ability called Blade Grasp, which pretty much makes you a Physical God (FFV also has it, but it isn't as broken as the FFT version). Final Fantasy VI also has Cyan, who has a distinct samurai vibe (and katanas in spite of his very European looks, armor, and nation.
  • Final Fantasy X mostly has a Pacific island feel for its characters, with a Goth and a tribal beastman thrown in. Then there's Auron, who's a walking gallery of ronin imagery to go along with all those badass tropes. And don't forget Yojimbo.
  • Final Fantasy XIV added the Samurai class in its third expansion, Stormblood. While the setting does contain Japanese Fantasy Counterpart Cultures complete with ninja, the countries of Doma and Hingashi in the continent of Othard, these are only available after reaching level 61 of the Main Story. Instead, players can learn the job as early as level 50, in the Eorzean city-state of Ul'dah, from a Hingan ronin who has traveled to Eorzea to vanquish evil there. His strange weapon, fighting style, and personal ethos are considered highly out of place in the European fantasy setting of Eorzea, and he draws attention during his travels—and so do you once you pick up the blade yourself.
• Valkyrie Profile, despite being based on Norse Mythology, has Samurai and a whole counterpart of Japan for good measure.
• Age of Empires:
  • In Age of Empires III you can hire mercenary samurai to fight for you. Note that this game is set in the colonisation of the New World. As you would expect, they're ridiculously, hilariously powerful.
  • Also, the unique unit of the Japanese in Age of Empires II? Samurai!
• Kamui of Arcana Heart, who fulfills the Moe samurai-girl quota of the series.
• In Mega Man X6, the player has the option of assembling the Blade Armor which resembles a suit of Samurai armor, complete with Z-saber.
• The Wizardry games included samurai and ninja both as enemies and available character classes. Both were considered "elite" classes with high requirements for changing to, and both were flat-out superior to plain old fighters. Interestingly, Wizardry was also far more popular in Japan than similar game series.
• The Elder Scrolls:
  • In the 1st Era, the Tsaesci of Akavir attempted to invade Tamriel but were defeated by the forces of Reman Cyrodiil. The Tsaesci have significant Japanese influences, including the use of katanas and Samurai style armor. The surviving Tsaesci from the failed invasion were incorporated into Reman Cyrodiil's fledgling Second Tamriellic Empire and brought these influences into Tamriellic (especially Imperial) culture.
  • The Blades, descended from the Akaviri Dragonguard, serve the Emperors of Tamriel as both a Praetorian Guard and as Secret Police. Uniformed Blades wear armor that is a mix of Roman lorica segmentata and Japanese-style lamellar. Their helmets are a cross between a Japanese kabuto and a Roman galea (legionnaire helmet). Their favored weapons are katanas, though in Western style, they are used in conjunction with shields. The Blades are essentially a Culture Chop Suey mix of Samurai and Roman Legionnaires. This style is most evident in Oblivion.
  • Morrowind's Orcish armor is heavily stylized Samurai armor. This is an oddball in the series, as other games style Orcish armor quite differently.
• Touhou Project:
  • Youmu sports a pair of katanas despite Touhou Project being mostly a Bullet Hell genre. She projects a following of the Bushido code, essentially being Yuyuko's samurai, though officially her family serve Yuyuko as gardeners. Must be mentioned that her swordsmanship is highly capable of spewing bullets and slowing time.
  • Also Meira, but she was only seen in Touhou 2 and never returned.
• Fallout 3 expansion "Mothership Zeta" has a Samurai abducted from ancient Japan and awakened from cryogenic suspended animation.
• The Unreal universe has a corporate faction, the Izanagi, who go into battle with heavily Samurai-themed armour.
• The penultimate boss of BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger is Hakumen, a Cyborg Zombie Samurai.
• The Kirby games' "Quick Draw" minigame have the characters dressed as samurai. (Though earlier English translations replaced samurai with cowboys, turning a Single-Stroke Battle into a wild west shootout.)
• In Pokémon, the starter Oshawott's entire evolutionary line is based around samurai—Oshawott is either a wannabe samurai or an inexperienced apprentice, Dewott is either a ronin, an apprentice, or a normal samurai, and Samurott not only has samurai in its name, but it is likely based on a daimyo, or samurai warlord. The best part? THEY USE THEIR SHELLS AS SWORDS.
• The old and mostly forgotten First Samurai bilogy of platform games. The title is also a pun on The Last Ninja series of games.
• The main female protagonist of Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love is Gemini Sunrise, a cowgirl samurai.
• Neo Contra has Jaguar, an alien samurai.
• Shin Megami Tensei IV's four main characters all are Samurai prentices. The Samurai of the Eastern Kingdom of Mikado in general appear out of place in this Medieval European Fantasy setting, at least until the player discovers that Mikado was literally founded on the ruins of Tokyo.
• There's a hero in Defense of the Ancients called Yurnero. His official class is The Juggernaut, but due to having an Orc Blademaster model, he's instead portrayed like a Samurai. And it is awesome. Even with the Orc affiliation removed come Dota 2, Yurnero is still samurai-like and he is still awesome.
• Every installment of the Rhythm Heaven series so far has had at least one minigame featuring a character known as the Wandering Samurai, whose levels involve defending a village from tengu, attacking demons that appear from a portal, and slicing watermelons. He also makes a guest appearance in one of the Gamer Microgames in Game & Wario, where he apparently found work at a fish processing factory.
• Sega's arcade Fighting Game Burning Rival has a samurai fighter, Ghost Shingen, whose helmet and armor are possessed by the soul of an ancient samurai named Shingen Yagyu.
• The Beat 'em Up Burning Fight for the Neo Geo has a Boss Battle with a samurai named Nitou Ryuji, who wields a katana in each hand.
• In the Dynasty Warriors: Gundam series, there is the Musha Gundam and Musha Gundam Mk. II, which are samurai-themed mobile suits of the Gundam and Gundam Mk. II, respectively.
• True Crime: New York City: Lionel "Benjamin" Jones of the President's Club has adopted some Japanese culture from his gang working with the Yakuza before things started to go sour. He fights Marcus with a sharp katana and samurai armor in his Zen garden on the roof of his headquarters.
• Sodom from the Street Fighter and Final Fight franchises is an American Japanophile obsessed with Japanese culture and philosophies and thus considers himself a native from that country. He could also count partially as a McNinja, since he uses both ninja and samurai aesthetics in an effort to come across as Japanese.
• Empire Earth has a truly bizarre example in the expansion's Asian campaign, or more accurately the United Federation of Asian Republics, basically China and neighboring mainland countries. A few decades later, their leader Hu Kwan Do wears basically future-samurai armor with Laser Blades (that shoot laser beams)... yet Japan is still a separate country.
• Empire Earth II's Samurai are unique to the Japanese civilization, but are only available in the first 5 epochs. Meaning you can see barely-dressed cavemen who've yet to master anything more sophisticated than rocks tied to sticks accompanied by fully armored warriors with katanas.
• Team Fortress 2 has a katana as an alternative melee weapon to the Soldier's shovel and Demoman's bottle alongside Samuraï armor and masks as cosmetic items.
• Ensemble Stars! is a game about modern-day high schoolers who are training to become idols. Naturally, the cast includes a character (Souma) who acts in every way like an Edo-period samurai (even carrying a katana with him everywhere he goes.) It's explained that he comes from an incredibly old-fashioned family which is proud of its samurai heritage, but more than a few characters have noted how out of place he looks, as though he's from a totally different genre.
• The Hissho from Endless Space are the Turians but swap their Space Prussia sensibilities for Space Feudal Japan. A civilised and honourable alien race artificially evolved from pterodactyl-analogues to serve as a Slave Race for the Concrete Endless to fight in the gladiatorial arenas of Sykagoja, but a Virtual invasion allowed some of them to escape. Their culture revolves around a clan structure and is dominated by notions of tradition, bloodshed and vengeance, and like the United Empire they make no secret their desire to conquer the galaxy, though not for resources or xenophobia but for the honour emerging victorious in such a conflict would bring them.

Visual Novels

• The Show Within a Show The Steel Samurai in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. Note that in the original version, Gyakuten Saiban, the Show Within a Show was not about a samurai, but rather, a feudal lord-based superhero known as "Soldier of Oedo, Tonosaman". There's also Simon Blackquill, the main prosecutor of the fifth game. He claims to be a samurai and certainly has the look and motif going on.
• Fate/stay night has a samurai for the Assassin class. And no, it doesn't suit him in the slightest. He does no sneak attacks, no dirty fighting, doesn't go for Masters like he is supposed to when he has the chance, and finally he is the only Japanese hero amongst all the Servants. The rest of them? Greeks, Celts and English make up over half the Servants and he is an Iranian. He wasn't even supposed to be here at all. Also, he's a better swordsman than Saber and even Lancer doesn't want to fight him.

Web Animation

• At one point in Issue #10 of Teen Girl Squad, a tiny samurai jumps out of a pile of corn during their school cafeteria's "Corn and Corn Alone Day," proclaiming that "Corn is no place for a mighty warrior." Don't ask. He later jumps out of a bowl of corn chips at The Ugly One's birthday party and "lathes" a rotating What's-Her-Face with a Naginata. Again, don't ask.

Web Comics

• Samurai Princess. Not much more needs to be said.
• Kousuke Shiba from Corgi Quest has this as his Class. As befitting the trope, he has a horse, a lord, a Japanese-sounding name, and a katana.
• Beneath the Clouds features samurai/samuru character Satake no Juro prominently in promotional art. He doesn't appear until a third of the way through the comic.

Western Animation

• Ulrich Stern in Code Lyoko takes the form of a samurai when he's virtualized.
• Transformers:
  • Prowl in Transformers: Animated is generally a Ninja, but gets a samurai upgrade in the episode "A Fistful of Energon".
  • Before that, Silverbolt gained a samurai-like body in Beast Machines.
• The Boondocks:
  • The gratuitous (but cool) "Blind Nigga Samurai" sequence.
  • Bushido Brown, an African-American karate expert who uses a katana sword on occasion.
• Samurai (heh) of the Superfriends.
• Naturally enough, when an episode of Gargoyles was set in (modern day) Japan, what code would the gargoyle clan found protecting a village there follow but bushido?
• ThunderCats (1985) has Hachiman, a samurai Mumra brought to Third Earth to defeat Lion-O, but who would become an occasional ally of the Thundercats.
• Samurai Jack deconstructs this with Da Samurai, a wannabe "samurai." Despite being so lacking in skill he uses his katana like a club, he uses his self-proclaimed status to bully people and (fail to) pick up ladies. The show's actual samurai humbles him by the end of the episode, kicking his ass without breaking a sweat while also teaching him a bit about the real values of a samurai.
• Dexter's Laboratory : Sam-R-I of the Justice Friends.
• The Cheese Shogun in Codename: Kids Next Door, though he has ninjas for minions.

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