There are actually characters in this series who we already know are strong based on accolades but not how strong exactly due to never having been seen in a fight, like Soji Okita for example. And there are also characters who we see get beaten so easily or so early on that the reality is that they're stronger than the series presentation would lead you to believe.
I touched upon this a little bit during my Rurouni Kenshin tier list but there are characters that Kenshin didn't get a good fight against, who were beaten easily by Kenshin, or who were beaten easily by someone else without ever having fought Kenshin. This is important because when it comes to fights, specifically in relation to martial arts or power systems, the properties of the characters' techniques are more important than the stats those techniques have.
So first off is Jin-E. Jin-E is former Shinsengumi who later became an Assassin for the Isshin Shishi who mastered the fighting style called Nikaido Heiho, a sword art named after its primary 3 sword stances which form the Kanji for 1, 2, and 8 respectively. That stuff alone means he should be pretty powerful but Nikaido Heiho is special because it comes with a technique called Shin no Ippo, translated into English as One Side of the Soul, and also known by its other name Isukumi.
Shin no Ippo is initially presented as a form of paralysis by fear but it's actually more intricate than that. Shin No Ippo is a sort of forced hypnosis that activates when he sends his Kenki, or sword aura, into an opponent by way of their eyes. He usually uses it to paralyze those that he commands but it's not solely restricted to that kind of application.
Jin-E shows two more applications of it during his battle with Kenshin toward the end of his mini-arc. The first of these, he used on Kaoru to paralyze her lungs instead of her body, meaning she can still technically move but she can't breathe, eventually dying of asphyxiation. Or she would if she hadn't broken it. We'll get to that though.
The other application he used on himself, to put himself into peak condition. Maximum strength, maximum speed, maximum energy, and most importantly, maximum performance. Kenshin did end up subverting this application by using Souryusen, which was essentially a sneak attack that Jin-E could not have predicted due to the fact that Hiten Mitsurugi style is the only sword style in all of Rurouni Kenshin that has double phase Battojutsu instead of only single phase. And given how little is actually known about the style by anyone other than its practitioners you really can't blame Jin-E for not knowing that would happen.
Now, this technique may sound invincible in a vacuum but it does have one limit. Namely, that Shin no Ippo is a sort of battle of wills. If you can raise your will power above the will Jin-E put into the command, you can break it. In the entire series, this is only done by three people. Kenshin, who had experience with sword fighters like him, Sano, who forced himself to break it to protect the Governor Tani, and Kaoru, who's will to live combined with her desire to protect Kenshin's vow not to kill allowed her to overcome him in the end.
We know a fair number of characters in the series would be able to break the Shin no Ippo, such as Saito, Shishio, Hiko, Aoshi, and Enishi. But a fair few probably couldn't. Not even just weak characters either, characters that we know are tough and skilled but do not meet the will power requirement. Characters such as Raijuta Isurugi, Usui the Blind Sword, Sojiro Seta, Banjin Inui, Hyoko Otowa, Gein, Mumyoi Yatsumei, and even the Su-Shin.
Of course, several of those characters are believable due to being presented with a strong introduction. Usui defeated 100 cops in the span of an hour and was said to be the second strongest of the Juppongatana. Sojiro kept up with a moving carriage and broke Kenshin's first Sakabato in a Battojutsu clash. Banjin Inui took out Maekawa's entire dojo and defeated Sanosuke one-on-one with only part of one of his gauntlets being broken by the Futae no Kiwami which ended up breaking Sanosuke's hand even further than it already was. Gein had already been presented as powerful in the Shishio arc due to Iwanbo's effectively invulnerable body and was only ever beaten by Kenshin and Aoshi, two of the strongest characters in the entirety of the series. The only ones you could argue that are not all that strong that I could agree with are Hyoko Otowa, due to relying more on cheap tricks than actual battle power, and the Su-Shin for being beaten in the first fight they each get into in the manga.
Raijuta Isurugi, however, I would argue is very powerful, so much so that he's never actually defeated in the manga. Kenshin ends up breaking his spirit by being unafraid of his abilities, and granted Kenshin didn't get an actual fight due to one using a shinai in a dojo, and the other with a numb, unusable drawing arm, so it's entirely possible that Kenshin could've defeated Raijuta by way of speed and reflexes.
However, Raijuta has two variations on one technique that are probably the single most powerful sword technique in the whole series. Raijuta's Izuna technique creates a vacuum within two barriers of air to separate easily what it comes into contact with, making a powerful slash that can cut through anything. The two variants, Matoi Izuna, can only be used at close range, and Tobi Izuna, which can be used at a distance, are effectively the swordsmanship version of Anji's Futae no Kiwami.
That comparison is actually rather apt because both characters in the manga are built on the same core idea. In the secret life bios in the manga volumes, the author of Rurouni Kenshin, Nobuhiro Watsuki states that Raijuta and Anji are both based on the idea of Macho Intelligence. The reason he has two attempts at it instead of one is because he believed Raijuta was a failure at this concept and thus introduced Anji as a second attempt. This lends a lot of insight into many of their similarities, however.
While both are very tall, muscular individuals, with notably traditional if very extremist fundamentalist view points, the similarities go down into their very fighting styles as well. Raijuta developed the Izuna technique after reading about it in a scroll and practicing day in and day out for a long time. We're not actually sure how long Raijuta trained, or if the technique he was practicing ever existed before he developed it himself but regardless he taught himself a powerful technique. Anji Yukyuzan, meanwhile, developed the Futae no Kiwami over ten years as a means of invincible offense, using the double layers concept to bypass a substance's durability to deal damage to everything he hits, developed in isolation over ten years of training.
Not only that but both techniques can be used at either close range for maximum damage, or at long range by transmitting it through a medium, the air for the Tobi Izuna, and through the ground as a shock wave for the Futae no Kiwami.
Not only that but neither technique has ever received any form of counter. While both can be evaded, Raijuta himself is never actually defeated in a fair fight, and the only way Sano could defeat the Futae no Kiwami was by using it himself. Now, it can be hypothesized that there are techniques that can counter them. For instance, in the Rurouni Kenshin reboot manga, Kenshin defeats Sano's Futae no Kiwami with Soryusen, using the double strike Battojutsu to disrupt the Futae no Kiwami in the same way Anji did against Sano in the main manga and the way Sano did against Anji a little bit later in the fight.
In a similar vein, Aoshi's Flow of the River current would likely be capable of evading the Izuna rather easily due entirely to the fact that its confusing movements make it difficult to aim at Aoshi's exact location. Also, credit where credit is due, Sojiro could probably overcome the technique as well due to sheer speed. But Shukuchi counters pretty much everything so it's kind of cheating to include that one.
Speaking of Sojiro, Soji Okita. Sojiro Seta is actually stated in the Secret Life bios to be based on Soji Okita, and we can actually see this by comparing the two designs in the manga. We can see this further with Sanosuke Sagara who is based on the Shinsengumi member Sanosuke Harada. However, focusing on Okita, while one is based on the other, we shouldn't assume the two fight exactly the same way. Sojiro's fighting style is intended to be a hyper version of Kenshin's Hiten Mitsurugi, while Okita clearly practices something else.
While we never see Okita fight in the manga, he is the Captain of the First Unit of the Shinsengumi and all of the sword fighting Shinsengumi members, specifically the Captains of the first three units, practiced some specialized variant of the Hirazuki. Not only that but Kenshin just prior to Saito's introduction states that the fights against those three captains were the toughest he ever had during the Bakumatsu, suggesting that Okita was at least as tough as Saito. Not only that but Okita was also a real life person, much like Saito himself, and though the representations are not one-to-one due to changes in character design, personality, behaviors, etc. at least some attempt was made to keep Saito's defining technique, named Gatotsu in the manga present even if it is exaggerated. With that in mind, we can use real life accolades to give ourselves an idea of how strong this character would've been had he ever fought in the manga.
Real life Soji Okita is rumored to have had a thrusting technique that was so fast that it severed your body in three separate places simultaneously. Exaggerated to be sure but such a thing is possible in the Rurouni Kenshin manga. Not only is it possible, though, it's also a technique used by Kenshin himself. The Kuzuryusen is a technique that stabs an opponent at 9 different places simultaneously.
And while that's not necessarily enough to conclude that Okita is on a similar level, what's noteworthy is that during the Jinchu arc when Saito is about to fight Yatsume, Sanosuke mentions that the Gatotsu has about as much momentum as Kenshin's Kuzuryusen. And since Okita is certain to be at least on par with Saito, we can say with certainty that if the Gatotsu has as much momentum as the Kuzuryusen, Okita's thrust certainly would as well. So between Kenshin's feat of 9 simultaneous strikes being 3 times as effort intensive as the 3 simultaneous thrusts for Okita, as well as having around the same momentum, it's safe to say that Okita would've been quite a formidable opponent indeed.
In terms of where he'd rank, that's a tough one. He would certainly be below Sojiro Seta and Enishi Yukishiro, due to them having evaded and intercepted the Kuzuryusen respectively, making it entirely possible that they'd do so with Okita's attack as well. Not only that but due to being Shinsengumi he'd likely have the same weakness as Saitou, that being lack of variety in options making him predictable. However, Okita would likely be able to beat opponents that Kenshin and Saitou could without relying on Ryumeisen, Ama Kakeru Ryu no Hirameki, or Gatotsu Zeroshiki respectively. That said though the sheer speed of his strikes would make him closer to Kenshin than Saitou in terms of ability.
So he could beat Sano, Yatsume, Hyogo Kujiranami, and possibly Usui the Blind Sword without too much trouble. I'm including Usui the Blind Sword because while his turtle shell blocked the Gatotsu, that was only because he knew the direction of the attack and also reduced Saitou's mobility with leg injuries.
As I said, Sojiro and Enishi would absolutely defeat Okita due to them countering him too hard. But I firmly believe that if Okita didn't have Tuberculosis, the lung disease that killed him prior to the Meiji Era, he absolutely would've been capable of defeating Shishio. And here's why.
Firstly, Shishio is not capable of dodging thrusts at that level. While Kenshin hit him dead on with Kuzuryusen due to grabbing his bandages, and Saitou sneaking up on him, the thing is Shishio does not have the same level of speed and mobility that Enishi and Sojiro do. In fact, it's telling that in the manga when Saitou's sneak attack fails to take off his head, he only just barely evades Gatotsu Zeroshiki due to blocking some of the momentum with a hand stabbed directly into Saitou's shoulder, and a side step, something that would not have been doable with Kuzuryusen's multiple strikes or Shishio's lack of general mobility.
So on a tier list, this is where I think Okita would fall, in general if I were to add him.
- Sojiro Seta
- Kenshin Himura
- Enishi Yukishiro
- Soji Okita
- Hajime Saitou
This is disregarding most of the characters from the original post, though, due to the fact that I don't want to compile that list again.
And that's probably everyone I want to cover. That's all for now. Have a great day and I'll see you all next time.
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