Fuu

Fuu is a scrappy, penniless waitress in Edo-period Japan who bails two hotheaded swordsmen out of an execution by demanding they escort her on a quest to find "the samurai who smells of sunflowers." She's stubborn, hungry, and unafraid to boss around men who could kill her, holding her ragtag trio together through sheer will.

She's the show's emotional anchor precisely because she isn't a fighter, forcing Mugen and Jin's egos to orbit around her purpose instead of their own. Kawasumi plays her with a comic, wheedling energy that never curdles into helplessness, and the mystery of her quest gives the loose, episodic road trip an actual spine to walk along.