Jin

Jin is a wandering ronin with wire-rimmed glasses and a stillness that borders on melancholy. Polished in classical swordsmanship and unfailingly courteous, he seems out of place brawling in back alleys, yet he does so anyway, drawn into a hot-headed pirate's feud and a determined girl's search for a mysterious samurai who smells of sunflowers.

He's the show's straight man in every sense, formal where Mugen is chaos, and that contrast is the engine of half its jokes and all its best fight choreography. Ginpei Sato plays him with a dry, unhurried calm that makes his rare flashes of feeling land hard, and his impeccable dueling style turns violence into something closer to composed, quiet elegance.