Yaiba

File:Yaiba-vol-1.jpg

Yaiba Manga, Volume 1

Y∀IBA, also known as Kenyuu Densetsu Yaiba (剣勇伝説YAIBA ,Swordsman Legend Yaiba), is the second manga series created by Gosho Aoyama. It ran from 1988 to 1993 in Shonen Sunday and later had an anime that ran from April 9, 1993 to April 1, 1994. It was collected into 24 volumes.

The story was about a young samurai and his adventures in modern day Japan. There have been numerous references to it in Detective Conan.

Plot Summary

In order to train his son, Yaiba Kurogane, to be a great samurai, Kenjuro Kurogane raises him in the African wilderness. But during training one day, they (along with their new pet tiger Kagetora) are caught in a box of bananas about to be shipped to Japan. At the Tokyo airport, Kenjuro runs into his old kendo rival Raizo Mine and his daughter, Sayaka. Kenjuro leaves Yaiba with Raizo and Sayaka (despite their protestations) and heads off on a journey.

Meanwhile, Yaiba makes instant enemies with Sayaka's school's kendo star, Takeshi Onimaru. After losing in a duel to Yaiba, Onimaru begins training with his families Fuujin-ken (Wind God Sword) and becomes possessed and starts to take over Japan. To combat this, Yaiba seeks out the Raijin-ken (Lightning God Sword) and is trained by the legendary samurai Musashi Miyamoto. Onimaru sends wave after wave of minions after Yaiba and his friends, leading to a final showdown at his flying castle.

In Part 2 of the story, Yaiba's use of the sacred Dragon Orbs to help defeat Onimaru reawakens the evil princess of the Rabbit People, Kaguya. Kaguya seeks out the youth of all of the women of the world for herself. Ultimately, Yaiba has to join forces with Onimaru to defeat Kaguya and her strongest minion Gekko.

Episodes

• 1 - Enter Yaiba! Samurai of the 20th Century.
• 2 - The Revival of the Wind God Sword

Characters

Cast of Yaiba: Yaiba (foreground); Musashi, Kojiro, Sayaka, Namako-Otoko, Gerozaemon, Onimaru (background, from left to right)

• Yaiba Kurogane
• Sayaka Mine - see also Mine family
• Musashi Miyamoto
• Takeshi Onimaru
• Kenjuro Kurogane
• Kagetora & Shonosuke - Yaiba's pet tiger and vulture respectively. Yaiba meets (and nearly eats) Kagetora in the first chapter before leaving the jungle, but how he met Shonosuke is never explained.
• Sayaka's Grandmother - Raizo's mother who runs the household. She is very knowledgable in kendo and even trains Yaiba a bit before Musashi appears.
• Gerozaemon Geroda - A frog man, originally one of Onimaru's minions, revived by using a normal frog as the host body. After losing to Yaiba and learning from another minion that Onimaru views him as expendable, he reforms and joins Yaiba for the remainder of the series. Although mostly comical, he has been shown to be a skilled fighter, mainly using his sticky tongue and a battle axe to fight.
• Kumo-Otoko (Spider Man) - Another of Onimaru's minions, he ends up becoming his right hand man and secretary. After his introduction, he is mostly comical and is rarely shown to be competant at anything.
• Namako-Otoko (Sea cucumber man) - Another one of Onimaru's former minions who sides with Yaiba. He is mostly inactive after reforming but is usually seen on Sayaka's shoulder.
• Kojiro Sasaki - Musashi's famous rival, revived by Onimaru to defeat Yaiba. Kojiro makes several attempts to defeat Yaiba or at least steal the Raijin-ken, but ultimately he ends up joining him against Onimaru. He fights using an extendable sword and is a notorious womanizer.
• Jubei Yagyu - The famous historical one-eyed samurai, revived by Onimaru using a wolf as the host body. Though he usually looks normal, he becomes an uncontrollable werewolf when drunk. Because they have the same master (Musashi), he reforms and joins Yaiba after losing to him.
• Kaguya - The bunny princess of the moon and second major antagonist of the series. Awakened by Yaiba using the dragon orbs, she and her army seek to invade the earth. Her kiss can drain a person's youth.
• Tsukikage - Kaguya's right-hand man and Gekko's older brother.
• Gekko - Kaguya's most powerful warrior, an antropomorphic rabbit with a scar over one eye. He is ruthless and so powerful Yaiba and Onimaru have to team up to stop him.
• Moroha Kurogane - Yaiba's long lost little sister, raised by their mother to hate Kenjuro. She joins her brother for the final arc.
• Soshi Okita - The final villian of the series.

Yaiba in Detective Conan

• In volume 2 of Conan, Yaiba is seen playing on a TV. Likewise, in the last episode of the Yaiba anime, Conan and Ran are seen on a TV.
• The characer Kamen Yaiba is a parody of Kamen Rider using Yaiba instead of Rider.
• In the first OVA, Conan vs. Kid. vs. Yaiba, Mitsuhiko lends Conan all 24 volumes of Yaiba. Also, various characters in the Yaiba series play a major role in the OVA.
• Ran's cell-phone strap has a key-chain figure of Namako-Otoko attached to it.
• At the Halloween Party Murder Case, people dressed as Onimaru, Gerozaemon, Kumo-Otoko, the kappa Kerokichi (a one-time character) can be seen.
• The names of the characters in the movie Star Blade VI are rearranged versions of the historical names in Yaiba and have similarities to each character: Dark Sashim (ダーク・サシム) is Musashi (ムサシ) and uses two swords, Bay Jew (ベイ・ジュウ) is Jubei (十兵衛) and has an eyepatch, Kisasa (キササ) is Sasaki (Kojiro) (佐々木) and uses a long sword, and Dark Takio (ダーク・タキオ) is Okita (沖田) and resembles and evil god.
• Many of the same voice actors appear in Yaiba and Detective Conan: Minami Takayama (Yaiba and Conan), Kotono Mitsuishi (Sayaka and Kir), Ryo Horikawa (Onimaru and Heiji), and Unsho Ishizuka (Raizo and Nakamori). Other DC actors voiced one-time characters in Yaiba: Kappei Yamaguchi (Kerokichi and Shinichi/Kaitou Kid), Wataru Takagi (Starfishman and Genta/Takagi), and Fumihiko Tachiki (Yakitori-kun and Vodka).

Yaiba in Magic Kaito

• In chapter 18 of Magic Kaito (which the first Conan OVA is based on), Kid attempts to steal a sacred sword from the Mine house and ends up fighting Yaiba. Also, Kuroba and Nakamori are mentioned in the the final chapter of Yaiba.