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Oboro (朧) is the granddaughter of Ogen and therefore the rightful princess of the Iga Tsubagakure clan who is engaged to Gennosuke Kōga where she was one of the ten ninja picked by her grandmother to represent Iga in the battle against the Kōga Manjidani clan.

After the death of Ogen, Oboro ascends to take leadership of the clan, but due to her passive demeanor, she soon finds that her authority was usurped by Tenzen Yakushiji and she is considered a poor leader to the Iga clan.

Appearance[]

Oboro-0

Oboro's full body and facial expressions

Oboro is a beautiful young woman with waist-length black hair (dark-purple hair in the manga) that it is tied back into a low ponytail by a big yellow cloth with shoulder-length hair strands hanging on either side while she leaves the front in a fringe which reaches her eyebrows, violet eyes with visible long eyelashes and full pink lips. In the original novels, Oboro is described to have "a face that shines beautiful as the sun" and "deep, almost-hypnotic, crystal eyes of intensity".

She wears a purple kimono that is tied with a red sash and she wears traditional sandals with tabi socks.  

Child[]

Oboro Child

Oboro during her childhood in Episode 16

As a child, Oboro's hair was tied into a ponytail at the top of her head and her eyes were much larger.

She wore a pink kimono instead of the purple one she wears as an adult.

Personality[]

Oboro is a very kind, gentle, selfless, naive, sweet-natured and peaceful girl who can be very determined when it comes to the safety of other people and cares deeply for her clan despite being passive (accepting or allowing what happens or what others do, without active response or resistance).

She is also shown to be shy and clumsy as seen in Episode 16 when she serves three cups of tea only to trip due to feeling nervous, which causes one of the tea cups to spill on Gennosuke Kōga's face.

Biography[]

Before the War[]

As a child, Oboro was cared for by Neeya and also got to know Akeginu, Koshirō Chikuma and Nenki Mino, who bounced her around with his hair. She was adopted by Ogen and selected to be her heir and she is seen during Ogen's meeting with Tenzen Yakushiji where she was too young to understand he was against her selection as heir and she instead played with his hair. She was then taken to meet Hanzo the 2nd, which was were she first met Gennosuke Kōga and Danjō Kōga. She was taken outside with Gennosuke by Kyohachiro Hattori to prevent them from becoming bored. While outside, she tries to convince Gennosuke that Iga Tsubagakure is a lovely place, which she manages to do successfully. As she leaves, she asks Neeya if she'll see Gennosuke again, to which she replies that she probably will.

Years later, Oboro is seen praying by Neeya's grave before being found by Akeginu who takes her back to her room to fix her make-up for her upcoming meeting with Gennosuke. While she has her lipstick applied, she develops hiccoughs, which causes her to panic. She wanders the halls of Iga before she is jumped out on by Nenki and Rōsai Azuki, but the fright she received didn't cure her of he hiccoughs. She again meets with Akeginu who gives her a drink, successfully curing her. Oboro then hears that Gennosuke has arrived and runs off to meet him, carrying the tea with her. She gets so nervous when she meets him that she trips and spills all the tea over Gennosuke.

She is also seen in another flashback gathered with some of the other Iga ten. They hear a noise from the adjacent room and when Yashamaru opens it, they see Ogen fixing her appearance in the mirror. The group are so shocked that they fall forward, breaking the doors in the process and leaving only Oboro and Akeginu left standing.

After becoming engaged to Gennosuke, Oboro would frequently meet with him along their clan's borders to practice a Japanese fan dance, which they planned to perform for the guests at their wedding.

Abilities[]

  • Mystic Eyes: Oboro was born with "Mystic Eyes" which neutralize the techniques and skills of any ninja that meets her gaze directly, halting whatever technique/skill they are using at the moment (even passive skills), seems to operate on demons as well.
  • Combat Specialist: Other than her Mystic Eyes, Oboro lacks any real talent for either martial arts or ninjutsu and she is seen by many of her clansmen as a failure because of it.

Relationships[]

Gennosuke Kōga[]

Oboro fell deeply in love with Gennosuke when she met with him in Iga Tsubagakure, immediately agreeing to the arranged marriage. While she knew it was for peace between the clans, she viewed it as true love and became completely devoted to him. When Hanzo the 1st's treaty was broken, she refused to fight against Gennosuke, even though she was the only one who could counter his ability. She sealed her eyes so as not to be used against him, killed Tenzen Yakushiji and even killed herself for him.

Akeginu and Koshirō Chikuma[]

Oboro has known both Akeginu and Koshirō since they were children and views them as her sister and brother. They were the only two in Iga Tsubagakure who never criticized any of her decisions and never spoke out against the marriage, even though they most likely were against it. Despite her bound with Koshirō, she still plays a part in him being blinded, something that she is shown to feel bad about. After Akeginu's death, she is shown to be crying, asking her to come back to her.

Ogen[]

Ogen was very patient with Oboro, despite knowing that she was not strong or talented enough as a ninja or a leader. She seemed to believe in Oboro because of the power in her eyes that Ogen trained Oboro to be prepared to act and to be careful with Tenzen Yakushiji's ambitions.

Differences between Manga, Anime and Novel Versions[]

Oboro in the anime is slightly more fatalistic, mature and down-to-earth than her manga incarnation. After learning of the Hattori Truce's nullification in the manga, Oboro decides that in order to show her regret to Gennosuke Kōga for her clan's actions, she will allow him to kill her and then wait for him in the afterlife. In contrast, Oboro in the anime is doubtful that Gennosuke would ever forgive her, even if she allowed him to kill her, but accepted it as her fate, due to the devotion she felt for him as well as the hope her sacrifice would move him to not seek any further retribution upon her clan. Oboro in the anime also tends to be somewhat more self-conscious of her shortcomings as a ninja than she is in the manga, where she's still aware of her lack of skill, but angsts less about it.

Additionally, while Gennosuke and Oboro first met, in the anime when they were both children; in the manga they don't properly meet until adulthood, when Danjō Kōga and Gennosuke meet with Ogen and Oboro to discuss a possible marriage between them as a way to dispel the animosity between their two clans. In both versions, Oboro is so flustered upon meeting her future fiancé that she trips and winds up, spilling a tray of hot tea right on Gennosuke's head.

In the original novel; Oboro is described as having a face like the sun with large, round, mesmerizing eyes. Her personality is closer to the manga than the anime and comparatively speaking; receives noticeably less attention in the novel than either the manga or anime. However, it also shows she can have a violent side too. When she discovers Jingorō Amayo attempting to kill Gennosuke while still in Iga Tsubagakure, she nullifies his technique and kicks him off of the veranda to the ground. She threatens to kill Jingorō herself, but before she can, Oboro hears Akeginu's scream and leaves Jingorō behind. As with the manga and anime, Oboro lacks martial ability and her only skill is her mystic eyes. Her death in the novel is the same as in both the anime and manga.

Appearance in Other Media[]

Oboro Movie

Yukie Nakama as Oboro

Oboro is featured as a character in the 2005 live-action movie known as Shinobi: Heart Under Blade, being played by actress Yukie Nakama. Just like her anime and manga incarnations, she is physically weak and has rather poor kenjutsu skills (although she is seen being able to leap across several feet and skilled enough to at least deflect projectiles with her sword). Instead of disabling other ninjas' abilities, her eyes sent a crippling pulse throughout the body of anyone who met her doujutsu, imploding their internals and effectively mutilating them. Gradually, she became less conflicted between her feelings for Gennosuke Kōga and her duty to the Iga. Following the deaths of all their comrades, during their last duel, Gennosuke allows Oboro to kill him, in order to save their clans and keep their hope for peace. Later, when Ieyasu Tokugawa sent troops to destroy the Kōga and Iga villages, Oboro begs him to spare them, blinding herself as a proof of her sincerity. Ieyasu accepts, thus the villages are saved.

Quotes[]

  • (To Gennosuke Kōga as a child) "Everyone back home treats me very well. Nenki swings me high into the air with his hair. Koshirou...Koshirou carves me little statues and things. And Akeginu...she likes to tell me stories."
  • (To herself about Gennosuke) "I am one of the Iga seven. And to Gennosuke-sama, all he sees are his remaining enemies. It is a world of black and white to him now. The elders say the absent get further off every day. And to him this must be true. I assume that in his mind, I'm nothing more than the Iga woman, who knowingly lured him into a trap. If only he knew this was not the truth. Not even close. My feelings are deeper...My feelings are real."
  • (To Gennosuke) "Before these eyes open again, I ask you to kill me."
  • (To Gennosuke) "I see a time when you and I could stand together and feel the breeze a crossed our face. A time when our dreams were the same, of the same place, of the same feelings. Sometimes this thought crosses my mind when I least expect it, this thought is that you and I were once a single soul. One soul split into two equal parts which now longs to be together again. I feel this as truly as I feel the rain in the spring or the love for all of my ancestors and that is why...that is why I feel so strongly toward you."

Etymology[]

  • The name Oboro means "haziness, dreaminess, gloom" (朧).

Gallery[]

Anime[]

Other[]

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