Shinomori Aoshi was raised as a ninja in the Oniwabanshuu, serving the Shogunate during the Edo period. He essentially became a father figure to Makimachi Misao, bringing her up within the group.
When the Meiji Restoration swept away the old order, Aoshi and several Oniwabanshuu members who couldn't adapt to the new era ended up working for Takeda Kanryuu, a corrupt businessman hungry for power. His crew included some memorable fighters: Beshimi handled poison darts, Hyotoko breathed fire using specially-designed flint-and-steel teeth, Hannya was Aoshi's protégé and an excellent martial artist, and Shikijou served as the group's heavy hitter.
Aoshi himself is hard to read. He's famously stoic—emotions barely register on his face, whether he's fighting or just existing. Early on, he fought with a single kodachi paired with martial arts, but his loss to Kenshin at Kanryuu's mansion fundamentally changed him. Consumed by the need to avenge his fallen comrades, he reinvented himself with dual kodachi and basically shut off whatever emotional side remained, turning revenge into his only drive.
The two eventually clash again at Shishio Makoto's mansion to settle things once and for all. During that battle, something clicks for Aoshi—he finally understands what he'd been doing wrong. The encounter doesn't make him and Kenshin best friends, but it marks a real turning point, pushing him toward something closer to an ally than an enemy.
Content compiled by AnimeList.moe from publicly available sources.
