Sagara Sōzō
Years Active: 1839–1868
Sōzō was the commander of the Sekihōtai's First Troop and basically everything Sanosuke wanted to be. The kid idolized him—Sōzō represented the kind of man Sano aspired to become. Their bond ran deep enough that after Sōzō's death, Sanosuke took his name as his own, becoming Sagara Sanosuke.
Things fell apart when the Meiji government cracked down on the Sekihōtai and executed Sōzō. The manner of it was brutal: his head was displayed publicly in a cage as a warning. That image never left Sano. It became a wound that defined him—his resentment of the Meiji government stems directly from watching them destroy the man he looked up to most and then humiliate him in death. Even years later, Sano still carries that trauma.
Content compiled by AnimeList.moe from publicly available sources.
