[Anime] Favorite Japanese Feudal/Mythology Character or Encounter

[The Last DJ]

I'm currently writing an Oriental Adventures/Legend of the Five Rings campaign for my gaming group. I'm using the basic Rokugan lands and clans, but fluffing it with more high fantasy fare found in the Oriental Adventures books. While writing up some of the encounters my players will deal with, I decided to stuff it with nerdy anime/video game references. Problem is I totally brainfarted after maybe two nods to anime or video games that are set in Feudal Japan or reference Japanese mythology. So what are your favorites that I can totally and shamelessly steal and shoehorn into my game? High fantasy or low, it doesn't matter.

For example: shortly after dealing with a demon-tainted monastery and monks that are flesh-eating spiders (Blood Reign : Curse of the Yoma), the players will come across a pack of Boar Kami (really just dire boars with the Celestial template attached) that warn them that one of their own - a former Boar God - has fallen to the Taint from the Shadowlands and become a demon. (Nago, the Boar Spirit killed by Ashitaka at the start of Princess Mononoke). I'm going to be introducing more animal gods from Mononoke; the players will see Kodama and possibly Shishi-gami, the Forest Spirit, while on night watches. I'm batting around the idea of the players encountering a wandering samurai on the road, either a la Lone Wolf and Cub or Himura Kenshin. Haven't decided which route I'm going.

The bare bones of the adventure is a glorified escort. Get the fancy princess to her wedding far inland and avoid getting their shit wrecked by demons, mahou-tsukai, and assassins. As I'm unable to find a clear ending after the PCs make it to the wedding (or not...), it will launch into a sweeping storyline in the same vein as Journey to the West, although it will be less Dragonball antics and more Gensomaden Saiyuki, without all the angsty bishounen fluff.



For those interested, it will be three PCs. My husband's Vanara Shaman/Monk, whatever character the other player makes, and mine, a tanuki samurai/iaijutsu master that's totally not a reference to Ishikawa Goemon XIII from Lupin the III and Hachiman from Thundercats. Two DM PCs are the princess herself (wu jen/shapeshifter) and a tengu samurai who's basically a glorified plot hook.

[Gallahadd]

Miyamoto Musashi. He was a real feudal samurai but HOLY CRAP what a pimp created the Niten Ichi Ryu dual-wield swordfighting school, and spent his life wandering the country, meeting people and getting into adventures, while doing that he fought more than 60 duels, (the most famous of which was his legendary duel with Sasaki Kojiro) without losing a single one. He also SINGLE HANDEDLY destroyed a whole school, by dueling and taking out all the leaders of the school. In fact ALOT of people I've spoken two think that Mirumoto, founder of the Mirumoto school in L5R is based off of him, for reasons which should be blindly obvious

also if you want to throw a Non-dragonball style nod to Journey to the West, check out Monkey, it's the same story, but broken down into episodic format, would work well in a tabletop RPG.

also.. Legend of the Five Rings FTW! been lookin for a group near me, but London seem to be more about stabbing people than tabletop RPGs... but still.. Moto for life!