| Series cast summary: | |||
| Daisuke Namikawa | ... | Gennosuke Fujiki / ... 12 episodes, 2007 | |
| Emi Shinohara | ... | Iku 12 episodes, 2007 | |
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Seizô Katô | ... | Kogan Iwamoto 12 episodes, 2007 |
| John Burgmeier | ... | Gennosuke 12 episodes, 2007 | |
| R. Bruce Elliott | ... | Ushimata 12 episodes, 2007 | |
| Mike McFarland | ... | Narrator 12 episodes, 2007 | |
| Nozomu Sasaki | ... | Seigen Irako / ... 11 episodes, 2007 | |
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Jerry Russell | ... | Kogan 11 episodes, 2007 |
| Houko Kuwashima | ... | Mie Iwamoto / ... 10 episodes, 2007 | |
| Laura Bailey | ... | Mie 9 episodes, 2007 | |
| Johnny Bruce Lewis | ... | Mariko 9 episodes, 2007 | |
| Mark Stoddard | ... | Yamazaki 9 episodes, 2007 | |
| J. Michael Tatum | ... | Seigen 9 episodes, 2007 | |
| Charles Baker | ... | Munakata 8 episodes, 2007 | |
| Wendy Powell | ... | Iku 8 episodes, 2007 | |
| Kent Williams | ... | Okitsu / ... 8 episodes, 2007 | |
| Grant James | ... | Mosuke 7 episodes, 2007 | |
| Christopher Bevins | ... | Tomoroku / ... 6 episodes, 2007 | |
The series starts off at a tournament where a one armed samurai faces a blind one and quickly flashes back to reveal the history between the two fighters.
This is a show where every single male character appearing in more than one episode is a raging psychopath. Most of the ones who appear in only one episode are, too. Oh, and most of the women throughout are as well. This is a show about people incapable of empathy hating one another with an intensity most of us will never experience.
And insanity and loathing is all focused through a system designed to amplify all the worst tendencies of every one of these monsters. This is a show about monsters. This is a psychological horror series; one that just happens to also be gory.
To be clear: there are no good guys in this series. Even the ones portrayed as more heroic than the others are monstrous people. If you watch this show, and find anyone you admire, anyone you think of as a role model, you are doing it wrong. You're doing EVERYTHING wrong. You're wrong to the core of your being.
Does any of that make this bad? Does it make it not entertaining? Hell. No. It's incredible.