Comic Book / Ronin (1983)

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The story begins with a samurai who is charged with defending his master, Ozaki. However, Ozaki is assassinated in the night by the demon Agat in revenge for stealing a sword that once belonged to the demon. Ozaki's spirit grants the now-ronin the sword, the only tool capable of slaying the demon lord it had been stolen from. The ronin then goes on a journey to slay the demon, who with his dying breath curses him to the same eternal prison as itself, within the sword.

The story then cuts to a near-future dystopic New York City, a lawless wasteland. What is left of civilized New York lives inside a massive complex called Aquarius, which is owned by the ominous Aquarius Corporation and run by three people: Peter McKenna, a scientist who invented biocircuitry; Casey McKenna, the head of security who is also Peter's wife; and Mr. Taggart, the corporate head of Aquarius. The city is powered by Virgo, a sentient computer who is gaining more and more control over Aquarius. Finally, we are introduced to young Billy Chalis, an autistic man with no limbs who seems to have telekinetic powers. Unlocking the key to his powers may provide a brighter future for Aquarius and civilization as a whole, according to Peter and Virgo.

Meanwhile, by unknown means, the ancient Japanese sword is discovered, releasing Agat and the ronin. They continue their blood feud throughout Aquarius and across the wastelands of New York. Casey looks into the matter, eventually discovering the truth behind it all.

The series takes many influences from Manga, and is stated to have been inspired partly by Lone Wolf and Cub. Ronin also holds the distinction of having been printed on Baxter paper stock similarly to Camelot 3000, as well as having no advertisements.

Not to be confused with Ronin (1998).

Provides examples of:

• Absurdly Sharp Blade: The sword the ronin eventually arms himself with is capable of slicing off limbs and cleaving human bodies with no difficulty at all.
• After the End: New York is a wasteland. While businessmen from Japan are able to fly over, it's likely the rest of the world isn't better off.
• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: What's left of civilized New York is run by an AI computer. It doesn't turn out well, as Virgo decides to wipe out the remnants of humanity so that she, and the biocircuitry comprising her and the Aquarius complex, can take over as the dominant lifeform on Earth.
• An Arm and a Leg:
  • The ronin cuts off one of the four-armed rat's arms, but the rat whacks his left arm with its club, rendering it useless for the rest of their fight.
  • When a huge thug tries to attack the ronin with a bat, he gets his hands cut off mid-forearm.
  • A crazed inventor cuts off one of the ronin's arms to try to incorporate it into his "spaceship", but the arm strangles him and then reattaches itself. Later, Virgo blows off all of the ronin's limbs with biocircuitry projectiles.
• 👁 This example contains a TRIVIA entry. It should be moved to the TRIVIA tab.
  Author Appeal: This is basically Frank Miller's love letter to manga/anime both past and (at the time) present. We see elements of everything from Lone Wolf and Cub to AKIRA.
• Badass Biker: Since it's post-apocalyptic, the typical biker gangs are out in full force, with a Nazi biker babe included.
• Badass Normal: Casey McKenna is the head of Aquarius' security forces. She's a formidable combatant on her own, and becomes even more so when Billy's psychic abilities imprint samurai fighting skills into her mind.
• Bluff the Imposter: Peter's suspicions of "Taggart" not being what he seems are confirmed when he doesn't react when Peter claims that his wife Casey accompanied the two on a trip, when she did not. When Virgo doesn't react either, he knows she's in on it too.
• Body Horror: After Virgo kills Peter, she reanimates his body with biocircuitry, turning him green and leaving him looking like a huge fungal growth is coming out of his chest, with more coming out of his mouth.
• Boom, Headshot!: Casey kills the Virgo-controlled Peter with a point-blank headshot from her revolver.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: Agat kills Mr. Taggart by using his power over flesh to unmake the man at a cellular level, causing him to basically dissolve into a puddle of blood. Peter surmises that what actually happened was that Virgo used some kind of microwave weapon on him..
• Cyborg: The ronin's arms and legs are made of biocircuitry. They start out looking very artificial, although they eventually take on the apperance of flesh.
• Cyberpunk: One of the first comic examples in mainstream comics.
• Decoy Protagonist: The story plays with it a bit as Billy seemingly dies towards the end and Casey is essentially the hero of the story anyway.
• Disability Superpower: Billy has no arms and legs and seems vaguely autistic, but has extremely strong mental powers.
• Disc-One Final Boss: It's apparent fairly early on that Agat isn't going to be the main villain of the story and that Virgo is the Big Bad. One could even argue that Billy was the final villain.
• Distant Prologue: The series begins in feudal Japan, depicting the titular ronin and his battle with the demon that murdered his master before cutting away to the Cyberpunk future the story takes place in. It's actually a subversion; the whole prologue in ancient Japan is really just a clip from a Show Within a Show that Billy watches, which has heavy influence on how his Psychic Powers manifest (namely, creating robot facsimiles of the ronin and his supporting cast to make his personal fantasies real). The scene transition from "past" to present is, in truth, a brilliantly disguised pan from the TV screen Billy is looking at to his face.
• Equal-Opportunity Evil: Averted with the biker gangs who are separated by race.
• Eternal English: Averted. Ronin is an ancient Japanese samurai in a futuristic America. He doesn't speak a word of English.
• Everything's Better with Samurai: The Cyberpunk setting is made more interesting by including a samurai into the mix.
• Fan Disservice: When Casey and her security team get blindsided in the sewers by the cannibals, they all get stripped naked. The sight of her being overpowered and manhandled by a bunch of warty flesh-eating troglodytes is in no way arousing.
• Fat Bastard: Jagger and Silk, the respective leaders of the white supremacist and black supremacist gangs, are both morbidly obese and thoroughly detestable.
• Fish out of Temporal Water: The story is largely built on an ancient ronin stuck in an apocalyptic future and not understanding anything that's going on around him other than fighting for his life when needed. Of course, this is just Billy manifesting the ronin in mind and body with his power.
• Foreshadowing: The Japanese businessmen give clues to the reveal in their brief appearance.
• From Bad to Worse: It says something when the main characters start off in an apocalyptic setting... and it gets worse from there.
• Gainax Ending: Virgo is destroyed, possibly damning the entire human race. Casey certainly has little to no protection in the harsh New York environment and then the ronin comes marching through the flames. Not only is his identity supposed to be dead but Billy's fate certainly seemed sealed as well since he committed seppuku and was left in an exploding building. Not only that, with Virgo gone, who is controlling him? His blank stare at Casey doesn't make things seem any better. The end.
• Genre-Busting: Is it a period piece martial arts epic? Fantasy? Cyberpunk? ...What?
• Gone Horribly Right: Virgo orchestrated the entire Agat situation in an effort to convince Billy he was the ronin, allowing her to tap into his vast psionic powers in his subconscious as a means of leapfrogging her own evolution. In so doing she also turned Billy from an obese quadriplegic invalid incapable of even taking care of his own basic necessities into the single deadliest organism in recorded history with a Heroic Build to boot. No points for guessing what happens to her plans the second the ronin gets someone to direct him at the real threat.
• Gone Horribly Wrong: Let's start putting what little human civilization has left in the hands of AI computers who have the ability to practically create life. Sounds great!
• Heroic Bystander: Billy is ultimately just a minor character who is trying to be a hero.
• Involuntary Shapeshifter: Billy is turned into the ronin by Virgo.
• I See Them, Too: At the start of the story, Ozaki and the young samurai are speaking before some graves when the statues over the graves seem to speak back to them. The samurai is incredulous, but Ozaki confirms that he heard the same and that demons serving Agat are at hand.
• Love Hurts: Billy's feelings for Casey.
• MegaCorp: The Aquarius Corporation controls what's left of the country.
• Multi-Armed and Dangerous: The ronin fights a four-armed humanoid rat before his final battle with Agat. He eventually kills it, but it bashes his left arm with its club and leaves it all but useless. Fortunately, the ronin's plan for how to kill Agat means that the injury doesn't hamper him significantly.
• Mutant: The humans who live underground have become grotesque cannibalistic monsters whose skin is covered in warty lesions and who only speak in grunts and cries that barely approximate language.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Casey, Peter, and Taggart get this way at various times over the creation of Virgo.
• Nanomachines: Virgo is powered by them.
• New-Age Retro Hippie: Head is a rather dark variation. He's used as a punching bag by the gang the ronin first encounters while looking for a sword, and later represents the ronin as a mercenary, comparing it to his work representing Jagger, McCartney and Dylan back in the sixties.
  Head: Uncool scene. Incredibly uncool. Like violent. Well, my Ronin here — he's like the Elvis of violence.
• No Name Given: Although the reader doesn't know he's actually Billy Challas until towards the end, the ronin "character" is never given a name.
• Old Master: Ozaki is much older than the samurai, but is still quite capable as both a fighter and a lover...the latter of which gets him killed as the dancer he goes to bed with is actually Agat in disguise.
• OOC Is Serious Business: The first clue to Aquarius' higher-ups that something is seriously amiss is when Mr. Taggart blatantly does a 180 on his stance on not using biocircuitry to make weapons. As the comic progresses, he becomes increasingly dictatorial and even takes to wearing a cape and outfit that make him look like a comic book supervillain. Except it's not Taggart, but the reborn Agat in his form...or rather, it's Virgo puppeting as Agat.
• One-Word Vocabulary: For about half of the story, the only word the ronin says is "tachi". No one knows what he's talking about until he finds what he's looking for in the warehouse of the madman who cuts off his arm—it's a sword👁 Image
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• Organic Technology: The biocircuitry that comprises the Aquarius facility and Virgo is a kind of living machinery that can self-replicate and self-repair and looks distinctly biological. When Billy's powers allow it to accelerate its evolution, its organic appearance becomes almost freakish, to the point that the Aquarius complex looks like an enormous mass of green fungus spreading across New York by the end of the story.
• Pillars of Moral Character: The ronin holds himself to the Pillars strongly, and this allows him to be able to sacrifice himself to kill Agat at the start of the story, as the demon sword has to first drink innocent blood before it will slay Agat.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: The gangs are separated by race and use racial slurs against one another. Not surprisingly, the ronin gets a few thrown his way when he shows up.
• The Reveal: Ronin, Agat, Ozaki, and the sword don't actually exist. It was all a part of the TV show Billy watched in his free time. Virgo used Billy's powers and mental state to make him turn his fantasy into a reality, essentially turning himself into a hero and creating his own villain using his powers and Virgo's biotech. That way, she could easily manipulate him into doing her bidding. This would eventually lead to the destruction of mankind and the emergence of biotechnology as the dominant lifeform.
• Rōnin: The young samurai-in-training becomes a ronin at the insistence of Ozaki's spirit so he can kill Agat and allow Ozaki to finally rest.
• Seppuku:
  • After Ozaki's death, the samurai starts to commit seppuku but is stopped by Ozaki's spirit, who tells him to become a ronin in order to avenge his murder so he can rest in peace.
  • At the climax, Casey kills Agat, and then tells the ronin that because he failed to do it and a woman did it instead, committing seppuku is all that's left if he wishes to keep his honor. The ronin goes through with it, with Casey as his second; her taking his head triggers an explosive release of Billy's power that annihilates the Aquarius complex and Virgo.
• Shapeshifting: Agat can control flesh, and becomes an exotic dancer, hawk and Mr. Taggart as needed.
• Show Within a Show: Or in this case, a show within a comic. Billy likes to watch TV a lot.
• Single Tear: A punk tricks the ronin into fighting a rival gang. When he realizes his mistake, he tries his best to apologize and avoid further conflict. At this point, the gang wants to continue the fight, so the ronin kills them while shedding one of these.
• Strawberry Shorthand: After the ronin and Casey make love, he tells her why it is important to accept pleasure when it is given.
  Once, years ago, I saved the life of a wise old priest. Grateful, he made a gift to me of these few precious words: If you find yourself on a cliffside, trapped, with a hungry tiger waiting above, and a hungry tiger waiting below, and by chance you spy a single strawberry growing from the cliffside, pluck the strawberry, and bite into it, and taste it. We are on that cliffside. Our lives are as brief and fragile as a cherry blossom's, and just as fragrant.
• Supporting Protagonist: One could easily argue that Casey fits this trope. Much of the action revolves around her. Billy too, considering he's little more than a background character until the revelation at the end that he was the main character the whole time.
• Taking You with Me: The ronin knows that in order to actually kill Agat, the demon sword must first taste the blood of an innocent. When he finally confronts Agat, he turns his back to the demon and then runs himself and Agat through with the sword, killing both of them.
• Those Wacky Nazis: A white supremacist gang is vying for territory against a black supremacist gang, and one of its higher-ranking members wears a Nazi armband.
• Throwing Your Sword Always Works: In the beginning, the samurai throws his sword into the chest of a demon. Ozaki berates him but the samurai quickly points out that Ozaki still has his.
• Translation Convention: Ozaki and the samurai speak English during the scenes in ancient Japan. Although since they are TV characters, the reader might just be reading the 👁 This example contains a YMMV entry. It should be moved to the YMMV tab.
  English-dubbed voices.
• Unwilling Roboticisation: As part of her plan, Virgo grafts biocircuitry limbs onto Billy to create the ronin. Later on, she reanimates the dead Dr. McKenna with biocircuitry, controlling his body while his mind is aware but unable to do anything about it.
• Would Hurt a Child: Both invoked and subverted in the scene where the ronin defends a woman and her toddler-age child from Agat's minions. When he tells her that the sword has to taste innocent blood before it will kill Agat and that "at dawn, the sword drinks deep", the woman clutches her child and reacts with fear. However, the ronin tells her that they are safe, as the child doesn't have enough blood and she's not innocent enough.
• Wretched Hive: Basically, anything outside of Aquarius.