Moriya Minakata

Moriya Minakata (御名方 守矢, Minakata Moriya) is a character in The Last Blade series. He is voiced by Jun Hashimoto. His symbolic item is the full moon and his official slogan is Moon Destiny: 月の宿命に生きる士. He was modeled after Kagehisa Anotsu from the Blade of the Immortal manga. His red hair is a tribute to Kenshin Himura from Rurouni Kenshin. It is possible that his coat, worn like a cloak, is meant as a tribute to Kenshin's master, Hiko Seijuro.

Story
Moriya is a young swordsman in training under a legendary teacher named Gaisei. Under his tutelage, he became a great swordsman along with Kaede and Yuki. For many years, they lived happily together while learning bushidō.

One day he discovered his master dead, and the killer was nowhere to be found. Kaede saw Moriya standing over the body. Kaede resolved to slay Moriya under the belief that Moriya slew Gaisei. Without a word, Moriya set out on the run. Not only did Moriya wish to avoid this confrontation, but he also sought the real killer, a man named Shinnosuke Kagami, in order to clear his name. However, after over five years of searching, Moriya failed to find Kagami. Kaede would defeat Kagami before Moriya could.

After failing to take revenge upon Kagami, Moriya secluded himself in the wilderness to improve his skills and technique. During this time, he finds within himself an urge to “return” to the portal known as “Hell’s Gate.” Ceasing his training, he sets out in order to seek the truth.

Personality
He was always quiet as a youth and more skilled than Kaede during training sessions, a fact that Gaisei somewhat lamented as it also made him more distant to his siblings. He acts coldly and placid to others after his mentor's death though he still cares for his adopted family. He protects his siblings by ignoring them, determined to solve their problems with the Hell's Gate quickly and alone.

Powers

 * Quick Draw - Moriya can draw and sheath his sword at quicker rate than other characters.
 * Multiple Attacks - Moriya can deliver several slashes at once.
 * Energy Attacks - Moriya can infuse his sword with ki energy. When using this power, his slashes may take the shape of a full moon, or may be increased in range to strike from a distance.
 * Celerity - Moriya is extremely fast, a feat demonstrated by his Iaijutsu technique. Not only that, but he can also move in bursts of speed, and by doing so, may appear behind an opponent in the blink of an eye. By focusing all his might, he may attack the opponent with a blinding barrage of slashes, all in such high speed that the opponent can do nothing to react.

Fighting Style
Kassatsu Ittō-Ryū is the foil to Kaede's fighting style as it targets vital points of the body and works to quickly punish mistakes with minimal effort. It relies on Moriya's speed to succeed. It has a visual moon motif, with moon based names and one of his DM's being named after the Izayoi (Sixteen Nights). However, as a nod to his tactics on punishing mistakes, this also effects his gameplay as well, due to his laggy moves and thus excels at whiff-punishing. It also involves very heavy use of quick and covering sword strikes, and heavy focus on battoujutsu and iaijutsu.

He also has a 'teleport glitch' in Last Blade 2 that allow him to cancel it early for pressure, something many pro Moriya players often exploit. He is said to be a hard character to master but is very deadly when done so.

The first Last Blade game saw his gameplay, particularly at speed, to be effective. In Last Blade 2, his Power mode becomes more effective and rewarding, and is fearsome when played to his full extent in the secret EX mode. Thanks to his teleport, he also has no trouble in dominating and controlling matches. However, Moriya's attacks tend to be a bit laggy, and must rely on acting in accordance to his opponents' moves (and be in a good space to zone his foe as well).

His Ittō-Oboro (Stray Blade-Haze) is similar to most 3-way directional delayable attacks like Johnny's Mist Finer from Guilty Gear and Yamazaki's Hebi Tsukai (Snake Tamer). The Oboro is even shared by another fighter in a completely different series, Kyōshirō Mibu in the Samurai Deeper Kyō PS game.

Game Appearances

 * The Last Blade
 * The Last Blade 2
 * The Last Blade - Beyond the Destiny
 * Neo Geo Battle Coliseum

Cameo Appearances

 * Days of Memories (ninth title) - in-text cameo
 * Garou: Mark of the Wolves - background cameo