Moriya Minakata

Moriya Minakata 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" (, lit. Living One in the Predestination of the Moon).

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.

Little did he know that he would have to realize one thing he was once accused of: to slay his now-undead master, Gaisei, as Kouryu, who threatens the stability of the world with the opened Hell's Gate.

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 was apparently warm to them before, but began to act coldly and placid to them and other people after his mentor's death though he still cares for his adopted family.

He may have harbored a grudge against Kaede as a result of falsely being implicated for their master's death, something that has persisted long after the misunderstanding was cleared.

Regardless, he protects his foster siblings by ignoring them, determined to solve their problems with the Hell's Gate quickly and alone. He seems to have accepted that him and Kaede will always be at odds, and lives as a lone wolf.

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.

Skills

 * Solitude and Survival - Moriya can live alone in a secluded place with no immediate help needed, having learned this at a time he was chased for supposedly killing his master Gaisei.

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, as it involves very heavy use of quick and covering sword strikes with two-handed gripping, and heavy focus on battōjutsu and iaijutsu.

Moriya's take on the style also has a visual moon motif, with moon-based names such as: His normal attacks also have names of their own from the more in-depth Moriya guides, also expressing a lunar-month-based motif in tandem: He also has a 'teleport glitch' in The Last Blade 2 that allows him to cancel the recovery animation on his Hogetsu early for pressure, something many pro Moriya players often exploit. However, as a nod to his tactics on punishing mistakes, this also affects his gameplay as well, due to his laggy moves plus ground-based stationary focus and thus excels at whiff-punishing (via his sword style being precision-based storywise). He is said to be a hard character to master but is very deadly when done so.
 * Shingetsu (New Moon).
 * Tsukikage/Getsuei (lit. Moon Shadow; used as a term for moonlight/moonbeams).
 * Tsukuyomi (Moon Reader, the name of the Shintou god of the moon; acts as the unique name for his Repel in NeoGeo Battle Coliseum).
 * Jougen and Kagen (lit. Upper String and Lower String; part of his named standing and crouching repel respectively and are terms used for the first and last quarters of a moon).
 * Izayoi (lit. Sixteen Nights; a term for a sixteen-day-old moon).
 * Setsugekka (lit. Snow Moon Flower; a term for the "beauty of the four seasons" from a poem by Bai Juyi).
 * Byakuya/Hakuya (lit. White Night, is a term for either a night at either the North or South Pole, a short night or a night under the midnight sun).
 * His weak slash normals are named Kisaragi (5A), Kureshin (4A), Tsukimizu (2A) and Seishin (j.A).
 * Kisaragi (lit. Similar Month) is the second month of the lunar calendar.
 * Tsukimizu (Month Sightless) is a part of the location name Tsukimizu no Ike (Lake of Month Sightless).
 * Kureshin (Newly-Year End) on the other hand while also literally meaning "Livelihood New", is a nod to the first kanji being a term for nightfall/sundown or the end of the year.
 * His strong slash normals are named Yayoi (5B), Tougetsu (2B), Kannazuki (6B), Kazan (4B) and Kagura (j.B).
 * Yayoi (lit. Increasing Life) is the third month of the lunar calendar.
 * Tougetsu is the on'yomi rendering of "Kirizuki" (Paulownia Moon/Month; also written as Kiritsuki or Hizuki) is a Japanese surname.
 * Kannatsuki/Kannazuki/Kannaduki (Godless Month) is the name of the tenth month of the lunar calander.
 * Kazan (Flower Remnant) is part of the term Hananokoshizuki (Flower Remnant Month), the fourth lunar month, while also having a Tsui (Chase) variation as his Repel followup attack.
 * Kagura (God Ease) is the same term used for Shintou music and dancing.
 * His kick normals via the Taitou (Sash Blade) naming are Byakuro (5C), Byakuro Gedan (2C), Kanro (6C), Kanro Gedan (3C), and Usui (j.C).
 * Byakuro/Hakuro (White Dew, also written as Shira'tsuyu) is a term for solar/glistening dew.
 * Kanro (Cold Dew) is a term for cold dew in the late-autumn and early-winter.
 * Usui (Rain Water) is also another solar term.
 * His unique command normal, 3A (down-forward weak slash) is named Minatsuki/Minaduki (Waterful/Waterless Month), the sixth month of the lunar calendar.
 * His "Pounce Attack" is named Shoku (Eclipse), which its kanji is also derived from the kanji for "eat" via the old Asian myth of the sun being consumed by an entity for a brief moment.
 * His running slash attack is named as Gengetsu (Illusion Moon), the Japanese term for a moondog or paraselene. It is known as a solar phenomenon where a bright spot appears in the sky akin to a parhelion, but is formed via moonlight.
 * Satsuki'ame (lit. Fifth Month Rain) is the name of his basic throw, a term for the early-summer rain.

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, being the precursor to Johnny Sfondi's Mist Finer from Guilty Gear and being predated by Yamazaki's Hebi Tsukai (Snake Tamer) from Fatal Fury. Moriya can charge, whiff, feint, or even do consecutive slashes in other directions by simply holding attack buttons after letting go. Johnny's Mist Finer adapts most of the move's trait with the addition of being able to move forward or back while charging the move, while Yamazaki can only charge or feint his own take of the move.

Appearances
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Games

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

Mobile

 * SNK Dream Battle
 * Kimi wa Hero

Cameos
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 * Days of Memories (ninth title) - in-text cameo
 * Garou: Mark of the Wolves - background cameo in Hokutomaru's stage
 * The King of Fighters XIII - in Mr. Karate's stage

Etymology

 * The name Moriya means "nursemaid, guard, protect, defend, obey" (守) (mori) and "arrow" (矢) (ya).
 * Moriya's surname Minakata means "honorable" (御) (mi), "name, noted, distinguished, reputation" (名) (na) and "direction, person, side" (方) (kata).

Trivia

 * 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, Seijuro Hiko.