Tale 1-4 was translated by dtninja and I linked it to his website

Part 1 Yahiko’s New Job

Tales 1 : Kenshin and Kaoru Wedding

Tales 2 : Yahiko’s Dilemma

Tales 3: Unexpected Visitor

Tales 4: Gekikenkai

Tales 5: Visitor from Kyoto

Tales 6 : Aoshi’s secret

Tales 7 : Yahiko’s Match

Tales 8 : Aoshi’s Mission 

Part 2 Counterfeit Banknotes Case

Tales 9 : Chō’s Mission 

Tales 10 : Yahiko and Chō’s Bet 

Tales 11 : Yahiko and Chō’s Trip to Kyoto

Tales 12 : Yahiko and Chō’s in Kyoto 

Tales 13 : Party at Aoiya

Tales 14 : Kenshin and Kaoru in Tokyo

Tales 15 : Kamatari, Misao, and Sae 

Tales 16 : Misao’s request 

Tales 17 : Yahiko and Misao’s trip to Osaka

Tales 18 : Osaka, Kamatari and Chō frustration, Yahiko and Misao board the ship

Tales 19 : Misao’s memory of Oniwabanshu

Tales 20 : Arrival at Yokohama 

Tales 21 : At Kamiya Dojo 

Tales 22 : Tsunan’s Painting Forgery

Tales 23 : Tsunan’s Painting Forgery (part 2), Kamatari and Cho’s Mission

Tales 24 : Tsunan’s Painting Forgery (part 3) 

Tales 25 : Kamatari and Chō’s Mission (part 2), Aoshi’s suspicion 

Tales 26 : Aoshi’s Pursuit, Yahiko and Misao’s Mission

Tales 27 : Yahiko and Misao’s Mission (part 2) 

Tales 28 : Yahiko and Misao’s Plan

Tales 29 : Misao’s Negotiation 

Tales 30 : How the Case was Concluded 

Part 3 Aconite Poison Case

Tales 31 : Megumi Came to Kamiya Dojo 

Tales 32 : Mysterious Purse 

Tales 33 : Mysterious Purse (part 2) 

Tales 34 : Small Birds Association 

Tales 35 : Small Birds Association (part 2) 

Tales 36 : Small Birds Association (part 3) 

Part 4 Ichiwaka ex-Geisha

Tales 37 : Takiya’s Lotion

Tales 38 : The Ladies Talk about the Future

Tales 39 : Akabeko’s Visitor  

Tales 40 : Ichiwaka-san 

Tales 41 : Ichiwaka-san (part 2) 

Tales 42 : At Ichiwaka’s Mansion

Tales 43 : Ichiwaka Rescue 

Tales 44 : Ichiwaka at Kamiya Dojo 

Tales 45 : What happened at the Mansion after Ichiwaka’s Fleet 

Tales 46 : Mysterious Note

Tales 47 : Kaoru and Misao vs The Yakuza

Tales 48 : Ichiwaka’s Determination

Tales 49 : Kaoru, Misao, The Geisha

Tales 50 : Kaoru, Misao, The Geisha (part 2)

Part 5 Yutaro’s Return

Tales 51 : Letter from Germany

Tales 52 : Akabeko’s New Uniform

Tales 53 : Yutaro visited Kamiya Dojo

Tales 54 : Tsukayama Workshop

Tales 55 : Tsukayama Workshop (part 2)

Tales 56 : Tsukayama Company Exhibition

Tales 57 : Tsukayama Company Exhibition (part 2)

Part 6 Hanami at Sekiya Village

Tales 58 : Mysterious gift for Yahiko

Tales 59 : Mysterious gift for Yahiko (part 2)

Tales 60 : At Sekiya Village

Tales 61 : Tsubame’s feeling

Tales 62 : Tsubame’s feeling (part2), Dinner at Kamiya Dojo

Tales 63 : At Kamiya Dojo

Tales 64 : Akabeko’s Dancers

Tales 65 : Hanami party

Part 7

Tale 66 : Rabbits in Akabeko

Tale 67 : Dealing with the Rabbits

Tale 68 : Back to Kamiya Dojo

Tale 69 : Kenshin and Kaoru Date

Tale 70 : Mister Usagawa

Tale 71 : Nagaoka Mikio

Tale 72 : At Usagawa Residence

Tale 73 : The Rabbit Cafe

Tale 74 : Mikio’s doubt

Tale 75 : The Rabbit Cafe (part 2)

Tale 76 : The Rabbit Cafe Opening Day

Tale 77 : The Rabbit Cafe Opening Day (part 2)

Tale 78 : The Rabbit Cafe Opening Day (part 3)

Tale 79 : The Rabbit Cafe (epilogue)

-Tbc in Tale 80-

Kamatari Honjou has been one of my favorite characters of all time pretty much since I discovered her years ago. She’s an incredibly complex character - so much so that her complexities actually begin to break the fourth wall and highlight an issue in Japanese society (as well as society as a whole) that has only in recent years begun to be addressed. But we’re getting a bit ahead of ourselves; let’s get back to square one and give people who may never have heard of Rurouni Kenshin a little education.

Rurouni Kenshin is a manga, anime and live action movie trilogy created by Nobuhiro Watsuki. The series, essentially a jidaigeki (a period piece, a genre dominated mostly by works featuring samurai set in the appropriate era) follows a wandering samurai named Kenshin Himura, who was a prominent assassin during some of Japan’s most notorious and bloody civil wars ultimately leading to political and social upheaval and the establishment of the Meiji government, as he attempts to atone for the many lives he took during times of combat. 

An incredibly recurring theme in Rurouni Kenshin is that there are shades of gray in all areas of life. Kenshin must come to terms with the fact that his actions as the legendary Hitokiri (Manslayer) helped to establish a new government and do not make his life of lesser value to anyone else’s. Sanosuke Sagara, a friend of Kenshin’s made early on in the series, must come to terms with the fact that although there is corruption in the newly-established Meiji government, it has ultimately resulted in a period of peace. Additionally, the antagonists of the series primarily revolve around either failing to adapt to times of peace (or being outright discarded) after one of Japan’s bloodiest civil wars or as a direct result of great injustices committed upon them either before or after the end of the war and establishment of the new government. Although both the Tokugawa Shogunate and the imperialists fought for what they believed was right, a great number of sacrifices were made and horrors were experienced on both sides.

One such antagonist is Kamatari Honjou, a character who honestly didn’t have much screen time and is much more interesting and important than she has any right to be. We’re going to be looking at her original manga incarnation, her anime adaptations in both Japanese and English, and finally a look at her incredibly brief appearance in the live action movie trilogy. But before we do that, let’s talk a little bit about exactly who she is.

Often confused for a gay man or cross-dresser, Kamatari is something of an enigma who differs slightly in all of her incarnations. What remains the same is that she is a tall, pretty soldier under the primary antagonist, Makoto Shishio, who fights using a large scythe with a ball and chain attached to it. She’s based largely on wordplay - the Japanese word for sickle is “kama”, and the Japanese word for the English-equivalent of faggot is “okama”.

In the manga, Kamatari is by and large a joke character not taken very seriously (even by herself), but her characterization there is important none the less as it is the original work from which all others are derivative of. Upon being called a “scythe girl” by her opponents, she responds by pulling up her kimono to reveal her (rather large, apparently) penis and proclaiming “I’m not a scythe-girl, I’m a scythe boy!”. She later responds extremely negatively to being called a “homo” by the young Yahiko Myojin. 

The final panel of importance in the manga has Kamatari discussing her gender in a more serious manner, admitting that she wishes for a body like her master’s lover, Yumi.

Once we move into the realm of animation, we’re provided with a lot more than a few (albeit expressive) manga panels from which to draw context and meaning. And boy, does it give us a lot more. I’ll be providing links at the end of this post to the relevant episodes in both English and Japanese, but for now let’s move on to analyzing Kamatari’s portrayal in the Japanese dub of the anime.

First and foremost, it’s worth noting that Kamatari’s speech is a bit more ‘feminine’ than Misao’s, and she uses the traditionally female-exclusive “atashi” to refer to herself. Anime!Kamatari is a great deal more menacing than manga!Kamatari, and treated like less of a joke character. As opposed to exposing herself and calling herself a “scythe-boy”, we get a scene that is drastically different in its implications.

Yahiko cautions his allies, saying that there’s no way that someone who holds a weapon as big as Kamatari’s could be an “ordinary woman”, which catches Kamatari’s attention. “Oh, not an ordinary woman?” She asks playfully. The tension is broken even further by Yahiko commenting that Kamatari is definitely sexier than his allies Kaoru or Misao, to which the two women take offense. “Well, if you think I’m pretty, you have a lot of potential yourself” Kamatari jokes. This prompts Yahiko to comment that “there’s no way that a man can become a woman!” which causes he, Kaoru and Misao to realize that Kamatari “is not a scythe-woman, but a scythe-man”. Misao’s exact words are: 「じゃ…鎌女じゃなくて…鎌男」, which translates to “then… That isn’t a scythe-woman… It’s a scythe-man”. Misao follows up by adding “I lost to a man”. Kamatari quickly brushes this revelation off and urges the two women to fight her. She mocks them by saying that two on one is fine, as “a man against a woman is already a handicap”, a distinct bitterness in her voice. The bratty Yahiko refers to her as an “okama” as he does in the manga, to which Kamatari has the same reaction.

Kaoru concedes that Kamatari’s gender doesn’t matter - When you enter a fight, you cease to be a man or woman and become a fighter.”Well, maybe.” Kamatari replies with a smirk. It is of the utmost importance that from this point until towards the end of the battle that her gender is no longer directly addressed by the characters, and they use gender-neutral terms when referring to her (which is very easy to do in Japanese), predominantly “aitsu”. 

Towards the end of the battle, Kamatari proclaims that she has been serious all along - “you don’t become a faggot half-heartedly”. (She uses the word “okama”, the equivalent of “faggot” in English). “A man or a woman, I can’t be the best.” Kamatari says. “I’m in the middle”. After her defeat, Misao comments that there’s “no way she could understand how a faggot feels, but [she understands] fighting for a person you love”.

Before summing everything up and really examining all this, let’s move on to her English anime incarnation. As English is my (and I assume yours too!) native language, I’ll be able to gather a bit more from this than the Japanese audio track.

The scene in English plays out very similar to the Japanese audio, and from my (limited!) understanding of Japanese I can tell that a lot of care was taken in making sure that there was relative parity between the languages. Kamatari comes across as being much more mocking than in Japanese however, and brushes the revelation that she’s a “guy” off a bit more dismissively than in the Japanese dub. The real meaningful content in English comes in Kamatari’s pre-defeat speech.

"I’ve been taking her seriously the whole time. I’m not lying, doll - you can’t be a queen if you don’t take everything seriously you know. I’m not Shishio’s best guy, or his best woman. I’m just someone who fits somewhere right in the middle. That’s all I am."

After Kamatari’s defeat, Misao remarks that there’s “I honestly have no idea how someone like him feels”.

So, now that we have all that out of the way, who is Kamatari?

Clearly uncomfortable in her body in every incarnation and actively referring to herself in a derogatory manner in the Japanese dub, Kamatari is a villain born of her time, just like a vast majority of the other antagonists. 1860s Japan did not allow Kamatari to be the person that she truly was, which created, enabled and furthered her psychopathic drive to kill and to follow her master, Shishio. The beauty of this is that society has denied her the right to be herself to the point where not even she has the words, nor the frame of reference, to accurately say who or what she is - she truly believes that she is “somewhere in the middle”. But it doesn’t stop there.

Life imitates art. In the same way that Misao has no idea how Kamatari must feel, neither does Kamatari’s creator Nobuhiro Watsuki, who describes Kamatari as a “homosexual crossdresser”. Interestingly enough, Kamatari is not the only character intended to fall into LGBT definition. According to a fun segment included in many chapters of the manga titled “Secret Life of Characters” in which the author describes how characters came to be and gives us some behind-the-scenes information, the very first antagonist of the series was originally intended to be a homosexual - Nobuhiro Watsuki was unable to find a way to make it fit into the story and so it was dropped. However, something important to take from that is the way this first antagonist looks while keeping in mind that no redesign is ever mentioned, simply the dropping of his homosexuality.

This is Kanryu Takeda, the very first antagonist of the series. First appearing in episode 8, the decidedly western-looking character certainly isn’t passing as a woman any time soon. Which is good news for him, considering it’s not something he wants. 

What is this distinction between ‘gay’ and ‘gay crossdresser’ and why does it exist? What is the purpose of creating a character that displays many of the important signs of transgenderism and classifying her as a ‘gay crossdresser’? It is my belief that Japan does not understand transgenderism and mistakes it for being something it isn’t, as evidenced between the design differences between Kamatari and Kanryu and put in perfect perspective by Kamatari’s Japanese dialogue in which she proclaims that she “didn’t become a faggot half-heartedly”. To test this theory, we need only take a look at modern Japanese society, which is only in recent years starting to understand and accept transgenderism. For more on this, I’ll direct you to an interview done by Majirox News a few years ago in which Hideki Sunagawa, president of Tokyo Pride and organizer of pride rallies in Japan , states in a discussion with his colleagues:

"It’s true that gay men are portrayed mainly as transgendered people. Even if they are not dressed like women, those who are on TV are very feminine in their behavior and in the way they talk. Many Japanese people think that gay men are basically the same as transgender people and transvestites. They are extreme and there’s always one who plays a female role in gay couples."

It must be said again: life imitates art. In the same way that 1860s Japan turned Kamatari Honjou into the psychopath she was, 2010s Japan still brings about many similar struggles for transgender people. If gay men are (and most certainly were when Rurouni Kenshin was made) confused for trans women, the inverse must also be true. It’s my belief that many people get Kamatari entirely wrong when they think of her, including her creator who misdiagnoses her as something she isn’t due to a societal ignorance that is just as deep-seated as the ignorance in America, though perhaps not based on as much toxicity, irrational hatred and fear. 

Kamatari Honjou is such an interesting character that it really can not be said enough. She was very ahead of her time, to the point where her creator didn’t even understand what he had on his hands. Kamatari is a beautiful, badass transgender woman that isn’t treated very well or handled with much dignity, but it makes her being defiantly ‘out’ all the better. She highlights the ignorance of her era and actively fights it. She highlights the ignorance of our own era and urges us to make things better, reminding us that there is much more progress left to be made. To refer to her as a man is to commit a great injustice. It is to ignore the dysphoria that is key to her character and one of the many symptoms of transgenderism. It is to accept and allow transgender erasure.

Finally, Kamatari does not appear often in the live action trilogy, to the point where I’m pretty sure she just disappears into the ether at some point before all the fighting starts in the third movie. I’m not sure if I’m sad that she wasn’t involved or happy that transgender people didn’t have the chance to be the butt of any jokes. Here’s one of the only shots of the trilogy she appears in:

Seen on the far right, she is such an afterthought that the character to the far left incorporates some of her original design elements, and she’s seen without her trademarked scythe that highlighted her derogatory origins. For what it’s worth, Kamatari’s live action incarnation is portrayed by a cisgender woman, Hiroko Yashiki.

Rurouni Kenshin episode 51, English Dub

Rurouni Kenshin episode 52, English Dub

Rurouni Kenshin episode 51, Japanese dub