SHISHIO MAKOTO
SM
The man who replaced Kenshin as the government's assassin when the Battosai became a liability. When Shishio in turn became a liability, the government burned him alive and left him in a ditch. He did not die. He came back wrapped in bandages soaked in his own blood and fat, carrying a blade whose edge is saturated with the flesh of his victims and ignites on contact, commanding a private army, and operating on a philosophy about the strong consuming the weak that the government's own actions proved correct. Shishio is one of the great anime villains because his grievance is legitimate. The Meiji government did exactly what he says they did. His response to that truth is monstrous. The truth itself is not wrong. The show does not flinch from that distinction and it is what elevates him above most antagonists the genre produces.
SHISHIO THROUGH THE ARCHIVE //
KENSHIN'S VOW & THE BATTŌSAI //
Open page →Same Government · Same Assassin Job · Opposite Conclusion
Kenshin and Shishio were both used as assassins by the movement that created the Meiji government. Kenshin responds by refusing to kill again. Shishio responds by deciding that the government proved strength is the only honest law.
Why it matters
Their final fight is not "good assassin versus evil assassin." Shishio is the version of Kenshin's history that accepts every ugly lesson the government taught them and refuses the possibility that anyone has an obligation to become better than the system that made them.
