TV-Series
Description
First Lieutenant Tokushirou Tsurumi is a central figure in the Imperial Japanese Army's 7th Division and serves as the primary antagonist of the narrative. He is a man of average height with a lean but notably muscular build, dark slicked-back hair, round dark eyes, prominent cheekbones, and a distinctive handlebar mustache and goatee. His appearance is dramatically marked by a severe injury sustained during the Battle of Mukden, where an explosion damaged his forehead, leaving a portion of his skull missing and covered only by skin and scar tissue. To protect this vulnerable area, he wears a porcelain enamel plate on his forehead, and a clear fluid, presumed to be brain fluid, occasionally leaks from the wound. Despite these scars, which he once remarked make him look rather dashing, he was considered quite handsome before his injury.
Tsurumi's personality is a complex and formidable mix of ambition, high intelligence, and charisma. He is a master manipulator with an almost preternatural ability to find the key to any person he desires, successfully recruiting a cadre of exceptionally loyal and skilled soldiers to his cause. As a leader and orator, he can easily command his regiment, displaying a paternal kindness to those who obey him while being undeniably cruel and violent to traitors. His behavior is both practical and calculating, often staying one step ahead of his foes with methodical patience. However, he is also deeply eccentric; his creator has described him as an elegant, intellectual kind of freak. Tsurumi himself claims his behavior became more erratic and unpredictable after his brain damage, though it remains ambiguous whether he truly cannot control his violent outbursts or merely uses the injury as an excuse. The one thing that can genuinely shatter his composed demeanor is the mention of Wilk, the father of the Ainu girl Asirpa, whom he views as his archenemy.
Beneath his villainous exterior lies a deeply tragic past that fuels his every action. Before becoming the officer known as Tsurumi, he served as a spy in Russia under the guise of Kouichi Hasegawa, a humble and compassionate photographer who loved his family. He married a Russian woman named Fina, and they had a daughter, Olga. Their peaceful life in Vladivostok was shattered when revolutionary fugitives he had been teaching Japanese led the Imperial Russian secret police, the Okhrana, to his door. In the ensuing shootout, Fina was killed by a stray bullet, leaving Tsurumi to reveal his true identity to her as she died in his arms before setting his home on fire and walking away with his daughter, who also did not survive. The grief and anger from losing his wife and daughter poisoned him, transforming the humble man into one obsessed with revenge. His twisted goal became to acquire the hidden Ainu gold to take control of Manchuria, creating a country for soldiers betrayed by the government, and to have the bones of his family sleep in the soil of his homeland.
Tsurumi's role in the story is that of the primary obstacle for the protagonists, Saichi Sugimoto and Asirpa. He has been searching for the hidden gold for far longer than they have, and his vast resources as part of the 7th Division make him a relentless and overwhelming foe. He positions himself as their personal shinigami, a death god capable of extinguishing their lives at any moment. His key relationships are defined by his masterful manipulation. He saved Hajime Tsukishima from a death sentence and kept him loyal by fabricating the continued existence of a lost love. He orchestrated the kidnapping of the young nobleman Otonoshin Koito only to then rescue him, engineering a debt of gratitude that he exploits mercilessly. He also commands fanatically loyal soldiers like Tokishige Usami and the estranged Hyakunosuke Ogata, though he considers the latter expendable. Throughout the series, Tsurumi demonstrates a variety of notable abilities. He is a veteran of both the Russo-Japanese and First Sino-Japanese Wars, granting him significant experience and leadership. His proficiency in intelligence gathering and analysis makes him a dangerous foe, and he possesses considerable physical strength and agility. He is fluent in Russian and has a surprising interest in taxidermy, having crafted a shirt from human skin. This combination of tragic backstory, magnetic personality, and ruthless efficiency establishes First Lieutenant Tsurumi as a truly formidable and unforgettable antagonist.
Tsurumi's personality is a complex and formidable mix of ambition, high intelligence, and charisma. He is a master manipulator with an almost preternatural ability to find the key to any person he desires, successfully recruiting a cadre of exceptionally loyal and skilled soldiers to his cause. As a leader and orator, he can easily command his regiment, displaying a paternal kindness to those who obey him while being undeniably cruel and violent to traitors. His behavior is both practical and calculating, often staying one step ahead of his foes with methodical patience. However, he is also deeply eccentric; his creator has described him as an elegant, intellectual kind of freak. Tsurumi himself claims his behavior became more erratic and unpredictable after his brain damage, though it remains ambiguous whether he truly cannot control his violent outbursts or merely uses the injury as an excuse. The one thing that can genuinely shatter his composed demeanor is the mention of Wilk, the father of the Ainu girl Asirpa, whom he views as his archenemy.
Beneath his villainous exterior lies a deeply tragic past that fuels his every action. Before becoming the officer known as Tsurumi, he served as a spy in Russia under the guise of Kouichi Hasegawa, a humble and compassionate photographer who loved his family. He married a Russian woman named Fina, and they had a daughter, Olga. Their peaceful life in Vladivostok was shattered when revolutionary fugitives he had been teaching Japanese led the Imperial Russian secret police, the Okhrana, to his door. In the ensuing shootout, Fina was killed by a stray bullet, leaving Tsurumi to reveal his true identity to her as she died in his arms before setting his home on fire and walking away with his daughter, who also did not survive. The grief and anger from losing his wife and daughter poisoned him, transforming the humble man into one obsessed with revenge. His twisted goal became to acquire the hidden Ainu gold to take control of Manchuria, creating a country for soldiers betrayed by the government, and to have the bones of his family sleep in the soil of his homeland.
Tsurumi's role in the story is that of the primary obstacle for the protagonists, Saichi Sugimoto and Asirpa. He has been searching for the hidden gold for far longer than they have, and his vast resources as part of the 7th Division make him a relentless and overwhelming foe. He positions himself as their personal shinigami, a death god capable of extinguishing their lives at any moment. His key relationships are defined by his masterful manipulation. He saved Hajime Tsukishima from a death sentence and kept him loyal by fabricating the continued existence of a lost love. He orchestrated the kidnapping of the young nobleman Otonoshin Koito only to then rescue him, engineering a debt of gratitude that he exploits mercilessly. He also commands fanatically loyal soldiers like Tokishige Usami and the estranged Hyakunosuke Ogata, though he considers the latter expendable. Throughout the series, Tsurumi demonstrates a variety of notable abilities. He is a veteran of both the Russo-Japanese and First Sino-Japanese Wars, granting him significant experience and leadership. His proficiency in intelligence gathering and analysis makes him a dangerous foe, and he possesses considerable physical strength and agility. He is fluent in Russian and has a surprising interest in taxidermy, having crafted a shirt from human skin. This combination of tragic backstory, magnetic personality, and ruthless efficiency establishes First Lieutenant Tsurumi as a truly formidable and unforgettable antagonist.