Oboro

Oboro
Ninja Stats
Gender:	Female
Special Ability:	Mystic Eyes
Status:	Comitted Suicide
Affiliation:	Iga Clan
Family:	Ogen (Grandmother) Neeya (probable Mother)
Appearances
First Appearance (Manga):	Chapter 1
First Appearance (Anime):	Episode 1
Voice Actors
Japanese:	Nana Mizuki
English:	Laura Bailey

Oboro (朧, Oboro) is the granddaughter of Ogen and therefore the rightful princess of the Iga Tsubagakure clan. She is engaged to Gennosuke Kouga and she was one of the ten ninja picked by her grandmother to represent Iga in the battle against the Kouga. After the death of Ogen, Oboro ascends to take leadership of the clan, but due to her passive demeanor, she soon finds that her authority usurped by Tenzen Yakushiji and she is considered a poor leader to the Iga clan.

Appearance

Oboro is a beautiful young woman with long darkish-purple hair that it is tied back into a ponytail with a yellow cloth, but leaves the front in a fringe which reaches her eyebrows, violet eyes and visible long eyelashes. She wears a purple kimono which is tied with a red sash and also wears traditional sandals with tabi socks. 

As a child, Oboro's hair was tied into a ponytail at the top of her head, her eyes were much larger and she wore a pink kimono instead of the purple one she wears as an adult.

In the original novels, Oboro is described to have "A face that shines beautiful as the sun" & "Deep, almost-hypnotic, crystal eyes of intensity".

Personality

Oboro is a very gentle, naive, sweet-natured and peaceful girl who she can be very determined when it comes to the safety of other people and cares deeply for her clan despite being passive. 

Biography

Before the War

Oboro as a child

As a child Oboro was cared for by Neeya and also got to know Akeginu, Koshirou Chikuma and Nenki Mino, who bounced her around with his hair. She was adopted by Ogen and selected to be her heir and is seen during Ogen's meeting with Tenzen Yakushiji. She was too young to understand he was against her selection as heir, instead she played with his hair. She was then taken to meet Hanzo the 2nd, which was were she first met Gennosuke and Danjou Kouga. She was taken outside with Gennosuke by Kyohachiro Hattori to prevent them from becoming bored. While outside, she tries to convince Gennosuke that Iga is a lovely place, which she manages to do successfully. As she leaves, she asks Neeya if she'll see Gennosuke again, to which she replies that she probably will.

Years later, Oboro is seen praying by Neeya's grave before being found by Akeginu, who takes her back to her room to fix her make-up for her upcoming meeting with Gennosuke. While she has her lipstick applied, she develops hiccoughs, which causes her to panic. She wanders the halls of Iga and is jumped out on by Nenki and Rousai, but the fright she received didn't cure her of he hiccoughs. She again meets with Akeginu who gives her a drink, successfully curing her. Oboro then hears that Gennosuke has arrived and runs off to meet him, carrying the tea with her. She gets so nervous when she meets him that she trips and spills all the tea over Gennosuke.

She is also seen in another flashback gathered with some of the other Iga ten. They hear a noise from the adjacent room and when Yashamaru opens it, they see Ogen fixing her appearance in the mirror. The group are so shocked that they fall forward, breaking the doors in the process and leaving only Oboro and Akeginu left standing.

After becoming engaged to Gennosuke, Oboro would frequently meet with him along their clan's borders to practice a Japanese fan dance, which they planned to perform for the guests at their wedding.

Abilities

• Mystic Eyes: Oboro was born with "Mystic Eyes" which neutralize the techniques and skills of any ninja that meets her gaze directly, halting whatever technique/skill they are using at the moment (even passive skills), seems to operate on demons as well. Other than her Mystic Eyes, Oboro lacks any real talent for either martial arts or ninjutsu and is seen by many of her clansmen as a failure.

Relationships

Gennosuke Kouga

Oboro fell deeply in love with Gennosuke when she met with him in Iga, immediately agreeing to the arranged marriage. While she knew it was for peace between the clans, she viewed it as true love and became completely devoted to him. When Hanzo the 1st's treaty was broken, she refused to fight against Gennosuke, even though she was the only one who could counter his ability. She sealed her eyes so as not to be used against him, killed Tenzen and even killed herself for him.

Akeginu and Koshirou

Oboro has known both Akeginu and Koshirou since they were children and views them as her sister and brother. They were the only two in Iga who never criticised any of her decisions and never spoke out against the marriage, even though they most likely were against it. Despite her bound with Koshirou, she still plays a part in him being blinded, something that she is shown to feel bad about. After Akeginu's death, she is shown crying, asking her to come back to her.

Ogen

Ogen was very patient with her, although knowing she was not strong or talented enough as a ninja or a leader. She seemed to believe in Oboro, because of the power in her eyes. Ogen trained Oboro to be prepared to act and to be carefull with Tenzen's ambitions.

Differences between Manga, Anime and Novel Versions

Oboro in the anime is slightly more fatalistic, mature and down-to-earth than her manga incarnation. After learning of the Hattori Truce's nullification in the manga, Oboro decides that in order to show her regret to Gennosuke for her clan's actions, she will allow him to kill her and then wait for him in the afterlife. In contrast, Oboro in the anime is doubtful that Gennosuke would ever forgive her, even if she allowed him to kill her, but accepted it as her fate, due to the devotion she felt for him as well as the hope her sacrifice would move him to not seek any further retribution upon her clan. Oboro in the anime also tends to be somewhat more self-conscious of her shortcomings as a ninja than she is in the manga, where she's still aware of her lack of skill, but angsts less about it.

Additionally, while Gennosuke and Oboro first met, in the anime when they were both children; in the manga they don't properly meet until adulthood, when Danjou and Gennosuke meet with Ogen and Oboro to discuss a possible marriage between them as a way to dispel the animosity between their two clans. In both versions, Oboro is so flustered upon meeting her future fiancé that she trips and winds up, spilling a tray of hot tea right on Gennosuke's head.

In the original novel; Oboro is described as having a face like the sun with large, round, mesmerizing eyes. Her personality is closer to the manga than the anime and comparatively speaking; receives noticeably less attention in the novel than either the manga or anime. However, it also shows she can have a violent side too. When she discovers Jingorou attempting to kill Gennosuke while still in Tsubagakure, she nullifies his technique and kicks him off of the veranda to the ground. She threatens to kill Jingorou herself, but before she can, Oboro hears Akeginu's scream and leaves Jingorou behind. As with the manga and anime, Oboro lacks martial ability and her only skill is her mystic eyes. Her death in the novel is the same as in both the anime and manga.

Appearance in Other Media

Yukie Nakama as Oboro

Oboro is featured as a character in the 2005 live-action movie known as Shinobi: Heart Under Blade, being played by actress Yukie Nakama. Just like her anime and manga incarnations, she is physically weak and has rather poor kenjutsu skills (though she is seen being able to leap across several feet and skilled enough to at least deflect projectiles with her sword). Instead of disabling other ninjas' abilities, her eyes sent a crippling pulse throughout the body of anyone who met her doujutsu, imploding their internals and effectively mutilating them. Gradually, she became less conflicted between her feelings for Gennosuke and her duty to the Iga. Following the deaths of all their comrades, during their last duel, Gennosuke allows Oboro to kill him, in order to save their clans and keep their hope for peace. Later, when Ieyasu Tokugawa sent troops to destroy the Kouga and Iga villages, Oboro begs him to spare them, blinding herself as a proof of her sincerity. Ieyasu accepts, thus the villages are saved.

Trivia

• The name Oboro means "Haziness, gloominess or dreariness" (朧).

Quotes

• (To Gennosuke Kōga as a child) "Everyone back home treats me very well. Nenki swings me high into the air with his hair. Koshirou...Koshirou carves me little statues and things. And Akeginu...she likes to tell me stories."
• (To herself about Gennosuke) "I am one of the Iga seven. And to Gennosuke-sama, all he sees are his remaining enemies. It is a world of black and white to him now. The elders say the absent get further off every day. And to him this must be true. I assume that in his mind, I'm nothing more than the Iga woman, who knowingly lurred him into a trap. If only he knew this was not the truth. Not even close. My feelings are deeper...My feelings are real."
• (To Gennosuke) "Before these eyes open again, I ask you to kill me."
• (To Gennosuke) "I see a time when you and I could stand together and feel the breeze a crossed our face. A time when our dreams were the same, of the same place, of the same feelings. Sometimes this thought crosses my mind when I least expect it, this thought is that you and I were once a single soul. One soul split into two equal parts which now longs to be together again. I feel this as truly as I feel the rain in the spring or the love for all of my ancestors and that is why...that is why I feel so strongly toward you."