Raizo

Raizo of the Mist is a ninja from Wano Country, a comrade of Kin'emon and Kanjuro, and a retainer of the Kozuki Family. He is also a member of the Nine Red Scabbards.

Appearance
Raizo is very large, standing about as tall as Kin'emon; his head is large enough to carry Luffy, an average sized human. His body is very disproportional, having a very large head with the rest of his body being relatively small in comparison. His hair is styled into six antennae, with three at each side of his head, a small spike on the middle, and a widow's peak. His hairstyle bears some resemblance to Gedatsu. He has bolt-shaped eyebrows and large sideburns. He also has a crescent moon-shaped scar on his forehead. He wears a dark-colored Ninja shozoku robe. As the Straw Hats pointed out, Raizo is very ugly, a fact that Raizo himself acknowledged as his fellow female ninjas of the Wano Country refused to even look at him.

He bears the crest of the Kozuki Family somewhere on his body.

Personality
Raizo is a reserved individual who takes his profession as a ninja very seriously. He does not like it when people talk about ninja, such as himself, in a joking manner, and can become very emotional about it, but he will gladly demonstrate his skills if coerced enough. Despite his claim that ninja do not say 'Nin Nin', Raizo ended up adopting the phrase in his speech as shown when he demonstrated ninja skills and again when he greeted the minks.

He is also sensitive about his bizarre and ugly appearance and is severely depressed by the fact that the female ninjas also known as kunoichi from Wano Country do not find him attractive and would not even look at him, and does not like it when people point out his ugliness.

He is extremely kind, noble, and caring, and was so against the fact that the Mink Tribe was sheltering him at the risk of dying, that he had to be chained up to prevent him from fighting and making his presence known. He was worried to the point of tears over the fact the minks were heavily wounded from protecting him. It also moved him greatly that the minks were worried about his safety and glad to see he was okay. His kindness is also shown when the Straw Hats began to depressingly sulk after he refused to demonstrate his ninjutsu skills and immediately relented by showing his skills to them.

Kozuki Family
Raizo is very loyal to his masters in the Kozuki Family as well as his fellow retainers Kin'emon and Kanjuro, and the feeling is reciprocated toward him. Kin'emon and Kanjuro were excited to reunite with him on Zou.

Ninjas
According to Raizo, he has a particular bad relationship with the kunoichis due to their strong disgust and revulsion towards his ugliness, to the point that they refused to even look at him, a fact that greatly depressed Raizo as he could not have any romantic relationships with any kunoichis.

Mink Tribe
Due to their generations-old relationship with the Kozuki Family from Wano Country, the entire Mink Tribe protected the whereabouts of Raizo from Jack, despite the risk of dying and the destruction of their kingdom. However, Raizo did not want them to risk their lives protecting him and would rather turn himself in instead. This forced the minks to chain him to a poneglyph inside a secret area to keep him hidden, but Raizo continually begged for his release and updates on the minks' status.

When the minks happily celebrate his safety and welfare despite being brutalized by the Beast Pirates, Raizo is extremely touched and used a ninja technique to express his gratitude.

Beasts Pirates
Due to his connection to the Kozuki Family, the Beasts Pirates hunted him down for over two weeks and even went as far as to torture Zou's citizens to flush him out.

Physical Abilities
Raizo has immense physical strength, able to easily carry Luffy, an average sized human, with only his head. In fact, the minks had to chain him to an indestructible Poneglyph just to restrain him. Despite his large body, Raizo is extremely agile. In the anime, he could leap extremely high and easily perform handsprings, flips, and somersaults with ninja like agility.

Stealth
A testament of his skills is that Raizo is able to infiltrate the prison in Udon and got close enough to speak to an imprisoned Luffy without the Beasts Pirates knowing.

Ninjutsu
As a ninja from Wano Country, Raizo is capable of performing several Ninjutsu (忍術) techniques such as disappearing in a cloud of smoke, making clones of himself, and throwing shuriken with expert precision.

Techniques

 * Ninpo: Enton no Jutsu (忍法 煙遁の術): Raizo throws a smoke ball into the ground and quickly moves to a new location while being obscured by the smokescreen.
 * Ninpo: Bunshin no Jutsu (忍法 分身の術): Multiple copies of Raizo are seen at once in various places. It is unknown whether he can actually make clones of himself or simply create speed-based illusions.
 * Ninpo: Daisuki no Jutsu (忍法 大好きの術): Raizo leaps into the air and offers a hug.

Non-Canon

 * Ninpo: Kawarimi no Jutsu (忍法 変わり身の術): Raizo replaces his body with a large log and reappears somewhere else, allowing him to escape attack.

Weapons

 * Hana Shuriken (華手裏剣): Raizo possesses large quantities of shuriken which he can throw rapidly with expert precision. For example, he can make them form the kanji for "shinobi" (忍).

Past
Twenty years ago, after Kozuki Oden was executed in the Flower Capital by the shogun, Raizo, Kanjuro, Kin'emon, Kiku, Inuarashi, and Nekomamushi escaped the execution site and fled to Oden Castle, but Inuarashi and Nekomamushi were captured by the shogun's forces and were left behind. By the time Raizo's group reached Oden Castle, it was set ablazed by Kaido. The retainers went inside the castle and found Momonosuke as well as his sister and mother. Toki then sent her son and the retainers 20 years into the future. After arriving at the future, they went around Wano and discovered how much it changed over the years. However, they discovered allies they could still count on and began forming a plan to take back Wano. Momonosuke, Kanjuro, Kin'emon, and Raizo decided to travel to Zou to seek aid from the Mink Tribe, but when they were leaving Wano, they were spotted by the Beasts Pirates.

On the way to Zou, they were shipwrecked, during which Raizo got separated from the others. He later ended up on Zou.

Jack attacked the Mokomo Dukedom to find Raizo. The Mink Tribe, being firmly loyal to the Kozuki Family, lied to Jack that Raizo was not on the island, resulting in the near destruction of their civilization. Raizo being unwilling to let his mink comrades risk their lives for him, tried to turn himself in. This led them to chain Raizo up to a poneglyph in a secret room inside the whale-shaped tree in order to keep him hidden.

Zou Arc


Seventeen days later, the Straw Hat Pirates, Law, Inuarashi, Nekomamushi, and Raizo's samurai comrades visited him in the whale-shaped tree. Raizo wept for the minks, begging them to tell the truth about the country's status and why they did not turn him over. He was overjoyed to see his comrades and was freed from his chains, but grew annoyed as the male Straw Hats told him to perform various ninja arts that they came up with in their imaginations. Eventually, he performed various tricks for them, greatly impressing them.

Raizo, Kin'emon, and Kanjuro then stood outside the Whale Tree. When he saw all the destruction the Beasts Pirates had left behind, Raizo felt deep remorse and swore to repay the Mink Tribe for their selfless actions. When Nico Robin deciphered the red Poneglyph, Nekomamushi called them back in. After Nekomamushi explained to the Straw Hats about the creation of the poneglyphs by the Kozuki Family, Raizo and the samurai revealed that Momonosuke was not able to inherit the knowledge of the poneglyphs and expressed sorrow in explaining that Lord Oden was executed by Kaido and the shogun of Wano Country.

The samurai and the two rulers of Zou revealed Oden's will to open the country of Wano to the world and to defeat Kaido and the shogun of Wano Country. The samurai also explained that they needed allies which was the reason why they journeyed to Zou. They then formed an alliance with the Mink Tribe and the Straw Hats.

They later left the secret room and Raizo and the samurais explained that they never went with Oden during his travels as leaving the borders of Wano is a crime. While discussing their plans to defeat Kaido, the alliance decided to split up and meet up again at Wano Country. Law agreed to take Raizo and the samurai back to Wano Country in his submarine. Right after they left the Whale Tree, Raizo was overjoyed to see the minks and went to greet them. This joy was short-lived as they felt Zou shaking and heard Zunisha crying.

Zou's shaking was because of Jack returning and assaulting the giant elephant. On Momonosuke's command, Zunisha retaliated and sank Jack's fleet. With the threat of Jack ended, everyone became calm again.

After Momonosuke decided to stay on Zou in order to communicate more with Zunisha, Raizo and his comrades prepare to go back to Wano with Law and Zoro accompanying them. As the Sanji Retrieval Team departed from Zou, everyone, except for the Straw Hat members left behind, was shocked when Monkey D. Luffy jumped off Zunisha with his party.

Wano Country Arc
Raizo and his group later infiltrated Wano Country, where they remained hidden until the alliance was ready to strike.

After Luffy was sent to a prison at Udon by the Beasts Pirates, Raizo informed the alliance that he would assist with rescuing Luffy. He later infiltrated the prison and while Luffy was working, Raizo appeared beside him and informed him that he located the keys to Luffy's Seastone handcuffs but it was heavily guarded. Raizo then asked Luffy to wait a little longer before vanishing.

Trivia

 * Raizo appears to be a homage to the depiction of ninja in various media, including that of the Naruto manga series by Masashi Kishimoto.
 * His voice actor is the same as the Naruto character, Might Guy.

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