He's big.

He's furry.

The claws, ears, and mouth come in large sizes too.

No, Little Red Riding Hood, put away your machine gun. This isn't the Big Bad Wolf. It's another type of evil beastie that lurks about. Oh, and I wouldn't want to check the insides of its stomach either. Who knows what you might find.

Ashitare is supposedly the oldest among the Seiryuu seishi and definitely gives a whole new meaning to "dumb animal." He can change from a man-beast with glowing yellow eyes and a nasty disposition to a wolf with the same charming qualities. It's no wonder that Nakago keeps him on a short leash. Literally.

And the whip. We mustn’t forget the whip.

Anyways, our first introduction to Ashitare is when he attacks Miaka and Nuriko after Nakago told the wolf-man to sic the Suzaku seishi and their miko. Fortunately for the viewers and the storyline, Ashitare failed due to the fact that Nuriko popped a firecracker in his face. Burn baby burn.

We learn that Ashitare was once a main attraction in a circus and that Nakago supposedly rescued the man-beast from his enforced captivity. Like any other good villain with ulterior motives, Nakago soon convinced Ashitare to obey him and only him. As a result, Ashitare lived only to do what Nakago ordered him to do.

Since we are all good little anime watchers and we always try to shift blame, many people say that Ashitare wasn't truly evil. It was only because he was so loyal to Nakago that Ashitare killed Nuriko, ergo Nakago was the truly evil one. However, loyalty isn't an excuse for killing people because loyalty can only be stretched so far. Nakago obviously knew that Ashitare felt the same instincts as a vicious, killing beast and exploited it in order to gain the upper hand over the Suzaku seishi. When Ashitare produced the wanted results, Nakago promptly killed him, saying that he didn't need throwbacks on the Seiryuu side.

Was Ashitare ever human? Perhaps, but it obviously got beaten out of him and he never ever got the urge to try and find his humanity again. The fact that he didn't attempt to become more human shows that he retreated into the more animalistic form, showing that Ashitare probably a) had something he wanted to hide from or b) would rather be a beast at Nakago's beck and call.


For those of you who don't play arcade games, the Little Red Riding Hood crack wasn't just a comment related to the story. It's a reference to a game called Vampire Saviors where Red Riding Hood is a psychotic child who wields machine guns.

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