The Best Samurai Kid: Yaiba

I used to watch this anime in ABC 5 every Saturday about this kid who amused me with his crazy antics and his way of being the greatest samurai ever. I'm talking about Yaiba.



Yaiba Kurugane is the main protagonist of the show. He is the Thunder God incarnate, and later acquires the legendary Dragon's Orb. Since he fights without the Thunder Orb in the socketed Thunder God's sword, he was able to be spared the same fate of being possessed by the sword's owner that had befallen Onimaru. Aside from his skills with the sword and his keen senses, he is also able to converse with animals.

For a while, Yaiba was fighting without any orbs. While this left him vulnerable because he had no divine assistance, it also let him master several techniques. The Senpūken (Whirlwind Sword) in which he spins the sword like a lawnmower blade by twirling it on his fingers in the hole that the orbs would usually go in. The Kaminari Giri (Lightning Cut) in which he executes a downward slash in a furious zigzag pattern and finally the "Yaiba Windmill Slash" in which he executes a full body vertical spin motion in the air by sticking his sword between his feet and then uses the momentum to create a buzzsaw-like effect.
It should be noted that there is one other technique, which is called "The Wave of Wind Thunder". This technique can only be used along with Takeshi Onimaru, for both Thunder God and Devil Wind Swords are needed in order to execute the technique. It is the resulting combination of Yaiba's "Lightning Blast" and Takeshi's upgraded Devil Wind Slash "Tornado Ripper". They used this move against Kaguya-hime.

Together in his quest to find the powerful orbs are Sayaka Mine (Yaiba's love interest), Kenjuro Kurogane (Yaiba's father), Musashi Miyamoto (Yaiba's teacher), Jubei Yagyu (owner of the overextending sword), Kagetora (their tiger friend) and Shonosuke (their vulture friend).

Raijin-ken (Lightning God Sword) - Yaiba's sword, Raijin-ken has an orb within it marked with the kanji for "Thunder". Throughout his adventures in Japan, Yaiba finds several other orbs in search of the Dragon God's Orb, which are listed as follows:

Water - This orb allows Yaiba to control water by swinging his sword and can shoot water from the tip of the sword. It was found in Lake Biwa.

Gold - Allows Yaiba to transform into different people and objects. He earned this orb from the Tanuki in Shikoku.

Fire - This orb allows Yaiba to shoot balls of flame from his sword. It was found on Mount Aso.

Big - Let's Yaiba grow huge. The first time he used this orb, he grew large enough to leave the atmosphere. However by the time the orb runs out of power, it turns black and Yaiba becomes exhausted because he used up all his stamina. It only takes time to recharge the orb before he uses it again. It was found in Nara.

Darkness - This orb is the most dangerous of all. It can suck up anything on its path including the user as an act of desperate measure. When Yaiba use it for the first time, he got sucked into the orb along with Jubei. But they got out from the orb successfully. It was found in Niigata.

Ice - This orb allows Yaiba to shoot ice from the tip of this sword. It also allows him to freeze water into ice. It was found in Hokkaidō.

Attack - This talking orb contains all of the powers of the six other orbs from Water to Ice. Whenever he uses it, the Raijin-ken changes its shape; turning into the Ryūjin-ken. This also happened when he used the orb on Onimaru's Fūjin-ken when the Raijin-ken was swallowed by Kaguya-hime. The orb has 3 abilities: One, Yaiba can now fly while holding the sword. Two, it can create a powerful energy shield that can block projectiles. And three, he can summon the Dragon God by activating all of the orbs, including the Attack Orb as well to unveil its ultimate power. It was found in Tōhoku.

Hopin' that it will be air again on television!