Benkei

Benkei is a major antagonist in Samurai 8: The Tale of Hachimaru. He is a samurai, criminal, and con-artist who lures people in for money until he takes their keys.

Personality
Benkei is selfish and concerned with gaining keys and powers from other samurai. Benkei shows that he is manipulative and sinister by killing Yoshitsune and Okugata because he did not like Yoshitsune’s point of view. In addition, he wanted Yoshitsune key. In the present, Benkei has the same selfish, sadistic, and manipulative personality. He is willing to trick thousands of people from multiple worlds to come to his tournament in an attempt to steal the key from the strongest person in his tournament. When confronted for killing Sanda’s parents by Daruma, Benkei express delight in murdering them and cares little for manipulating Sanda to be his disciple. When his identity is revealed for being a con-artist, Benkei was willing to kill everyone on Planet O-06 including his own men and leave the world. Benkei lacks empathy for his actions and when Sanda confronts him for his parent’s murder he brushes it off and attempts to get the latter to work for him again. In battle, Benkei prefers to not move much and relies on his technology to do most of his own work.

Past
Benkei used to serve under a famed samurai called, Yoshitsune. While serving under him, Yoshitsune would get advise, talk to, and treat Benkei fairly. Benkei secretly detest Yoshitsune and planned to betray him and take his key. One day when Sanda had to show that he is willing to become a competent samurai, Benkei switches out Sanda’s blood with another causing the boy to fail his examination. As a result of his failure, Sanda was looked down upon his father and deemed a failure to his own family.

One night, an angry Yoshitsune confronted his son with a knife intent on harming him. However, Okugata steps between the two and gets stabbed as a result. Benkei appears and lies to Yoshitsune that he would treat her but instead takes the opportunity to murder her by breaking her neck. Because of her death as a princess, Yoshitsune despairs thinking he fatally wounded his wife. Yoshitsune dies by turning into a locker ball. Benkei takes the opportunity to take the key for himself and states that moving forward, Sanda will be his disciple. For many years, Benkei and Sanda would work to manipulate many people into participating in his tournaments so that he can take their keys. He also gained a criminal record for what he did and evaded the authorities for his crimes.

Plot
Benkei sends Sanda to go send samurai to Planet O-06 in hopes to lure them in with money and kill the winner of the tournament by taking their key. When Sanda brings, Hachimaru, Anne, Daruma, and Ryu to the planet he explains the rule to them as they participated in the tournament. During the tournament, Hachimaru, Ryu, and Daruma were able to defeat all the other contestants in his tournament. When Hachimaru wins the tournament after beating Ryu and after Daruma’s forfeit, Benkei meets Hachimaru in person to fight for the money. However, Hachimaru noticing the power Benkei has wants to become allies. Benkei calmly states that there is nothing for him to gain if he became Hachimaru’s ally. Daruma soon pulls up data on Benkei after looking up the negative energy on his blade and sensing that he is no good. The data reveals that Benkei has a long criminal history of offenses. When the information came out, Benkei did not deny it and admits to conning them to come to the planet. He instructs one of his men to attack Hachimaru and the others so that he could steal his keys. However, the man attacks Benkei instead revealing that he was a law-enforcement official who was chasing after Benkei when Daruma revealed his criminal history. In that moment, Sanda attempts to take Anne, Hachimaru’s princess, hostage under Benkei’s order.

When Benkei’s attempt of having Anne become a hostage in order to take Hachimaru’s key without a struggle failed, Benkei summoned humanoid holders to fight his enemies. While Sanda was revealing his true nature to Hachimaru and the others during the attack, Daruma attacks Benkei. Soon after Sanda is defeated by Hachimaru, Benkei battles Daruma in space. The two gets into a heated battle where Benkei has the upperhand from the beginning of the fight. When Daruma ascends to his true form and fights Benkei, the latter is overwhelmed by his power. Daruma also uses his powers to pick up information on Benkei’s past and revealed that he betrayed and murdered Yoshitsune and manipulated his son, Sanda, to becoming his pawn. Benkei happily admits to his crimes. As Daruma is reaching the time limit of his powers, Hachimaru appears and assists Daruma as he transfers the data on Benkei’s memory to Hachimaru. As Daruma rests and Hachimaru returns to the planet to share the information that Daruma gets from Benkei, Benkei attempts to activate a war head to destroy the entire planet and collect the keys for himself. Benkei sits in his room aboard his own ship as everyone else mobilize to stop the war heads. Benkei watches as everyone infiltrate his ship. When Sen gets close to him, the latter attempts to decapitate him with his sword only to deflect the attack. Benkei soon traps all his enemies on ship by keeping them mobilized to one area of the ship. He traps everyone except for Sanda.

Sanda confronts Benkei for the murder of his parents and Benkei shows little interest when claiming he committed the crime. Benkei encourages Sanda to fight him since he is angry by arming him with a sword. Benkei gives Sanda one chance to prove that he is loyal to him by attacking the people he is currently allied with. He also threatens to kill him if he hesitates and does not follow his orders.