Spoilers.
Samurai Champloo
Samurai Champloo is a highly regarded anime from 2004. It takes place in an alternative Edo period of Japan as it has a hip-hop feel to it. The show follows Mugen, an impudent and freedom-loving vagrant swordsman; Jin, a composed and stoic rÅnin; and Fuu, a brave girl who asks them to accompany her in her quest across Japan to find the “samurai who smells of sunflowers.”
Oniwakamaru, Samurai Champloo Redeye Reprisal
In episode two, entitled Redeye Reprisal, we get a situation that is very reminiscent of Hunchback. Won’t say it’s on purpose since the trope is common. In the episode Fuu meets a very ugly man. The man who is called Oniwakamaru is liken to an ogre. He is described as bald, fat, tall, muscular man. He has a somewhat wrinkly face with a swollen right eye that appears closed and two scratch marks on the left side of his face. He is a bodyguard for Sasaki Ryujiro, who is mentally unstable and has zero issues with torture and murder. Oniwakamaru is actually very kind by the years of being ridicule make him lose control when people talk about him or see his face.
Oniwakamaru, Samurai Champloo Redeye Reprisal
Fuu, the young pretty girl, gets kidnapped by Ryujiro. Fuu tells Oniwakamaru that he isn’t scary to her but that he does have a sad look in his eyes. When Ryujiro is about to kill Fuu Oniwakamaru kills him instead because she was the only one not afraid to look at this face.
This seems very much in line with trope of the monster and the pretty girl but Oniwakamaru was working for the antagonist who kidnapped a girl. The girl showed him compassion and he dies for her. His looks are also very much like Quasimodo aside from the iconic hunch. Again not saying this episode was intentional resembles Hunchback but it’s eerily reminiscent of the story.
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