Katana

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Chronologic

For those who use a non-sliding timeline, our guesses would be in the vicinity of :

Yamashiro’s kids seem 4 or so in the one panel where we see them. And having Katana be in her mid-30s when she debuts seems about right.

One advantage of this proposed timeline is that Mrs. Yamashiro doesn’t train to become Katana within weeks. 10+ years is still obviously unrealistic, but by superhero comic book standards it seems reasonable.

History (part 2)

Katana agreed to join the Outsiders since Batman promised that he would provide her with a purpose.

Though Yamashiro was uncomfortable with the arrangement, Wayne cunningly had her room with Halo (“Gabrielle Doe”).

Wayne also strongarmed Yamashiro into running a bookshop in downtown Gotham, so she’d have something resembling a life.

Though this originally irritated her, she came to like operating her business.

The shop, as a small pun, was called “Dragon Books” (“Tatsu” means “dragon”). It carried both Japanese books and books in English about Japan.

Her core clienteleShoppers seems to have been Japanese-American Gothamites, plus students of the Japanese martial arts. Dragon Books carried an awful lot of books about the fighting arts.

Tōkyō drift

In 1984, Takeo ambushed Tatsu in Gotham, stole back Soultaker, and returned to Tōkyō.

There he executed a magical ritual that allowed him to bodily summon souls from within Soultaker. That included his brother.

When Katana and the Outsiders invaded the Noguri offices, Tatsu was thus forced to fight the Soultaker-wielding Maseo. She couldn’t force herself to strike him, and was defeated.

However, the Outsiders quickly rallied. They attacked the Noguri boss as he was meeting with treacherous American gangsters.

Dead again

In the fray, Maseo’s spirit forced Tatsu to kill him by threatening to kill Halo.

Unlike Tatsu, Maseo realised that his brother’s plan was to kill his wife using Soultaker. He would then summon her back from the blade, and force her spirit to obey him in every way.

Maseo preferred to die again than to see this happen.

After she struck down Maseo’s spirit to save Halo, Yamashiro killed Takeo. She took his spirit within her blade.

Soundtrack

I’m in the mood for some 1986 Shonentai  (少年隊).

It was one of those Johnny’s bands.

Ikimacho ! Also, the video encoding is awful ! But it’s fun !

History (part 3)

Halo once set up a surprise date for Mrs. Yamashiro with Mr. Takami, her geometry teacher. This was a naïve attempt at restarting Tatsu’s love life.

Due to differences between super-hero comic books and the Hallmark Channel, this failed.

But at least Gabrielle’s “plot” was too childish to genuinely embarrass the adults.

Guardian of light

When Halo was revealed to have been an Aurakles, Katana was instrumental in recovering her from the Aurakles dimension.

She and the Outsiders again attacked the Noguri headquarters. Mrs. Yamashiro forced the oyabunJapanese mob boss to give her the components to perform the ritual. The ones once used by Takeo to summon souls from the blade.

An Aurakle alien had been slain by Soultaker (reinforced with Black Lightning’s electricity). The ritual forced it to serve Katana, and open a transdimensionalSomething that goes across two or more universes path for the Outsiders to recover Halo.

However, Katana underwent a mild depression as Halo left to be alone with her thoughts for a while.

This was lifted when the Outsiders rescued Gabrielle from Kobra’s servants.

Los Angeles

After the team moved to Los Angeles, Yamashiro moved her bookstore to the upscale Beverly Center Mall.

After that, ain’t nothing special that hasn’t been covered in the 1980s Outsiders team entries.

Description

Officially, Yamashiro-san is 5’2″ (1.57m) and 96 lbs. (43 Kg.). I’ve adjusted the numbers based on how she’s drawn during the 1980s.

Yes, her costume’s emblem could lead some to assume that she’s a Macedonian heroine. But that flag didn’t exist yet.

Very early on she had long hair, but these soon got shorter.

Clothing

Out of costume Yamashiro favours conservative suits. Below-the-knee straight skirt, fitted business jacket, blouse and a fluffy pussycat bow. Or a slightly fluffy crossover tie.

Every item of clothing she owns is sensible and proper.

When on vacation, she goes for what we’d now consider business casual (the term appeared later, in 1992, with a Dockers marketing campaign).

Other details

Her living space is always impeccably clean, well-provisioned, tastefully decorated, uncluttered yet comfortable, all these things.

Maybe in another life she’d have been Marie Kondo.

Likewise her speech is articulate, formal, and with proper grammar.

Katana always carries her sword, even when out of costume and doing trivial errands. She carries it in a neutral-looking dorsal sheath.

People presumably assume that it’s some kind of musical instrument (a huge soprano sax ?). Or art supplies.

Personality

Yamashiro-san’s original path wasn’t the Way of the Samurai. It was the Way of the Homemaker. She liked managing her apartment and was delighted to raise her children.

(Yamashiro is from a generation where the stock expectation was that a housewife (“shufu”) would manage the entire household budget and activities while her husband was forever away at work.)

Losing her family turned Yamashiro into a stern, intense, severe, demanding, goal-focused, stoic killer.

She remains a particularly private person, even with close friends.

Armed opponents between Katana and her goal will likely be slain. But she’d never kill anybody who surrenders, or otherwise poses little threat. While with Batman she made efforts to strike with the flat of her blade… some of the time.

Oh Gaby, tu veux qu’j’te chante la mère

By 1983, Katana was on a barren, aimless path. Joining the Outsiders changed two important things :

This means that Yamashiro could gradually shed her rigid, po-faced warrior persona to become a more balanced person.

She was still a highly-disciplined, efficient fighter with little patience for nonsense. And a Very Serious Responsible Lady. But now there were other things in her life, allowing her to move to a healthier mindspace after her losses.

Tatsu was quite protective of Gabrielle’s welfare and emotional well-being. Over time, she came to consider her pretty much her adoptive teenage daughter.

Mrs. Yamashiro would also consistently have Gabrielle put her own long-term interests over her immediate satisfaction. But Tatsu also accomplished a lot of emotional work in accompanying her naïve ward through the extra effort she requested of her.

剣 ? כֵּן !

Katana’s characterisation ignores several 1980s Western clichés.

She’s absolutely not the “deferential Asian woman”. Tatsu has zero time for bullshit and is very much an in-your-face person. She can punctiliouslyWith great attention to detail or correct behaviour respect protocol when necessary, but that has to align with her personal goals.

Though she’s obviously honourable, Katana doesn’t really have arcs showcasing bushidō-as-understood-back-then-by-Western-JapanophilesOne who especially admires Japan and Japanese ways. The kind that were attempted by leading contemporary writers such as Miller, Claremont or Ostrander.

Likewise her blade is simply a tool. She takes great care of it, but has no hesitation to use it for menial purposes when necessary. Such as slashing through animated vegetation.

Other traits

Though she comes across as hard and demanding, Katana is actually protective of helpless people. Such as Sapphire Stagg.

This is especially true of children. If there are four kids in danger, Katana will rescue at least six.

Katana hates being sucker-punched, or otherwise being made look bad in a fight. She will vigorously seek a rematch when that happens. Even getting hit once during a duel is seen as a shameful personal failure.

Outside looking out

Yamashiro and Emily Briggs (Looker) nigh-instantly became friends. They pretty much had a good rapport at first sight.

However, Tatsu then came to worry that Lia’s presence was attracting Gabby away from her. As time went by, Yamashiro became increasingly jealous. She sought to have Doe spend less time with Briggs.

This deflated once the team got accustomed to Looker. And once Briggs became less neurotic about her appearance.

Other other traits

Katana liked being in L.A., where the Japanese-American population is much larger than in Gotham.

Yamashiro disapproves of so many of her compatriots (and Japanese-Americans, and nisei  …) not being interested in pre-Meiji-Era Japanese heritage.

Thanks to her mysterious Far Eastern ancient samurai wisdom, Mrs. Yamashiro realises that cats rule and dogs drool. See ? Wisdom.

Quotes

“I am a samurai, and you are my comrades. My sword is yours in battle, my home is yours in peace.”

(About Bruce Wayne) “What a thoroughly useless creature… How did he ever become involved with the Batman ?”

“I know more about children than you might imagine.”

“Enough talk !”

Knife-wielding thug: “Not so tough when you’re facing cold steel, are ya ?”
Yamashiro: “I am merely considering the difference between brandishing a weapon, and being one !” (KRAK !)

Doctor: “You punctured that man’s lung !”
Katana: “That’s what I was aiming for.”

Grateful mother hugging her rescued child: “How can I ever thank you..?”
Katana: “By never waiting to tell [your daughter] how much you love her… for by then, it might be too late.”

“Gabrielle, you’ll catch your death !”

“Gabrielle, it is getting late !”

“Gabrielle, your English composition is due tomorrow !”

Black Lightning: “How long will he be out, Katana ?”
Katana: “He should be awake in time for his trial.”

(After a disarmed Katana provokes her opponent into emptying their guns into the scenery) “Now isn’t that interesting… no more bullets…” (KRAK !)

Halo (unwrapping Looker’s present): “Oh, a bikini !”
Katana (severely looking at the itsy bitsy tiny garments) “Where’s the rest of it ?”

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