Mizuki Rashōjin: The Final Boss of Samurai Shodown II, More Beloved Than Most Heroes

You can't talk about Samurai Shodown without talking about Samurai Shodown II, and you can't talk about Samurai Shodown II without its final boss — Mizuki Rashōjin. She may be the most popular villain in the entire series, better known than many of the heroes.

She was just an abandoned girl

Mizuki's backstory is bleak. Born poor, she was abandoned by her parents at birth, and her little brother died of illness when she was seven. Blow after blow left her with nothing but hatred, and at 13 she bet her own body in a pact with the dark god, trading her flesh for an immortal form and terrifying power.

After that, the world lost a pitiful girl named Mizuki — and gained a "Rashōjin" who commands the hell of Mount Osore and rules over demons.

Why every old player remembers her

A few things stacked up to make Rashōjin a shared memory of the arcade era. Her BGM, first — eerie and ominous, and you knew the boss fight was coming the moment it started. Then her super moves: absurdly overpowered, almost cheating, and countless one-credit, three-life runs ended at her hands.

Third, and most important, was timing. In 1994 Samurai Shodown II was huge in Chinese arcades — the kind of machine where someone was always dueling and a crowd always gathered around. Rashōjin was the woman waiting at the end of that machine.

Did she win?

In the ending, Mizuki is defeated by Haohmaru and company and sealed away along with the human world she hated most. But she kept getting dragged back as a guest in Samurai Shodown V and Samurai Shodown VI — the developers knew this villain was a crowd-pleaser.

A tragic, ruthless female boss with her own terrifying BGM — that's the deepest mark Mizuki Rashōjin left on Samurai Shodown.