Kazuo Akuji

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Translation needed This article contains at least one quote in Japanese. If you speak Japanese, please both transcribe it in Japanese and translate it into English.

Kazuo Akuji
Basic Information
Gender	Male
Hometown	Japan
Family	Shogo Akuji
Other Information
Affiliations	The Ronin
Weapons	Samurai Sword
Occupations	Crime Lord
Appearances
Appears in	Saints Row 2 Saints Row: Gat out of HellImage only
Voiced by	Steve Blum

Kazuo Akuji is a character in Saints Row 2.

Be thankful for the merciful deaths you and your rabble are receiving... it's nothing compared to what I will do to the Saints when I'm through here.

— Kazuo Akuji

Overview

Kazuo Akuji's is the father of Shogo Akuji, the asshole who's runnin' the Ronin. This guy's a fuckin' boogey man. When I was in jail I would listen to some of the Ronin talk about what this guy did in Japan...it's not pretty.

— Johnny Gat, during the Gracious Hosts cutscene.

Kazuo Akuji is the founder and true leader behind The Ronin^{[Reference needed]}, and serves as the final antagonist of the Ronin arc. He is the father of Shogo Akuji, and controls all of the gang's operations worldwide.^{[Reference needed]}

Kazuo never liked his son Shogo, whom he sees as a liability, and constantly refers to as an idiot. Shogo in contrast, is always trying to win his father's approval, but never succeeds due to his constant failures. To make up for having to put up with Shogo, Kazuo puts his trust, respect, and favoritism in Jyunichi.

Kazuo is world renowned for his skills as not only a successful businessman, but also as a ruthless and effective leader.^{[Reference needed]} He is an old enemy of Mr. Wong, and the two of them consider each other mortal foes.^{[Reference needed]} Kazuo is a merciless man, whose fiery temper is only dwarfed by his expertise as a master swordsman.^{[Reference needed]} Kazuo shares many traits with Shogo, such as being egotistical, having a short temper, and making the mistake of underestimating Playa.

Biography

Saints Row 2

After hearing of the Poseidon's Palace heist, Kazuo decides to come to the United States from Japan, planning to get a grip on the Ronin's unstable business in Stilwater and teach his son some things while at it.^{[Reference needed]} After getting wind of this, the 3rd Street Saints try to ambush and kill him when he arrives at the airport.

Jyunichi, the gang's top enforcer, sees the rival gang there and extracts Kazuo safely. He then chooses to be an intermediary between father and son, angering Shogo into giving Jyunichi's location to Playa. Shortly after this, Jyunichi is murdered by Playa at Kanto, and Kazuo mourns his death and states he only has Shogo now, much to his distaste.

When Dane Vogel gives Kazuo some advice, he takes it as an insulting order and proceeds to cut all business relationship between the Ronin and Ultor.

After the death of his son, Kazuo leads an attack on the Saints Hideout. The Saints, assisted by Mr. Wong and his Translator, manage to defend the hideout, forcing Kazuo to escape once again.

During the annual Stilwater Chinese Heritage Festival at the Stilwater Boardwalk, Mr. Wong meets up with Kazuo again, the latter pledging his vow to destroy both Wong and the 3rd Street Saints. After beating Wong in a katana duel aboard one of the rafts being used for the festival, Playa shows up to confront Kazuo. After some time of fighting in the midst of flames with the swords, Kazuo manages to beat Playa. While on the ground, Playa pulls out a gun and shoots the Ronin leader in the chest. Kazuo falls to the floor, telling the victor to "finish it."

Kazuo is then stabbed in the back, pinned to the floor with his own katana, and while he screams in agony, a phone is put up to his face letting Mr. Wong on the other end listen in enjoyment. He makes one last ineffectual threat as he is left to die in the ensuing explosion.

Saints Row: Gat out of Hell

After taking over Downtown, a storybook shows Kazuo in an alliance with his son Shogo, Jyunichi, Killbane and William Sharp, who battle and lose against Johnny, Vogel, Kiki and Viola DeWynter, Blackbeard, Shakespeare, and Vlad in hell.

Trivia

• Johnny Gat refers to Kazuo as an "oyabun", a leader of the Yakuza, which are organized crime syndicates in Japan.
• The names Kazuo and Shogo both appear in the Japanese novel/comic/movie Battle Royale, as Kazuo Kiriyama and Shogo Kawada.
• Aku is Japanese for evil.
• Both he and Hector Lopez are the only gang leaders to not have personal custom vehicles.
• As mentioned before, Kazuo places great confidence in his leadership and strategies, often frowning upon Shogo for his perceived inefficiency. While it may have been effective in Japan or elsewhere, it proves to be no better than Shogo, as demonstrated in Visiting Hours:
  • While Shogo was seen specifically ordering Jyunichi to speak English, Kazuo typically speaks in Japanese, and did so to express his disdain for Vogel, believing Vogel cannot catch it.
  • Kazuo believes Vogel's demands to tone down gang activity (to protect Ultor's reputation) is outrageous and believes Vogel should have offered more. In reality, it is nothing but beneficial to The Ronin - Ultor was exploiting gang violence where they deem necessary to devalue property, taking advantage of its influence and connections with the police. Vogel even specified Ultor had a fairly reasonable agreement with Shogo that allowed The Ronin a fair degree of liberty under their umbrella. To Vogel, Kazuo's refusal was a minor setback, as with it having expired its usefulness, he simply manipulated the Saints into fighting The Ronin instead, causing catastrophic damage to their base of operations. Kazuo did not even give a second thought regarding Vogel's potential betrayal.
  • While dueling Playa, he naively thought Playa would not simply cheat their way out by pulling a gun on him.
• The game files for Saints Row IV include a full model of Kazuo Akuji which is not used in the game.