Kiyomasa Senji

Senji Kiyomasa a.k.a Crow is a Deadman previously imprisoned in Deadman Wonderland. He is the first Deadman Ganta encountered. He has trained Ganta and helped him on multiple occasions.

Appearance
Senji is a tall, muscular man with a medium-dark tan. He has short black hair in spikes to the back. He has the letters DSMK tattooed above his right eye, in memory of his former team-mates.

When he was still a police officer, he wore the standard police uniform. In Deadman Wonderland, he wore the regular prisoner uniform. When he was put in G-Ward, he changed his clothes into dark blue pants with a black belt and a black, long coat. After his Carnival Corpse with Ganta, he lost his right eye and now wears a black eyepatch. He also has two rings with serrated blades in them to slice open his forearms; he wears these on his thumbs. Recently, Senji has lost most of his right arm, the only remains being from his bicep to his shoulder.

Personality
He seems to thoroughly enjoy violence, and his favorite phrase is "Dead Center" ("On target" in the Tokyopop translation; "Bang" in the manga scanlations or "Ssslice" in the anime fansubs; ズッパシ, zuppashi in the Japanese original). Despite his wild and battle-hungry attitude, he does have a sense of honor and respects strength and determination. He also appears to be against the idea of needless killing, having opted to leave Ganta alone on their first encounter when he made no effort to defend himself against Senji.

In an ironic twist, Senji becomes flustered and embarrassed when a woman acts immodest. When he first notices Shiro's form fitting body tights, his face becomes red and he gives her his coat telling her to quickly cover up.

History
Eight years before the start of the series, Senji worked as a police officer. After the Great Tokyo Earthquake, he and his colleagues Shindō, Momoi, Kan and his senpai Domon were assigned to Tokyo, in order to restore the peace. At that time, Senji already had his Branch of Sin and used it to defeat the thugs. Because of the efficiency Senji and his team operated, a lot of criminals wanted to kill them. They teamed up with Ikaduchi Akatsiki as their leader and challenged Senji. Senji's team protected him and went to the challenge alone, leaving Senji behind. When Senji finally arrived, the entire team was murdered, with the exception of Domon. He called Senji over and gave him a lecture about depending on others. "If depending on others is a speciality of kids, then acting all cool is a speciality of adults." He died soon after that.

Some time after that, Senji was taken to Deadman Wonderland and addressed a tattooist to tattoo the first letters of his team-mates' names above his right eye (DSMK).

Deadman arc
After Ganta made his way to G Ward, Senji destroyed the Necro Macro security robot which had been chasing Ganta, Shiro and Yō. After a small skirmish and an interruption by Shiro, Senji was subdued by the Deadman security. The next day, Ganta and Senji were slated to be the next two Deadmen to compete in the Carnival Corpse. Despite Senji's experience and skill with his Branch of Sin, Ganta managed to win by fooling Senji. As a consequence for losing, Senji's right eye was removed for research. He returns for a short time later during Ganta's next match, sporting an eyepatch and gives Ganta assistance with figuring out his opponent's techniques. He also helps Ganta understand his own capabilities. His change in personality toward Ganta is due to his respect for Ganta's strength. Senji comments that because Ganta beat him, he is not allowed to lose until they have a rematch.

In the anime he later meets Ganta again after his match with Minatsuki. Ganta was walking through the hallways after the earthquake and met encountered Senji, who now has an eyepatch over his right eye. He complements him about his win against Hummingbird and Ganta feels sorry for his eye, to which Senji replies that it's "just another day at the office". He tells Ganta that he needs more variety in his attacks and mentions his Ganta Gun, a name he thought of himself. Ganta says that the name isn't cool enough. He wants something more like Aceman's attacks. Senji is surprised that Ganta knows Aceman, because that was an anime back in his childhood. Ganta tells him about how he and Shiro used to play Aceman. They are interrupted by the scene Minatsuki and Yō caused.

Scar Chain arc
As Ganta talks with Senji about the Undertakers and how Branches of Sin don't work on them, Senji scolds Ganta and tells him to inform Senji the next time he fights an Undertaker. He also tells Ganta about Nagi's past and how his wife was killed by an Undertaker.



As Ganta and the remaining members of Scar Chain were attacked by Rokuro Bundō and several Undertakers and Ganta was about to be killed by Mōzuri Gazuchi and Shinagawa Dōkoku, Senji appears just in time to kill the two. Not realizing that he had already killed the stronger Undertakers there, Senji decides that the regular soldiers will do. He tries to slash an Undertaker and soon finds out that it won't work. After listening to Rokuro boast about the Worm Eater's ability to negate Branches of Sin, Senji demonstrates his Invisible Black by chopping a soldier into bits, reasoning that the Worm Eater is ineffective against Branches of Sin with attacks that move at the speed of sound.

Afterwards, Karako Koshio and the rest of Scar Chain plead Senji to join their cause. Senji declines, stating that the outside is no different and that only the strong survive.

Return to DW arc
On the mission in DW, Senji was paired up with Ganta and Mitsuzaki Yosuga. When they are attacked by Hagire Rinichirō, Senji is badly injured and is almost killed before Ganta agrees to go with Hagire to save Senji's life. Senji comments to Yosuga that he is "a little bit dying", but still persists in going after Ganta to save him.

He successfully broke the link between Hagire and Ganta, and orders Ganta to run, staying behind to hold off Chan and En. Senji at first manages to supposedly kill them, and runs after Hagire before he can continue the link with Ganta. Hagire quickly overpowers Senji, and questions why Senji bothers to risk his own life for Ganta so much. After remembering how much concern Ganta has shown for him all during their time at Deadman Wonderland, despite his weaknesses, Senji replies that it's because Ganta's "such an incredibly honest kid". Senji manages to get up and use his newly improved Crow Claws to nearly attack Hagire, only the have Chan and En block the attack, destroying both them and his right arm.

Hagire prepares to finally kill Senji, only to have his arm shot at with Ganta's new attack, "Fire-Blast-Limit-End-Zuppashi-Future-Ganta-Gun", preventing him from fatally injuring Senji any further. Ganta and Senji then proceed to use a joint attack to defeat Hagire, Ganta using the same kind of distraction on Hagire as the one he used against Senji in their first Carnival Corpse fight, while Senji sliced off two of Hagire limbs. Afterwards, Senji is taken to the infirmary and his injuries are tended to by Karako Koshio. Minatsuki mentions that Senji's will to live is abnormally high, and he is later seen to have survived.

Equipment
Rings: In order to draw blood, Senji is equipped with special rings worn on both of this thumbs to cut his forearms.

Abilities
Branch of Sin: As a Deadman, Senji has the ability to freely control his blood out of his body. He has specially-made rings with serrated blades in it to slice open his forearms to force the blood out.

Branch of Sin: Crow Claw (クロウ・クロウ, Kurō Kurō): Crow Claw manifests as two large scythe-like blades, made of blood, extending from long cuts on his forearms. While the blades are typically two to three feet long, Senji can shape the blades in a netting-pattern, in order to greatly lengthen them allowing him to attack people at range, without using more blood.

Senji has also show the ability to use more blood to create one giant blade strong enough to cut Ikaduchi Akatsiki when empowered by his Branch of Sin, which was impossible with his normal attacks.

He can also create a barrier with his Crow Claw. He does this by creating multiple blades in a formation that somewhat covers an entrance or exit.

Another skill that he has recently displayed, is positioning multiple small Crow Claws at the soles of his feet. This way, he can climb up buildings by using his Branch of Sin as climbing hooks.


 * Invisible Black (空虚閃, Inbijiburu Burakku, Japanese for "Empty Hollow Flash): This is a cutting technique that Senji uses to create a large scythe-like blade at the top of his right hand, instead of his forearms, and slices the target to pieces at the speed of sound, or just as the name suggests, "in a flash".

Trivia

 * Senji had the honor of naming Ganta's Branch of Sin the Ganta Gun. He also took it upon himself to name Ganta's more improved Branch of Sin the Ganbaru Gun; it is spelled similar to Ganta's name and it could translate to "Do Your Best Gun".
 * Along with Ganta's Ganta Gun, Senji's Crow Claw is one of the only two Branches of Sin known to be evolved over time.
 * In the English dub, Senji's Branch of Sin can literally be translated to "Black Black". It is also the Japanese pronunciation of the English word, "crow".
 * Senji carries a strong ressemblance to Kenpachi Zaraki from Bleach. They both have spikey hair and an eye patch on their right eye. Their body size is larger than most characters. They also have a similar personality that makes them rebel among their own group for their belief. They both are put against opponents that are seemingly impossible to beat, but they end up defeating them. Also, they share the same English Dub voice actor.
 * Senji's fighting styles, mannerisms, sense of comraderie (as well as voice) is reminiscent to Bardock from the Dragon Ball Z series.
 * He also seems to share Yamcha's awkwardness around girls being either undressed or wearing skimpy outfits.