Ranmaru Mori

Ranmaru Mori (森 蘭丸) is a character who first appears in Samurai Warriors. He is Nobunaga's page. His persona is thought to reflect on his incredibly effeminate appearance, as he is usually mistaken for a woman by some characters in the game. Although teased for that, he is nonetheless a passionately loyal retainer to Nobunaga and will ultimately die for him. In the first game, he is 19 years old. He's symbolized by the character "honesty" (誠) and "morality" (義).

Samurai Warriors
In Samurai Warriors, Ranmaru begins his story as Mitsuhide's pupil. Both were serving in the Mino domain when Nobunaga conquered it. Since they were able to prove their might to him, they joined the Oda forces. Ranmaru then became loyal to Nobunaga which conflicted with his relationship with Mitsuhide, who wasn't pleased with his Lord's rule. Ranmaru protected his lord from the betrayal at Honnoji and is faced with the thought of having to kill his mentor. In his lower path ending, he unquestionably completes the deed (despite his attempt to murder Nobunaga) and continues to defend Nobunaga from various assassins.

In his real ending, he hesitates to kill his mentor at Anegawa and the army continues to pursue him at Gifu. Ranmaru decides that he must be the only one who can end Mitsuhide and charges into the castle for a duel. While his mentor dies in his arms, Ranmaru tries to confess his affection for him. Mitsuhide's last words are his desire to meet Ranmaru in the next life, a request that the teen answers in his thoughts.

Ranmaru is a hidden character for Samurai Warriors 2 that can be unlocked by doing the first two "Ranmaru's Request" and "Mitsuhide's Request" jobs in Survival Mode. Like Okuni, he doesn't have a personal Story Mode. However, he does make appearances during other characters scenarios. He is usually found trying to avenge his father's death while facing the Azai forces or defending Nobunaga in various campaigns. He also humorously appears in the beauty competition for No and Oichi's dream stages where he intends to stop the two girls' fight and to "tell Nobunaga" on No if she threatens to hurt him.

Warriors Orochi
Compared to the Samurai Warriors games, his persona in the Orochi games became very different where Ranmaru is instead being more respected by fellow officers and enemies, especially the Wu clan where he stays throughout the 2 games.

In Warriors Orochi, Ranmaru joins Ma Chao to oppose the Orochi forces. The leader of the attack at the time was Sun Ce. Once he is defeated, Ranmaru is captured and ready to accept a bitter fate. Instead, Sun Ce releases him and tells him to do whatever the boy likes (although Ranmaru was questioning Sun Ce's calm status, despite fighting for Orochi). Admiring his kindness, Ranmaru decides to follow Sun Ce and begins serving Wu. He tries to relate with the Little Conqueror's true motives in the story, often questioning his fickle methods from time to time to other allies. It was throughout Sun Ce's rebellion and until the reunion of the Sun Family that Ranmaru has slowly understood the unbreakable family bonds.

He continues to loyally serve Wu in Warriors Orochi 2, where he also became close friends with Yoshitsune Minamoto. Ironically in his dream Mode, it was stated that Ranmaru still protects Nobunaga, despite his new life in Wu.

Kessen
Ranmaru appears as a playable unit in Kessen III. He is much more masculine than his Samurai Warriors counterpart and even sports a topknot hairstyle. Ranmaru is first seen tearfully reporting his father's death to Nobunaga. He gladly replaces his father but inevitably dies while assisting his lord's escape from Honnoji. His older brother replaces him after this incident.

Development
Ranmaru's appeal in his design is that his sword should look longer and bigger than his body. To make this visual clearer to the audience, they envisioned Ranmaru as having a line drawn across the back of his body. His body shape was slimmed down to make an attractive silhouette for this concept. The result made him look effeminate, younger, and "cuter" than some developers originally planned. His second design kept these concepts and accented his outfit with white to express his inner spirit. His charm point is his clothed leg guards, which were made to look like loose socks.

Personality
Ranmaru is a naturally a naive and selfless person where he only thinks of his Lord's safety and nothing else. His gender motives question from time to time, where he can be calm and somehow romantic to chaotic and furious when crossed with. He also has shifting views of himself, from being very proud of his masculinity to claiming himself as feeling "beautiful".

Ranmaru's attitude to other allies and enemies depend on their treatments to him, as when mistaken for a girl or questioning Ranmaru's long sword can be considered as insults to his masculinity. In times, he can be entirely oblivious to his own appearance as seen in an event in Samurai Warriors 2: Empires where he doesn't understand why his disguise was easily seen through by the enemy while spying as a monk, stated that there were "no girls in the priesthood".

Nobunaga seems to highly praise Ranmaru's achievements and loyalty, almost close to having a special relationship with him as seen in the Samurai Warriors cutscenes, and their praises to each other in Samurai Warriors 2 and Warriors Orochi. Nobunaga's treatment to Ranmaru was more warmer than his harsh treatment to some of his retainers, as Nobunaga usually speaks in a calmer, and somewhat caring tone when speaking to his bodyguard. It was also implied in the first installment that Mitsuhide and Ranmaru has developed a close platonic relationship, once again questioning Ranmaru's gender motives altogether by fans.

Appearance
Ranmaru's Samurai Warriors 1 and 2 clothes are feminine in nature, using lavender tones and golden streaks in his body armor and usually wearing shorts that cover only half his upper legs (seeing as his legs were questionably smooth) and leg armor. The Bottom part of his armor is similar to that of a skirt, with the length being the same as his shorts. The Mori Crest also appears commonly on his armor. His Samurai Warriors 2 palette swap uses pinkish colors, while his Warriors Orochi swap is red, to symbolize the his new life in Wu.

His Samurai Warriors alternative costume resembles that of a Victorian boy adding a black cloak with a golden orchid design, while his arm and leg still represents a Japanese style.

He also sports the typical valet ponytail, where the shaved top was only prominent in his Kessen III appearance.

Voice Actors

 * Tony Oliver - Samurai Warriors (English)
 * Wendi Jewers - Samurai Warriors 2, Nobunaga's Ambition: Rise to Power (English)
 * Tara Platt - Warriors Orochi series (English)
 * Terrence Stone - Kessen III (English)
 * Naomi Shindō - Samurai Warriors and Warriors Orochi series (Japanese)
 * Masakazu Morita - Kessen III (Japanese)

Quotes

 * "I shall serve with unwavering devotion!"
 * "I grow stronger with every victory!"
 * "I think I've just found the most beautiful girl in all Japan! You won't get away from me, pretty lady!"
 * "Stop it! I'm a man! Why can't you see that?"
 * "A man...? Uh... Are you sure about that?"
 * Magoichi and Ranmaru; Samurai Warriors 2: Empires


 * "The side which controls information controls it's enemy. Therefore, I will put on a disguise and slip into enemy territory."
 * "I would advise against it, Ranmaru. You've failed at playing dress-up before, remember, when you once attempted to pass for a monk."
 * "I still don't understand how the enemy spotted me that time... They said something like 'There are no girls in the priesthood.' What could that possibly mean?"
 * Ranmaru and Kanetsugu Naoe; Samurai Warriors 2: Empires


 * "Ran, you have a great imagination. Enjoy it while you can."
 * Nobunaga's reply regarding Ranmaru's concern; Kessen III

Trivia

 * Ranmaru's English voice actor for the first Samurai Warriors was a man, while later installments had a female voice actor.
 * His English voice actor in Warriors Orochi is the wife of Yuri Lowenthal, the voice actor for both Sun Ce and Zhang He in the same game.
 * In the first Wu Stage in Warriors Orochi, the enemy commanders are Ma Chao and Ranmaru Mori who were both at one point voiced by Tony Oliver. He voiced both Ma Chao and Ranmaru in Dynasty Warriors 4 and Samurai Warriors, respectively.