Takamaru

Takamaru
Official artwork of Takamaru from The Mysterious Murasame Castle.
Universe	The Mysterious Murasame Castle
Debut	The Mysterious Murasame Castle (1986)
Smash Bros. appearances	Brawl SSB4 Ultimate
Most recent non-Smash appearance	Super Mario Maker 2 (2019, cameo)
Console/platform of origin	Famicom (Disk System)
Species	Human
Gender	Male
Voice actor	Tomokazu Sugita

Takamaru (鷹丸, Takamaru) is the protagonist of The Mysterious Murasame Castle.

Origin

Takamaru in The Mysterious Murasame Castle.

Takamaru is the protagonist of the 1986 Famicom game The Mysterious Murasame Castle: he is an apprentice samurai who must protect Edo Japan and four neighboring castle towns from an evil alien menace, residing in the titular Murasame Castle. Armed with only a katana and his wit, he sets off to rescue the people from the extraterrestrial's influence. The game worked similarly to The Legend of Zelda - being based on the same engine - and had several power-ups for Takamaru to use, including sandals that let him walk on water, fireballs, throwing knives, and windmill swords. Takamaru and his game became rather obscure, owing to the lack of an overseas release; prior to the Famicom disc for the game making a cameo in Pikmin 2, Takamaru was effectively unknown in the Western world. The character made his first international appearance in Samurai Warriors 3 as a playable character, with an English voice track by Darrel Guilbeau accompanying the appearance. After being featured in his own mini-game in the Wii U game Nintendo Land, his own game received an international release for the Nintendo 3DS in the eShop.

In Super Smash Bros. Melee

While he does not make any appearance in Melee, Sakurai stated that Takamaru was at least considered for a playable role during development, but the idea was later scrapped, likely due to low relevance.

In Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Takamaru's only appearance in Brawl is as a sticker.

Sticker

Name	Game	Effect	Character(s)
Takamaru	Nazo no Murasame Jō	Attack +11

Takamaru (Nazo no Murasamejo)

In Super Smash Bros. 4

As an Assist Trophy

Takamaru as an Assist Trophy.

Takamaru appears as an Assist Trophy in Super Smash Bros. 4. When summoned, he moves around swiftly with dashes and jumps, mimicking the animations of his original game with choppy body movements. He attacks either by throwing Windmill Swords that travel in an "X" shape and deal 3% damage to characters on contact, or with a flurry of repeated slashes using his katana, which traps opponents and deals up to 40% damage, with high knockback on the final hit. He can be defeated if he takes enough hits. Takamaru is voiced by Tomokazu Sugita, who also voiced Chrom in the same game's Japanese version. He is one of five characters in Smash 4 that only speak Japanese in every version, with the others being Marth, the Prince of Sablé, Roy, and Cloud.

In an interview, Masahiro Sakurai stated that he briefly considered Takamaru as a playable character for Super Smash Bros. 4, but just like how Takamaru was scrapped in Melee, he felt that Takamaru's popularity was too low to make the cut, relegating him to Assist Trophy status.

As a costume

A Mii Swordfighter dressed as Takamaru.

Takamaru is also the basis of a downloadable Mii Fighter costume for Mii Swordfighters. Nintendo also released a QR code for those who wish to have the exact Mii used in the costume's advertising.

Trophy

Takamaru's trophy appears in both versions. In Super Smash Bros. for Wii U it is part of the Memorabilia Trophy Box.

Takamaru's trophy in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS

Takamaru's trophy in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U

Takamaru

The main character of The Mysterious Murasame Castle. In this game, he dashes and jumps straight to the nearest opponent and shows off his swift sword skills. If he's got a bit of distance, he uses his special ninja techniques, based on the rook and the bishop in Japanese chess, to send projectiles spinning through the air.

: The Mysterious Murasame Castle (08/2014)

The main character of The Mysterious Murasame Castle. In this game, he dashes and jumps straight to the nearest opponent and shows off his swift sword skills. Once he's got a bit of distance, he uses his special ninja techniques, based on the rook and bishop in Japanese chess, to send projectiles spinning through the air.

: The Mysterious Murasame Castle (1986 (JP))

In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

As an Assist Trophy

Takamaru returns as an Assist Trophy, acting like how he did in Smash 4. KOing him now earns a point, and he cannot appear on Boxing Ring, Mute City SNES, and Norfair. His voice clips from Smash 4 are reused in Ultimate and he is one of seven characters in the game that only speak Japanese; the others are the Prince of Sablé, Cloud, Yuri Kozukata, Akira Yuki, Sephiroth, and Kazuya.

As a costume

Takamaru's wig and outfit also return as part of the base game.

Spirit

No.	Image	Name	Type	Class	Slots	Base	Max	Base	Max	Base	Max	Ability	Series
1,128		Takamaru		★★★	2	2948	8869	1541	4636	1139	3427	Sword Attack ↑	The Mysterious Murasame Castle

Gallery

• 

  Takamaru fighting along side Diddy Kong, Fox, and Falco against Bowser.

• 

  Takamaru and Palutena

• 

  Takamaru and Ganondorf

• 

  Takamaru and Nikki as a Mii Gunner.

• 

  Takamaru attacking Duck Hunt.

• 

  Takamaru as a Mii Swordfighter costume

• 

  Takamaru as an assist Trophy in Ultimate.

Names in other languages

Language	Name
Japanese	鷹丸, Takamaru
English	Takamaru
French	Takamaru
German	Takamaru
Spanish	Takamaru
Italian	Takamaru
Chinese	Takamaru
Korean	타카마루, Takamaru
Dutch	Takamaru
Russian	Такамару

Trivia

• Despite being depicted as a samurai in all of his appearances before being an Assist Trophy in Super Smash Bros. 4, Takamaru is mislabeled as being a ninja in the English translations of his character Trophy. He is even shown wielding a ninjatō, a weapon associated with ninjas, rather than wielding the katana like his previous incarnations.
• In the Wii U version, the "Game Releases" section of the trophy description only mentions The Mysterious Murasame Castle's international debut on the Virtual Console in 2014, and not its original Japanese release on the Famicom Disk System in 1986.
• In Ultimate, Takamaru's first line does not appear on Sound Test, despite the line being played out after getting summoned out of the Assist Trophy.
• Takamaru's kimono is a much paler shade of blue, almost gray, on his Assist Trophy model compared to how it appears in the official artwork used for his Spirit. This appears to be due to the model being based on a version of Takamaru's official artwork with inaccurate colors; it more closely matches the colors seen in his Sticker in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.