Weed is the protagonist of Ginga Densetsu Weed and a minor character of Ginga Densetsu Weed: Orion and Ginga: The Last Wars. He is currently retired 3rd supreme commander of Ōu.
He is the son of Gin and Sakura and is the last-born brother of Joe and Yukimura. He is also the father of Sirius, Orion, Rigel and Bellatrix; the first three being the protagonists of Ginga Densetsu Weed: Orion and Ginga: The Last Wars.
Appearance[]
Weed is a brindle (jp.: Tora-Ge) Akita-Kishu mix with the fur color silver and with blue eyes. Although his fur color is called silver by Yoshihiro Takahashi, it's actually portrayed bluish. His brindle color is shown with thin lines all over his body.
Throughout his life, It can be noticed as Weed matures through the series, both mentally and physically. In GDW only his body is growing while his eyes keep looking big and young. From GDWO on his eyes got smaller and more severe and it increases in GTLW much more. Since then he looks like an actual adult.
Personality[]
Weed is a very brave, compassionate and kind dog with an unusually strong sense of justice. He also has charisma like Gin. He is friendly and always ready to help other dogs, rarely doubting their intentions unlike GB.
When first met in the series, he is a polite and calm little puppy, raised well by his mother. He mourns the death of his mother and often thinks about her and wishes her spirit to give him the strength to carry on. He isn't afraid to die but hates the idea of others sacrificing themselves for him.
Weed, being raised with the rightful stories about his father, has a strong but slightly naive sense of moral. Even when he hadn't met his father, he strongly believed in him and respected him, seeing him as the true symbol of justice.
Although evildoers make him angry, he wishes to give them a second chance as all living beings have only one life. He is shocked when Jerome disobeys him and kills the Foxhound Spies (Thunder and Lecter in the anime). However, after he calms down, he admits that Jerome's doing sounded quite sensible as it saved him and his comrades.
He is very persistent, never giving up and telling others to hang on. Though he is small and not very strong yet, he has natural skill and great speed. He can be impulsive and reckless due to his youth and sometimes the swings of sadness and anger take control of him.
In GDW:O, Weed has grown into a mature adult, as a father he loves his children dearly wishing for their well being and safety. But he is not afraid to discipline his children especially Orion when trying to teach him about the army's rule of combat.
Despite having grown up as a wild dog his whole life, Weed like his family does have a soft spot for one human in particular and that's Daisuke. He does appreciate Daisuke's help when they need it showing his trust in his father's owner.
He's believed to inherit his grandfather Riki's sense of justice and his father Gin's courage.
Like his friends, he is also full of spirit and strong willed too.
Ginga Densetsu Weed[]
Anime[]
Early Adventures[]
Weed is the son of Gin and Sakura. One day, Weed, while hunting birds for his ill mother, meets a hunting dog, GB, an English Setter. Weed attempts to steal GB's catch, but fails to do so despite much effort. Caught, Weed explains to GB that he needed the bird for his very ill mother. Pitiful, GB allows Weed to take the bird.
Later on, GB goes hunting ducks near a pond, this time with his packmate Sasuke. Not long after, Sasuke is caught by a guard dog. To save GB and Sasuke, Weed does the Zetsu Tenrō Battōga, a technique only his father and grandfather Riki could perform, for the first time, severing the guard dog's ear.
But another dog arrives to the scene - Smith, one of Gin's most loyal comrades. Afraid of Smith's powerful aura, the guard dog quickly releases Weed and Sasuke and retreats into his dog house. After having a short conversation with Weed, Smith finally realizes that he is the son of Gin.
The three dogs then head to the old house where Sakura lies so Smith can talk to her about Gin. There, Sakura asks Smith to bring Weed to his father in Futago Pass. Shortly after Smith promises her, Sakura dies from her illness. Heartbroken, Weed and the others bury her body, and the three head for Futago Pass and the adventure begins.
The Encounter with Kaibutsu[]
Afterwards, the three dogs meet a chained dog named Hook. From him, they learn that this is the territory of Blue, the boss dog. Hook reveals that he and his brother Kuro used to serve Blue, before Blue killed Kuro when he refused to follow orders for him.
Weed rushes off to save a young pup named Mel, who was stealing dog food for Blue. Then they learn that Ohu has been destroyed by a monster named Kaibutsu, but Blue tells them that the Ohu soldiers have gone crazy and attacked humans.
When Blue tries to flee across the road, he is hit by a truck. As Weed tries to help him, another truck drives by which was about to run over both of them but Blue saves him and gets hit again.
Weed becomes confused and asks him why he saved him, to which Blue says it was because he showed him kindness and now he wishes he could've met someone like Weed eariler before he dies. The next day, Weed and the others allow Mel to come with them and together they set off to go to Futago Pass.
There, Weed goes off on his own and meets the dogs, Ken and Kagetora, who tells him that the paradise has been attacked by a monster and killed most of the soldiers. Weed continues to look for his father and meets a dog that looks just like him and is convinced that its his father, the dog tells him to run away but he doesn't and the monster, Kaibutsu, appears.
Weed gets so scared of him that he freezes and the dog pushes him out of the way, saving his life. Kaibutsu grabs the dog and bites him to death.
Soon, Kaibutsu is chased away by humans. The group later meets with Smith, who says the dog was not Gin but his substitute Tokimune. Weed is still upset over his death because he saved his life. The dogs bury Tokimune, but before they can do anything, Jerome and his pack appears to the group.
Jerome tells them that he was sent by the humans to kill P4. He also explains that Kaibutsu was a test subject and escaped the lab. Weed struggles to fight P4, when Smith jumped in and attacked the monster. The impact causes rocks to fall on them and Weed escapes. In the process, Smith's life ended and was dug out after. At first, they thought P4 was dead.
But P4 turned out to be alive and shows up to them after they mourn the death of Smith. This starts a fight between Weed and his group against P4. As Weed, Jerome, and P4 fell from the cliff, Weed takes hold of P4's tail and flips him over.
After when they landed, Weed's friends find P4 impaled by a branch, but couldn't find Weed and Jerome. They finally found them in a river, and when they were hauled up on land, Jerome joins Weed and they went off in search of Weed's father, Gin.
Hōgen Arc[]
Weed hears from Akame that his father has been captured by Hōgen, so he an his friends go off with a small pack to go to gather more dogs and rescue Gin from Hougen. Along the way to the Southern Alps, Weed is taught how to fight by Jerome and he meets Rocket, a spy of Hougen.
Rocket, at first, tries to kill him, but later joins him after seeing how kind of a dog he is. Then, after John's death, Weed realizes how strong and powerful Hougen is and decides to continue looking for more dogs.
Weed makes lots of friends like Hiro, Kyōshirō and the Ninja dog, Tesshin, who teaches him his father's famous attack. After Tesshin teaches Weed the Battōga, Tesshin joins Weed.
Now that Weed has over one hundred dogs in his pack, he and Tesshin go inside an abandoned cabin to look for his father, Gin, only to be attacked by Thunder and Lecter, the two assassins of Hōgen that had tried to kill Kyōshirō. Shortly after this, Weed and Tesshin defeat them.
The two brothers told Weed that he was too late since Hōgen had already taken Gin along with him. Weed then tells them to promise not to work for Hōgen anymore and sets them free. However, Thunder and Lecter begin to plot an attack on Weed to kill him, and upon hearing this, Jerome appears to the two assassins and kills them one-by-one.
Weed and his pack soon find Jerome with Lecter, laying dead. He is angered and drives Jerome out of his pack, telling him that he has one life, and if he can't understand how important that is, he doesn't need him.
After this, Kyōshirō then sees Weed's softness and argues with him. Then, he leaves Weed, with the rest of the dogs following Kyōshirō. Then, when Jerome was fighting Hōgen, Jerome was thrown into a river. Weed rushes to save him, and dives into the river. But instead, Jerome sacrifices himself for Weed and drowns, awaiting to meet his comrades again. Soon after being saved by his friends, Weed has a one-on-one fight with Hougen.
Weed uses Battōga on Hōgen. But Hōgen, still alive, immensely wounds him. Weed almost gives up until the spirits of the deceased Ohu soldiers come to his aid, giving him strength. Weed then uses Battōga on Hōgen once more. He almost misses, but with the help of the wind, he was able to hit Hougen successfully, finally cracking his skull and squeezing his eye.
Unfortunately, Hōgen survives, but is heavily wounded. When he was given a chance to, Weed refuses to kill Hōgen, so Gin takes down Hōgen and almost kills him. Weed pushes him away and lets Hōgen live. Gin, seeing this, declares Weed as the new supreme leader of Ohu. Hōgen isn't touched by this at all and gets struck by lightning to death, showing that Weed was accepted as a true leader.
After this, spring begins and Weed is seen in a field of flowers. He then thinks he sees Jerome watching him for a moment but to only vanish by peddles of a cherry blossom tree. Then he hears Mel and the other dogs calling to him, and Weed turns and runs off to join his friends.
Manga[]
The Fight with Kaibutsu[]
Weed was born in the Northern Alps and is a younger brother of Yukimura and Joe. At a young age, the older brothers, Yukimura and Joe, are given away to a traveling dog named Saheiji, as their mother Sakura was too weak to take care for all three of them.
Sometime later, she dies of illness, and in a last wish, she asks the stray English Setter, GB to take her one son to Ohu, where his father is. GB was the one that gave Weed his name, so he'll never be alone. And so they started a journey towards the Ohu mountains to find his father Gin, the great Leader of Ohu.
When Weed arrives to Ohu, he first has to challenge and defeat the beast Kaibutsu who is terrorizing his father's land. The fight tests Weed's skills and awakens the bear-hound blood he has inherited from his father but gets injured in the process until he is found by his father's former owner Daisuke. After Weed is healed he meets the German shepherd, Jerome, an assassin dog trained to kill Kaibutsu, and they become great friends.
The Fight with Hōgen[]
After the death of Kaibutsu, he meets the old Kishu, Akame, who tells him of his father who has been captured by Hougen. Weed now starts his journey to find more dogs who can help him defeat Hougen and his soldiers. On the way, he meets many new friends, but also many new and old enemies.
In the final battle against Hougen, Weed finally meets his father Gin. Weed fights Hougen but gets wounded badly and just as he is about to give up, he gets help from the spirits of the dead soldiers of Ohu. Weed then makes his final attack, the Zetsu Tenrou Battouga towards Hougen. He doesn't kill Hougen but lets him live (which Hougen later gets shot by the retired policeman, Shouji Sudou.)
The Monkeys[]
Weed sees a dream which implies he may have siblings. He travels to the Northern Alps with GB, Kyoushiro and Sasuke, but stops in Gunma as they get involved with the fight between Shōgun's macaques and Yukimura's dogs. Weed decides to help Gozaru and the other good macaques to defeat the evil Shōgun. He and Yukimura gather their forces together and attack Shōgun. They win the fight but at a bitter victory, Yukimura dies and Saheiji reveals to Weed that he was his brother.
The Russian Army Dogs[]
Weed returns to Ōu where he meets a female named Koyuki. He quickly falls in love with her and together they enjoy the springtime in Ōu. However, Koyuki's owner wishes to use her as a breeding dog and Koyuki is sent away. Weed follows and frees her from her human. He takes Koyuki back to the Northern Alps where he was born and they visit his mother, Sakura’s grave.
Shortly after, Rocket arrives and tells Weed about a German shepherd named Viktor, who has killed Hakuro, the old friend of Gin, and is holding Weed's friend, Jerome, captive. However, Weed doesn’t want to leave Koyuki and doesn’t take action until Kotetsu and GB appear. Weed then leaves Koyuki in care of Kotetsu, while he and GB travel to Hokkaido to aid Jerome and help his father.
Hybrid Arc[]
After Viktor is defeated. Weed and his pack travel south along with Koyuki and Kotetsu. There, Weed meets a dog that looks remarkably like him. The dog happens to be Weed's brother, Joe. Joe has a son and fights with Weed often because he is very angry with Gin for leaving Sakura unattended in the Alps, unknown to the fact that Gin was unaware why Sakura left.
Joe also gets attacked by a large bear and gets three scars, similar to Gin's, on his forehead. When Weed asks why Joe hates the bears so much, Joe says that the bears, called hybrids (a hybrid between a grizzly and supposedly a polar bear) killed his mate, Hitomi. Every dog tries their best to kill the numerous hybrids.
GB works up his courage and manages to wound and cut off the finger of one of the bears, but the bear claws GB in the back two times and GB dies saving Weed, who is about to get crushed by the bear's claws, saying, " I'm scared. I'm going to die, but at least this way I died saving you." Weed's pupils get remarkably small as GB breathes his last breath, and screams he will avenge him.
The final fight against the hybrid bear was long and hard; when Weed used a battouga on the hybird bear, both the bear and Weed fell into the river which leads to the huge dam. Jerome and the other dogs went in search for Weed at the river until they found that the hybrid bear was already dead as it had drowned from having its body stuck at the floodgate while Weed himself was missing. However, it turned out that Weed was still alive when he was hiding at the rocks and a young boy was taking care of him by feeding him.
When Weed had recovered from his injuries, Weed headed back to Ohu by himself and he saw that not only his friends were waiting for him, but that his mate, Koyuki, was also pregnant. Two months later, Koyuki gave birth to four puppies (three sons and one daughter) thus making Weed a proud father for the newer legends.
Ginga Densetsu Weed: Orion[]
Being A Father[]
In this new story, Weed and his pack face their new danger - violent earthquakes and erupting volcanoes had threatened Ohu. Weed helped Kyoushiro save Mel from a tree that had collapsed on top of him but vansihed afterwards. He is now staying with a human in a village with Koyuki. His front left leg is in plaster but he is able to see Mel and Kyoushiro as they are in the same village.
Weed is visited by his family after they escape the shed, but is unable to leave due to his bad leg. Orion and Sirius visit them a few times but when they don't return for a while, Weed and Koyuki grow worried. Weed manages to get the bandage off, revealing his leg is still bruised but otherwise healed and he leaves Koyuki in the care of her owners while he makes his way back to the mountains to find his family.
When he arrives, he finds Akakamakiri being attacked and rescues him. Akakamakiri thinks that Weed is Sirius and begins to cry, but soon realizes who he is. Weed leaves him to continue looking when he runs into Masamune and his army. Weed is ambushed by his group but evades them before being attacked by Masamune. Masamune knocks Weed out briefly but Weed wakes up and shoves the dog aside, escaping battle as his family is his top priority.
The Ōu Army[]
At the start of the final battle against Masamune, Weed and others see Masaume strike his brother Yamabiko in the throat. Weed was the first to attack him with the others following, then in the midst of the fight everyone notices that Yamabiko is still alive and discuss what to do about the kai ken's brother. Then he sees Orion trying to attack Masamune.
Later, he watches as Orion unleashes a Battōga on the dog. Weed scolds Orion for disobeying his orders, meaning to leave Masamune alive as he believes killing him is not right. But his son shouts back at him about how evil Masamune is and he deserves to die. Orion bites his father but is easily shaken off. Weed tells Orion if he can't understand the importance of life and continues to disobey him, he will have the young puppy exiled from Ou. As he watches Orion leave in anger but is stopped by the arrival of Andy and Kurokamakiri. Then, he sees Izou asking Orion if he could come with him to be the young pups guardian to which Weed expresses his thanks. He and others turn their attention Masamune who calls him and his father a coward for leaving him half dead but all the akita says is for the clan leader to give up because it's over. Masamune then commits suicide rather than die by the wound given to him by Orion. With the threat over, Weed reunites with his family and makes up with Orion.
Shortly after that he goes in search of Rocket to see him safe and sound, he meets up with the rest of soldiers to express his thanks. Then, he hears Unsai tell them a story about Ben in his earlier years of how they met.
Then, he sees his children bury Kojūrō, but then, the kids are attacked by Kōsetsu, everyone wants to help but Weed tells them not to move because wants to see what the next generation of the army can do.
Tenka comes to the scene trying to control Orion's mind. Weed rushes to protect his sons then, Tenka turns his powers on him but it doesn't work. They watch Tenka and Unsai leave for their lands as they leave for Ohu.
On their way over the mountains they meet Daisuke, Hidetoshi and Jinemon who brought him to visit the dogs. After the humans leave, some of the dogs express their thanks to him but the akita says there is no thanks necessary since they are all comrades now. He sees Yamabiko leave for his home , then Weed turns around to see Bella safely brought to them by Akakama's and Kurokama's step family.
With all of his children safe and sound Weed returns to Ohu.
Ginga: The Last Wars[]
A half a year has passed since the death of Masamune, and Weed has sent his children away to train at the Akame Mountains. Weed travels with some of his pack and comes across two dead dogs, killed by Monsoon.
Just as Weed is inspecting one of the bodies, he is attacked from behind by the bear. Weed is slashed across the shoulder, head and neck by the bear, critically injuring him. He falls unconscious and is carried to safety by Ken.
Meanwhile, Gin and the others hear Tesshin howling for help and send Rocket. Weed is safely taken to Gin and stays with him as the rest of the dogs gather, including those who were injured by the other bears.
When the rest of the dogs gather, Daisuke Fujiwara lands in a helicopter nearby and takes Weed and George away for medical treatment along with Hidetoshi Sekiguchi. At the vet, Weed is being stitched up by a nurse whilst Hidetoshi checks on George, who is put under sedation after he growls at him.
Even under constant care from Daisuke and Hidetoshi, Weed does not recover very well at all and his heartbeat is very fast. Daisuke checks on Gin and George, who still barks until Gin tells him to be quiet. Although Weed is struggling to recover, he mentally promises his family he won't die. Weed remains in the care of Daisuke, and is still on an oxygen mask having gone into cardiac arrest. He has since been recovered and is still in critical condition.
Sometime later, Weed has recovered his critical condition and is in a barn with the rest of the injured soldiers and making a good recovery as Daisuke and Hidetoshi bring in more dogs to treat them. To his relief and joy two of the dogs Daisuke brings with him are his sons Orion and Rigel who he's happy to see and wonders where Sirius but the boys tell him he's alright too.
His sons inform him about what has happened and he is happy to see that Paradise belongs to the dogs again. Then, he hears Orion apologize about not taking down Monsoon; but the akita says it's okay because they aren't ready for something like this yet. But instead blames himself for leaving the battlefield. When Rigel asks their father about Akame and Gin, he says that Akame is alright and their granddad is at Daisuke's house.
Then, he and the others are reunited with Jerome and George as some of the pet dogs are being returned to their owners. He sees with joy that Akame has recovered his eyesight.
Back at the barn he hears from Gin what has happened back in Ohu and that Orion is handling things well for now. Then, soon Orion and Jerome arrive with the young pup looking anxious he reminds his son that he has to what six months for their injures to heal and he tries to make him understand that their feelings are the same. With that Weed watches Orion begins to leave but not before he hears Akame giving the young pup advice about training with the sickle.
After Orion's second departure, he hears Akame mention of the secret arts of fanged ninjas and that when it comes to mastering the techniques takes great discipline of the mind and body and that Akame himself took ten years to master.
He hears Unsai's concerns about how Orion and the young ones lose their lives so soon while the elders continue to live and also hears George's comment about the younger generation not being as fragile as Unsai thinks agrees with him. Seeing Monsoon's strength he knows that they have to become stronger.
After while Weed, Gin, Unsai and the others return to the rest of the pack, during a discussion Weed had to restrain Orion from attacking Sirius.
Sometime later, Weed talks with Akame about when to leave then met up with his father and sons. During the discussion he felt if there were any objections to his replacement but Gin says that everyone agrees to his decision and understood that Orion was a pivotal part of the plan. Debated to deciding when to leave by watching Chibi. Making their way to Monsoon's territory, Weed and his pack fight Monsoon one final time, during the confrontation he watched Sirius get struck and sent by Monsoon, think his son was on the verge of dying Weed nearly fainted.
However, their war with Monsoon ended bitter sweetly as the bear died Weed returned to shore watching his eldest son Sirius pass as well.
Ginga Densetsu Noah[]
After Monsoon and Sirius' deaths, Weed and the others return to Ohu but notices that Orion has disappeared however he wasn't too worried about it understanding that Orion needed his space. Soon after awhile he notices that all the young dogs all left to look for Orion, then was asked by Cross if was he leaving too but Weed wanted to stay behind to protect the place. Hearing Akame's words, Weed looked up into the night and sees his son Sirius believing that like Orion he too had the qualities of a leader.
Soon he sees that Unsai and his group has returned with a small little pup, Weed hears from Unsai that Miho was found in the Haguro Mountain and that she was on her way to Ohu to find her father. He tries to ask the pup if she knew her father's name but due to him leaving right when she was born Miho didn't know. Getting a location Weed, Jerome and his sons head to Akatsuchi with Miho and her grandfather's steps retraced they continue to her home.
The akita's group continue to follow trail until they find a small pup trying to avoid them but they manage to catch up telling him they weren't bad guys. Weed and his group simply ask the pup if they were in Akatsuchi village, but they hear from another dog that the kid's name was Hirota and introduce themselves as the Ohu Army; soon they come across one of Crow's subordinates and apologizes for ruining his hunt. But the subordinate tries to flee and Weed was surprised to see Rocket's group, reuniting Weed realizes that they were dealing with a problem from the same pack and he was also surprised that Crow's subordinate knew him but was told by Kyoshiro not to be moved by flattery. Wanting to meet the subordinate's boss they hear woman's scream asking how close they were but when the dog expressed fear over being killed Weed confidently says they protect him.
Soon they hear Kagetora's call for help rushing to the scene Weed introduces himself wishing to talk with Crow. From the large dog, Weed hears that others were giving his pack a bad reputation and spreading rumors seeing they need fix that and yet, they give the terrible news Hirota and Miho's mother that Munechika had passed and apologizes for telling them. Then, was informed by the pup that Crow and his lackeys had been terrorizing them ever since Munechika and his friends haven't returned. Weed hears Crow continuing to babble on about what happened with the bears believing they fled but Jerome retorts that they won and who was spreading rumors.
Still hearing Crows desire to fight Weed challenged him to a one on one duel telling everyone not to interfere and he quickly unleashes the Battouga, easily winning by dragging Crow up into a tree telling him that his kind will never have their way and those who can't understand other's pain should use themselves as the example. Then, he releases him afterwards, the akita was complimented by Kyoshiro for a good job seeing Crow's subordinates and Crow himself leave he told his friends to let him go wanting to give him another chance.
Sensing that there could be trouble, Weed commanded George and Jerome to take everyone in the village to Ohu while he went south to deal with his family and the false rumors that were spreading. During his travels, he learns that the rumours have caused a large army known as the Aka-Ari have been causing trouble and he goes to investigate. Weed confronts one of the leaders of the Aka-Ari, Lord Wanwan, and after a brief fight gets his ribs broken by the large dogs fangs. However, he is saved from death by the remains of the Nokizaru group and is taken to safety to recover.
Whilst in the care of the Nokizaru, Weed hears the cries of his comrades nearby who are in trouble, but cannot move due to his broken rib. His rib is now sticking out of his side, and he asks the elder of the clan to remove it for him, which he does. Weed, somewhat recovered, goes to help his comrades,as well as Rigel who has appeared. When Rigel is talking to the Aka-Ari boss, Weed collapses and deteriorates slightly in health due to the hole still in his side.
Ken is asked to take Weed away from the Aka-Ari boss so he can recover, but his escape is short lived when a meteor comes crashing down to Earth not far from the packs. Weed and Ken escape most of the damage as they are in the forest, but a silhouette of an unknown dog is running alongside them. As Ken emerges from the forest with Weed, the other dog is revealed to be Nobushi being carried by his brother. With the death of Tamasaburō still on his mind, Kinta tells Weed and the others of Noah's message: They need to find an arc to take shelter from an approaching danger and Weed would know where it is. Weed remembers his older brother's territory inside an abandoned mine, and the Ou army head off to seek shelter.
Arriving at the mine, they are greeted by Saheiji and welcomed into the mine. Shortly after their arrival, a huge meteorite appears in the sky, forcing the dogs to quickly run inside. The meteor strikes the mountain nearby, causing shock waves and a dormant volcano to erupt.
Trivia[]
- Weed received his name by GB who took inspiration from the surrounding plants. He claimed Weed would never be alone and would always have friends by his side because the plants are everywhere.
- Despite the fact that Weed is a mixed breed between Akita, from his father Gin, and Kishu mix, from his mother Sakura, he is stated to be a purebred Akita in Ginga Densetsu Weed Meishōbu Retsuden.
- Weed is the youngest of all the Ouu supreme leaders.