Honda Tadakatsu

About
Honda Tadakatsu was one of the Raccoon Dog Youkai that worked directly for the Lord of the Tokugawa House, Ieyasu Tokugawa. He was considered one of Tokugawa's strongest commanders. Unlike all the other petite Raccoon Dogs that serve Ieyasu, Tadakatsu has a large, robust body, easily larger than an average human.



An honorable warrior, Tadakatsu is widely respected and admired by his peers for his incredible strength on the battlefield, which he takes great pride in. He's very silent and only talks through whispers and gestures, maintaining an enigmatic disposition and stoic appearance. He's nearly expressionless most of the time, showing little emotion and rarely talking, creating an abrupt contrast with his wacky and  rowdy companions.

Despite his serious appearance, i n reality, Tadakatsu is very  bashful and has a hard time dealing with those that aren't his family, keeping to himself most of the time. His great physical strength is not his greatest satisfaction, however, and strangely enough his finds the most joy in giving massages. He regularly tries to offer his massage services to others, with his remarkable physical strength sometimes making it painful for those who receive the  rubdown, occasionally passing out. Despite his general shyness, Tadakatsu displays fierce passion when he really wants to give massages. Rance noted that his eyes shine when requesting to massage his feet.

During the events of Sengoku Rance, Tadakatsu is first shown in the events of the Tokugawa House, where he mostly remains silent or sometimes giving massages to Ieyasu. When they go to war with the Oda House, Tadakatsu firmly expresses his will to fight and commands a strong army. Canonically, Tadakatsu was defeated and captured by Oda House and invited by Rance to join his army. Despite previously being loyal to Ieyasu, Tadakatsu joined with the sole condition that he be granted the opportunity to give massages every once in a while. This left Rance confused but he agreed regardless.

Tadakatsu makes one last appearance in the Sengoku Rance Epilogue, when he interrupts a Kouhime and Suzume in order to hand them a Mountain Lily to place next to the frozen Sill Plain. Suzume commented how this rare flower only blossoms deep into the mountains and are really hard to get and Kou praised him for bringing it. Tadakatsu blushes and respectfully leaves.

Abilities
Despite being only a commander for Ieyasu, Tadakatsu carried enough individual strength to potentially be one of JAPAN's strongest warriors. He fights by wielding a Yari, a JAPANese spear, and displays great expertise. Due to his fantastic physical strength he's capable of causing tremendous damage to an army just by himself, crushing his enemies by crashing his Yari to the ground. He's described by Suzume as a "true warrior." His skills on the battlefield have been recognized by many, even by one as self-centered as Rance. His biggest weakness is that he is not a very vocal commander and is more suited to leading a charge than commanding a unit.

He considers himself a skilled masseuse and is eager offer his services to everyone around him. Due to his terrifying physical strength, however, he's actually very bad at it. His massages mostly end up bringing pain to others and sometimes even knocking them unconscious. Tadakatsu sees this as "unavoidable."

In-Game
For more in depth gameplay information of each game refer to:
 * Honda Tadakatsu/Sengoku Rance

Trivia

 * For historical reference, see Honda Tadakatsu and 本多忠勝.
 * When Rance recruits him he tells him that Honda was "too good for Ieyasu." This is most likely a reference to the real life Honda Tadakatsu, who was considered one of Japan's best samurais, and some would regularly mention how he was too skilled to be serving the real life Ieyasu.