Shinsuke



Shinsuke is a character in the Samurai Champloo episode A Risky Racket. Shinsuke is a lonely young man, forced to steal to provide for himself and his sickly mother. He first appears bumping into Fuu on the street, picking her pocket. His next victim happens to be the head of a band of drug smugglers, yielding a packet of opium powder, which sets the story in motion.

He is voiced by Shigeru Shibuya in the Japanese version and voiced by Johnny Yong Bosch in the English dub.

History
A well-meaning but naive young man, Shinsuke has resorted to pickpocketing to pay for his sick mother's medicine. He picks Fuu's pocket, and later steals a packet of opium from a drug-dealer and attempts to have a connection sell it for him. Unfortunately, his contact gets caught by the drug dealers and gives Shinsuke's name to them after being interrogated. In the meantime, Fuu accidentaly bumps into Shinsuke's house while searching for him, and gets to know his mother, a sweet and caring lady that thinks about the future of her son, however is very debilitated by her disease and is unable to provide for him or herself because of it. Later, Fuu tracks down Shinsuke at the same time the drug dealers catch up with him, rousing the attention of the police, and leaving him with no alternative but to take Fuu hostage in a nearby house. Fuu creates a plan to escape the building because she sympathized with his situation and his mother. After stalling the guards for the whole morning, Shinsuke finally tries to escape, but is cornered by the police, and after pulling a knife on the guards in fear, he gets killed in retaliation, shocking Fuu. He tragically left behind his mother, who although not being told, had already suspected the activities he was involved in. In the last scene, Fuu stands in front of Shinsuke's house, but decides not to disturb and turns away. As she does so, Shinsuke's mother appears and calls to her, asking if everything's alright. Although Fuu tries to change the topic, Shinsuke's mother suspects her son is dead, and after Fuu standing in front of her, speechless, the mother is left heartbroken, saying that she felt one day it would have come to this.

Trivia

 * His character and predicament are similar to Roco Bonnaro from Session 8 of "Cowboy Bebop".