Ginji Matsuzaki

Ginji is a very tall man of Japanese descent with a broad build and a height of 194 centimeters (or 6'4").[1] He had short, spiked black hair with the sides of his head shaved, pale skin, and a short goatee. Additionally, he wore thin sunglasses, a large, dark green overcoat, a white shirt, tan pants, and zori style sandals no socks. On the skin of his back and arms, he had irezumi, yakuza tattoos, depicting a gashadokuro, a samurai, flowers, and flames.

Personality: Outwardly, Ginji was a calm and serious individual who, in tandem with his appearance, had an imposing presence. Compared to Revy, he was just as vicious, violent, and sadistic. Ginji did, however, genuinely enjoy his life as a street stall vendor after leaving his life as an assassin behind. He was also close with Yukio Washimine, whom he protected for a time and hoped that she would live a normal life despite her family's criminal background.

Weapon of choice: Shirasaya sword

History: Ginji worked as a street stall vendor, but was formerly an assassin nicknamed "Manslayer Ginji" due to his use of a shirasaya/katana in combat. His skills in its use were exceptional, manifesting themselves in such feats as cleaving bullets in two in mid-flight. Coupled with his ability to evade gunfire from multiple foes, Ginji completely eschewed the use of firearms for himself.

Three years before the beginning of the arc, Yukio's father Ryūzō Washimine, whom Ginji deeply respected and fought for, passed away. Ginji subsequently stopped fighting for the Washimine Group since he felt that the Washimine Group began to make money dishonorably in prostitution and drug trafficking, unlike under Ryūzō's reign. Three years later, one night at a new year's festival in Japan with Yukio, he met Rock and Revy after the latter made a scene at a festival stand. He and Revy talked with each other and, despite their language barrier, Ginji recognized that she was cut from the same vicious cloth as him.

The next day at a park, Ginji talked with Tsugio Bandō, the at-the-time de facto head of the Washimine Group. Bandō relayed to him that he had formed an alliance with the Russian mafia group known as Hotel Moscow, but Ginji remained silent. Reminding Ginji about the Kōsa Council's harassment of their group in the past few years, Bandō tried to convince him to take up his life as an assassin once more. Keeping his serious demeanor, Ginji refused on the basis that the Group engaged in a dishonorable manner of making money via prostitution and drug dealing. In response, Bandō clarified that he did not engage in such fields because he wanted to but because he focused on the Washimine Group's survival first and foremost. Ginji nonetheless thanked Bandō for volunteering to financially take care of Yukio after her father's death, and Bandō stood up and decided that he would leave. Before Bandō walked away, Ginji asked him what the Russians' interpreter looked like. When Bandō told him about the average-looking Japanese guy with a fiery female bodyguard, Ginji knew that Rock and Revy were the ones whom he spoke about.

Another day while in a kitchen preparing a meal with Bandō, Ginji politely refused Bandō's request once more. As Ginji continued asking for ingredients, Bandō remarked that Hotel Moscow's methods were vicious, prompting Ginji to ask him why he sought the alliance in the first place if he expected their brutality. As Bandō stated that they needed a buffer against the Kōsa Council, Ginji reminded him that he should know that they could not trust outsiders. Smilingly, Bandō responded that they could not ride out the storm and abandon their yakuza brothers who had worked so hard for them. Hearing Bandō's comment about the Kōsa Council's lack of honor, Ginji asked for another ingredient and said that the Russians also lacked honor.

That same day, Ginji called Yukio to check up on her, and she assured him that she was fine and was merely at a café with the interpreter that they met the other night. Later that night, Ginji and Bandō were in the living room discussing how the Kanto Peace Council would ostracize the Washimine Group if they found out that Bandō sought out Hotel Moscow's help to crush the Kōsa Council. Yukio arrived home and entered the living room, and the slightly surprised Ginji apologized for not noticing her presence before. When she requested that they tell her what they were discussing, Bandō reminded her of the blood-relative successor rule that the Kōsa Council imposed on the Washimine Group. Although Ginji was hesitant to let her in on their group's affairs, Yukio replied that she was the daughter of the previous head and wanted to help in any way that she could. To Yukio's surprise, he informed her that the Japanese man whom she met earlier was the Russians' interpreter, advising her to stay away from him.

After Bandō's premature death in a failed attempt to kill Balalaika, Yoshida in tears relayed to Ginji the gruesome story of Bandō's corpse being stuffed into a suitcase and tossed at the front steps of a Washimine Group office. As Yoshida continued crying, Ginji tried consoling him that Bandō was a great man who was too smart for his own good. That night after overhearing Yoshida, Yukio sat back-to-back with Ginji and declared that she could not just abandon all the men who had fought hard for their yakuza. He begged her not to get involved in the criminal world, but she looked at the night sky and commented that for the first time in her life, she viewed the night sky and the snow as beautiful things. As Ginji was surprised by her new sentiment, Yukio turned around and asked him if he would defend her as he once did with her father. Shocked but bowing before her, the unhesitating Ginji offered to become her protector and assassin as the wakagashira of the Washimine Group.

Meanwhile, the relations between Hotel Moscow and the Washimine Group deteriorated due to Bandō's murder, and Ginji agreed to help Yukio fight Hotel Moscow to avenge Bandō. At a meeting of Washimine Group members, Ginji sat silently next to Yukio as Yoshida stopped the tense silence by berating the gangsters for their hesitancy to serve the young woman. Later, arriving at her school at night, Ginji stepped out of the car and informed her that they were ready to follow her orders. As Yoshida drove them, Ginji apologized to Yukio for picking her up in front of her friend Maki, but she brushed it off, saying that Maki had to find out sooner or later. Beginning their retaliation campaign, she ordered Ginji to attack a place where the Russians frequented.

Bidding her goodbye, he stepped out of the car and went to a Russian-owned restaurant. There, several Washimine gangsters shot the place apart, forcing the Russians to take cover. Entering the restaurant, he saw Vasili Laptev and his men, preparing his katana. With swift speed, he dodged all of the bullets shot at him and killed them all. When the surviving Laptev tried to crawl away, Ginji flashed his katana near the Russian's man head. Turning around and pleading for his life, Laptev claimed that he was framed and knew nothing, but Ginji responded that he would be of no use to him since he could not understand Laptev's Russian words, consequently beheading him with one swing of his katana.

After Chaka betrayed the Washimine Group and abducted Yukio, Ginji went to her house on foot and in the living room briefly stood off with Revy, who pointed her gun at him in turn. To calm the tension, Rock told Ginji that neither they nor Hotel Moscow were responsible for Yoshida's murder, and Ginji likewise sheathed his sword once he noticed that he did not smell gunpowder. When he tried to leave to find the abductors on his own, Ginji's interest was piqued when Rock stated that he knew that he traveled on foot and that the footprints inside the house indicated that the enemy would be large numbers of gun-wielding gangsters. Even knowing that Revy was in the country on Hotel Moscow's behalf, Ginji agreed to a truce with her, so she hotwired a car and drove for them, eventually tracking down Chaka and his men at Hirano Sports Plaza.

Heading inside, Ginji and Revy knocked down the men guarding the bowling alley entrance, and he became infuriated upon seeing what Chaka and his men had done to Yukio. Coordinating his movements with Revy, he used his katana skills to kill Chaka's gang with ease while Rock brought Yukio to safety after knocking out Chaka. Soon, Chaka was lured into a trap by Revy to duel with Ginji in the swimming room, and Chaka fired a round from his handgun. To Chaka's surprise, Ginji sliced the bullet apart in mid-flight and cut off his hands, pushing him into the swimming pool. Finally, Ginji used the hilt of his katana to push Chaka's head into the water, making him drown as well as bleed to death. As Ginji put away his weapon and proclaimed that Chaka deserved a worse death, the impressed Revy told the cold-gazed Ginji that she wanted to see his bullet-slicing skill once more by using her own pistol. Quickly acting, he calmly moved his scabbard's hilt toward her reaching hand. Smiling deviously, he advised her not to waste his favor to her for her help, adding that she would be unlucky if he had to demonstrate his abilities toward her. After the slaughter, Ginji reconvened with Yukio afterward and accompanied her as she thanked Rock but warned him that she did not want to see him again.