Hanzo Shimada | Overwatch

Mastering his skills as a bowman and an assassin, Hanzo Shimada strives to prove himself as a warrior without peer. He has a cynical view on the nature of the world, and believes that compassion has no place in battle.

In addition to his skills with the bow named Storm Bow, Hanzo is likewise skilled with the sword, but has sworn off using such a weapon. He considers crossbows to be "toys for children,"and refuses to use firearms, as "they make killing too simple." He carves wooden charms as a hobby, and dislikes cities, preferring quieter areas such as Kanezaka. He similarly avoids people in general.

Hanzo was the eldest son of Sojiro Shimada of the Shimada clan; a clan of assassins whose power grew over the years, enabling them to build a vast criminal empire out of Hanamura that profited from lucrative trade in arms and illegal substances. As Sojiro's firstborn, Hanzo was bound by duty to succeed his father and rule the Shimada empire, dealing with expectations that his younger brother, Genji, did not. While he overshadowed Genji in his status, Hanzo preferred to have his brother beside him.

In his youth, Hanzo preferred to spend time in the quiet of Kanezaka rather than the heart of Tokyo. On the rare occasions he accompanied his father on business trips into the city, he found it too bright and busy. Sojiro often told his sons children's stories to remind them of their duty.

From a young age, Hanzo was trained for that responsibility, displaying a natural aptitude for leadership and possessing an innate understanding of strategy and tactics. He also excelled in more practical areas: he was a prodigy in martial arts, swordplay, and bowmanship. He was instructed in the ways of the sword by Asa Yamagami alongside his younger brother, Genji. She also taught them how to wall climb. One lesson Asa taught Hanzo was that it was just as important to know how to disarm an opponent without lifting a weapon. That often you could do it by saying the right thing or smiling the right way. Another lesson of Asa's was "You must learn when to strike and when not to strike. Sometimes you are better off waiting for the right opportunity to make your move." At the time, Hanzo found the lesson counterintuitive.

Once, Hanzo bragged that he could beat Genji while blindfolded and with his hands tied behind his back. Asa overheard and used Hanzo's boast as a teaching moment.

Through Asa, the brothers learned alongside Asa's daughter, Kiriko, who became a "cute, little niece" figure to them. While younger than the brothers, she often tagged along after them. Hanzo watched Kiriko and Genji play in the Kanezaka arcade, as Genji chased one high score after another. While Genji and Kiriko were close, Hanzo kept himself at arm's length, given the duty he had to prepare for. He regarded Kiriko as "the brat," and treated her as a nuisance.

After Hanzo and Genji's mother abandoned her family, Asa became the closest thing the Shimada brothers had to a mother. But like an entitled prince, Hanzo looked down on the Yamagamis as mere servants.

One night, after the End of Summer Festival, Sojiro told Hanzo, Genji, and Kiriko a story from the history of the Shimada clan. How centuries ago, a rival clan attempted to end the Shimada's rule by setting their orchards aflame, as well as the city's Fox Shrine. The rival clan anticipated that the Shimada would move to protect their fields rather than the people of Kanezaka, but instead, the opposite happened. The Shimada aided their people first, and united with the clan, the Kanezakans made short work of the rival clan lying in wait at the orchards. The lesson, as Sojiro imparted to the three children, was that a leader's relationship must be mutually beneficial with their people, or else, they were nothing more than a parasite.

When Sojiro was assassinated by the Hashimoto clan, Hanzo and Genji were allowed a small time to mourn. After his death, Kiriko brought the brothers a plate piled with mochi—a small sign that she cared.

With Sojiro's death, Hanzo was thrust into the role of leadership. He found himself ill prepared and overwhelmed, as Sojiro's death had left the Shimada clan exposed to threats from rival clans, law enforcement, and Overwatch, and it became apparent just how much the clan's illicit activities had put the people of Kanezaka at risk. The clan elders tried to use Hanzo as a puppet, and instructed Hanzo to straighten out Genji, so that he, too, might help rule the Shimada empire. When his brother refused, Hanzo was forced to kill him. Unbeknownst to Hanzo, however, Genji narrowly survived the attempt with the help of Overwatch. This act broke Hanzo's heart and drove him to reject his father's legacy, ultimately leading him to abandon the clan and all that he had worked so hard to attain. When he left, he felt his father was a fool. In his mind, the age of honor and respect that Sojiro had derived his beleifs from was long gone, and for all of Sojiro's stories about duty and honor, it was easy to moralize and say empty words when you were the one holding power.

After Hanzo left the clan, he was stripped from access to its finances. He began roaming the world in solitude as self-punishment. Hanzo swore to never again wield a sword, and would forevermore rely on his skills with the bow. He began to write poetry in an attempt to find peace. Seeing his abandonment as betrayal, the clan declared Hanzo an enemy and assassins were sent time and again to kill him.

That was ten years before the Overwatch recall. Over the following decade, Hanzo travelled the world, perfecting his skills as a warrior, attempting to restore his honor and put the ghosts of his past to rest, honing his murderous skills all the while. At some point he visited Numbani, but did not find the city to be to his liking.

Hanzo visited Kanezaka every year after Genji's supposed death to honor him. Every year, he saw more of the Hashimoto's baleful effects upon Kanezaka.

On the tenth anniversary of Genji's death, as he had done every year, Hanzo broke into Shimada Castle and took down the Hashimoto guards before they could alert anyone. In the main room in front of the sword display he lit an incense offering and prayed to honor Genji. He however called out an apparent assassin that he knew to be there, revealed to be a cybernetic ninja. The ninja asked Hanzo about honoring his brother, yet also being his killer.

Hanzo initiated a battle between them, openly admitting that his actions were about duty, but also a burden he carried and that it didn't mean he didn't honor Genji. The ninja countered that to show honor, it should be done through one's actions, not incense offerings. Hanzo tried the Dragonstrike to take down his opponent, only to be shocked when the ninja revealed the Shimada ability to control dragons as well, turning the Dragonstrike right back at him, and took the full brunt of the attack.

Defeated and with the ninja's wakizashi at his neck, Hanzo told him to go ahead and kill him, but the ninja refused, saying he would not grant Hanzo's wish for death and that he still had a purpose in life. To Hanzo's shock, the ninja then called him "brother", revealing himself to be Genji, still alive, and to prove it unlocked his facemask to show his eyes. Hanzo was a bit disturbed at seeing Genji's physical changes, but Genji stated that he was at peace with it and had forgiven Hanzo's actions: now Hanzo needed to forgive himself. Times were changing, stated Genji, and Hanzo would soon have to pick a side. Retrieving a loosed arrow Hanzo aimed it, angrily declaring Genji a fool in believing that real life was like their father's stories. Genji conceded that he might be a fool for believing that there was hope for Hanzo, but nevertheless did, which gave Hanzo pause. Asking him to think about it, Genji vanished with a smoke screen into the night, leaving nothing but a single drifting sparrow feather in his wake. With much to contemplate, Hanzo returned to the main room to finish his offering.

Shaken by his reunion with Genji, Hanzo fled Tokyo. Though it shamed him, he'd been running so long, he didn't know what else to do. He distracted himself with work as a mercenary, ignoring the truths that weighed on him.

Two years after his reunion with Genji, Hanzo was training at Okinawa when he saw news footage of Null Sector's global invasion. For the first time in fourteen years, Hanzo heard his father's voice in his head, to the extent that he briefly thought his father had returned. However, he realized that he was alone. His father's voice summoned him back to Tokyo. To where, perhaps, he was needed to be.

When Hanzo arrived in Tokyo, he found a command ship outside the city proper, yet to attack. People clogged the streets as they tried to escape. Hanzo knew that when Null Sector attacked, many civilians would be caught in the crossfire, and that most of the people attempting to flee wouldn't make it out. He made his way to the command ship, and while he saw no sign of police officers, he did see Hashimoto men in the shadows. He saw some Hashimoto tormenting an old man, and he wondered if this was what his father had wanted him to see. He watched the Hashimoto move on, and guessed that they'd been recalled to their stronghold to prepare for Null Sector's attack. He decided to follow them, hoping they could lead him to their base.

He followed the Hashimoto into an alley, but found a dead end before him, and Hashimoto around him, having planned an ambush. He loosed a warning arrow at the thugs' leader—one he refused to heed as the Hashimoto rushed Hanzo with knives and later, guns. Against the former, Hanzo had little trouble, but a bullet from the latter wounded him. The Hashimoto advanced with swords, and Hanzo noted that the swords' energy fields were unstable. Apparently the Hashimoto had tried to copy the design of the Shimada clan's blades, but they'd failed to fully replicate the technology. Hanzo stood his ground, but blood loss began to affect him. Losing patience, Hanzo engaged the Hashimoto in close-quarters, but while the Hashimoto lacked discipline, they made up for it in numbers. Down to his last arrow, Hanzo unleashed his Dragonstrike. Only Topknot and a couple of his henchmen survived the attack, and realized they were dealing with a Shimada.

At this point, Hanzo fell to the ground, exhausted, and still bleeding. Topknot ordered him taken to their stronghold. Before passing out, Hanzo noticed graffiti that had been painted on a wall—"If you do not enter the tiger's cave, you will not catch its cub."

When Hanzo awoke, he found himself in a cell. He asked his omnic jailer how long he'd been out, but the robot refused to answer, until it finally relented to give Hanzo a glass of water. Hanzo drifted in and out of conciousness for what felt like hours until he heard a familiar voice. A man had entered his cell, one he recognized as Toshiro Yamagami. Putting recent events together, he realized that Toshiro had created the blades the Hashimoto had used. He accused Toshiro of abetting the clan, but Toshiro reminded him that Hanzo had been absent for a long time, and that he had his family to consider. Hanzo silently accepted the point. He had assumed that the Yamagamis would have moved on after the destruction of the Shimada clan, but apparently not. In regards to the blades, he told Toshiro that his work was shoddier than it had once been, to which Toshiro responded that he was forced to work with inadequate materials. He wondered if this was true, or if Toshiro was intentionally making inferior blades. Toshiro pointed out Hanzo's long years of absence, pointing out that he was in no position to take the moral high ground. Toshiro confirmed that Asa was still in Kanezaka.

Toshiro told Hanzo that it was good to see him, but that coming here was a mistake. The Hashimotos had realized who Hanzo was when he'd used his Storm Bow, hence why they'd sent Toshiro to confirm his identity. Now that they had the Shimada scion, they would execute him to break the will of Kanezaka's people. Hanzo pointed out that the Shimada clan was long dead, and that he was no true heir, but Toshiro pointed out that as long as children lived, so did people's hopes for them, and the world they would inherit. Whatever Hanzo thought of himself, as long as he was alive, he was still a symbol of the Shimada clan and their more benevolent rule. Toshiro told Hanzo that he would tell his superiors that it would be a mercy to kill Hanzo, and that Hanzo had destroyed the Shimada legacy more effectively than they ever could, and that Hanzo's next actions would reveal the truth behind those words.

Before he left, Toshiro requested that if Hanzo ever made it out of here, to find Kiriko. To tell her that he wished he could have written more and have been there for her. That he was proud of her actions in keeping the Hashimoto in check. He also told Hanzo that Sojiro would have been proud of him for returning to Tokyo, and that despite Hanzo's doubts, Sojiro had been proud of him in life.

Hanzo's next visitors were a pair of Hashimoto clan members, including Topknot. They explained that Hanzo was to be executed in front of the clan leaders before they evacuated. Hanzo played along, but the thugs didn't even bother blindfolding him (though they did bind his hands). Remembering Asa's lesson about knowing when to strike, Hanzo bid his time. He was taken to a spacious conference room, where he was brought in front of the clan elders. Hanzo told them that he no longer bore his father's name, but they were having none of it. He may have abandoned the Shimada name, but he was still a Dragon. The last Shimada. He would be executed for all of Kanezaka to see, and despite Hanzo's taunts, they weren't going to do anything like a duel, but rather, just shoot him.

It nearly came to that until the lights suddenly flickered, followed by a blue kitsune bounding into the room. In the confusion, Hanzo incapacitated Topknot, and a kunai thrown through the air sliced the plastic zip binding his wrists. In the gloom, he saw a woman in white and scarlet miko clothing. The two fought back to back, but more and more Hashimoto kept charging in. Hanzo could tell the fox ninja was pushing herself to her limit, while on his end, his bullet wound had re-opened. Sometime during the fight, Hanzo realized that the ninja was Kiriko, but he remained silent. The two managed to escape, along with Hanzo's bow. Emerging outside, they saw Null Sector's command ship in the sky. Drop pods rained down on the city, and despite the efforts of Tokyo's police and the Japanese Self-Defense Forces, ground was being surrendered to Null Sector by the minute. Taking the hint, the Hashimotos abandoned their stronghold in an armored convoy.

Hanzo wanted to pursue them, but the fox ninja refused, telling Hanzo they were needed here. He was briefly overwhelmed by the sounds and smells of the carnage—while he had seen Null Sector's attack on Paris via the news, this was far more personal. He also knew that if Tokyo fell, a domino effect would be triggered in Japan, not to mention that the small towns in the outlying prefectures were defenseless against the drone ships Null Sector would send to attack them.

Working together, Hanzo and the fox ninja held their ground at the Hashimoto stronghold, destroying Null Sector's attacking warbots while allowing civilians to take refuge inside the structure. With a lull in the fighting, he revealed to Kiriko that he knew who she was, and she revealed that she knew who he was in turn. While their reunion was strained given their rocky history, they were glad for each other's aid, as Kiriko made clear in her usual, overly-expressive way. He told Kiriko that he'd seen her father in the stronghold, and imparted Toshiro's message. Given how the Yamagamis had all fought against the Hashimoto in their own way, Hanzo felt ashamed for his cowardice.

Kiriko asked if he thought Overwatch would come to aid Tokyo. Hanzo doubted it, even though he knew Genji was now part of Overwatch, having seen him on the Paris feed. While it would bring him joy to see his brother again, he did not feel ready for it. Kiriko concluded that there was no-one left to protect Kanezaka, and while she had friends back there, they wouldn't be able to handle Null Sector. Hanzo suggested that they both return to Kanezaka—he now owed Kiriko his life, and she offered him an ofuda for healing. Hanzo reflected that Kiriko's parents had forged him into the person he was, and that the Yamagamis were still setting an example as to how to become a better man. The Yamagamis had served the Shimadas for centuries, and now, he would serve both them and the people. It was a lesson his father had tried to teach him, but one that he'd needed time to understand.

He is 40 years old, and his birthday is November 3rd. He is Japanese. His hair is black and silky, and is pulled back into a short ponytail. He has soft tufts of grey hair above his ears. He wears a grey ribbon in his hair and uses it as a hair tie for his ponytail. He has a short black beard. His eyes are brown, and he has angular, handsome, and sharp facial features. He is muscular from years as training as a bowman and assassin. His skin is fair. He has a tattoo sleeve on his left arm extending to his left pec of a traditional Japanese dragon and storm clouds. His Storm Bow is mechanical, made of durable, flexible metal and technological advancements. He can be seen wearing black tobi pants tucked into his greaves and shoes, a black sleeveless compression top, and a dark grey partial haori that covers his right shoulder and arm, leaving his left arm and tattoo exposed. His haori is secured around his waist with a thick blue rope belt. He wears archery gloves on his hands that partially cover his palms, thumbs, and first two fingers. Hanzo wears his quiver of arrows on his back, and has a guard on his right forearm to prevent blowback from his bowstring. He is 5'8". Hanzo has delicate ankles, leading him to wear mechanical greaves.