The Lord Mayor of Koka also known as the Minister, in the anime series.
Appearance
In the manga, his appearance is that of a short, old man with a bushy white mustache. The mustache does not extend lower than the lip and in addition, his eyebrows take on the same look as his mustache. He's clothed in a minister's robes, presumably white in colour with decoration going across the chest and around in a circular fashion then an extending portion that breaks off in the front and goes to the bottom of his robes. His final feature is a white minister's cap that he wears at all times thus relating him more to a Minister than a Mayor for this time period (thus the anime name).
His appearance in the anime is identical to the one shown in the manga, except he has several different features. The colour of his mustache and eyebrows are now brown, in addition his robes are coloured orange instead of the white shown in the manga and a final change would be his minister's cap being black now.
Personality
Strangely enough, his personality actually differs between his original manga's depiction and the anime one. In both the manga and anime he is shown to be a paranoid man, completely submissive in the presence of the Snake Baron but at the same time, easily offended when someone questioned his moral choices. While on the outside it appears he cares for the civilians, he is truly a selfish man that cares to only sustain his own life by giving away as many prisoners as he can to the Baron to avoid his own death. When Guts called him out on this, he displayed absolute shock but at the same time, panicked that somebody understood his true intentions. This caused him to have a slight stroke that brought him to his knees...but then his true nature came out when he ordered the torturer to do whatever he wished with Guts, just not kill him (as he desired to give him to the Baron).
History
Snake Baron Arc
Following the events of the Baron's bandits being killed by the Black Swordsman, word passes by to himself who orders for the Black Swordsman's capture. Later on, while the Black Swordsman is being tortured in the town dungeon, the Mayor enters with his guards to observe. He orders the torturer to stop and observes the stockpile of weapons confiscated from the swordsman. In shock, he asks if he's a mercenary and begins to explain to him what a terrible thing he has done, killing several of the Baron's bandits. It is his fear that by doing this, the Baron would take out his rage on the town and utterly destroy it and himself.[1]
The swordsman remarks on it by insulting his guards, which infuriates one of them but the Baron halts him to continue his explanation. He considers the Baron an absolute monster, without knowing his true nature as an Apostle, fearing no human could bring him down. It is then the swordsman comments on his deal with baron. Outraged, the Mayor approaches the Black Swordsman, asking how he could understand what he has done being a mere vagrant in his eyes. He continues to describe the situation he had figured out and the Mayor, blind sighted by this turn of events proclaims it was his duty as the mayor of this town to do what he must to protect his people but Guts sees it more as a selfish way to protect himself. This causes somewhat of a stroke to the miserable man who falls to his knees and calls out that the torturer abuse the Black Swordsman as much as he likes without taking his life, for the Mayor intends to pass him onto the Baron as an exchange for his life. He looks up and prepares himself to head to the castle.[1]
When he finally arrives, the Baron welcomes him in an eerie manner that brings out more shivering fear from the Mayor, prompting him to go ahead and ask for an apology. He then concludes that he'll even double the output of gold and prisoners for his desires, which is suddenly interrupted as the Baron goes on to describe that he looks troubled and that he only wishes to protect himself. With that the Baron flicks the food he was eating at the Mayor to reveal that in fact it was a human ear, which scares him beyond comprehension as the Baron tells him of his intentions for the town burning it to the ground and murdering all the inhabitants. He then orders for the Mayor to be taken away.[1]
Trivia
- In the anime, it is revealed that the Minister was killed as he is shown impaled on top of a spear, being carried by Guts and is then thrown to the ground in front of his aide, whom dies shortly thereafter along with two other guards.
- The Mayor and The Count's minister, Dahl, are similar characters in both appearance and personality as both fear their masters, would willingly sacrifice human lives for their own sake, and wear minister clothing with some minor differences.
- The Mayor is voiced by Ikuo Nishikawa and Richard Springle in the Japanese and English versions, respectively.