Spade

Spade
Spade, as he appears in the manga.
Name in Kanji	スペード
Name in Romaji	Supēdo
Fighting Style	Various weapons such as bowguns, axes, and spears
Allegiance(s)	Shin
Position(s)	Retainer of KING
Appearances	Manga (ch. 2-3), Anime (ep. 2), Rei Gaiden (ch. 18), Spade Gaiden
Voice actor(s)	Tesshō Genda (TV series) Yasuhiko Kawazu (Shin Hokuto Musou) Takumi Yamazaki (Legends ReVIVE) Kirk Thornton (TV series dub)

Spade (スペード, Supēdo)

The first of Shin's minions that appears in the manga. He use a great variety of weapons, such as axes and bowguns.

Appereance

In the original manga, he has a white mohawk, while in the TV series, he has red hair.

Personality

Spade is your typical thug who is only brave when surrounded by his minions and in controlled situation, but when he is in trouble, he begs for his life.

Manga & TV series

When Kenshiro first confronts Spade, the rogue is after Misumi's rice seeds, which results in the loss of Spade's right eye when Kenshiro uses the Nishi Shinku Ha to deflect an arrow from Spade's bowgun back at him.

Later he attacks Misumi's village in retaliation for his earlier defeat. Kenshiro hurries back to the village but is too late to save Misumi from Spade who kills the man and eats his seeds. Kenshiro fights Spade and kills him with the Hokuto Zankai Ken (Fist of Remorse), giving him three seconds (seven, in the anime) to reflect on his sins before he explodes.

In the anime series, he is referred as the Jack of Spades, along with King's other three lieutenants from the manga. Also, he has some more screen time than the original manga.

Video Games

Spade is the most common of Shin's four generals to be seen in video games after Mr Heart.

Rather then Spade, Zeed in Hokuto no Ken 3 takes Spade's role of stealing Misumi's seeds. Spade himself appears as an optional encounter in KING palace where his special attack is firing his crossbow.

In the sega master system game, Spade is a miniboss who attacks with thrown axes. In the Black Belt localization for overseas, Spade becomes a Kung fu master and his sprite is given a Kung Fu uniform.

The playstation game for the series Spade is the second boss, attacking wth his bowgun and his own fists. In the first encounter with Spade, there is a timelimit before Spade's minion reaches Misumi. If the minion reaches Misumi, the second encounter with Spade is skipped and the game jumps to Bat trying to sneak into KING's palace. Spade and Heart are the only generals of KING to appear.

While Spade doesn't appear in the first Hokuto Muso, the playable DLC character, Outlaw, draws heavy inspiration from Spade. Besides using similar weaponry such as a crossbow, one of Outlaw's techniques, Better Today than Tomorrow, has him knock down the opponent making them drop their seeds, put his heel on his opponents back and eat the seeds himself. This identical to how Spade ate Misumi's seeds.

In the sequel, Shin Hokuto Muso, Spade himself appears as a boss character in Legend Mode where he uses dual maces with a crossbow. In Shin's dream mode, Spade, then simply called Brute, is recruited by Shin in chapter 6. In chapter 7, Spade acts as an AI ally character who helps hold off Raoh's forces from reacing Yuria. Like the PS1 game, Heart and Spade are the only Kingsmen to appear.

Life is Offside

Before the nuclear war, Spade was once a soccer player aspiring to move onto the big leagues. Once the apocalypse struck resulting in the loss of Spade's pre war lifestyle, Spade threw away his morals and decided to use his athletic build to his advantage.

Character Rating

From Hokuto no Ken: Kyūkyoku Kaisetsusho: Seikimatsu Haō Retsuden.

• Level: E
• Power: 1
• Speed: 1
• Skills: 1
• Looks: 1
• Charisma: 1

Trivia

• Spade closely resembles the character Wez from Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior.
• Spade pre-dates Hokuto no Ken-- he and his gang appeared in Tetsuo Hara's debut manga, Mad Fighter.
• In the anime, Spade's hair is red instead of white. In his cameo in Ten no Haoh, Spade's hair is purple and he lacks a mohawk.
• Even though his namesake suit is usually the best suit in most card games, Spade is ironically the first of Shin's lieutenant's to die to Kenshiro.
• Spade is thus far the only member of KING to not have their real name revealed in any material.
• While Spade uses a wide variety of weapons in the manga and anime, video games tend to focus on his wrist mounted crossbow, he even advertises his archery skills to Shin in the second Hokuto Muso.
• In the Kaiyodo action figure line, Spade recieved a figure. The figure came with an exploded head and a mask to turn Spade into a generic outlaw.

Gallery

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  Spade and his gang.

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  Spade as he appears in the anime.

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  Spade in Shin Hokuto Musou

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  Pre war Spade in Life is Offside

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  Spade (right) in Mad Fighter

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  Spade in Hokuto no Ken 3

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  Spade in Hokuto no Ken: Legends ReVIVE (illustration)