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| Otsuru and Karai; two beautiful and deadly gals, both voiced by the equally beautiful Kelly Hu! |
As she looks through the looking glass, Karai sees a window
through another world, where she sees the very person that reminded her
of herself. She sees the essence of Otsuru, a woman who is beautiful,
kind, but mostly sad. Seeing her presence reminded her of her mother, Tang Shen, who was
killed by Oroku Saki, The Shredder, during his blood feud with her real
father, Hamato Yoshi. Although her life ended due to circumstances
beyond her control, her essence, her spirit encourages her to not go
down the path she has gone through.
Otsuru: "You
have a good life ahead of you, Hamato Miwa. As long as you have friends
and family who truly care about you, you will never truly be alone. You
have great power, Miwa, use it well. Don't lose your head."
What
do Karai and Otsuru have in common? They are both voiced by the
talented, beautiful and sensual Kelly Hu. And this fanart is a tribute
to her and the characters she voiced. For both Karai (from the 2012
version of TMNT) and Otsuru (aka Okiku) from Afro Samurai are both
interesting and beautiful characters, but bound by tragedy. But the only
difference between these two is while Otsuru was killed for betraying
the Empty Seven Clan for proclaiming her love to Afro, Karai, on the
other hand, despite becoming a mutant serpent, turned tragedy into
triumph, after learning the truth of what really happened the night her
mother, Tang Shen was killed during the blood feud between her real
father, Hamato Yoshi aka Splinter and Oroku Saki aka The Shredder. That,
and the fact that Karai herself, to me anyway, bumped off Zatanna as
the Veronica to Kara Zor-El's Betty.
Anyway, as
both characters look on to each other through their own reflections,
they both carry the swords of the respective swordsmen, Otsuru carrying
Afro's sword while Karai carrying one of Leonardo's Katana Blades. And
why Karai has a snake on her arm instead of becoming a snake like
appendage in her mutant form? Let me sum it up for you. I wanted the
snake on her because even as a mutant serpent or as I like to call her in
the Japanese tongue, Hebe Hime (Serpent Princess), she couldn't
hold a sword if her arms become snakes themselves. And the second reason
for it? It is an homage to another character Kelly Hu played, for she
was the sorceress, Cassandra in the Mummy spin-off movie, The Scorpion
King, starring Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. In one scene, Cassandra took
out a snake, a King Cobra to be precised, out of a jar and pointed at
the main villain. Seeing that was a sign of things to come, for that's
when Karai becomes a mutant snake herself and instead of snakes on her
arms, her arms become snakes themselves.
And
there you have it. Although Otsuru is no longer among the living, from a
fanfiction point of view, her spirit will always watch over Karai and
guide her to do the right thing, even if she doesn't know it.
ALOHA, Kelly Hu! You are awesome! BOOYAKASHA!!
#RespectVoiceActors
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