Saizo Kosuke

Saizo Toriumi Kōsuke is a ninja from Kasai Village in the Kalos region. Formerly, in the Kasai Militia, he was in charge of just a unit, but now, he's in charge of the entire militia. He's a mentor of Sanpei Uyeno.

Background
Saizo has been a mentor of Sanpei for several years. He saw Sanpei struggling in Kasai Village years ago and offered his assistance. He helped to teach him what he knows and make him a good ninja. He shows good support for Sanpei, while Sanpei's brothers generally didn't.

He's a member of the Kasai Militia, which is basically meant to fight and defend the village if need be, or possibly fight for other causes, such as defending against Tekiyoku attacks elsewhere. He's under the leadership of Heidayu. Saizo is in charge of his own unit and they gather intel on the Tekiyoku, traveling to different regions to do this. He was sent out to fight with the militia when Kagetomo, a former ninja of Kasai, betrayed the village and attacked it with his supporters, who were presumably militia members who had turned to follow Kagetomo's ideals. Kagetomo got away and joined the Tekiyoku.

Saizo works hard to get stronger and help defend the village if Kagetomo attacks again.

Present
Saizo was first seen on a video call with Sanpei in Episode 15 while Saizo was in Unova with his militia unit gathering intel on Ghetsis. Sanpei was in Kasai Village with Barry, Zoey, and Kenny of Division B of the Mokusetsu and told Saizo how he's helping to teach them ninja fighting skills. Saizo was glad, proud of Sanpei for teaching others just as he had taught Sanpei.

Saizo is unsure how long he'll be stationed in Unova and is unsure if he'll make it back to Kasai in time for the announcement from the chief, Hanzo. Hanzo is getting ready to retire soon and will be announcing a new chief: either Sanpei's oldest brother, Ippei, or the leader of the militia, Heidayu.

Saizo educated the others on who Heidayu is, pointing out that not many people like him because of how crass and arrogant he is, but acknowledging his skill. He also talked about the traitor ninja of the village, Kagetomo, who attacked the village not too long ago, escaped, and is now in the Tekiyoku. Part of this information included mentioning that Kagetomo is a Fighting Manipulator.

A couple of days later, Saizo was supposed to meet up with Ippei in Unova; Ippei was going there on a mission because Hanzo received word that Ghetsis might be forming plans to terrorize the region and try to find a Plate there before Alain gets there. Ippei left Kasai to meet Saizo. However, Saizo reported a few hours later that Ippei hasn't arrived yet. This concerned the village and Ippei's younger brother, Nihei.

It turns out that Ippei had been kidnapped by Heidayu and some members of the militia who were sole supporters of Heidayu. These seem to be members who are fully on Heidayu's side, not the ones under Saizo's unit. Heidayu was trying to keep Ippei away from the village so that he would be announced chief instead of Ippei. Heidayu proceeded to the heart of the village to hold Hanzo and his assistant, Shinobu, hostage and force Hanzo to name him chief.

Suddenly, Ippei and Saizo arrived in the village when Heidayu was fighting Nihei, who was challenging Heidayu. Saizo revealed that he rescued Ippei, dispatching his unit of the militia away from Unova when he didn't show up, and came back to the village. He said they got past the guards easily. Fighting broke out, with Heidayu getting another militia member to fight Ippei, while Heidayu fought Saizo. Heidayu was about to kill Saizo, but Sanpei punched him in the face to save his mentor. Ippei and Heidayu ended up doing one final fight.

Ippei technically won, since Heidayu ended up retreating from the village. Ippei was then named chief of the village, Nihei was named his second-in-command, since Shinobu was retiring as well, and Saizo was named the new head of the militia. Saizo expressed how proud he is of Sanpei and his bravery. Sanpei wished him luck on his new position as leader of the militia. The ones who helped Heidayu are already jailed.

Saizo has already expressed interest in fighting with the Mokusetsu later for the final war.

Personality
Saizo is extremely skilled at fighting, but he's more modest about it. The main times he gets to show his skills are in missions with the Kasai Militia, not really so much in the village unless the village is in danger. He clearly trains hard and follows the militia's conduct, carrying himself well.

He's a great friend of Sanpei as has been for years. He was there for Sanpei when his older brothers even weren't. Sanpei is grateful for this and the two have learned a lot from each other. Saizo was really proud of Sanpei when he taught Barry, Zoey, and Kenny, earning the title of "sensei" from them, just as he calls Saizo "sensei".

Saizo seems to be pretty cunning, somehow knowing to come to Ippei's rescue at the warehouse he was being held captive at by Heidayu. There were guards there, so he and Ippei must have fought through them all and come back to the village in time to help fight.

Naming

 * His first name, Saizo, is his name in both the Japanese and English dubs of the Pokémon anime.
 * His middle name, Toriumi, is actually the surname of his Japanese voice actor.
 * His last name, Kōsuke, is the given name of that same voice actor (Kōsuke Toriumi).

General

 * His birthday, February 28th, is the United States air date of the episode of the Pokémon anime he first appeared in.
 * Kasai Village is not the name of the village he's from in the anime. It's really called Ninja Village, but Nocturnal Jay changed the name. "Kasai" basically translates to an out-of-control fire.
 * Sanpei calls Saizo his "sensei" since Saizo was a mentor for Sanpei. In return, when Sanpei taught Barry, Zoey, and Kenny ninja skills, they called Sanpei their sensei. The use of Japanese honorifics is present in the Kasai Village portion of the series.