John

Name
Kanaジョン
Römajijon
Translation
MeaningGod is gracious
OriginHebrew
In Other Languages
Finnish (manga & sub)John
Finnish (dub)Jon
SwedishJohn
NorwegianJohn
DanishJohn
HungarianCézár
Status
Deceased
CauseKilled by Hōgen and his army
Affiliation
CurrentŌu Army
FormerHidetoshi's hunting dog
Information
GenderMale
BreedGerman Shepherd
BirthplaceOriginal: Tokyo Later Version: Finland
Voice Actor
GNG (Japanese)Hideyuki Hori
GDW (Japanese)Toru Ōkawa
GNG (Finnish)Erkki Murto
GNG (Swedish)Peter Harryson
GNG (Norwegian, cut)Harald Mæle
GNG (Hungarian)Czvetkó Sándor
Age
GNG3-4 years old
GDW16 years old
Appearance
Fur ColorBlack, beige
Eye ColorOriginal: Blue some Versions: Yellow or Brown
AccessoriesDog Collar

John – also known as The Eastern Tiger – is a main character of Ginga: Nagareboshi Gin and of Ginga Densetsu Weed in the Hōgen Arc. He also got a role as a main character in the short story Chōmon No Tabi and Namonaki Inu No Uta. He also appeared as a cameo character in flashbacks of Ginga Densetsu Weed: OrionGinga: The Last Wars and Ginga Densetsu Noah.

John debuted in the series as Hidetoshi’s loyal hunting dog until he decided to join the Ōu Army with Gin. There. he becomes one of Gin’s greatest friends and later, after the GNG story, his adjutant together with Akame.

Since Ginga Densetsu Weed: Orion, it is revealed that John has a nephew called Andy.

Appearance

John is a purebred German Shepherd with a cream and black color. He has a black mask and blue eyes, which are sometimes portrayed as yellow or brown in later artworks. During GNG, he wears a brown collar – yellow in later artworks – which he loses by the end of the Akakabuto Arc.

In the GNG anime, his markings are quite different from the Manga version, and his cream tone is more likely portrayed as a light brown.

Personality

John is an arrogant, cocky and short-tempered dog. However, he is also very loyal and brave.

He is quite a big show-off and it is mentioned that he is proud of being a European breed rather than the Japanese breed. He has seen the world with Hidetoshi during his travels and helped him hunt several prized games, including large and dangerous beasts. It is possible that, due to this, he never had much relationships with other dogs, explaining his somewhat poor social skills. 

Though he certainly has much skill and strength, he seems to view himself far more stronger than he actually is, often recklessly challenging much stronger opponents like Riki and Gaia and, even once, the whole pack of Kurojaki, always sure that he will win. John is impatient and wants to leap in battle even when it is not a smart thing to do and would lead to trouble or even his death.

John has a notably harsh tongue. He is prone to swearing and insulting his opponents. However, he talks to the Old Dogs in a polite way, proving that he has respect at least for elders. He seems to have problems admitting the skill and strength in other dogs, but learns to respect Gin and Riki.

Few times, John has shown interest in leading other dogs. At first, he wanted to take over Riki’s pack and Kurojaki’s pack. He seems to like the idea of other dogs serving and obeying him rather than being a reliable leader. Given his attitude and temper, he probably wouldn’t be a very good leader.

John is remarkably stubborn and sometimes doesn’t listen the others very well. He also seems to have negative impressions of other dogs when he first meets them, though his feelings often changes after spending some time with them. He can often be aggressive at the dogs who have done no harm.

In Ginga Densetsu Weed, John is much older and has become more humble, letting go of his explicit egotistic nature. However, he is still very confident and hotheaded, especially if underestimated due to his old age. He is still aggressive, such as his initial hostility towards Sasuke, and tends to not trust strangers, like Reika and Gon. Akame and Gin often scold him at times due to his rude behavior or eagerness to kill. Nevertheless, he shows unending bravery and loyalty to Ouu and his comrades.

Ginga: Nagareboshi Gin

Introduction Arc

John is Hidetoshi’s hunting dog. As he meets the young Gin, he at first, becomes his rival at who to defeat Akakabuto with their masters. One night, when Gin snuck out to find the wild dogs which he spotted on a hunt with Daisuke John follows him, also wanting to figure out more about the wild dogs.

Akakabuto Arc

John approaches the wild dogs in an arrogant and cocky way, quickly attacking the first platoon leader, Ben, but their fight gets called off as the bear Madara kills Bazett.

The wild dogs didn’t want to risk more soldiers and flee, much to John’s disgust. As the wild dogs and Gin jump over a cliff, John stays behind to fight the bear, being too stubborn and proud to flee.

The wild dogs help Gin chase Madara away, and Ben admires both their courage and let them meet their boss. The leader and the group of wild dogs gathering to defeat Akakabuto doesn’t impress John saying that it’s weak to gather in a group. Gin decides to travel with the wild dogs, but made John promise to stay behind and take care of Daisuke. John promised to do that.

One day Daisuke ventured out to go bear hunting, but soon got in over hanging danger. John stepped in and was about to save him, as the wild dogs’ leader Riki appeared and killed the bear before John. Daisuke had passed out and the two dogs fought to test each others strength. John was defeated and then joined the Ōu soldiers. As Gin struggled with defeating the Koga dogs’ leader Kurojaki, John ran into Hyena, who was trying to re-join the group, and the two spied on Kurojaki. John then attempted to capture Kurojaki, but failed. He then joined Ben’s platoon and traveled alongside Gin, facing dangers like meeting Benizakura.

Great Battle

John was present in the final battle and helped his comrades to defeat the bears led by Akakabuto. He also distracted Akakabuto himself with Akame to help Gin and his leader. John survives the final battle and stays in Ōu mountains with many of his comrades.

Wolf Arc

When the conflict with Reima’s wolves starts, John does not enter the Palace of Reima as he is sent to fetch the armies of Four heavenly kings of Mutsu and Hakurō to help. Moss leads their army into Reima’s palace.

John fetches the kidnapped Cross and her puppies with Wilson.

The wolf lord Reima tells them that their true enemy is an evil wolf lord Gaia. They swim to Hokkaido where John tries to attack Juga along with Hyōma but they fail.

He fights with other soldiers against Gaia’s soldiers and later recklessly tries to attack Gaia himself. He manages to give Gaia a wound but the wolf leader defeats him easily with few strikes.

John survives the battle and returns to Ōu with the others.

Chōmon No Tabi

Ginga Densetsu Weed

John is Gin’s best friend. John has been a hunting dog and owned by the man Hidetoshi, but he joined Gin a long time ago.

Hōgen Arc

After a mission to the Northern Alps, he, Gin and Akame get trapped by the Great Dane Hōgen. John fights the best he can, but is ordered to surrender (with Gin and Hiro) when Hōgen takes the female Reika as a hostage.

John remains in the captivity of Hōgen for a while, unable to move due to his injuries. Over time, Hook and Sasuke arrive and help them by giving them all small piles of snow to drink from. When Missile and Jet return and are executed for betraying Hōgen, three dogs loyal to Ohu (Lefty, Tommy and Rossy) help John escape along with Reika and Hiro.

John begins to struggle in the snow with his wounds and insists that Hiro take Reika away down the side path while he fights off the dogs coming for them. He convinces Hiro to take Reika to safety by promising not to die, then waits to face the soldiers alone.

John fights the dogs with his three comrades but is outnumbered and slows down with exhaustion. John is pinned down as Hōgen himself appears and John fights him.

Unfortunately, John is badly hurt and cannot win this battle. His will remains strong despite his ruined body and he continues to defy Hōgen by refusing to beg for his life or to stay down. Hōgen gets his soldiers to overwhelm John and torture him. This is all being witnessed by Hook and Sasuke, who are hidden in the forest and are too afraid to help John.

As they try to will themselves to go down and fight John senses their presence and calls out that his comrades must stay where they are and live for tomorrow. Hōgen decides to deal a finishing blow but wants to see him beg.

John continues to mock him and refuse, so Hōgen bites at a bad wound on his side and yanks out his intestine. John reacts in great pain and yet retaliates by biting through his intestine and freeing himself from Hōgen’s grip. The soldiers are in awe and are terrified of John by this point, who looks like blood covered demon while he stands and states that even if his body falls, his soul will live on in his comrades. 

His strength has finally left him once Hōgen, who is enraged, knocks him over. He begins to see memories of Hidetoshi, Gin and his old comrades, unaware of his body or his true surroundings.

He then sees Smith and Riki across a river who tell him not to give in. Hōgen continues to taunt John and becomes furious at being ignored and he continues to abuse John’s body until his horrified soldiers convince him that he must be dead, at which John is finally left to die alone in the snow.

As they leave, Hōgen finds himself experiencing fear in his heart for the first time after his experience with John’s unbeatable spirit.

Before John takes his last breath, he meets Weed who arrived too late after hearing his voice in the wind. Hook and Sasuke come down from hiding at this point and tell Weed who John was and what had happened with Hōgen. John regains consciousness and speaks to Weed, telling him about Gin’s condition and apologizing for his failure at being unable to save his father. He begins hallucinating and thinks Akame is there along with reinforcements. Hook surprises them by pretending to be Akame. John tells him to look after Weed to which Hook responds that they already have an army of 1,000 soldiers and that Gin will be rescued easily.

Weed and company play along to keep him conscious and pretend the reinforcements are arriving, acting out signal howls that signify how Gin has been rescued. They beg for him to just wait five minutes to have Hōgen brought before him for mercy to which John scoffs and says he’s always hated waiting. He thinks to himself how it cannot be helped, and that he is going on ahead to fight Akakabuto again. He then closes his eyes and dies.

Weed is enraged and wants to immediately avenge John, but is held back by the others. His pack catches up with him and after they catch up on events, they mourn John, rage at Hook and Sasuke for their cowardice and cause them to regret their choice. They hear someone coming and decide to flee as they are within Hōgen’s territory.

Weed is able to leave him alone in the snow after Jerome states that the snow will preserve his body until spring, so they will be able to return and bury him.

All is silent and snowing when it is Ben who is revealed to be the source of the voice. He is blind and has been gradually increasing in dementia with his old age. He comes across John and speaks sadly to the body, believing this to be the reason he came that way and asks how he died. It had been 8 years since he last saw John, he believes it to be the body of a stranger and is mentally unable to recognize him.

He picks up the body and takes John with him as he continues on his lost wanderings towards Ōu. Ben then takes John back to Ben’s old owner Iguchi, who gives John a proper burial. His spirit was seen, along side Smith’s spirit to encourage Gin to escape when he was captured by Hōgen the first time.

John appears to Weed in the final battle, encouraging him to carry on fighting as well as mocking Hōgen.

Russian Arc

John makes his last appearance as a spirit to a dying Moss, he welcomes him into heaven with the rest of the deceased soldiers.

Ginga Densetsu Weed: Orion

With John deceased he is mentioned a few times in the story by Andy when he tells Rigel and Kotetsu that John is his uncle. And after the battle is over Hidetoshi comments that since Andy has joined the Ouu Army’s pack that he is just like him.

Ginga: The Last Wars

John is one of the dogs mentioned by Bob on Monsoon’s hit list of those who killed his father. When Monsoon was fighting against Gennai he began to experience flashback of John trying to kill him when Gin tried to stop him.

Trivia

Tags: *Needs Content Check | Dog: German Shepherd | Gender: Male | Series: Ginga | Species: Dog | Status: Deceased | Story: Ginga Densetsu Weed | Story: Ginga Densetsu Weed (Anime) | Story: Ginga: Nagareboshi Gin | Story: Ginga: Nagareboshi Gin (Anime) | Story: Ginga: Nagareboshi Gin: Shin Gaiden

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