is a fictional character in the Samurai Shodown (Samurai Spirits in Japan) series of fighting games by SNK. She is one of the series' best known and most popular characters alongside its main protagonist Haohmaru, and has been introduced in the original Samurai Shodown in 1993. Nakoruru is a good-hearted, young Ainu shrine maiden who loves nature and fights evil with the help of her hawk sidekick Mamahaha. She has a younger sister named Rimururu and an aggressive, and bloodthirsty darker side alter-ego known as Rera. As one of SNK's popular mascot characters, Nakoruru has also appeared in many other games and other media. Appearances Samurai Shodown games Nakoruru is featured as a player character in most game entries in the Samurai Shodown series, including Samurai Shodown (1993), Shinsetsu Samurai Spirits Bushidō Retsuden (a role-playing game), Samurai Shodown II, Samurai Shodown III (where she also makes background appearance in Rimururu's stage), Samurai Shodown IV, Samurai Shodown V, Samurai Shodown V Special, Samurai Shodown VI, Samurai Shodown!, Samurai Shodown 64, Samurai Shodown! 2, Samurai Shodown 64: Warriors Rage, Samurai Shodown: Edge of Destiny, and Samurai Shodown (2019). She is also playable in various mobile spin-off titles, such as endless runner Samurai Shodown Slash, action game Samurai: Rougetsuki Densetsu, and rising simulation Maid by Iroha. In Samurai Shodown: Warriors Rage, the spirit of Nakoruru is an unplayable story mode character, but its PocketStation mini game is centered around her. She also featured as a non-player character mentor to the protagonist in the spin-off game, Nakoruru: Ano Hito kara no Okurimono, a 2001 visual novel adventure game which takes place between the first two games in the series. In the series, Nakoruru is a gentle and shy teenage girl serving Mother Nature as a shamanic priestess of the Ainu religion, born on Hokkaido island in 1771. Despite her usually pacifistic ways, she became a Kamui warrior of her peaceful village Kamuikotan (神居古潭) after the death of her idolized father, and continues to fulfill this role throughout the series, fighting evil, often alongside Haohmaru, and even assuming a human form after her death (when she sacrifices herself to restore the balance of nature and preserve the land for her people at the end of the second game). Eventually, she merges her soul with Gaia and becomes "the holy spirit who wanders through time" in a form that resembles a koro-pok-guru. Unable to assume her