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In Rurouni Kenshin, Hajime Saitoh had a philosophy of life or something like
that called "aku soku zan" that was something like "kill the evil immediately"
which he mentions when fighting Makoto Shishio. Now in Dragon Ball Super Toppo
says to Goku the same "aku soku zan". What is this really? Is this something
from animes or the history of Japan or something?


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tropes japanese-language dragon-ball-super rurouni-kenshin
Why is "aku soku zan" used in different animes?


I didn't find any good evidence at all for where this phrase comes from. A few
weird Shinsengumi fan sites and [Urban
Dictionary](http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=aku%20soku%20zan)
claim that it was a real historical phrase, but
[Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sait%C5%8D_Hajime#Sait.C5.8D_in_fiction)
and [the question I posted to History
SE](https://history.stackexchange.com/questions/35837/was-aku-soku-
zan-%e6%82%aa%e5%8d%b3%e6%96%ac-a-real-shinsengumi-motto) claim it was not a
real phrase and was invented by Nobuhiro Watsuki for the manga. Wikipedia
claims without citation:

> The "Aku Soku Zan" motto he lives by (悪即斬, most literally, "Kill those who
> are evil immediately,", translated as "Slay Evil Immediately" in the English
> dub and as "Swift Death to Evil" in the VIZ manga) is most likely
> fictitious, though it does encompass a common sentiment of the Shinsengumi
> during the Bakumatsu.

The only semi-reliable source among these is the Google Books search that
[Avery](https://history.stackexchange.com/users/9985/avery) did for the
History SE answer, which turned up no results for the phrase anywhere in the
20th Century. The History SE answer also points out that the phrase smacks of
the kind of bad Classical Chinese that a non-expert modern Japanese speaker
would come up with, which is at least decent circumstantial evidence.

All I really have to go on at this point are instincts, which tell me that if
it's this hard to find any decent historical source on this phrase, it's
highly unlikely that a mangaka doing a weekly action series for _Shounen Jump_
would have managed to dig it up, so it was probably a fabrication. I don't
know whether it was Watsuki's specifically or if it was one of the weird
fabricated "facts" that sometimes show up in happy fun-time history picture
books aimed at grade schoolers that you buy in the gift shop at the museum,
but my gut says someone made this up in the modern day.

This would mean that when other anime use the phrase, they're referencing
_Rurouni Kenshin_. They might be doing so intentionally; several high-profile
manga creators of today, including Eiichiro Oda of _One Piece_ and Hiroyuki
Takei of _Shaman King_ [worked as assistants for
Watsuki](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobuhiro_Watsuki#Notable_assistants),
and the series has remained popular, leading to a [live action
film](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rurouni_Kenshin_\(film\)) released in
2012, with a sequel in 2014, so it's still in the public consciousness. It's
also possible that after the phrase was introduced in _Rurouni Kenshin_ , it
became part of folk history, the way American films like _Titanic_ have
influenced the public's view of the historical events.


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