Jofuku

"“They’ve been doing your reckless orders and have been overcoming every obstacle. Including the reckless stuff that even you found impossible. Which, isn’t wrong, in my opinion. And besides, it all started with your ego to begin with. Therefore, you have to end it with your ego, as well.”"

Xu Fu or Jofuku (徐福 Jofuku) is the one who takes in Saga's orphans to turn them into Saga's saviors, a tradition that is known to have been done since the Meiji Era with Kiichi Momozaki, Showa Era with Tae Yamada and more recently with Kotaro Tatsumi. He is also the person behind the Zombie Land Saga project that is shown in the anime.

His character is based on the alchemist of the same name who served the emperor during the Qin Dynasty, who was sent to look for the Elixir of immortality.

Meiji Era
In the Meiji era, his power was reduced and he looked much older than usual, so he was bald and only wore a white robe and a cane to support himself because his back was weak. His voice was muffled and he could barely move, his body was so weak that he had to resort to medicine to feel better.

1989
Because Saga is booming, his appearance is much younger than seen in the anime, he wears his bartender outfit but his body is much more robust and shows muscularity, his hair is blonde and his hair is partially long.

Present
Currently he works in the Bar New Jofuku in the center of the city of Saga, he wears a typical waiter suit and his hair is totally gray and he has a mane that reaches below his neck, he is also partially bald.

Meiji Era
During the Meiji era, his power was greatly reduced by the non-existence of Saga from the map, so he hysterically looked for a young man to help him, this young man is Kiichi and with the advice of his grandfather he tries to return Saga to the place he was before. During his appearance in episode 21 he is seen as a grumpy old man who seems to be insane by yelling that he is Saga himself.

His attitude with Yugiri is very different from the cold man he is with Kotaro, this because Yugiri was taking care of him when he was weak and took care of Kiichi so that he could create his new Saga so he is quite kind to her although even he still having trouble remembering group name. As implied in the first season, Yugiri's favor to him was because thanks to her he can still live because she indirectly restored Saga.

1989
In Gaiden's manga his personality is further explored with his adopted daughter Tae and whom she welcomed as Saga's savior in this generation to save Saga from the Sagako, he likes Tae to call him father because he feels that Tae is his Daughter at heart, she is overprotective according to Tae's point of view and that is why both were distanced for a while and only spoke on the television. Jofuku was the head of the Karatsu Burger chain where Tae works and he is the one who helps him with the purchases to maintain the business.

With the Sagako Busters, he is the mysterious man who tells them how they are going in their plans to save Saga and he manifested himself through television vaguely telling them parts of the plan that they must carry out. After a brief reconciliation with Tae MJ and the Busters decide to work together again to seal the Sagakos that appear in Saga.

Present
From what little we know about him, he is a mature man who is not afraid to talk to people and is direct with his conversations, although he likes to play a bit to be cryptic with them too, during his appearances during the series he is direct with Kotaro calling his plan insane but worrying that Yugiri is okay. In episode 13 and the first of the second season this attitude goes a little further by insulting Kotaro for his vagabond appearance and purposely mistaking Franchouchou's name for "Saga ettes" in reference to the stadium where they failed, in addition to intentionally provoking Kotaro with telling him to tell the girls that it's over for them, so that he comes out of his depression and goes directly to save the group.

Although he is somewhat cold with Kotaro, he understands his situation and decided to help him with his zombie idol project to save Saga from Saga curse although even he admits that the plan is totally crazy, Jofuku and Kotaro seem to have a relationship of quite mature friendship and occasionally jokes about the group's name to get attention.

Skillset

 * Bartending - He currently works in a bar and is assumed to have bartending skills.

Natural Abilities

 * Wide Intellect - Being alive for more than 2200 Jofuku accumulate a great knowledge of Saga and the whole world, so it is a good source of information.

Unique Abilities

 * Clairvoyance - Jofuku is able to see the future moderately and predict certain events that will happen in the future of Saga. However, this power is limited to saying things vaguely or only saying a specific era, so he is not able to say the exact things.


 * Necromancy - As mentioned in episode 20, he is able to raise the dead depending on the state of Saga prefecture, when Saga disappeared from the map he consequently lost his powers and his ability to be immortal.
 * Immortality - Because he found the elixir of immortality, Jofuku is now completely immortal but this same immortality is linked to Saga itself so he gets older and sicker when Saga disappears and younger and stronger when it is at its peak.
 * Limited Omnipresence - Jofuku is able to see and feel Saga itself, as demonstrated when Itou killed several Saga rebels and he felt the retaliation for this by losing his power and falling unconscious
 * Technology manipulation - Jofuku is able to communicate through a television and be aware of the environment that surrounds it in some unknown way, probably something related to his magic that allows him to transmit a figure of himself through a hologram.
 * Sagako Detection - Jofuku is able to sense when a Sagako manifests in Saga and guides the Busters towards the direction where it appears. But this ability "sucks" according to Eikichi and Anna, not being able to give the exact location where Sagako comes from.
 * Saga Blessing - Thanks to Saga's blessing or prosperity, certain areas of Saga have the power to seal the curses due to the love these lands received.

Weaknesses

 * Saga Curse - Saga's Curse always tries to stop those who are destined to save Saga, so it will avoid in any way that happens and will try to erase Saga from the map, but since Jofuku's power comes from Saga every altercation against the prefecture it constantly weakens him.

Trivia

 * His character is based on the very court magician of Qin Shi Huang Xu Fu, who was ordered by his chief to search for an "elixir of the immortals" on the top of the mythical Mount Penglai. He found the elixir whose name is "Furofuki" on the top of Mount Kinryu after reaching Saga and meeting the locals, indicating that the island he was looking for is actually Saga Prefecture, the elixir It was given by a leading magician of the 8 immortals Anqi sheng, this place is known in Chinese mythology as the place where fruits grow that give immortality and are capable of reviving the dead, strongly indicating that this is the reason why which the girls were revived.
 * The bartender is Xu Fu or Jofuku himself, who achieved immortality by becoming Saga's kami. Therefore, he says that he is Saga, and his power, appearance, and intellect decreased with Saga's removal from the map. If Yugiri helped restore Saga's name, then she saved him and would explain why she owes him so much.
 * Fukagawa, the mangaka that writes Gaiden, said that the Episode 9 has a connection to Zombie Land Saga Gaiden.
 * In episode 10 of Revenge his relationship with the main story is confirmed.
 * The images posted in the bar foreshadowed that the association is quite intentional in this Universe, and as confirmed in the credits of episode 20 it is about Xu Fu himself. Both images in the background of the bar belong to the Jofuku Chojukan, the museum and park dedicated to the legends of xu-fu in Saga.
 * In the first season and the first episode of Revenge, his name was only marked as "Master", however that changed in episodes 20 and 21 of Revenge, where speculations about his identity were confirmed by literally calling him "Jofuku"
 * The "Genkai Zombie Energy Park Project" that he purposefully mistakes the Zombie Land Saga Project as in the thirteenth episode is a reference to Genkai Energy Park, which is a kind of park in Saga that is adjacent to the power plant that holds such exhibits and the like.
 * Jofuku has the power of divination, as he predicted that Saga would lose his name. He also correctly predicted that some orphan he collected would eventually save Saga (because Saga still exists). Therefore, it is highly likely that he chooses all the girls through divination and resurrects them, reinforcing the Bagua theory.
 * He is revealed to have kept the group picture featuring Kiichi, Ito and Yugiri on one of the shelves in his bar, as shown in “The SAGA Incident: Part Two”.
 * He is the head of the Saga Sagako Busters and who told them that the end of Saga will mark the end of the world, so they must stop the Sagako before they destroy Saga.
 * Jofuku is Tae's adoptive father after the Sagakos murdered her parents years ago. He is very overprotective with Tae because he does not want the curse to claim her too.
 * He is not Jofuku. He is Saga. No! Saga is him!
 * In his own words, the Sagakos outbreak in Saga marks the beginning of the end of the world in 1999, which is 10 years from where the manga takes place. This may also refer to the prophecy that appeared on Gaiden's first poster where it is evidenced that it may refer to the biblical apocalypse predicted by the bible.
 * In chapter 4 of Gaiden we can see Jofuku in his strongest and healthiest form during an economic boom in Saga in the late 80's.
 * He is the manager of Karatsu Burger at Gaiden, a Karatsu food chain.
 * He is the character who has given more information about the history of the series and about the curse and blessing of Saga.
 * His existence reveals that there is a much deeper story on the show's setting than one might think.