Jofuku

"This world will always be shaped by the actions of man."

- Jofuku, about Saga's fate,

Xu Fu, or Jofuku (徐福, Jofuku) is the immortal bartender of the “New Jofuku” bar. He is also the surrogate father of Kiichi Momozaki and Tae Yamada, and the mentor of Kotaro Tatsumi.

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

Meiji Era
In the Meiji Era, his power was reduced, and he seemed much older than usual, so he was bald and only wore a white robe and a staff 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 medication to feel better.

1989
Because Saga was booming, his appearance is much younger than what is seen in the anime. He wears his Bartender outfit, but his body is much stockier and shows muscle. His hair is blonde and partly long. Due to the high presence in the Sagako area and the damage caused by them, he begins to age rapidly over the course of a single day, aging 10 years at a time.

Present
By 1994, he has recovered from the relapse he had in 1989, having the appearance with which he is seen today. He currently works at the Bar New Jofuku in the center of Saga City. He wears a waiter type suit and his hair is completely gray and 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 on the map, so he hysterically searched for a young man who would help him. This young man is Kiichi and with the advice of his grandfather he tries to return a Saga to the place where it was before. During his appearance in Episode 21, he is seen as a grumpy old man who appears to be crazy by shouting that he himself is Saga.

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 he could create his new Saga, so he is quite kind to her. He still has trouble remembering the name of the group. As implied in the first season, Yugiri's favor towards 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 adoptive daughter, Tae, and whom he welcomed as Saga's savior in this generation to save Saga from Sagako. He likes that Tae calls him father because he feels that Tae is his daughter deep down. He is overprotective according to Tae's perspective, and that's why the two of them distanced themselves for a while and only talked on TV. Jofuku was the boss of the Karatsu Burgers chain where Tae works and is the one who helps her with the purchases to maintain the business.

With the Sagako Busters, he is the mysterious man who tells them how their plans to save Saga are going and manifests himself through the 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.

Jofuku is later weakened by Sagako, and the destruction of the mansion where they lived causes them to go to the Hyodo house. Jofuku, old and weak, is unable to help the group on their latest mission.

By 1994 he has rejuvenated enough to be stable and opens a new bar in the center of Saga. Although Tae is dead, he tells Eikichi that her soul will continue to protect Saga.

Present
From what little we know of 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 little cryptic with them as well. During his appearances during the series, he is direct with Kotaro calling his plan crazy, but worried that Yugiri is okay. In episode 13 and the first of the second season, this attitude goes a bit further by insulting Kotaro for his homeless appearance and deliberately confusing Franchouchou's name with “Saga ettes” in reference to the stadium where they failed. This to intentionally provoke Kotaro by telling him to inform 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 towards Kotaro, he understands his situation and decided to help him with his zombie idol project to save Saga from The Curse of SAGA, though even he admits that the plan is totally crazy. Jofuku and Kotaro seem to have a fairly mature friendship, and he occasionally jokes about the group's name to get attention.

Skillset

 * Bartending—He currently works at a bar and is supposed to have bartending skills.

Natural Abilities

 * Wide Intellect—With more than 2,200 years of life, Jofuku has accumulated great knowledge of Saga and the entire world, making him a good source of information.

Unique Abilities

 * Immortality—Because he found the Elixir of Immortality, Jofuku is now fully immortal, but this very immortality is tied to the Saga itself. When Saga is affected by the curse he becomes older and sicker, and when Saga is prosperous, he is younger and stronger.
 * Rejuvenation and aging—This seems to be a side effect of the elixir; since it is linked to Saga's level of prosperity and collective memory, the powers wax and wane depending on the state of the prefecture.
 * Necromancy—As mentioned in Episode 20, he can raise the dead, depending on the state of Saga Prefecture. When Saga disappeared from the map, consequently, he lost his powers and his ability to be immortal.
 * Omnipresence (Limited)—Jofuku can see and sense Saga, as shown when Ito killed several Saga rebels and felt the retaliation for this by losing his power and falling unconscious.
 * Clairvoyance—Jofuku can moderately see the future 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 time, so he can't say exact things.
 * Technology Manipulation—Jofuku can communicate through a television and be aware of the surrounding environment in some unknown way. Probably something to do with his magic that allows him to transmit a figure of himself through a hologram.
 * Sagako Detection—Jofuku can sense when a Sagako manifests in Saga and guides the Busters towards the direction it appears. But this ability “sucks” according to Eikichi and Anna, not being able to give the exact location where Sagako came from.
 * Saga prosperity—Thanks to Saga's prosperity, certain areas of Saga have the power to seal curses due to the love these lands received.

Weaknesses

 * Saga Curse—Saga's curse continually tries to stop those who are destined to save Saga, so it will prevent it from happening in any way and try to wipe Saga off the map. As Jofuku's power comes from Saga, each altercation against the prefecture constantly weakens him.

Trivia

 * His character is based on Qin Shi Huang's court magician himself, Xu Fu. Who was ordered by his boss to search for an “elixir of the immortals” on top of the mythical Mount Penglai. He supposedly found the elixir whose name is “Furofuki” on top of Mount Kinryu after arriving in Saga and meeting the locals, indicating that the island he was looking for is actually Saga Prefecture. The elixir was given by a leading wizard of the 8 immortals, Anqi Sheng. This place is known in Chinese mythology as the place where the fruits that give immortality and are capable of reviving the dead grow, strongly indicating that this is the reason the girls were revived.
 * The bartender is Xu Fu or Jofuku himself, who forced 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 it would explain why she owes him so much.
 * Fukagawa, the mangaka who writes Gaiden, said that Episode 9 has a connection to Zombie Land Saga Gaiden. His affiliation with Yugiri is later confirmed in episode 20.
 * The footage released at 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 City.
 * 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, where speculations about his identity were confirmed when the credits officially called him “Jofuku”.
 * The “Genkai Zombie Energy Park Project” which he purposely confuses with the Zombie Land Saga Project as in the thirteenth episode is a reference to the Genkai Energy Park, which is a kind of park in Saga that is located next to the power plant containing such exhibits and the like.
 * Jofuku has the power of divination, as he predicted that Saga would lose its name. He also correctly predicted that some orphan he took in would eventually save Saga. Therefore, it is very likely that he chooses all the girls through divination and resurrects them. Reinforcing the Bagua Theory.
 * It is revealed that he kept the group photo with 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 the one who told them that the end of Saga will mark the end of the world, so they must stop Sagako before they destroy Saga.
 * In his own words, the outbreak of Sagakos in Saga marks the beginning of the end of the world in 1999, 10 years after where the manga takes place. Currently, more details of this are unknown.
 * In Gaiden Chapter 4, we get to see Jofuku at his strongest and healthiest during an economic boom in Saga in the late 1980s.