Akuro

Akuro (悪狼 akurō) or Evil Wolf is a piece in some variants of the Japanese board game shogi. There are typically two akuro at the beginning of the game. They can step one square orthogonally sideways or forward, or diagonally forward.

	○	○	○
	○	狼	○

The following shogi variants have akuro:

• Dai shogi Akuro promotes to Gold General (金将 kinshō).
• Dai dai shogi Akuro does not promote.
• Maka dai dai shogi Akuro promotes to Free wolf (奔狼 honrō).
• Tai shogi Akuro does not promote.
• Taikyoku shogi. Akuro promotes to Venomous wolf (毒狼 dokurō)

Cultural references

In the Doctor Who episode Gridlock, a poster appears in the background with the kanji 悪狼. The characters here allude to the theme of Bad Wolf, which appeared in almost all of the 2005 episodes as a hint to the events of the finale.

The primary antagonist in the 2011 Nintendo DS game Okamiden is named Akuro, and his final form is a dark wolf.