They center on the title character, a sleepy-eyed rōnin, or masterless swordsman, who is the son of a Japanese mother (the daughter of a daimyō, who commits jigaki (see "Female Ritual Suicide" in Seppuku) some time after Kyoshiro's birth) and a foreign father, and who was conceived during a Black Mass (resulting in his fierce hatred for what he considers the hypocrisy of Christianity).
Animeigo released the first six films of the Daiei series on VHS and the first five on laserdisc under the title of Sleepy Eyes of Death.
Animeigo later announced that it had renewed their licensing rights to the series and released a boxed set of the first four films on DVD in 2009.
[5] The plotline of the first series takes place during the Tokugawa Ieyoshi shogunate with the Satsuma clan leading a conspiracy with 13 Western clans against the policies of Council Leader Mizuno Tadakuni; when Satsuma clansmen, believing him to be working for Mizuno, murder his friends, Kyoshiro (who despises both the shogunate and the conspirators as equally corrupt) is unwillingly caught up in events and travels to Kyoto to face the leaders of the conspiracy, followed by and assisted upon occasion by O-ran (Kayo Matsuo), a female agent of Mizuno's, and Kinpachi (Shōhei Hino), a ne'er-do-well and occasional pickpocket who's over-fond of gambling and women but with certain unusual skills.
In late 2009 it was announced that Japanese singer-songwriter and actor Gackt would lend his image to a new Nemuri Kyoshiro project, starring as the eponymous protagonist, beginning with jidaigeki theatre stage play in May 2010, penned by Kundō Koyama.