Is there a Samurai as bad-ass as Ryunosuke?

But Ryunosuke is definitely skilled and confident in his skill - although I agree about his strange character. I wouldn't call him unlikable, there were glimpses of humanity behind the sociopath side, in fact there were hints that the human inside was still very much alive, but even so, I definitely agree that the crazy mask was goddamn thick.

Thing is that I wouldn't necessarily supplement "skilled and cool" in the badass definition with "likable". I'd call Frank from Once Upon a Time in the West "badass", even though he was utterly evil. But, as an example that should better clarify the notion (the way I see it), in The Seven Samurai I would call Kyuzo "badass", but not Kikuchiyo - both are skilled, but Toshi's character is not confident and cool.

And yes, Sanjuro is also a badass
...Come to think of it, perhaps they also need a touch of dark and brooding along with the skill and the cool, to make them badasses? Wait, I suspect that everybody has their own notion of badass, so maybe a more general definition would be "I call 'badass' a skillful fighter with whom I'm in awe", whereby the type of fight and the sources of awe may vary according to the type of movie involved and the psychology of the one talking about it.

there's a highway that is curling up like smoke above his shoulder