Hakuouki Shinsengumi Kitan is full of hot anime guys. The members of the Shinsengumi alone make eight smoking hot specimens of the male species, - the anime kind. Hehe. Here are the main characters of the reverse harem anime Hakuouki Shinsengumi Kitan:
Chizuru is the main protagonist. She came to Kyoto in search of her missing father, a Dutch-educated doctor who, on orders from the Shogunate, developed the "ochimizu", a potion which increases the drinker's healing abilities, speed, and strength but which also has an unfortunate side-effect of turning the drinker into a mindless, vampire-like monster called a rasetsu.
Hijikata is the vice-captain of the Shinsengumi and makes most of the Shinsengumi's decisions. He is the one who brought Chizuru back to Shinsengumi headquarters. He has taken on the responsibility for Chizuru's welfare and acts as if he's dismayed at having to do so, but in reality he does care for Chizuru's safety and is often shown protecting her during battles.
Okita is the First Unit Captain of the Shinsengumi. He is a brilliant swordsman, but he suffers from tuberculosis. He is based on the historical Okita Sōji.
Kondou is the commander of the Shinsengumi. He has the trust, respect, and loyalty of his men inspite of being very emotional. He is based on the historical Isami Kondō.
Yamanami is the bespectacled scholar captain of the Shinsengumi. In spite of being a ruthless tactician, he is kind and caring albeit a little reserved. He is based on the historical Yamanami Keisuke.
Shinpachi is the Second Division captain of the Shinsengumi. He is usually very cheerful, especially when he is with his comrades. He is very skilled with the sword, but he is also a true alcoholic and womanizer. He is based on the historical Nagakura Shinpachi.
Harada is the Tenth Unit Captain of the Shinsengumi. He prefers the spear to the sword, but he is seen carrying both. He is based on the historical Harada Sanosuke.
Heisuke is the youngest member of the Shinsengumi being around the same age as Chizuru. He is based on the historical Tōdō Heisuke.
Saito is the leader of the third squad of the Shinsengumi and a master of the left hand sword technique. He is silent and a taciturn but also very loyal, polite, and wise. He often analyzes the situation before attacking to figure out which actions are necessary to complete the mission. He is based on the historical Saitō Hajime.
Kazama is a member of the Bakumatsu, enemies of the Shinsengumi. He is the strongest Oni in the North and is after Chizuru so they can mate and create stronger oni.
A pretty nice and fairly strong start to the anime, it certainly didn’t disappoint. Hopefully this anime will continue to go on strong. At this point, this is definitely a keeper for me.
SUMMARY
After a recent attack in the Sugimai District, people begin to question about whether or not vampires really exist.
On the live talk show Astraea’s Balance , people discuss whether or not they belive that vampires truly exist, they decide to use the recent attack as an example.
The first person to be questioned on this matter is Professor Iso Ebikawa, he of course, denies the existance of Vampires. The next person is Hiromi Ubayama, who is a stage actress. She, just like the professor, doesn’t belive that vampires exist. Next up is a model named Yumi, she loves manga/movies about vampires, and unlike the others, believes that vampires do exist.
The Next person up is Mangaka Nozomu Tamaki(who is the mangaka of Vampire Bund). Even though he’s written manga about vampires, he like many others, denies the existance of vampires.
The 5th person to give their opinions on the existance of vampires is an actor by the name of Hirai Seiichi, who will star in a movie based around vampires. Just like Yumi, he believes that they exist.
After all the judges have gone,the next judges are the audience which I also includes the people viewing outside. The next person to judge about the topic, is Tanaka Nero, who will be the proposer, who asks the other Judges what they know about Vampires. Nero goes onto say that there’s been an increase in the number of vampires across the globe.
The hostess of the show approaches a girl who is about to fall asleep(it’s obviously Mina…)
“This girl” says that she’s from Romania, the homeland of vampires. “This girl” is also one of the few who believes that vampires exist, she asks is much of what the other were saying were just myths, and begins to challenge their thoerys.
A little later, they begin to start explaining the story of the attack of the un-named person A-san. The “Queen of Vampires” is the next guest on the talk-show whose name is Vera. All of the judges of the talk-show begin to question whether or not she’s really the Queen of Vampires. As evidence of the attack, Vera has a vampire arm brought out. But since the judges doubt the existance of Vampires, they also doubt that the arm is that of a real vampire.
The “young girl” mentions the story of the vampire that went looking for its arm.
Neera eventually goes off to the streets to ask other people whether or not they think vampires exist.
However,the actor Seiichi begins to doubt that Bella is truly the Queen of Vampires, and changes his mind about vampires existing.
Vera begins to talk about the vampire society and says that the person/vampire behind the attack is the lowest-of-the-low and is a stray vampire.
She turns toward the actor Seiichi and asks him if he agrees with what she’s saying. She continues to insult the person who is guilty of the crime, and Seiichi gets a bit tense. He finally reaches his breaking point, during which he takes the arm of the vampire who attacked the women and replaces it hit with the arm he was keeping hidden. He goes up to Yumi and sucks her blood, the judges around him begin to realize that vampires truly are real. Seiichi then transforms into his “true-self”.
Upset by what Vera has said about him, he attempts to kill her, but Vera’s maid protects her. Seiichi continues his rampage after his failed attempt at killing Vera, and heads towards the roof as guards attempt to catch him. On the top of the studio’s roof, Mina along with some others face the beast.
Mina begins to insult the creature. Which upsets it, so he attempts to attack, but Mina stops his attack right before it manages to hit her.
Mina kills the creature with her command for him to die. Mina has defeated the creature, and announces her plans of forming of a new Kingdom.
THOUGHTS
So, as mentioned above, I found this to be pretty enjoyable. It was far better than I was expecting it to be, mainly with SHAFT working on it(even though I like SHAFT productions). As expected from a SHAFT anime the art animation was nice. But unlike most of their works, particularly those of Shinobou, I didn’t find it to be as stylistic in terms of animation, which some people complain about, but I personally like it, either way the art and animation was still very good. The characters designs along with just art in general seem to be an improvement over the manga’s honestly…(BTW there aren’t too many screenshots since I decided to cut down on them so I could get this done a lot faster and hopefully get to start reviewing some other anime…)
The story seemed a bit off from the manga from what I can remember, but really, I’m not complaining. I WOULD like them to use some manga material, but considering the studio that’s working on it, I sort of doubt it… but even though this seemed to stray away from the manga, it was still good, I really could care less actually if they continued to make up their content as long as it’s still good, otherwise…I’m not too sure… But I think this was an interesting way to start things off, I’m interested in seeing what will happen in the next episode, since I’m not too sure about what they may pull off…but I wonder how much of the story they’ll cover after they’ve made an episode like this, I wonder if they’ll also get to the points in the first PV released…even though it was good.
- I decided not to include the ending for this since it was nothing but a static image with some singing, I’m sure if you search hard enough, you’ll find it. I’m rather eager to hear the opening song though, since I like what I’ve heard from the PVs.
- I found it interesting that they included the mangaka Nozomu Tamaki in the episode as a guest on the game show.
So, it’s off to a good start, hopefully it can manage to continue a good run, I think I’ll stick with this.
