Hakuoki

I am done watching Hakuoki today. Perhaps this is the first time I am watching a tragedy as well as a historical anime. Hakuoki initially started from a dating simulation game. As PSP is near its end and it is also a rare occurence that a Japanese dating simulation game gets English translation, I decided to play the game. But of course I am not talking about the game today.

The story and the characters are based on Japanese history during the end of Tokugawa shogunate and the beginning of Meiji Restoration. Chizuru Yukimura, a female demon, came to Kyoto to search for her missing father. She bumped into Shinsengumi members who saved her from Rasetsu. Rasetsu refers to human beings who have consumed ochimizu. Ochimizu grants strength and healing power beyond normal human capabilities but with a side effect: bloodlust. Shinsengumi takes care of Chizuru because Shinsengumi is also looking for her father, which is revealed to be the inventor of ochimizu. Throughout the story, Chizuru learns more about her background as well as various demons.

The story seems good initially. Unfortunately, rather than incorporating historical elements to a new story, this is more like inserting some fantasy elements to a history. The anime tries to be historically accurate. As such, the story is rather "choppy", jumping from one period to the next. There are plenty of narration of what happened in month XXX year YYY etc which basically only to highlight the historical events which occured. It stays true to Shinsengumi's fate in the Boshin War which ends in a tragedy because the shogunate (the side which Shinsengumi defends) eventually lost the war. 

As compared to the game, there are quite a lot of differences in terms of the plot so I am confused about the actual plot that the creators had in mind. Anyway, the game does a lot more justice to the story. Too many undeveloped plots in the anime. Even the ending is ambiguous. If the main character is Chizuru, so what happened to her at the end of the war? Or perhaps the main character is not her but the Shinsengumi guys? Confusing sia...

While I personally like shows which either makes me laugh or makes me cry, I do not think that this anime is worth watching, except if you want to know more about Japanese history. Some episodes are very dry, lack of any excitement or any substance. However, I applaud the effort not to mess with the real history. After all, the characters, except for the demons, are based on historical persons with the same name. That is a good show of respect. The anime even follow the historical timeline of when which characters actually died. To "prolong" the screentime, these characters are converted to Rasetsu in the anime. They would die eventually but everything turns out pretty good (and touching) and adds value to the overall story.

There are about 5 OVAs which are basically "filler" episodes. I have yet to hunt and watch them. Hehe.. From synopsis, the OVAs seem to be more light-hearted and funny, and thus my cup of tea.

To end, I just want to share the 2 endings themes, which I think perfectly capture the sad, mellow, and tragic storyline. The songs are sung by Mao. I have no idea who she is.

Ending 1 - Kimi no Kioku

Ending 2 - Akane Sora Ni Negau