Director: Osamu Yamasaki,
Starring: Hiroyuki Yoshino, Greg Ayres, Houko Kuwashima, Brittney Karbowski, Koji Yusa, Illich Guardiola, Kousuke Toriumi, Leraldo Anzaldua, Shinchiro Miki, Andrew Love, Showtaro Morikubo, Blake Shepard,
Running Time: 300 minutes
Certificate: 15
Based on the popular video game series mostly aimed at females; well, completely aimed at females, HAKUOKI in anime form tries to appeal to a much broader audience. The Playstation and Nintendo franchise is an otome game, which is basically a dating-sim with a story and multiple endings. The game sees the player choosing different story paths and eventually ending up with the man of their choice. Not the easiest idea to adapt to an anime, especially when the games play up to the fulfilment of romantic fantasies and the anime has to tell a much more balanced tale.
Chizura is a young girl disguised as a boy in feudal Japan. She searches for her father, which leads her to the Shensengumi, the Emperor’s police force. The Shensengumi are also looking for Chizura’s father, but it soon becomes apparent that their motives are every different. Whereas the games rely on making dialogue choices to woo your respective partner, the anime is more concerned with violence and action. Although certainly beginning to blossom through, any hint at romance is left to pure speculation at this point. Being the first season of the show, we’re treated to a vast array of male characters that each have their own positives and negatives, which can range from hotheadedness to drinking a potion that turns you into a demon known as a fury. A girl must keep her options open.
Despite the romantically heavy games, Chizura isn’t some lovelorn puppy that MUST find a man. Her story gives her a drive that is both relatable and well executed. Sometimes she makes mistakes in the name of finding answers, but she isn’t too precious and delicate. That’s in terms of her actions at least, when it comes to her design and voice work, there’s no way she would ever be confused for a male. It actually took me a while to realise she was being mistaken for a man.
The animation manages to capture a classical feel, especially when dealing with backgrounds and the slower moments, while also managing to come to life for blood filled destruction. The inclusion of actual historical events lends an interesting twist to the supernatural proceedings, while always managing to keep a neat balance. There’s still much to be done and many questions left unanswered, but with such a difficult job in swaying around a male viewership, I’d say Studio DEEN have done a magnificent job.
[usr=4]HAKUOKI is released on DVD on 3rd February via MVM.
Check out more Anime news and reviews here!
