Reviews

Apr 29, 2015
First of all, it's very important that you have already watched the TV serie before you watch this movie. This is NOT a recap movie, it DOES has some elements of the anime, but it's a RETELLING of the first story, with a completely different setting.

As a brief summary, our story start when our heroine, Chizuru Yukimura, decide to go out and looking for her father, which had disappeared. As things go, she discover in the worst way that the streets hide more strange things that she have imagined: bloody creatures, ready to take her blood, as well as a group of young, good looking and mysterious men that protect the peace on the streets. She's saved, but what's the cost? Now she knows too much, and it's taken as a "hostage" by the famous Shinsengumi.
Here we discover that those men are surrounded by mysteries, and with a long war extending around the country. We have then 3 different stories: the Shinsengumi, fighting for their country (based on the original story of Japan); the furies, the mysterious bloody creatures that have a direct connection with Shinsengumi; and Chizuru, who's going to discover lot of things about her past and who she really is.

CHARACTERS
The characters are very unique, especially the guys from Shinsengumi. They have very distinct personalities and for me it was impossible to hate any of them, even having my favorite. The villains are also very nice, it just feel they always go away in the most important part of the fights, but they still play their roles; I absolutely love Kazama and I loved how in the movie they showed his demon form not just in the end, it made him seems more interesting as a villain during the story than in the first anime. Chizuru is a thing for me, I don't like heroines from reverse harens because they're weak and stupid, and that's exactly what Chizuru is, she's just useless in all the stuff that happen around Shinsengumi imo, still, there's a very specific part in the movie where I loved her, it's an event that didn't appear in the TV serie and it's amazing, when you see, you'll definitely remember of this part here, 'cause it's where Chizuru shines in this movie. And well, secondary characters are also enjoyable, although they don't have much screen time here, since the movie is way more focused on the Shinsengumi.

ANIMATION
The animation is simply gorgeous. Studio Deen made an amazing work in this movie, everything seems so well made, a thing that didn't happen in the anime, where the animation is poor, without details and even the characters eyes seems without life; in the movie no, their hair and eyes are always shining, and I love it. Also the sceneries are beautifully done, the cherry blossoms and the moon, even a scene where it's shown a river it's perfectly done. I like to reinforce because Deen isn't one of my favorite studios, especially because they don't have quality in their animation, but they put all their effort to make this movie, it definitely seems something very expensive and well detailed.

SOUND
The background songs and the music for this movie are ok. I'm not a fan of the sound for the anime but it's really enjoyable, and it fits for the scenes; in the movie, things aren't different, very similar background songs that fit with the fight scenes and all that old Japan atmosphere.

Overall, this movie was amazing. Even without following lot of events from the original visual novel, I really liked to see a "new route" being created once more for this story, but also some scenes we didn't have in the previous TV serie. I guarantee this new retelling of the Hakuouki series is amazing! I dare to say is more enjoyable than the TV one, may be because of the new animation, may be because it's more focused on the main guys, or even because the main character got more attention this time, it’s perfect in many ways! So if you enjoyed the anime, you'll probably enjoy the movie too.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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