Hakuouki

*Spoiler warning* Do not read story section unless you've finished the series.

"Hakuouki" is based on a PS2 romance adventure otome game (games targeted toward girls).

The story starts with Yukimura Chizuru, daughter of a doctor in Edo (Tokyo's old name), arriving Kyoto in search of her father. She is saved by two Shinsengumi members from zombie-like demon, and gets taken into custody. Eventually she gains their trust and helps them out while looking for clues of her father.

Shinsengumi is an organization that actually existed in the late-Edo-period that acted as a 'special police' that served to suppress any anti-government movement in Kyoto. The actual organization only ... existed for less than a decade, but their legacies have been depicted in various novels, movies, and TV doramas that they have become something of a symbol of justice in the Edo-era. The latest Shinsengumi hit has been the NHK Taiga dorama "Shinsengumi!" starring SMAP's Katori Shingo in 2004. NHK, the government-owned TV station's Taiga dorama series are known for practically guaranteed 15%+ viewership ratings and A-list actors.

This anime's events and characters are inspired by the actual Shinsengumi, but the story is completely fictional.
The title "Hakuouki" is a made-up word comprised of kanji "Light-colored Sakura" and "Ogre". It describes the fictional vampire-like white-haired (light color) undead (Sakura) demons (ogres) in this series. Sakura (Cherry blossoms) symbolizes death or short-lived beauty for the short span in which the pink flowers blossom in spring. (Sakura also symbolizes farewells and new meetings since they bloom during graduation and new school year, which is April in Japan, but that is probably not the case in this series)

ANIMATION:
Animation in general lacked detail, and characters' faces were really deformed in some scenes while they were extremely well-drawn in close up and action scenes.

One thing they really succeeded in this show was use of lighting to create mood. From hazy moonlight to orange glow in the daytime to bloody red sunset, the light always seemed to shine from one direction, and matched the atmosphere they were trying to create.

One fatal flaw in the animation... was character design in the sense that they were all too idolized. Sure, all the main characters wore Shinsengumi uniforms with swords around their waist, but all I saw was a bunch of host and a school girl in cosplay. It all comes down to fan service, and they all seemed out of place amid peasants and lowly Shinsengumi members who looked legitimately from the Edo-era.
They even went as far as trying to have Chizuru pass for a boy. I know back in the day, it was unthinkable for a girl to be dressed like a boy, but please, you must be joking.

SOUND:
Main characters looked like hosts, at least they sounded like hosts too. Despite the fact that they were totally out of place, they stayed consistent by speaking modern Japanese the whole way and and all the characters sounded like they should.

Music in slice-of-life scenes had a serene, calming flow that worked very nicely in the background, which intensified in plot twists or confrontations, enhancing drama in every occasion. Powerful drum beats are added in action scenes, which not only fit the era well, but also made them all that more exciting.

Theme songs were ridiculously good for this series. OP song was epic with extremely catchy tune, elegant lyric, and great vocal. Amazing piece of contemporary Jpop-Enka hybrid that really blew me away. ED was pretty good, the somber song worked nicely for this series since many episodes ended with a tragedy. Sound and Marketing department sure have a lot of work ahead of them if they're to match or surpass the theme song quality and compatibility in season 2.

STORY/CHARACTER:
Before we even get to the story... there was a major problem with power balance in this anime. I can accept Oni villains being insanely strong because they're not human, but how are some of the Shinsengumi members able to fight almost evenly against them? What's even more puzzling is that those fighters struggle against lowly samurai when outnumbered. From their performance against the Oni, they should be able to easily defeat 10 minions by themselves.

This leads to the main problem with the story: Irrational character motives and too much sudden story developments between events.

- Oni can so easily penetrate Shinsengumi's defense, as proven by Kazama and Nagumo. Why didn't they just come in and kidnap Chizuru anytime they wanted? There was nothing there to stop them from second or third tries after the first attempt failed. (Why did it even take that long to make the first attempt?)

- I didn't exactly see how Chizuru fell in love with Hijikata. Seemed just like Hijikata was being excessively strict few times, and got persuaded by other members to bend the rules. It was a WTF moment for me when Chizuru started blushing when her twin sister asked her if she's staying for love.

- Overly gullible characters. Gets tricked so easily by villains and has no self-discipline when given the choice with the elixir. These guys are definitely not leader materials, and it's a wonder Shinsengumi can last so long with such incompetent commanders.

- You're trying to kill Chizuru for seeing a classified subject, and the next second, you're trusting her to send messages in a life-or-death situation.

- Chizuru, do not walk toward vampires when you're bleeding! Use common sense.
- Chizuru, run when you see danger! You're helpless, and you staying around is not going to help the injured or dead.
- Chizuru, PLEASE TRY TO ACTIVATE SELF-DEFENSE INSTINCT OF YOUR BRAIN! Help will not always arrive out of blue.

- Hijikata drinking elixir in the last episode came out nowhere. Where did he even get it? And his motive makes no sense, I mean... you're not human anymore, just because someone (who you knew didn't kill your best friend) provoked you.


Making a non-cheesy fictional story based on historical events is difficult. Add vampires, Oni, rushed storyline, and this feat becomes practically impossible.

The least they could've done was provide more backgrounds to each incident rather than "XXX advanced their troops to Kyoto", battle scene, "And this will eventually come to be known as Battle of YYY" before jumping to another historical event.

I think they should've just used the Edo-era setting with original events rather than try to camouflage an actual event.

The DBZ-style talking during battles, or talking for so long that backup arrive certainly didn't make the story any more believable.

ENJOYMENT/OVERALL:
Another unrealistic jidaigeki, I would have to say this is girl's version of "Sengoku Basara". Instead of mindless battles, you have mindless melodrama, which starts to get pretty predictable even without knowledge of Japanese history. In the end, it was a bidanshi cosplay fest, as expected of a shoujo anime. The story jumps from one historical battle to another, it's easy to tell this is just another "Rurouni Kenshin"-inspired piece that hopped on bandwagon of the latest Shinsengumi craze initiated by the 2004 NHK Taiga dorama.

However, I have to say that the characters are charming as intended, and the Oni villains are cool enough to have me watch this season to the end, and if I have a lot of time to kill, I'll be able to tolerate another season just to see how bad it gets.

I really wanted to like Hakuouki since it presents a lot of interesting ideas. Ultimately however, Hakuouki never decides on a main plot. Instead it flirts with subplot after subplot, ultimately failing to adequately develop or resolve any of them.

Story - 3/10 (Poor)
The story is difficult to describe, because of the apparent lack of one. The anime begins with Chizuru, our appointed "protagonist", leaving her home and venturing to a city foreign to her in order to find her father. With this kind of opening, you'd expect that this quest would make up a significant portion of the anime. ... After all, it is Chizuru's main motivation. Instead, Chizuru meets the Shinsengumi and she becomes merely the observer of their deeds, without having any real impact on their actions.

Of course, she's supposed to be relevant and there is a story line to suggest she's the most important person in the series, complete with high-powered "evil" after her. However, like the rest of the subplots, it is never really developed, fully explained, or concluded.

The fact that Chizuru is merely an observer for most of the anime could be acceptable. The Shinsengumi are embroiled in enough martial actions and political intrigue, not to mention a fair number of secrets, to carry the show. However, like Chizuru's story line, their actions are disjointed, never flushed out, and lack an overarching narrative. To the show's detriment, it's never really made clear what they're fighting for. Flushing out the ever present camaraderie of the Shinsengumi's members, perhaps giving a bit of background to their relationships with each other, would make their sacrifices and the ending meaningful. As it is, the conclusion doesn't conclude anything and all the noble actions of the Shinsengumi are left feeling hollow.

Art - 6 (Fair)
The characters look nice, vibrant, and fairly distinct from one another. Everything else is entirely forgettable.

Sound - 6 (Fair)
Nothing's wrong with the sound, but nothing stands out either.

Character - 6 (Fair)
The characters are easily the best thing about this anime. While Chizuru herself is the typical damsel in distress heroine, she isn't as annoying as some. Of course, that is mainly due to the fact that she is overshadowed by the Shinsengumi. The members of the Shinsengumi, while falling into the typical stereotypes, are given a sense of depth through their relationships with each other and their own individual conflicts.

I would rate the characters higher, but again the lack of a cohesive plot gets in the way. Many of these characters have subplots of their own that begin to flesh them out and make them genuinely likable. However, all of their stories are only partially developed then ignored completely. Which begs the question, why bother?

Enjoyment - 5 (Mediocre)
The lack of a solid driving force behind the events that occur in Hakuouki is a serious detraction and gets in the way of enjoying what the series does well. Even though the camaraderie between the Shinsengumi is interesting to watch, the fact that the conflicts faced by each member are summarily dismissed without resolution makes any attachment to the characters seem irrelevant.

Overall - 5 (Mediocre)
Hakuouki tries to do too much and in the end fails to deliver anything noteworthy. Perhaps if you've played/read the source material, you may find more enjoyment out of it. I am only considering the anime as it stands. There seems to be a sequel that may rectify the lack of any resolution to the plot, but considering how bafflingly mishandled the story development was in the 12 episodes this series was allotted, I don't have my hopes up. Overall, if you're interested in this anime, I suggest to wait for the sequel and see if its plot/subplots are sorted out in that one, otherwise you're bound to be disappointed.

I was bored to death. Seriously, watching this anime makes me told myself "please end it soon". I feel like the 23 minutes is too long. Although, I still did manage to finish watching it even all the prequels, if you are not aware of the history of Shinsengumi I would recommend you to watch other anime. So, what did make me watch this. I was drawn again by the art and synopsis of it. I was expecting a historical gender bender anime but was disappointed by it. The gender bender thing is just an accessory. I think the art is the one that lifted ... the anime. The sound is just so-so. The characters are likable except the heroine my goodness. Given the fact that she is weak okay, fine but if she will carry out the story I think I cannot barely watch it. Her only major part is to narrate the story. Overall, I was surprised that it has sequels. If you are looking for, just a reverse harem, then I recommend you to watch this.

The series is okay. That's the best i can describe it. It gets a but tedious at times, and the pacing is a bit slow, and you might not be able to take the characters seriously because they remind you of their Gintama counterparts, but it's overall balanced and a fine anime. Not great, but fine.
Usually all anime adapted from games are not good at all. At least this one doesn't suck entirely. The characters are a bit all over the place and their development is a bit forced. You don't get as invested in them as you'd like to be. Hell, all I see ... when I see Hijikata or Kondo is mayonnaise and gorilla. Heh. And that's after 3 seasons.

Hakuouki in a word: Disappointing

I expected this to turn into the typical reverse harem situation (especially since the female lead is an airhead, that's usually a dead give away), but alas, it never did.

It didn't have an specific quality that stood out. Action was a'ight, no romance at all, "funny" moments never made me laugh, and I had trouble keeping track of so many guys. There were at least 4 that I kept mixing up.

To sum up: You aren't missing anything if you don't watch this. In fact, I would recommend removing this from your list if it is on there because ... it's not worth the time. No, it wasn't terrible, but it still wasn't worth it.

-May contain small spoilers-

So I finally try this anime again after finding decent size subtitles. Anyways this anime was okay for the most part, I did find myself disappointed but it;s my fault for having the expectations I had. If you're looking to watch this anime for the romance then prepare to be disappointed because there is zero development as far as romance goes.

The summary of the story and the actual anime in my opinion did not match at all. A group of boys are looking for a doctor and happen to find his daughter and yet all they ever do is patrol the city ... and get random updates about whatever.

The characters for me were not what I expected. Obviously a story like this, you know who is the love interest to who, too bad, however, you don't see much bonding forming. There is maybe about two to three very light blushes on Chizuru's part and all Toshi and the boys ever remind her of is hat they will kill her for whatever reason.

One more thing that peeved me was the fact Chizuru was given a sword but apparently it's just for show as she never uses it and one and only time she actually pulls it out, she doesn't fight because the boys come just in time before she possibly loses anyways.

But all in all I'd give it a six in the overall and enjoyment department.

Ok here is the weird thing about making an anime off a game. The plot kinda goes nowhere. There are a few plot points that have been brought up but none of them come to anything in Season 1. However as it is, Its a good Samurai anime with a cool them and ideas, and at 12 episodes its worth a watch. If you got the time give it a watch, as for me, Ill wait for Season 2 to finish telling me what the heck is going on with these people.

I liked the animation and therefor will still give this anime a score of 6. I'm disappointed in the development of the story or lack thereof. In the first few episodes there was a hint of a storyline (Chizuru looking for her father and the shinsengumi achiving some status) but in the later episodes it went downhill and I lost track of any story that might be in this anime. And it is sad that a promising female heroine like Chizuru that went to look for her father on her own in disguise lost all strength. In the end she is not better than all ... those wining girls who can't do anything but cry out the name of the next male that is in a dangerous situation.
One good point is the handsome guys and the drawings, though.

The first few episodes were kind of... well a bit dozed me off and the series has pretty much common plot like I know or rather predict what's gonna happen to each episode plot before even watching the next episode.

What surprises me only was Yukimura Chizuru's origin of that of an 'Oni's' and that she actually has a twin brother instead of a sister.

In conclusion, I like how the guys looked (the fact that most of them are good looking). The OP and ED aren't really bad either. Quite moderate for my taste. Somehow I think I'll stick to the anime and we'll ... definitely watch the next season due to the last trailer of the last episode.

of all the anime featuring the life of the shinsengumi group (i.e. peacemaker kurogane etc) this is basically the most promising one. a good story beautiful songs, it was a little capped out :( sadly the story turned out to be cut short don't get me wrong bishies were everywhere to be seen. and if i were Chizu i would have swooned :P but the fact remains the story was tragically ended leaving fans thinking of what could have been. i wish the story would have been elaborated many historical accounts were retold it was good anyway.i'm pretty sure other fans expected more too. anyway ... i enjoyed it even in the shortest time hakuoki S2 answers pretty much the sparks between Hijakata and Chizu. but hey, don't fret it's cool vampire/oni turning bishie samurais are a sight to be hold :D

Hakuouki is pretty much what you'll get when you squeeze shoujo into dead-serious

matters (I'm a girl and I enjoy shoujo where it's suitable , so no offence intended)

Writing a biography is an art in itself but trying to fit these shoujo , reverse-harem

and vampire like elements into it is a whole different story .. I don't claim to have a

solid background on the Japanese history nor Edo period .. I mean all I know is what

... I've seen in anime , drama and manga .. yet, I know enough to say that it can never

be summarized enough to fit in 22 eps ( I'm counting the 2nd season as well ) it seems

that the author found a way to do it .. here is an example of how it goes .. the narrator

would go like " in some date some group attacked some other group , later this incident

was known as the battle of XXXX " end of story .. seriously !! if they wanted to have

enough time to focus on their vampire story than why did they drag Shinsengumi into it !!

why didn't they give some random names to the characters and cut some of the battles ..

It would've made a decent story .. I mean people would burst in laughter if you said that

the 13 captain from Bleach are inspired from Shinsengumi , wouldn't they ?

when I look back to It I don't even remember what was going on .. and I just watched it a

week ago .. the story was all over the place .. it jumped from one place to the other

.. it was disjoint , boring at times , confusing in the other and completely random ..

It's not that I totally hate it , but I gotta be honest .. I didn't like it either ,

the lesson of the day is : don't mess with history .. "borrow thoughtfully and make it work" ..

as tim gunn would suggest ..



my ratings are : story 5 , art 10 , sound 9 , characters 7 , enjoyment 4 , overall 6

I watched the series maybe 2 years ago and I remember LOVING it so much I gave it a 10. I even downloaded the OST because I loved everything about the anime.

2 years later I'm re-watching anime after stopping, but my opinion of this anime has changed so much. The story itself isn't bad, but its badly executed. There's barely any action, all the episodes seem like filler ones and tbh it's kinda confusing distinguishing between most of the guys. All I can say is that the anime is WEAK.

Chizuru has no character development, all she does it yell out when someone is being ... bullied and then when they move to strike she just closes her eyes and waits for someone to save her. She's been with the Shisengumi for so long and yet never once used her sword, it just doesn't make sense.

The romance is also so sudden, and there was no story leading up to it. I just didn't like the anime at all. I really think its either a hit or miss. You either really love it or hate it

So just to clarify I didn't even know there was a game and this anime adapted the game. Which now makes sense. So my review is from a person that only watched the anime.

It's rushed, it's never goes deep in anything, and it's super boring omg this was a nightmare.

If you are looking for a romance this is not the place for you. It's a reverse Harem with no romance seriouly. GET OUT

Story is SUPER rushed like into 4 episodes it's already been like one year in the story line. Things happen just for plot convenience.

And the worse, the main character, the girl, IT'S A ... BAG OF POTATO. She doesn't do ANYTHING, she is just there to yell the other guys name in case you forgot.

Honestly disappointed. Art is great and maybe the game is good but oh boy just no.

Note-
If you do play/read the visual novel game on steam or elsewhere know this...
It's... 200x better than the actual anime. Being the degenerate I am, I only watch dubbed. Throughout all of time this has never changed, yet... this is the one anime that I could not physically stand to watch dubbed. The dub was so atrocious I actually switched to subbed. It was the one and only anime to ever make me do so.... that said... its pretty lackluster even subbed. Main character is absolute trash and honestly its sad to see after playing the game/reading the visual novel.... If they ever remade ... it though... it'd be worth so much like I'd give ANYTHING to see it remade and done properly. It has the potential to be a freakin' AMAZING anime... but they just had no funding or backing at the time to make it happen.
Hardcore /redo/ status for me. If it's ever remade I'd pay out the, pardon my french, ass for it. Just saying.

For me, this anime scores badly in the story, in character and in enjoyment.

I feel that the anime has the potential to be mind-blowingly amazing. BUT there was a lack of development. The first few episodes as far as plot development goes were slow. Despite it opening in the middle of a fight scene and I was sat there thinking what is going on? Are they demons?
It did pick up speed around the 5th episode.

The second season just has no plot development. The focus is on killing and the honour of death and death and more death. That's it. In every ... episode, a handful of people die or are going to die and are definitely killed. They basically kill off every main character apart from the narrator because of this I want to put it in the category of Shakespeare's tragedies. However, the interpretation of the story teases plot development but does not actually achieve development. I feel the sequels seek to develop the plot of this season and season 2 and they should have just done that from the get-go.

I also have comments for the love story. It was very bad. Originally there were two love interests and all the way through you have this back and forth like they were not too sure who to make the lover. So much so, the guy who she ended up with was I love her like a sister in the begging and in the end was like I love you like a lover. Even though there were hints that he was the love interest. It was confusing. When they decided to kill the other lover guy with TB. It was like O so they decided to go with the other guy. It was just really odd. There was no development, so no emotional attachment as the watcher. It was like... so that just happened.

I hate the ending. I am still trying to work out if the main character died at the end or what. It was so vague.

Plot-wise there was definitely room to develop friendships and the story plot could have been developed so much more even in the battle scenes.