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alias_sqbrSince I have made so many of these reaction posts without meaning to I thought it would be good to write an introduction I can link to at the top. (How did this take me all day it was supposed to make my life easier...)
Introduction
About the games
Characters
My reaction posts, and brief reviews of each route
Notes
So! Hakuoki (or Hakuouki) is a Japanese series of games and anime set in the 1860s about the real 19th century Japanese samurai group The Shinsengumi, but with added supernatural elements. It covers the period of history during which it became clear that samurai weren't really going to be a thing any more. This post is primarily about the visual novel/dating sim contained in the games "Hakuoki: Kyoto Winds" and "Hakuoki: Edo Blossoms".
The protagonist of these games, Yukimura Chizuru, is a doctor's daughter in her late teens looking for her missing dad. She gets tangled up with the Shinsengumi and ends up living with them and becoming part of their lives during this bittersweet time, eventually falling in love with one of twelve men involved in the story (or not), depending on what choices the player makes.
It starts out kind of slow, with a heavy emphasis on the politics and real battles of the period, and then becomes INTENSE AND TROPEY AND AMAZING. I started out writing these summaries to share my reaction to some of the more bizarre plot twists but am now MADLY IN LOVE WITH ALL OF IT.
Ok, most of it, it's pretty heteronormative and ableist and the plot twists continue to be a little silly sometimes.
The political situation is pretty complicated but roughly speaking: Japan used to be ruled by it's Emperors, but for the last 260 years or so has been run by military dictators called Shoguns, with the Emperor as a figurehead. The Shinsengumi work for the Shogun as a police force for the city of Kyoto. Their enemies are the Nationalist Imperialists who want to oust the Shogun and give full power to the Emporer.
Content Notes: violence, transphobia (towards a cis person with Fantasy Gender Issues), ableism, gender essentialism and heteronormativity, dubious consent, terminal illness, a magical partial cure for said illness
The game names can be a little confusing. The base game was originally released in Japanese as "Hakuokouki: Shinsengumi Kitan" with 6 love interests. It was then released in English for the Playstation as as "Hakuoki: Fleeting Demon Blossom". It was then remade for the PC with 6 more love interests, and released as the two games "Hakuoki: Kyoto Winds" and "Hakuoki: Edo Blossoms". I am playing these PC versions.
If you want to buy the PC versions there's a bundle on Steam which seems to go on special moderately regularly.
The structure of these PC versions is that there's a single basic plotline for the first half, Kyoto Winds, where Chizuru gets to know everyone. There's a few splits into different scenes here and there based on player choice, and a unique final scene with whatever dude the game has decided Chizuru gets along with best. The second half, Edo Blossoms, divides into twelve entirely separate and distinct romances.
There's a bunch of other games, including varying versions of original game, DLCs, a fighting game, and a highschool AU. In particular, "Hakuouki: Reimeiroku" is a prequel visual novel that follows a young man called Ryunosuke Ibuki who gets entangled with the Shinsengumi a year or so before the events of Kyoto Winds/Edo Blossoms. All the paths are male friendship with background het.
The Hakuoki anime has 3 seasons.
The first two seasons cover the events of Hakuoki: Fleeting Demon Blossom, smooshing the original 6 paths into a single narrative. As far as I can tell they roughly follow the overall arc of the Hijikata path.
The third season is an adaptation of the prequel game "Hakuouki: Reimeiroku".
There's also like...musicals and stuff. It's Big In Japan.
I've used the names most commonly used by the narrative, usually their surname. I'm using Japanese name order, rather than the reversed order used by the translation. I also got some of them wrong in the images /o\
First, the 12 dudes you can romance! I give my opinions on each route in the reactions section further down.
Original love interests:
Harada Sanosuke/Sano: charming, friendly, a bit of a flirt.
Toudou Heisuke: Starts out young and good natured but a bit naive, then has to deal with Some Shit.
Kazama Chikage: The Villain, smugly arrogant and callous but weirdly hot
Okita Souji: Covers Deep Trauma with childishness and violence.
Saito Hajime: Quiet and emotionally restrained but polite and driven by duty.
Hijikata Toshizo/Toshi: pragmatic snarky hardass Commander who secretly cares deeply.
New Routes based on existing characters:
Nagakura Shinpachi/Shin: Lovable lug
Yamazaki Susumu: serious minded ninja
Sanan Keisuke: morally ambiguous scientist
Entirely new love interests:
Souma Kazue: young page who calls Chizuru "sempai"
Iba Hachiro: Princely childhood friend
Sakamoto Royoma: Revolutionary rogue who works for the enemy.
Non-romanceable characters I talk about a lot:
Yukimura Chizuru: The protagonist
Nagumo Kaoru: mysteriously looks like Chizuru
Yase Sen: A nice girl who would be a love interest if there was justice in the world
Yukimura Kodo: Chizuru's missing dad
Kondou Isami: Chief of the Shinsengumi
Amagiri Kyuujyu: A surprisingly helpful villain
Some minor Shinsengumi:
Kashitarou Itou: Smug imperialist
Miki Saburo: Itou's weirdly hot brother
Nomura Risaburo: the other page
Takeda Kanryusai: a dumb jerk
Inoue Genzaburo/Gen: a nice old man
Shimada Kai: a good natured everyman, shown here wearing the Shinsengumi uniform of a headband and blue coat with white triangles on the sleeves.
Other very minor characters:
Shiranui Ryo: The cheery villain with a gun!
Nakoaka Shintaro: A friend of Sakamoto's.
Motoyama Kotaro: A coworker of Iba's.
Kimigiku: Sen's hot lady ninja bodyguard
Ryunosuke Ibuki: An artist. He knew the Shinsengumi in the past, and is the protagonist of the prequel.
Dr Matsumoto: A nice doctor who works with the Shinsengumi.
Takasugi Shinsuke, not pictured: Shiranui's old boss, who died before the start of the game. Also known as "Shiranui's boyfriend" because of how intensely heartbroken Shiranui is about his death.
Posts are generally written on the assumption you've read the ones before but I try to (re)explain anything I think might be confusing. Unfortunately Okita and Harada got out of order, but I tried not to spoil anything if you'd rather read one character at a time.
Kazama: Asshole tsundere villain who is MUCH nicer to Chizuru on his route than off it, and ended up mostly winning me over.
Yamazaki: Quietly repressed ninja. This was fairly enjoyable.
Souma: Earnest and intense younger man. I liked the concept but found it underwritten.
Sanan: Polite, controlling, creepy, morally ambiguous scientist. Not entirely my jam but certainly an Experience.
Sakamoto: Imperialist revolutionary rogue with a heart of gold, which gave a very different perspective, and Chizuru is kind of tsundere. Fun! Downsides: sometimes a bit sleazy, some unfortunate transphobia.
Iba: INTENSELY BATSHIT CRAZY AND FUCKED UP. I liked it right until it hit my rape trigger.
Nagakura Shinpachi: good natured, fun loving meathead. Super cute.
Bad Endings:
To do: Chizuru path, Bad endings for Hijikata, Harada, Nagakura, Souma
This was a pretty good play order, but doing Hijikata first might have worked better, to get a full overview of the progression of the war before seeing it from more personal points of view. Kazama definitely goes last: either like I did at the end of the initial six love interests, or after everyone.
There is a VERY SIGNIFICANT surprise genre aspect that some people might not want to be spoiled for, and others might not like, but that made the game WAY more fun for me. If you're interested, watch the trailer for the second half.
Afaict "Fleeting Demon Blossom" is what the characters of "Hakuoki" mean in Japanese. Google translate says "demon" could also be "ghost", and "ghosts of fleeting beauty" is a pretty good summary for the bittersweet feelings the game has about the Shinsengumi and the samurai ideals they represented. I'm not into pure tragedy, and the happy endings have thus far been pretty happy as romances, but there's always some bittersweet feelings in there about the broader context.
Ages of various real people in 1864, with my guesses as to their fictional ages in brackets:
Iba: 19
Heisuke: 20 (18)
Saito: 20
Nomura: 20 (16)
Okita: 20-22
Yamazaki: 21
Souma: 21 (16)
Harada: 24
Nagakura: 25
Sakamoto: 28
Hijikata: 29
Itou: 29
Kondou: 30
Sanan: 31
Inoue: 35 (THIRTY FIVE??)
Shimada: 36
I would guess Chizuru as around 17.
Shinsengumi who were killed in 1863:
Niimi: 29
Serizawa: 38
Kyoto winds walkthroughs
Edo Blossoms walkthroughs
Introduction
About the games
Characters
My reaction posts, and brief reviews of each route
Notes
Introduction:
So! Hakuoki (or Hakuouki) is a Japanese series of games and anime set in the 1860s about the real 19th century Japanese samurai group The Shinsengumi, but with added supernatural elements. It covers the period of history during which it became clear that samurai weren't really going to be a thing any more. This post is primarily about the visual novel/dating sim contained in the games "Hakuoki: Kyoto Winds" and "Hakuoki: Edo Blossoms".
The protagonist of these games, Yukimura Chizuru, is a doctor's daughter in her late teens looking for her missing dad. She gets tangled up with the Shinsengumi and ends up living with them and becoming part of their lives during this bittersweet time, eventually falling in love with one of twelve men involved in the story (or not), depending on what choices the player makes.
It starts out kind of slow, with a heavy emphasis on the politics and real battles of the period, and then becomes INTENSE AND TROPEY AND AMAZING. I started out writing these summaries to share my reaction to some of the more bizarre plot twists but am now MADLY IN LOVE WITH ALL OF IT.
Ok, most of it, it's pretty heteronormative and ableist and the plot twists continue to be a little silly sometimes.
The political situation is pretty complicated but roughly speaking: Japan used to be ruled by it's Emperors, but for the last 260 years or so has been run by military dictators called Shoguns, with the Emperor as a figurehead. The Shinsengumi work for the Shogun as a police force for the city of Kyoto. Their enemies are the Nationalist Imperialists who want to oust the Shogun and give full power to the Emporer.
Content Notes: violence, transphobia (towards a cis person with Fantasy Gender Issues), ableism, gender essentialism and heteronormativity, dubious consent, terminal illness, a magical partial cure for said illness
About the Games:
The game names can be a little confusing. The base game was originally released in Japanese as "Hakuokouki: Shinsengumi Kitan" with 6 love interests. It was then released in English for the Playstation as as "Hakuoki: Fleeting Demon Blossom". It was then remade for the PC with 6 more love interests, and released as the two games "Hakuoki: Kyoto Winds" and "Hakuoki: Edo Blossoms". I am playing these PC versions.
If you want to buy the PC versions there's a bundle on Steam which seems to go on special moderately regularly.
The structure of these PC versions is that there's a single basic plotline for the first half, Kyoto Winds, where Chizuru gets to know everyone. There's a few splits into different scenes here and there based on player choice, and a unique final scene with whatever dude the game has decided Chizuru gets along with best. The second half, Edo Blossoms, divides into twelve entirely separate and distinct romances.
There's a bunch of other games, including varying versions of original game, DLCs, a fighting game, and a highschool AU. In particular, "Hakuouki: Reimeiroku" is a prequel visual novel that follows a young man called Ryunosuke Ibuki who gets entangled with the Shinsengumi a year or so before the events of Kyoto Winds/Edo Blossoms. All the paths are male friendship with background het.
The Hakuoki anime has 3 seasons.
The first two seasons cover the events of Hakuoki: Fleeting Demon Blossom, smooshing the original 6 paths into a single narrative. As far as I can tell they roughly follow the overall arc of the Hijikata path.
The third season is an adaptation of the prequel game "Hakuouki: Reimeiroku".
There's also like...musicals and stuff. It's Big In Japan.
Characters:
I've used the names most commonly used by the narrative, usually their surname. I'm using Japanese name order, rather than the reversed order used by the translation. I also got some of them wrong in the images /o\
First, the 12 dudes you can romance! I give my opinions on each route in the reactions section further down.
Original love interests:
Harada Sanosuke/Sano: charming, friendly, a bit of a flirt.
Toudou Heisuke: Starts out young and good natured but a bit naive, then has to deal with Some Shit.
Kazama Chikage: The Villain, smugly arrogant and callous but weirdly hot
Okita Souji: Covers Deep Trauma with childishness and violence.
Saito Hajime: Quiet and emotionally restrained but polite and driven by duty.
Hijikata Toshizo/Toshi: pragmatic snarky hardass Commander who secretly cares deeply.
New Routes based on existing characters:
Nagakura Shinpachi/Shin: Lovable lug
Yamazaki Susumu: serious minded ninja
Sanan Keisuke: morally ambiguous scientist
Entirely new love interests:
Souma Kazue: young page who calls Chizuru "sempai"
Iba Hachiro: Princely childhood friend
Sakamoto Royoma: Revolutionary rogue who works for the enemy.
Non-romanceable characters I talk about a lot:
Yukimura Chizuru: The protagonist
Nagumo Kaoru: mysteriously looks like Chizuru
Yase Sen: A nice girl who would be a love interest if there was justice in the world
Yukimura Kodo: Chizuru's missing dad
Kondou Isami: Chief of the Shinsengumi
Amagiri Kyuujyu: A surprisingly helpful villain
Some minor Shinsengumi:
Kashitarou Itou: Smug imperialist
Miki Saburo: Itou's weirdly hot brother
Nomura Risaburo: the other page
Takeda Kanryusai: a dumb jerk
Inoue Genzaburo/Gen: a nice old man
Shimada Kai: a good natured everyman, shown here wearing the Shinsengumi uniform of a headband and blue coat with white triangles on the sleeves.
Other very minor characters:
Shiranui Ryo: The cheery villain with a gun!
Nakoaka Shintaro: A friend of Sakamoto's.
Motoyama Kotaro: A coworker of Iba's.
Kimigiku: Sen's hot lady ninja bodyguard
Ryunosuke Ibuki: An artist. He knew the Shinsengumi in the past, and is the protagonist of the prequel.
Dr Matsumoto: A nice doctor who works with the Shinsengumi.
Takasugi Shinsuke, not pictured: Shiranui's old boss, who died before the start of the game. Also known as "Shiranui's boyfriend" because of how intensely heartbroken Shiranui is about his death.
My posts:
Posts are generally written on the assumption you've read the ones before but I try to (re)explain anything I think might be confusing. Unfortunately Okita and Harada got out of order, but I tried not to spoil anything if you'd rather read one character at a time.
- Saito: MY FAVE. Serious, quiet, duty-driven kuudere, quietly distressed about the destruction of his way of life and also Chizuru's cuteness.
- Hijikata: The default/primary love interest, a gruff but secretly sweet tsundere whose route has the highest ratio of history:romance. I loved it!
- Poll about who to romance next
- Heisuke: Sweet boyish cinnamon roll woobie who does his best to stay cheerful. Adorable.
- Okita and Harada:
Okita: a bitter, violent, chronically ill asshole who I hated at first but ended up really liking.
Harada: a charming, chivalrous guy who I started out liking but ended up finding too heteronormative. His route is apparently great if you like swoony traditional romance.
This was a pretty good play order, but doing Hijikata first might have worked better, to get a full overview of the progression of the war before seeing it from more personal points of view. Kazama definitely goes last: either like I did at the end of the initial six love interests, or after everyone.
Other notes:
There is a VERY SIGNIFICANT surprise genre aspect that some people might not want to be spoiled for, and others might not like, but that made the game WAY more fun for me. If you're interested, watch the trailer for the second half.
Afaict "Fleeting Demon Blossom" is what the characters of "Hakuoki" mean in Japanese. Google translate says "demon" could also be "ghost", and "ghosts of fleeting beauty" is a pretty good summary for the bittersweet feelings the game has about the Shinsengumi and the samurai ideals they represented. I'm not into pure tragedy, and the happy endings have thus far been pretty happy as romances, but there's always some bittersweet feelings in there about the broader context.
Ages of various real people in 1864, with my guesses as to their fictional ages in brackets:
Iba: 19
Heisuke: 20 (18)
Saito: 20
Nomura: 20 (16)
Okita: 20-22
Yamazaki: 21
Souma: 21 (16)
Harada: 24
Nagakura: 25
Sakamoto: 28
Hijikata: 29
Itou: 29
Kondou: 30
Sanan: 31
Inoue: 35 (THIRTY FIVE??)
Shimada: 36
I would guess Chizuru as around 17.
Shinsengumi who were killed in 1863:
Niimi: 29
Serizawa: 38
Kyoto winds walkthroughs
Edo Blossoms walkthroughs
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