Hakuouki

Hakuouki is an anime series based on a set of otome games of the same name. The anime is split into two seasons, Hakuouki Shinsengumi Kitan which ran for twelve episodes beginning in April of 2010, and Hakuouki Hekketsuroku, which picks up where the first season left off. Both seasons are produced by Studio DEEN.

In Kyoto, Japan, near the end of the Edo period, a young boy is being chased through the streets at night by a pair of revolutionaries loyal to the Emperor. Hiding in an alley, the boy is horrified to witness his pursuers' brutal murder at the hands of demonic looking men with glowing red eyes, who laugh maniacally as they hack their victims to pieces. When the fiends turn their attention to the boy, his life is only spared by the timely appearance of two samurai belonging to a group of powerful warriors loyal to the Shogun, known as the Shinsengumi. Unsure just where the boy's loyalties lie, the Shinsengumi take him into custody and return him to their headquarters.

The next day, they are shocked to discover that the "boy" being held prisoner is, in fact, a girl named Chizuru Yukimura. Chizuru came to Kyoto in search of her missing father, an accomplished doctor of western medicine who she suddenly lost contact with several months ago. When the Shinsengumi reveal that they too have been in search of Dr. Yukimura in relation to the strange attacks that have been plaguing the city, they allow Chizuru to remain under their care and assist with the search. Agreeing to continue living as a boy so as not to distract the men who serve her new benefactors, Chizuru quickly becomes acclimated to their lifestyle and grows to genuinely care for each of them.

Her life soon becomes anything but peaceful, as the Shinsengumi's enemies seek to overthrow the Shogun and those loyal to him at any cost. At the same time, both the numbers and ferocity of the crazed men that Chizuru's protectors cryptically refer to as "failed soldiers" continue to increase. In the midst of one of the most chaotic eras in Kyoto's history, Chizuru grows determined to do everything she can to protect the lives of her new comrade.

Aksys also has released the game in the US in 2012.

Tropes used in Hakuouki include:

• Adaptation Distillation/Adaptation Expansion: The anime mainly follows Hijikata's route in the game but adds important scenes from other routes as well as anime-original endings for Okita and Sanosuke who simply disappear in Hijikata's game route.
• The Anime of the Game
• Anyone Can Die: Played to the extreme in Season 2. Don't get too attached to the characters...
  • Chizuru doesn't die, and it's debatable whether or not Hijikata actually does. Considering what else has happened, it wouldn't be a surprise for him to actually end up having died, but it's rather vague; it can easily be interpreted that he did indeed survive.
• Asskicking Pose: Nearly every single character has one of these in the game.
• Band of Brothers: The Shinsengumi start out as something of a Ragtag Bunch of Misfits in Reimeiroku and slowly evolve into a Badass Crew, before everything ultimately starts falling apart.
• Bishonen: EVERYWHERE.
• Bittersweet Ending: Each of the character endings in the game. Although Harada's could subvert this, it still comes with a lot of character deaths along the way.
• Blade on a Stick: Sanosuke's preferred weapon is a spear.
• Blond Guys Are Evil: Kazama.
• Blood Lust: The Rasetsu often expressed cravings for blood.
• Cast from Hit Points: Rasetsu gain Super Strength, lightening reflexes and a Healing Factor at the cost of shortening their lives.
  • In the game, "Furies" are immortal until killed, but at the cost of exhaustion when going out in the daytime, and a loss of sanity which can cause them to lose all control when they smell blood. Okita Souji, after taking the Water of Life, admits to Chizuru that being no longer human means he believes he no longer has a soul.
• Cast Full of Pretty Boys: Justified since this is about a military sect, though the presence of Chizuru makes this more of a Reverse Harem situation.
• The Chick: Chizuru quickly becomes this for the Shinsengumi, and the feminine touch she adds to the group is welcomed by most of its members.
• Cherry Blossoms: Both in the title and the final scene of the anime. It's a motif prevalent throughout.
• Conservation of Ninjutsu
• Doomed Moral Victor: The Shinsengumi, from in the Normal route.
• Determinator: All of the Shinsengumi members, but especially Okita.
• Downer Ending: The WHOLE of Hekketsuroku, minus the first 2 or 3 episodes, is basically one long carthartic trip.
  • The Normal Ending in the original game is extremely depressing.
• Dropped a Bridget On Him: Nagumo Kaoru to Okita and the viewers. Can't be helped since he looks identical to Chizuru, his twin sister.
• End of an Age: The end of an era is one of main themes in Hakuouki.
• Ensemble Darkhorse: Hajime in the Japanese fandom.
• Estrogen Brigade Bait: Nearly all of the high ranking members of the Shinsengumi are Bishonen, though given the source material this shouldn't come as a surprise.
• Firing One-Handed: Whenever Kyou shoots his gun.
• Foe Yay: Probably unintentional, but this picture from the second season ED.
• Foregone Conclusion: One only needs to take a quick look at The Other Wiki to know that it's gonna get worse.
• From Bad to Worse: Season 1 of the anime follows the Shinsengumi as they gain power, but season 2 depicts their decline and remains quite faithful to history.
  • For greater detail of the decline: Due to circumstances, Okita Souji, Sannan/Yamanami Keisuke and Heisuke find themselves figuratively stuck between a rock and a hard place -- ultimately choosing to become Rasetsu in order to fight, or continue being useful to the Shinsengumi. That's great and all, but it's essentially a death sentence and they're liable to go crazy with bloodlust. Towards the end/middle-to-end of Season 1, Chizuru finds out that she's an Oni. Being a female Oni, she's highly sought after by other Oni -- particularly by Chikage, who torments the Shinsengumi and Chizuru in order to get her. It was Amagiri, one of Chikage's followers, who hurt Heisuke so badly that the latter had to become a Rasetsu or face immediate death. Then we find out that Chizuru's long-lost twin brother, Kaoru, wants to exact revenge against his sister. He tricked Souji into becoming a Rasetsu, telling him it would cure his tuberculosis -- presumably to simply hurt Chizuru by hurting her friends. And then the Imperial court essentially throws the Shogunate under the bus, abandoning them and, by extension, the Shinsengumi, garnering the support of many clans alongside the original support of Choushuu and the Satsuma clan. In addition, the Shogunate and the Shinsengumi suffer heavy losses. Not to mention Kondou is severely wounded from an assassination attempt, one encouraged by Kaoru, and Souji has been shot with silver bullets -- which negates the super-healing Rasetsu have. Then Season 2 kicks off.
• Important Haircut: Most of the main characters get one in the second half of Shinsengumi Kitan, as they are forced to move with the times.
• Genki Girl: Sen-hime.
• The Good Captain: Kondou.
• Good Is Old-Fashioned
• Grasp the Sun: Okita Souji in the second OP.
• Hard Work Hardly Works
• Half-Identical Twins: Chizuru and Kaoru.
• Healing Factor: The Rasetsu, and the Oni including Chizuru.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Most of the Shinsengumi in the anime, apart from Hijikata.
• Heroic Spirit
• Heterosexual Life Partners: Harada and Nagakura in the game.
• Hey, It's That Voice!/Names to Know in Anime: Plenty, considering the source.
  • Chizuru is Houko Kuwashima.
  • Hijikata is Shinichiro Miki.
  • Okita is Showtaro Morikubo.
  • Hajime is Kosuke Toriumi.
  • Kondou is Tohru Ookawa.
  • Sanosuke is Koji Yusa.
  • Heisuke is Hiroyuki Yoshino.
  • Kazama is Kenjiro Tsuda.
  • Yamanami is Nobuo Tobita.
  • Ryuunosuke, the protagonist of the prequel game is none other than Tomokazu Seki.
  • Serizawa, who also appears on the prequel game is voiced by Joji Nakata.
• Historical Beauty Update
• Historical Domain Characters
• Historical Fiction
• Honor Before Reason: All of the Shinsengumi, in fact probably the whole point of the story.
• Ill Boy: Okita from 'round Episode 8 onward.
• Implausible Fencing Powers: Whenever Sanosuke fights Kyou.
• Ineffectual Death Threats: Okita to Chizuru several times throughout the series.
• Incurable Cough of Death: Three guesses who.
• The Infiltration: When Hajime leaves the Shinsengumi for Itou's group in the anime.
  • Also when Sannan-san "joins forces" with Koudou.
• Jidai Geki
• Kill'Em All: The anime's second season.
• Kid Hero: Heisuke.
• Last Stand: Okita.
• Limited Wardrobe: Chizuru really doesn't wear anything else but that pink hakamata (worn over with a white hakama) since she became the Shinsengumi's tag-along.
• Mad Scientist's Beautiful Daughter: As of Episode 2 of Hekketsuroku (the second season), Koudou definitely qualifies as a full-fledged Mad Scientist, and Chizuru is certainly lovely when she actually dresses like a woman anyway.
  • Then comes the wall-banger: Chizuru isn't Koudou's daughter at all! She's adopted! Whatever.
• Manly Tears: Hijikata for both Kondou and Okita.
• Mood Whiplash
• Mooks
• Multiple Endings: Like the Neo Romance series, a number of OVAs are being realeased that will focus on the game ending of Okita, Sanosuke etc.
• Nakama
• Nerds Are Sexy: Yamanami (Sannan-san).
• No Body Left Behind: Rasetsu crumbles into dust when their lifeforce is used up. This happens to Heisuke and Sannan-san and is implied to have happened to Okita.
• Our Vampires Are Different: They are called Rasetsu and are turned through drinking a red liquid which is revealed, in Toudou's route, to be made from demonic blood), resulting in their hair turning white. They still lust for blood, can't stand the sun and are ridiculously hard to kill.
• Nonstandard Game Over: Lots and lots of them.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: Most of the Shinsengumi realized Chizuru was a girl straight away.
• Periphery Demographic: Two groups. The male fanbase who are here for the sword and history and the Yaoi Fangirls who ignore Chizuru and ship the members of the Shinsengumi with each other instead.
• The Power of Friendship
• Prequel: Hakuouki Reimeiroku.
• Psycho Serum: The Ochimizu, which has its major pros and cons.
• Purple Eyes: Hijikata and Yamazaki.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Played straight with the Rasetsu, who are most certainly psychotic. Slightly subverted with Kazama, who is not that evil but still dangerous.
• Red Light District: Shimabara and Yoshiwara.
• Ronin
• Romantic Plot Tumor: Surprisingly averted in the anime considering it's Romance Game origin. Hijikata and Chizuru didn't become an Official Couple till the second-to-last episode and the plot just marched right on after that and kicked the romance aside.
• Running Gag: Hijikata's haiku.
• Samurai: No kidding.
• The Shinsengumi
• Shirtless Scene: A gratuitous Shinsengumi health inspection that even involved a flex-off!
  • Parodied in Sweet School Life.
• Seppuku: Well, this thing is about samurai.
• The Stoic: Hajime definitely. Hijikata to some extent.
  • Also Amagiri Kyuuju, who always fights rather grudgingly.
• Sweet Polly Oliver: Chizuru.
• Sword Fight: The bread and butter of the series. One of two reasons why this actually has a male fanbase as well.
• Talking Is a Free Action: Almost everyone gets in a few Last Words, be it a speech before their Heroic Sacrifice in the midst of battle with explosions all around, or a Final Speech after being mortally wounded.
• Team Spirit
• Tear Jerker: Hijikata's speech in Episode 16 after Kondou was taken by the enemy.
  • Episode 18 starts badly with a flashback of Kondou being executed, follows with Harada dying from a wound he sustained in a battle against Koudou and tops it off with Okita's Heroic Sacrifice as he uses up his life force to defend a wounded Hijikata from an assassin squad... then crumbles into dust.
• Title Drop: In the final episode, it is revealed that Hakuouki is actually the name Chikage gave Hijikata to acknowledge him as worthy of being called an Oni.
• Title Theme Drop/Last Episode Theme Reprise: The title music starts playing for the first time during the game just as Hijikata and Kazama are having their climactic final duel.
• Tragedy: Again, it was a Foregone Conclusion from the start.
• War Is Hell: Especially when seen from Chizuru's angle in the Normal route.
• We Named the Cat "Toshizo": In one of the drama CDs. Hijikata is not amused when he finds out.
• White-Haired Pretty Boy: Whenever any of the Shinsengumi go into Rasetsu mode.
• Wholesome Crossdresser: 19 episodes, and we have only seen Chizuru in anything remotely feminine twice.
• Worthy Opponent: Hijikata for Kazama.
• Yandere: Okita for Kondou.
• You Shall Not Pass: Invoked by Hajime in Episode 19.
• You Wouldn't Hit a Guy with Glasses: Subverted with Yamanami many times after he turns Rasetsu.