Hakuouki: Kyoto Ranbu [review pt.1]

こんにちは　みなさん~

Today this post will be dedicated for the two movies of Hakuouki. The movies have the same plotline as the series except for a few details that are different.

We could say that Hakuouki Kyoto Ranbu = Hakuouki Shinsengumi Kitan and Hakuouki Shikon Soukyuu = Hakuouki Hekkeretsuroku
Note that this post will be a review for Kyoto Ranbu and that there will be a post for Shikon Soukyuu later on, otherwise this will be too long.

Yukimura Chizuru [found on Zerochan]

But first let's take a look at the plotline for people new to this series:

Chizuru Yukimura heads to Kyoto to search for her father, finding herself attacked by madden men before they are cut down by members of the Shinsengumi who take her into custody for interrogation. Upon learning that she is a girl and the daughter of a doctor who developed the Water of Life elixir that turns those that drink it into invincible blood lusting berserkers called Rasetsu (羅刹, "Furies" in English dub), the Shinsengumi decide to keep her as an aide in their search. In time, as the Shinsengumi aid the shogunate in the Bakufu, Chizuru begins to develop a bond with the Shinsengumi and its aloof member Toshizo Hijikata. However, as time passes, Chizuru and Shinsengumi confront a mysterious faction who call themselves Oni (Devils) and that Chizuru is also an Oni with father revealed to be experimenting on the Water of Life to create the Rasetsu to wipe out the human race.

from Wikipedia

My thoughts

Chizuru and Kaoru running away

I actually find it interesting to have the movies seen after the series. It gives you answer a few questions that were made during the series like: why didn't we see Shiranui Kyo together with Chikage Kazama and Kyuujyu Amagiri during Ikedaya incident... sorry this was the only one that came up in my brain for now...I have a poopbrain sometimes...

At the beginning of the movie we could see child Chizuru and Kaoru her older twinbrother running away from a village that was set on fire. Chizuru falls and got separated from her brother. We see her running and the image slowly changes in the Chizuru we know, that is running away from samurai. But they encountered some rasetsu.
Rasetsu have a huge amount of power to fight, but that power can be so huge that it gets out of control. There are 2 ways to stop the rasetsu: eitherway it's to give the rasetsu blood to calm them down, or a much more horrible way is to kill the rasetsu. but dont worry, when the shinsengumi kills a rasetsu, it's mostly the reason of that they lost their human side.

Kazama tries to kidnap Chizuru

During the Ikedaya Incident

During the Ikedaya Incident, Chikage Kazama, the pure-blood demon from the west, was about to kill Okita Souji. Suddenly Chizuru jumped in and protected Souji. Although Chizuru got a knifen cut, it immediately heels and her eye color changed from brown to golden. From that point Kazama found a female demon and not just any female demon, but a pure-blood demon from the east. Apparantly female demons are very rare in the story. But Chizuru doesn't believe she is a demon although she admit that healing super fast was already been there since she was a child.
After this incident, Kazama, together with Amagiri and Kyo, returns and tries to kidnap Chizuru. When Sannan-san was about to be killed by Kazama, Hijikata ran towards him to stop, but got hit by Kazama. Kazama walks towards him and points his sword towards Hijikata. Chizuru, once again, comes between them and got a cut again, but heals again super quick. Kazama convinces Chizuru again that she is a pure-blood demon. Chizuru loses her balance hearing what Kazama says, but Hijikata stands up and swears to protect Chizuru, saying that no one in the Shinsengumi is human, because the Shinsengumi are also called the Wolves of Mibu.

In my opinion Chizuru in the movie is more likable than the one in the series. We could see Chizuru's demon form which was for me something good. I've always wanted to know how she looked with white/silver hair and horns ok I know i can photoshop that, but I'm kinda lazy for that...
In the movie we could also see the romance between Hijikata and Chizuru that starts to bloom~

Kaoru leads Chizuru to her father

Coughing Okita meets Kaoru

Shinpachi brings wounded Heisuke

Meanwhile Souji who goes around with Chizuru to find her father, started to cough and meets Kaoru. In the series we could see Souji being a man and saved Kaoru from some ronin. Kaoru found out that his sister was actually around Souji and told her not to let a sick man alone. Chizuru later founds out that Souji actually has tuberculosis, which was a incurable decease at that time.
Chizuru knows about that tuberculosis in the series, when she happens to hear the conversation between Matsumoto-sensei and Souji.

On the night where the Shinsengumi were going to kill Itou Kashitarou, who betrayed the Shinsengumi, Heisuke got attacked by the guardians of the Imperial Tomb. The reason is unknown why he got attacked, knowing that Heisuke joined the party of Itou. His wounds were too deep for Yamazaki to heal him. The only solution, offered by Sannan-san, was the ochimizu. He eventually drinks it, but with a disgust of knowing that he is not human anymore.
In the series Heisuke's insuries were caused by Amagiri, the ochimizu part is still the same though.

One day Kaoru sneaked in to find Chizuru. He leads her somewhere far away from the basecamp of the Shinsengumi. There Chizuru got reunited with her father. Her father wants her to join Kaoru and him to rebuild the Yukimura clan, using the ochimizu. Knowing the bad motives of her father, she refuses to join them. Her father almost had to use force to take her away, but Hijikata and the other captains, who followed Chizuru from the beginning, came out to protect her.
Funny thing that we actually never saw Kodou-san Chizuru's father in the first season of the series, except the beginning when he went to Kyoto. We also never really saw Kaoru and Kodou-san together in one frame...

Sannan-san's ochimizu

Hijikata shares his onigiri with Chizuru

In the panel on the left: This is the scene where Sannan-san and Hijikata propose the ochimizu (the water of life that turns humans into demons) to Gen-san, Harada, Shinpachi and Saito. The reason why Sannan is proposing this, is because they dont have enough soldiers to continue to fight. Everyone except Shinpachi takes the ochimizu, since it might come in handy to have it. Shinpachi simply refuses it, since he wanted to die on the field as a human instead of being a rasetsu.

In the panel on the right: This scene is where the shinsengumi are at their basecamp. Chizuru us treating the wounded soldiers and also provides them onigiri. This scene litterally made me squeel like a little duckling i have no idea if ducklings can squeel... Hijikata, the demon commander, just shared his food with Chizuru. And I already wondered why Hijikata saved his onigiri for later. But they got interfered by Yamazaki that crawls to them to report that the enemy is atacking. Here we have another ending for Yamazaki. In the series he dies from stopping the fight between Hijikata and Kazama. While in the movie, we never actually know if Yamazaki died or not...

    

Hijikata swears to protect Chizuru

Hijikata drinking the ochimizu

The last scene that I'm going to give my opinion, is the ending scene where Hijikata drinks the ochimizu to fight Kazama. I really adore the quote of Hijikata:
"A fake, you say? And what if I am? Never in my whole life have they treated us like real warriors. It doesn't matter if we are fake, you push long enough and you'll eventually become the real thing!"
This really is my quote! I can relate myself with this quote of Hijikata. As an Asian that lives in Europe, it's hard for getting accepted by the local people...Even if you have the citizenship of that country. Even if you are returning to your own country, they wont accept you...In other words we, people, like ABC's (American Born Chinese) are hard to get accepted by the community...

Ok enough with the serious topic.
While the fight between Hijikata and Kazama gets rough, Amagiri gets in between them to stop them. In the series we can see that Amagiri actually only stopped Kazama and Yamazaki stopped Hijikata. Another difference between the movie and the series, is that demons are really moving quick, like REALLY QUICK, Flash quick!

In the next panel we can see that the both Hijikata and Chizuru are surrounded by the enemy. This is yet another sweet scene between the two. Why? Well Hijikata swears to Chizuru he'll protect her and bring her back to Edo. That moment Chizuru broke in tears and together they run towards the enemy.

~THE END OF HAKUOUKI KYOTO RANBU~

Please tell me about how you feel towards the movie and what you liked about that movie.I would love to hear about what you guys find about it.

Please look forwards for pt. 2 aka Shikon Soukyuu. If you also want me to make a review of the series, please tell.

またまたね~