Hakuoki: Demon of the Fleeting Blossom – Record of the Jade Blood

“Why have I fought so hard? What the hell was everything for?” Toshizo Hijikata

Japan is in the middle of a civil war. It’s 1868 and matters go from bad to worse for the few remaining members of the elite Shinsengumi as they continue to fight on behalf of the Bakufu and are drawn into the Boshin War. They adopt western-style military uniforms and cut their hair (all except their commander, Kondo) but Okita, once the charismatic demon swordsman, has become an invalid, wracked by tuberculosis and left behind on his sick-bed. Many bloody skirmishes and battles occur, emphasizing again the problems of the sword-wielding warriors, trying to fight by their ancient code of honour, but increasingly struggling to succeed against rifles and cannon. Chizuru continues to accompany them, selflessly offering her Demon blood to heal Hijikata-san on more than one occasion.

At the conclusion, we learn the true significance of the title of the series: Hakuoki.

The Shinsengumi are fascinating, not just to writers, but to historians as well, often portrayed, as here, as doomed, tragic figures, fighting for a vanishing way of life (even if the real versions were not quite so impossibly romantic, idealistic, or beautiful to look at). However, in this series, genuine historical events and the fantasy sub-plot of the Furies, blood-drinking fighting men created by Chizuru’s ‘father’, Kodo, collide head-on, with mixed results. The fights are well animated and convincingly bloody. The settings and costumes are also relatively accurately portrayed (the character designers obviously used the contemporary portrait photograph of Toshizo Hijikata in western-style uniform as reference).

But for a series which goes to so much trouble to establish its historical credentials, the ‘other’ strand involving heroine Chizuru’s ‘Devil’ heritage and the creation of the superhuman zombie/vampire soldiers called Furies feels increasingly redundant. We get to meet Kodo (who was absent throughout the first series) but to no real purpose, except as a kind of Dr Frankenstein figure, urging his mindless fighter-puppets on with a mad gleam in his eyes. And the potential of Chizuru’s identity as a Yukimura and her links with the long-lived Demons is thrown away as the scriptwriters seem unable to decide the true significance of that plotline.They opt instead to have her traipse after her beloved Hijikata-san until the bitter end. Well yes, it is based on that reverse harem game, so this has to be the ‘Hijikata’ version of the game’s many bishounen options. Unfortunately, as history tells us exactly what became of the last members of the Shinsengumi, which ones survived the events of 1868-9 and which ones didn’t, the ending of this anime is grimly predictable. If only the creative team had opted to use either the historical approach or the fantasy version – and not tried to make the two work together. Or perhaps they were promised more episodes and then had to cram everything into ten (Series 1 has twelve).

The designs for the lead characters are as striking as before and the voice actors in both dub and sub are affecting in their moments of bravado and self-sacrifice. (Although there are some odd hiccups in the dub version where the actors seem not to have ‘got’ the whole meaning of a line. Maybe it was a lip sync problem. It’s not something one comes across so much these days.) New feisty Opening Theme is “Maikaze” by Aika Yoshioka and the romantic ballad Ending Theme is “Akane Sora ni Negafu”  by mao.

Extras comprise textless opening and ending themes.

Without the lively, good-natured camaraderie of the Shinsengumi depicted in the first season of Hakuoki to lighten the mood, this second season produces an increasingly unsatisfying melange of dour historical saga, reverse harem wish-fulfilment, and demon-themed fantasy. Nevertheless, the historical insights, when they come, are fascinating. Don’t watch this series if you’re feeling down, even though the episodes have poetically pretty titles like ‘Fleeting Dream’ and ‘The Blooming Hepatica’ (yup, I had to look it up, it’s a blue flower).