Hakuoki – Analysing Toudou Heisuke route
Third time playing the game and somehow I ended up gaining favour with 3 out of 5 captains though of course as I shared earlier, you would need to focus if you want to get a happy ending.
Heisuke (as he prefers to be called by his first name since he is of similar age to the protagonist) was no. 3. He is what I would describe as the innocent, naive guy who is adorable, cheers you up endlessly, loves his friends but on the other hand tends to shoot off his mouth without thinking and lacks a dose of reality.
Amongst the characters, his fighting skill is also the lowest which is why in the development of the story, he and the protagonist are helped by other characters to overcome their challenges.
So here’s how the story progresses (spoiler alert).
1. Heisuke was the only one who was clueless about the protagonist gender. To add to that, he got reprimanded a few times for speaking without thinking adding to the innocence and naivety of his nature. His eyes were also drawn proportionately bigger probably to illustrate this point so I have to say he didn’t appeal to me from the start. I did say I am attracted to intelligent men.
2. The key turning point in the story development for Heisuke came when he decided to leave the Shinsengumi to join Itou with Saito. We know that Saito was acting as a spy but Heisuke actually believed that Itou had a vision when it was clear that he was just a conniving snake. It all goes to show how vulnerable Heisuke is in this grown men’s world of politics.
It took his life for him to finally come back to Shinsengumi and survive only as a fury. (I hope this is the last of the guys who become furies, I don’t have so much blood to spare). The protagonist chooses to be with Heisuke because he recklessly gave up his life to save her. I cannot say that I didn’t do it out of pity and in fact throughout the rest of the story, the protagonist did play the stronger character to coax Heisuke not to give up on life. Giving him a tight slap being one of them. Surprisingly I chose the right action to take on both counts too!
When Heisuke finally decided to leave the Guardians, he proclaimed that he didn’t know what his life stood for anymore and so decided that he would live for the one thing that mattered to him – me. Aww…
3. Throughout the story, Heisuke certainly didn’t give me any confidence that we would be able to survive the whole mess together which was why the introduction of Sen and Kazama was a welcome relief. I guess that’s how innocent people are. Because of their demeanour, they don’t pose any danger to anyone so it is easier to get help. In a way, I guess I am pretty much like Heisuke myself. They say like poles repel. Ironically I thought that Kazama was quite a cool guy!
4. Towards the end, Heisuke rose up to the challenge and defeated Sanan and his fanatical dream of a kingdom of furies. Somehow along the way, I realised that even though there wasn’t much romantic feelings going on with Heisuke, I did smile more with this story than the other two. And towards the end, I also found that Heisuke was rather charming in his own ways. I think we shouldn’t always be too quick to judge other people on first appearances and look deeper.
Sometimes perhaps it might do your sanity some good to just go for straightforward love without its myriad of tragedies, twists and turns.
Halfway through the game and I find myself immersing in the history describing the last years of the Edo period before the samurai class was abolished. There is a certain sadness about it especially when you realised that these characters had indeed lived once. Perhaps I might walk the paths they had walked before when I visit Kyoto.