And so starts the second major arc of Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohanihoheto. I’m still not sure what the troupe is going to do, as so far, it seems to be entirely focusing on Akizuki. This episode especially delivered a great deal of background from his side. The new major antagonist also has yet to be introduced as well, apart from Soutetsu, that is.
As expected, a few new faces and names appear in this episode. First of all, the army which we saw in the past few episodes seemed to be heading for Yokohama. Something tells me that it’s going to play a rather significant role in the next few episodes. How will this involve Akizuki? In any case, the commander of this army is Oomura Mazushirou. At least, I think he is. He’s in any case the strategic planner. An acquaintance of Katsu also came with this army. I think he oversees the delivery of supplies. I don’t think his name was mentioned. Either that, or I couldn’t pick it up.
We also get introduced to Sakamoto Ryouma’s wife, Oryo. Akizuki will probably meet her in the next episode. For now, she’s staying with the troupe. She currently is the only tie to the main story they’ve left. Akizuki, meanwhile, runs into an acquaintance of his own. When he was young, he trained at a dojo. The strongest member of this dojo was Okita. It’s interesting to see that Akizuki already had this huge determination he’s got now. I think Okita will be a temporary character, though. He didn’t look too healthy during this episode, coughing up blood and running off on his own despite this injury and all.
This episode also gave a very clear view of Akizuki’s time with Sakamoto, instead of the flashes we’ve been seeing during the previous episodes. It seems that Sakamoto was killed by an unknown group, different from the Shinsengumi. It’s also interesting to note that right before Akizuki met Sakamoto for the first time, he detected a spirit, or supernatural activity. When he started to go after it, he found Sakamoto instead.
It’s really been a great episode. Despite it mostly spent its time introducing the upcoming arc and its characters and providing background info on Akizuki, all these things succeeded each other in a quick pace, making this episode very enjoyable. So many things happened during this episode, and for once, none really felt out of place, compared to the previous episodes, which were sortof bothered by the brainwashing scenes.
Okita.. i think he was an actual figure in the Shinsengumi. Peace Maker Kurogane actually features him as a main secondary character who is also very sickly..