So the first new series that I checked out from the Spring 2010 season turned out to be Hakuouki: Shinsengumi Kitan. Apart from Heroman, none of the other series on my current wishlist are out yet, so I’m sitting tight while sneaking occasional peeks at ANN’s Spring 2010 Anime Preview Guide 
My attention span is uber short these days and I can lose interest pretty quickly, but I found the first episode of Hakuouki: Shinsengumi Kitan to be a great watch. I basically turned off my brain for 30 minutes as I enjoyed the display of eye candy men parading in front of me. Which may sound rather demeaning, but I actually meant that in the most positive way possible; the show is purposely designed to show off all the bishonen anyways. Which this first episode did, successfully. There’s enough of a plot to keep the show moving along, but nothing too complicated (or overly cliche) to detract viewers from admiring the hot dudes.
In this first episode, we follow the main character Chizuru as she gets chased by outlaw samurais and hides in an alleyway. After witnessing a battle between the samurais, some weird zombie soldiers who killed the outlaws, and the “Shinsengumi” who came in the nick of time to slash the zombified bad guys dead, Chizuru was taken by the Shisengumi back to their Headquarters and interrogated (gently). Turns out, Chizuru is a girl disguised as a boy (surprise!) and she is looking for her father, who lost contact with her a month ago. As the Shinsengumi knew of her father and had been looking for him, they allow her to stay at HQ until he is found – thus assuring a season’s worth of episodes where a girl is legitimately surrounded by a bunch of attractive men.
It’s been a while since I’ve watched a show that had such a glorious cast of beautiful guys. I also liked the period setting, which reminds me of Rurouni Kenshin (and yes, I enjoyed the bishies in that series as well). The animation is pretty, and… that’s about all I can say. Since my train of thought when watching this episode basically consisted of the words “pretty” and “hot” repeating mindlessly in my head. I had really low expectations for this show since I knew it was based on a game, but the first episode turned out to be better than I thought. Because it was pretty. And the guys are hot. Which – is ok!
Related posts:
So I watched this last night. I agree completely about the barage of hot men, but I’ll have to watch at least the next episode to form any real opinion about the show lol. It seemed entertaining, but I don’t know yet.
Episode 2 is out, did you see? I’m torrenting it now xD Will probably hold off on checking it out for at least another week though… I’ve picked up so many shows at once – some new but mostly old stuff – that it’s getting ridiculous. And with my short attention span, I’ll probably never get around to finishing all of them ; D;
Oh it’s out? I will grab it then. And probably watch it tonight.
I’m trying to do like, two current shows, and then marathoning the others in about three episode rounds each night. So far it’s worked well. I just finished xxxHolic that way lol. But there’s a handful of things I want to watch this season so. . .
Yeah – lemme know what you think about HSK ep. 02
and if anything else new this season is worth checking out. I’m still waiting for several others from my wishlist to pop up… apart from Heroman, and I’m saving that until I catch up with some of the backlog from my other series ; -;
Episode 2 left me feeling like this experience will be much like it was watching 07-Ghost: I will curse it constantly and enjoy ever last minute. D: I know I’m going to keep watching it, so, that’s where that is. Although not really living up to the impression I had when reading up on it. i__i
Currentererer things will probably the Yusuke Nakamura and House Leaves thing shows, and the OVAs for Darker than Black (if there’s more, I know the last one was March 24th) and xxxHolic. .___.
But, have you been watching DuRaRaRa!. . . ? It’s my main current one right now and I ♥ it. For realies.
Hahaha nothing wrong with mindless entertainment!
DuRaRaRa! is definitely on my watchlist, since one of my best college buds fell in love with Baccano! and recommended it, I picked up both since they’re made by the same people? But yeah, sitting on both for now. Since I re-started Eden of the East a few days ago (another college bud recommendation); I watched the first episode when it first came out and was kinda like “meh,” but then I found out the character design was by the creator of Honey & Clover and decided to give it another shot. And now I like it, but man. I don’t watch anime for the right reasons
I started watching a couple of the episodes this evening. Yup, there is a handful of eyecandy…and I sure did enjoy it. The story itself isn’t exactly the most captivating yet, but I think I would be able to brave my way through the entire series.
The sexy men are a huge perk though….
Yeah, definitely. Just watched an episode, and it really is all about the sexy men, although some of the slow-mo fanservice scenes are starting to make me cringe. Also, Chizuru as the main character is kind of gallingly useless… I get the feeling she’s going to start annoying me more as the series progresses
Some of the historical events referenced in Hakuouki so far echo Rurouni Kenshin, which I loved, so that kinda helps as well :]