May 18, 2004
Peacemaker Kurogane is official
Well, it's finally official. ADV announced the aquisition of Peace Maker Kurogane and has estimated a fall 2004 release. My thoughts on this. It makes me happy to see PMK getting a North American release, and I certainly hope ADV does the series justice when dubbing it. IMO, ADV's dubbing quality can either be A: Fantastic or B: Utter Crap. There's usally no middle ground for them.
So what's Peace Maker Kurogane about? Well, samurai of course. The story begins during the Meji Revolution when Japan was at a turning point in their history. The topple of the Tokugawa opened the doors to Japan's modernization and entry into the world as a progressive country.
Tetsunosuke is a 15 year old boy, orphaned after his parents are brutally murdered by the revolutionairies. He's determined to join the Shinsengumi, and elite group of fighters opposing the modernization of Japan. However, he discovers that just joining the army isn't as easy as it seems. He finds himself a lowly page to the Shinsengumi's second in command, Hijikata. And it appears that Hijikata doesn't like him much. Forced to serve tea and do menial chores, Testu has a lot of time to ponder his decisions. He gets a first hand glimpse of what war really is and what it does to it's victims.
Along the way, Tetsu befriends many of the other soliders living in the barracks. His biggest advocate is Okita Soujiro, a happy go lucky, feminine looking young man with a horrible cough. Tetsu quickly finds out that despite Okita's pleasant and childlike manner, the young man is a deadly killer and possilby the best swordsman inside the Shinsengumi. Though the anime only briefly touches on the subject, Okita is slowly dying from tuberculousis. The other members of the Shinsengumi take Tetsu under their wing, giving the pet name "puppy" and constantly get him into trouble with his master, Hijikata.
However, there are others inside the barracks that don't care for Tetsu naivetee and immaturity. Hijikata aside, Tetsu runs afoul of Susumu, the Shinsengumi's resident shinobi (ninja). Though as things progress, Susumu stops taking himself so seriously and starts to warm up to Tetsu's invigorating spirited nature.
Peacemaker Kurogane is a dramatic series. The show is emotional, as the characters experience the horrors of war and the pain of death. There's a bit of well placed humor thrown in, such as the theft of Hijikata's horrible book of hiku, but for the most part the series focuses on Tetsu's quest to understand if his path to revenge is the right one. He had hoped to find the killer of his parents and execute him, but as he sees more and more of his friends struggle, he begins to doubt his motivations.
Honestly, I really enjoyed this show. The animation is incredibly beautiful and the music is amazing (so much infact I bought the soundtrack). However, I was disappointed in it's content, but perhaps I'm baised after reading the orginal manga (Shinsengumi Imon Peacemaker and Peacemaker Kurogane). The anime follows the first manga, Shinsengumi Imon Peacemaker, keeping with the plot of Tetsu's quest for revenge. Yet, it started to throw in elements of Peacemaker Kurogane (the second manga) at random and that's what threw the show completely off base. The PMK manga is more supernatural and wierd, while SIMP is mainstream and realistic. The supernatural elements just didn't fit well with the overall tone of the show, and when at the end, none of it made sense and a ton of stuff was left unfinished. That bugged me. It really threw things off and nearly ruined what could possibly have been one of the best anime of this year.
Still, despite being a bit disappointed in the content, I did love the show and recommend it to everyone to watch. It's so emotionally charged, it's worth checking out. Just ignore all the supernatural mumbo jumbo, you wouldn't understand what's going on without reading the PMK manga (which is due for a NA release as well by ADV manga). Just keep an eye on Tetsu and his friends, that's all that matters.
(yes, Okita is my favorite character)