Hakuoki season 1.
An overall average anime which could have been better if not for some problems. My main complaint is the protagonist, Chizuru, who is the most useless and helpless character I can remember seeing in a long time. I often had to restrain myself from shouting 'you idiot!' at the tv as she fumbled around helplessly while the Samurai actually got stuff done. I believe a main character is supposed to drive a story forwards, not sit around and let others do all the work as was the case here. The large cast of Samurai have much stronger characters than Chizuru, and are much more interesting to watch (especially for female viewers, I expect). They all have their own distinct personality, and some backstory would have been fascinating to watch had the plotline not been so rushed. The date would advance regularly by months or even years within a single episode and drop the story right in the middle of new events with little build-up. When you combine a large cast with politics and mysterious goings-on there is a lot of ground to cover and the anime had to fly through the story with little time for some much needed character development, outside of some of the central characters. I hope this will be addressed in the next two seasons, although that is too late for some of them.
Also, the whole supernatural element to the story felt tacked on and was very weak, especially when compared to the historical story about the war which is easily the best part of this show, and really came into it's own in the last episode as the Samurai are forced to come to terms with being an obsolete form of warrior when confronted with western rifles and cannon. I feel this anime would have been significantly improved by dropping the Devils plotline completely, which incidentally would remove Chizuru from the show and leave more time for character development for the Samurai (a win-win scenario in my opinion).
I should also note that the idea of a single female character surrounded by strong males may sound like the blueprint for a harem show, but that is really not what happens here. In fact there was almost no evidence of romance at all in this series, although there was one episode with a few minutes of topless Samurai fanservice for the female viewers to enjoy.
So overall, Hakuoki has some strong elements, but has serious flaws as well. If you have an interest in the time period, or just like some manly eye-candy, then it might be worth a look. Personally, I will be watching season two as I find the wartime story to be very interesting, and the trailer suggests that this will be more prominent than it was in season one. However, if it wasn't for that I would almost certainly have dropped the show here and now. 6/10.
