rec+picspam: Kaze Hikaru

[inner-v0ice.livejournal.com]

Kaze Hikaru is a historical shoujo manga set during the time of the Meiji Revolution in the 1860s. Tominaga Sei is the story’s crossdressing heroine. She shaves the top of her head in a boy's hairstyle, takes on the name "Kamiya Seizaburo," and joins the Shinsengumi (a shogunate police force) in order to avenge her family’s death at the hands of anti-shogunate rebels. After her family’s murderer is killed, she stays with the Shinsengumi because she has learned a samurai’s love for comrades and ideals, and a young woman’s love for one particular comrade, Okita Souji.



The manga is brilliant overall. Most of the time it’s a charming, quirky, romantic-ish comedy (with gender confusion of Shakespearean proportions!). But it’s very firmly rooted in history as well, and dealing with samurai means dealing with the harsh code of the times: “‘Not even a moment of mercy’ is the first law of the bushi.” Sei has to learn the hard lesson over and over again…no mercy can be allowed, for the sake of her honor, the honor of her opponents, and the safety of the city she’s sworn to protect.

The art style is on the cute side, which somehow works with both the comic and serious elements. This is war, and there is blood and death and tough choices, and the manga doesn’t try to cheapen any of these. It lets them sink in, but then shrugs them off—like the resilient Sei herself—and keeps on going.

Sei, bloodstained from her first kill...

...can make a cute, surprised face on the next page.

The amount of historical research done for the manga is nothing short of amazing. On the scale of Meiji Revolution historical fiction, if Peacemaker Kurogane is "Sakamoto Ryoma in a cowboy hat. And dreadlocks." and Rurouni Kenshin is "I have red hair and purple eyes and create a vacuum with my succession technique," then Kaze Hikaru is "did you know that Edo people considered light blue a tacky color? And that Kyoto had a lot of public bathrooms while Edo did not? The more you know!"

As for Sei herself…
Sei is not a perfect person. She’s naïve, she’s stubborn, she’s impulsive, she jumps to conclusions, she disobeys orders, she pokes her nose into other people’s business.


But—to me, the important thing—she learns from her mistakes. She accepts the consequences of her actions. She admits when she’s been stubborn about something stupid.

She’s also an ordinary heroine. She has no special power or outstanding talent; her greatest assets are strength of heart and sheer bloody persistence. She’s a hard worker who overcomes her physical weaknesses with a combination of practice to reduce them, and tricks to compensate for them. She's not even close to being able to challenge the Shinsengumi's best swordsmen...but she's still a hell of a fighter when she needs to be.



One of the most fascinating things about her is her gender identity. She’s a crossdresser out of necessity, not because she's transgender...but at the same time, she very strongly self-identifies as "a man," because she wants to become a true bushi (i.e. a true samurai), and "a true bushi" and "a true man" are interchangeable phrases in the world of the Shinsengumi. Sei isn't only dressed as a man, or pretending to be a man, she's trying to be a man, as best she can, because in her world being an honorable warrior and being a man are inseparable concepts.


Deep down, she's still attached to her female identity. She can't bear to shave off her bangs because they (along with a hairpiece) would help her look female again if she ever chose to. But aside from an emotional attachment to being able to look feminine, she's also been known to don female attire for the sole purpose of working her feminine wiles on someone.

All dolled up and turning on the tears...

...and, wait for it--

The plot thickens when you take into account the fact that Tokugawa-era samurai, like the ancient Greeks, were very much into mentor-slash-lover relationships with beautiful young men. Imagine Shakespeare's As You Like It, except it's not just Phebe who's in love with "Ganymede"; Oliver and Jaques are chasing after "him" as well. (And everyone thinks Ganymede and Orlando are totally doing it.)

Sei is mostly just freaked out by the men chasing after her...

but she's been known to work her masculine wiles as well.

Add to this the fact that she's in love with First Troop Captain Okita Souji (of course!). She stays with the Shinsengumi for two reasons: first, because she passionately believes in samurai ideals and the shogunate government, and second, because she wants to do her best to protect and support Souji.

"...wouldn't you rather quit and be his bride?"
"BRIDE?!"
"Make a home with Okita-san, have kids, and raise them...isn't that a girl's true happiness?"
"But then...I won't be able to protect Okita-sensei."
"What?"
"When sensei is fighting, soaked in blood...I don't want to just stay at home and pray. Even if I'm scorned for not being ladylike, my bliss is to protect sensei. For that, I've decided that I'd even become an oni myself."

This is a shoujo manga, so of course a lot of it revolves around Sei's--unrequited?--love for Souji, and the attendant drama (that alternates between angst and romantic comedy). But one of the most impressive things about Sei is that when it really matters, she doesn't let her love for Souji distract her from her duty as a samurai. When Souji is wounded, she leaves him in a doctor's care and goes back out to fight again.



Sometimes her love and her duty pull her in two different directions. But more often, she fuses her love and duty and forges them into something strong and amazing and beautiful.




Where to Get It:
Kaze Hikaru is being published in English by Viz (Shojo Beat). The English translation is currently up to vol. 15; in Japanese it's up to vol. 26.
There are also scanlations of the first 2 volumes, and assorted later chapters, on Manga Fox. You can take a look, but I warn you, the scanlations' translations are definitely inferior to the official translations. The Viz translations are witty, conversational, and not at all stilted--well worth the money, I promise.


Fandom:
kazehikarufans, a not-very-active comm
small Kaze Hikaru section at fanfiction.net

Unfortunately, the fandom doesn't really lend itself to fic. I have two theories on this: (1) the intimidating historicalness of it all, and (2) fans not wanting to think about the future, since we're in deep, deep, wishful denial of the facts of history. Specifically, the fact that we all know how the story of the Shinsengumi ends. (Rocks fall, everyone dies.)

Comments

[streussal.livejournal.com]

This looks interesting! Thank you for the rec.

[inner-v0ice.livejournal.com]

You're very welcome! I'm glad you think it looks interesting.