#insanity replies

The more detailed story is about a man named Ichibanboshi, who grew up in poverty with his dad, mom, and younger brother. One day, his family is attacked by the Masked Demon, and Ichibanboshi only survives thanks to his mom pushing him in a river for him to escape. Having grown up with no power, Ichibanboshi feels that there's no justice in the world, and that the powerful class will always bully the impoverish. He spends the rest of his life seeking revenge against the Masked Demons, becoming known as the Samurai Killer. He is eventually captured for his crimes and sentenced to death row.

However, instead of being killed, he is taken to the Shinsengumi HQ, where he is introduced to Todo Heisuke, the only surviving member of the Shinsengumi. He is told that he, along with 6 other death row prisoners, are to pretend to be the captains of the Shinsengumi. While at first Ichibanboshi is against it, he later accepts when he learns that the Shinsengumi are also here to take down the Masked Demons, and their goals align. The story then follows his growth as he becomes the replacement for Commander Kondo Isami.

Ichibanboshi's rival in the cast is Sakuya, an assassin who counts the number of people he's killed and is a perfect teacher's pet (lovingly). Where Ichibanboshi is impulsive, loud, and has one braincell, Sakuya is more calculated, reserved, and by the books. The two have trouble getting along because their personalities always clash. Sakuya is Hijikata Toshizo's substitute.

The team's ace as well as swordsmanship trainer is Akira, a woman disguising herself as a man who sees the world in very black and white terms. She is poised and well mannered, and for her, things must either be stated clearly, or not stated at all. I like her arc a lot, personally, and I think in another setting, she would make a great main character. (Also, there's an isekai manga which stars someone isekai-ing and becoming Akira, so very ironic.) She is Okita Souji's substitute.

Next is Gyatarou, the self proclaimed "collector of crimes" and a man who has the tattoos to show for it. Gyatarou is one of the few characters who doesn't learn how to use a sword, instead opting for the "superior" firearm. He's everyone's big brother in the slums, and has a lot of connections with people from the lower class. This is my personal ramblings, but I really love the between the lines you can infer on Gyatarou. He feels like a very good character who was forced to commit crimes due to his situation, which is reflected in conversations he has with the children in the slums. He is Nagakura Shinpachi's substitute.

After that is Bou, known as the "hungry giant" who is great with a paintbrush. He is the only one who uses a spear, but his best asset is how strong he is. They never really clarify why he is a death row prisoner, although my assumption has always been that because he eats so much, he got in a lot of trouble for not always having the money for food. He's very sweet, and honestly feels like the youngest in the cast to me. He is Harada Sanosuke's substitute. Both he and Gyatarou defend Ichibanboshi and look up to him.

So now onto my personal biases for favorites. First there's Suzuran, a "depraved" monk who flirts with women has a very laid back personality. I won't reveal the reason he was arrested because I feel like it's pretty plot important. He uses an electrical staff instead of a sword, on the basis that monks don't kill (well, we never said his friends couldn't kill though). He has a lot of pretty good advice buried under his nonchalant attitude, and conversations with him and Sougen are my favorites in the show. He's actually pretty level headed when it comes to problem solving. He is Saito Hajime's substitute.

Second is Sougen, a practically genius level doctor who is good at medicine, anatomy, and also machinery. Suzuran's staff is actually made by him. Sougen has a personal lab in the Shinsengumi HQ where he keeps a junk of crazy things, like medical books, cadavers, weird chemicals, and sometimes he does his operations there too. He's a bit grotesque when it comes to his hobbies, but it's all to benefit research. That's, as you can expect, why he was arrested in the first place. He is Yamanami (Sannan) Keisuke's substitute. Absolutely this is my own bias but I love him the most. The man looks so sleep and nutrition deprived that I'm baffled he lived this long on curiosity alone. Someone please give him a nourishing face mask and, like, a decent meal.

Finally in our main cast is Todo Heisuke, as mentioned earlier, the sole survivor of the original Shinsengumi. During the attack from the Masked Demon, he was barely able to survive and lost an arm and a leg in exchange for injuring the leader of the Masked Demons. The substitutes call him the "chibi oni commander" because he might be the shortest, but he's also the harshest. At first, he distances himself from the substitutes, since they're just tools and figureheads, but he slowly begins to rely on them more as the series goes on.

There's other historical characters too, like Katsura Kogoro, Matsudaira Katamori, and Akizuki Teijirou who make an appearance throughout the show and either hinder or support the new Shinsengumi (the Shin-Shinsengumi?). Their main villain is the commander of the Masked Demons, a man with purple hair who always keeps his face covered, and his right hand man Rashomaru, both original villains to the anime with no real historical counterparts.

The story starts a bit before August 1963, when historically the Mibu Roshigumi become the Shinsengumi, and covers events around the Shinsengumi through 1864 with the black ships stationed in Osaka. As you can expect from pretty much every Shinsengumi anime, it also covers the Ikedaya Incident. It's got it's on personal spin on history, though, which is why I like to say it's set in an alt-history Japan.

A bit of a personal rambling here, but a lot about this anime was done very well to me. With the limited amount of time they got to tell a story, I felt that I understood the characters and their motivations, and their relationships with one another. I feel like they were able to keep with historical events well while still doing their own thing. Having re-watched it several times now, they hid a lot of easter eggs throughout the series that I'm honestly impressed by for people watching the first time not to pick up. It's got it's funny moments, it's emotional moments, and enough action to keep me satisfied. I'm also a big fan of the art style and the way they show flashbacks. Just to kind of add to the plus.