There it is, Plain as Daylight

Kaze Hikaru, Vols. 13 -14
By Taeko Watanabe
Published by Viz Media

Review by Megan M.

These volumes begin with the Shinsengumi moving into their new headquarters, with Sei, inevitably, charming the leery women who are their neighbors. Soon, though, Okita begins to seemingly bully Sei to become tougher. This isn’t a newly developed habit of his, as he tends to become a pushy, demonic trainer threatening to reveal her secret and make her leave the Shinsengumi if she doesn’t meet his new standards any time he thinks Sei is getting too comfortable, or that she’s not prepared for a new danger. This time, however, he’s motivated by the threat of a month-long separation, knowing that she’s never gone more than a few days without someone to help her before.

I like that the series never stops reminding us that Sei is, physically, still a teenaged girl, and that no matter how skilled she is, the simple fact is that a man with equal abilities and training is likely to have an advantage over her based purely on the differences in their bodies and that she can stop finding ways to compensate for that. I’m not always convinced that her solutions will work in a fullscale battle with the threat of multiple opponents, but they’re interesting, and effective in a one-on-one sense.

Unfortunately for me, a significant portion of these volumes was taken up by Ito Kashitaro, a character who is very important in history but is the only character I can genuinely be said to dislike, though I do waver on that at times. In general, though, I think (with a few exceptions) I just don’t care for giggly, smirking schemers who flirt with people to disconcert them. Especially when they keep making advances on people who have repeatedly-often violently-made it clear that they aren’t interested.

There’s also the issue that, while I love Watanabe’s take on history and the general plot, the attention to–almost love affair with, really–historical detail and many of the characters (primarily Sei, Okita, Hijikata, Akesato, and Saito), I still find it very offputting when characters keep attempting to sexually molest Sei. While I realize it fits the time period and situation, I think I’ve put up with more of that here than I have with most other series where people continually attempt to molest the lead. Not only were we reminded of a previous event where several members of the Shinsengumi dueled to see who would be Sei’s lover, declaring a refusal to consdider her feelings on the subject to be a sign of esteem, but yet another character is befriended by Sei only to later fall for her and later attempt to force himself on her. Though I should mention that the other suitor Sei acquires here seems to be quite sweet, if brash, and not the molesting sort.

Sei and Okita continue to be incredibly dense. But then, it’s rather necessary. Once (if) they figure things out, this will probably turn into an angsty romance. But only briefly. After that, things will turn to the inevitable Shinsegumi destiny of almost everyone dying and we don’t want that to happen too soon.

Review copy of volume 14 provided by the publisher.