Emo samurai + emo gunslinger = OTP 8DDDDDDDD
This series is hitting ALL of my anime geek points. Bakumatsu? Check. Samurai? Check. Emo samurai? CHECK. Obvious slash pair? Check. Obvious EMO slash pair? CHEEEEEECK. Historical accuracy? Check! Supernatural stuff? CHECK! No srsly, all it needs is a pair of brothers (EMO brothers, hahaha) and it's pretty much designed for me. I IS A VERY HAPPY FANGIRL RIGHT NOW.
I also find it amusing that despite having watched over half the series now, I barely know anyone's names. Emo samurai = Akidzuki (and it took me a few episodes to remember that one), emo gunslinger = Kanna (SQUEEEEE!), sortof bad guy = Setsuo (I think...) Sotetsu!, actual bad guy who was killed twice and actually died the second time = Nakaiya, political leader guy who doesn't actually do anything = Katsu, hot geisha chick = Tayu. Aaaaand that's it. I have no idea what the name of the female lead is. Like at all. The big climax of the first season involves Nakaiya FINALLY ACTUALLY DYING but taking one of the actors along with him, and it wasn't until the rest of the troupe started screaming his name that I found out what it is. No one uses names in this show! Except for the historical figure namedropping, there's TONS of that. And Akidzuki, of course, that one is said a million times per episode. I heart him immensely <333333333333
There was even a Shinsengumi tie-in! OKITAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!! Poor tuberculized bb. Akidzuki totally loved him, it was emoooooooooooooooo. And they keep flashing back to Ryouma Sakamoto's assassination, which Akidzuki failed to prevent (being his bodyguard and all, haha...) and was subsequently arrested and questioned on for months. Soooooo much emo. Historical emo! I mean, of course Akidzuki didn't exist, being a supernatural-hunting samurai and all, but it's so neat they way the crazy supernatural stuff ties in with the actual events. And ties in well! Enamoto randomly decided to sail north and take over Hokkaido, proclaiming himself President? WRONG. THE EVIL POSSESSED HEAD MADE HIM DO IT. And so on. Okay, that makes it sound really lame, but it was AWESOME. PROMISE.
Akidzuki is made of awesome. He even has EMO BANGS. His hair (and the lead chick's, actually) really annoys me, though. Everything else is pretty historically accurate from what I can tell (not that I'm an expert, but y'know) but their hair seems soooo anachronistic.
Case in point:
Yeeeeeeeeah. Nice try, guys. Ah well, good character design anyway.
And Kanna!!! We're finally getting some backstory on him! The English bastard Parkes was egging him on about not having a nation to belong to, being half-British half-Japanese and welcomed by neither side. He keeps having this emo flashback where he's chasing a carriage through the (presumably British) street trying to reach a woman that I'm assuming is his mother, but an evil English guy (possibly Parkes, it's hard to tell) won't let her out and then the cartwheels kick up stones at the poor boy's face and one of them blinds him, hence the eyepatch of awesome. No srsly!
AND HE'S BLOND AND PRETTY AND HAS SEXY GUNS AND IS CLEARLY IN LOVE WITH AKIDZUKI. WIIIIIIIIIIIIIIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I could geek out a bunch more, but something tells me that a) no one is reading since this anime makes no sense and is so geeky only I like it, and b) it's after 1 WHY AM I NOT ASLEEP YET??? Still, it's better than if I'd started watching Tenimyu, I'd be weeping my way through Side Fudomine or laughing hysterically and cooing over Choutarou or somesuch madness. I IZ A WINNAR.