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Brief Review: Peace Maker Kurogane Yuumei

by Takashi Ikegaya

3 months ago

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Peace Maker Kurogane ~Yuumei~ is an anime movie based on the manga of the same name by Nanae Chrono, which is is currently being serialized on the web comic site MAGCOMI and in Weekly Comic Garden. A TV anime aired in 2003 and this movie is the continuation of the series. Although the staff members have mostly changed since the series, the majority of the cast members have stayed the same. One large exception to this is the main character Tetsunosuke, who has gained a male voice actor as his character as he became older.

The story is set about 150 years ago during a time called ‘Bakumatsu’, when Japan was in the middle of evolving from the middle ages with its samurai administration into a more modern state. The story focuses on a group called the Shinsengumi, a group of young merchants and farmers who fought for the right to become warriors as well. The story is inspired from real events that happened during this time period in Japan and the characters are based on real historical figures. Tetsunosuke enlists in the Shinsengumi with his brother Tatsunosuke in order to get revenge for their parents. He becomes the page of vice-commander Toshizo Hijikata. Tetsunosuke is very talented with his sword but while he is in the Shinsengumi, he does everything he can to firmly stick to his resolve to ‘not kill’.

This movie is the second of two parts. The first movie was titled ~Omoumichi~ and showed how the Shinsengumi weeded out supporters of the emperor within their own ranks and as such were able to move as a single unit following the Tokugawa shogunate. With that they are a strong enough force against the current administration and can once again try to take control of the country. The two forces face each other in Kyoto, where the situation seems that it is about to explode at any moment. That is where the second movie Yuumei takes off. What will later be called the Toba-Fushimi battle starts here. Even though the shogunate outnumbered the enemy, they suffered an overwhelming defeat because of the modern weapons the imperial supporters used. At that time Tetsunosuke left his group behind to try to rescue a girl called Saya from a desperate situation. However, Saya is taken by Suzu Yamatoya, who has a grudge against Tetsunosuke. Of course Testsunosuke tries to follow after them, but he hears rumors during his chase. Since Saya seems to have been taken to the battlefield, and he wasn’t able to find what he was looking for, Tetsunosuke decides to reunite with Shinsengumi and tries to prevent the fight. After the Shinsengumi are defeated at Toba-Fushimi, Tetsunosuke will have to face many struggles.

Although Yuumei concludes the two-part movie series, this is not the end to Tetsunosuke’s story. It’s quite the opposite, it seems as if this is just the end of the prologue and that his story will start only from now on. In the center of it is Tetsunosuke’s close friend and Shinsengumi doctor, Yamazaki. He doesn’t appear often but his character is portrayed in detail whenever we see him, for example, when his sister dies or when he acts as an inspector and shinobi. The subtitle of the movie Yuumei (友命) gives us as hint, as it is literally written as that: the life (命) of a friend (友). It explains the relationship between Yamazaki and Tetsunosuke. To be honest, there isn’t much focus on Tetsunosuke, but he is after all going through huge changes and is the key character to important events in this story. In the meantime, we can also clearly see the amazing sword fights of the main Shinsengumi members, even though they don’t stand a chance against the newest technology (at that time) of their enemies during the Toba-Fushimi battle. I hope there will be more of this story told in the future!