I love Shinpachi Nagakura! In fact, along with the rest of the baka trio: Harada and Heisuke, these three are my favorite characters from Hakuouki. I simply adore them!
While an important side character in the original historical game, Shinpachi was not a member of the Original Six (Hijikata, Saito, Okita, Harada, Heisuke, and Kazuma). So, of course, I am really grateful the writers decided to give Shinpachi his own route in the Kyoto Winds and Edo Blossoms remake! And while, I didn’t love his route or his relationship development with Chizuru, I did think the writers took Shinpachi’s character development to some interesting places.
Now, SSL doesn’t go anywhere as deep as Edo Blossoms, but you can see the foundation for Shinpachi and Chizuru’s relationship in this game.
And you can decide…if that’s for better or for worse!
As always, character and plot analysis and spoilers after the cut! There will also be a few spoilers for Hakuouki: Kyoto Winds and Hakuouki: Edo Blossoms and, well…essentially all other possible Hakuouki content in general.
SSL isn’t a traditional otome game. Otome elements are there but, if anything, this game is an addition or a supplement to the main historical games, like the remake update: Kyoto Winds and Edo Blossoms (though not all the characters featured in those games are in SSL, because SSL was created before the remake was made). This game makes the most sense, and has the most meaning, within the context of the world created by the historical games.
When you go into SSL with all the prerequisite knowledge, the game takes on a magic all its own. You can appreciate the modern adjustments made to the historical characters. You get all the references to the plot, characters, and internal relationships in the historical games. The fact that everyone is alive, healthy, and not fighting tooth and nail for survival warms your heart with happiness. Everything just means more, because you have the background knowledge from the historical games.
Now, I gave my general SSL game impressions in Okita’s route article. If you are interested in those thoughts, please read Okita’s article. I am not going to repeat them here. This article will be focused solely on Shinpachi’s character scenes and how Chizuru is written in Shinpachi’s route.
In Hakuouki SSL, Chizuru is a first-year high school student. She’s the first woman to go to Hakuo Academy, which has recently become co-ed. And Shinpachi (VA: Tsuboi Tomohiro) is a second-year homeroom teacher who teaches math.
Shinpachi and Chizuru’s relationship in this route is, for the most part, a friendship. Shinpachi clearly cares for Chizuru early in the route, but in true Shinpachi fashion he treats Chizuru as a younger sister! Chizuru starts developing romantic feelings for Shinpachi in the Epilogue, which takes place after Chizuru graduates from high school.
Because of this, Shinpachi’s route had the feeling of being a secret route for the reader. It’s like a bonus the reader can stumble upon as they make their different choice selections. You get small little conversations with him in Chapters 1-3 (which are fully developed CG scenarios for the Original Six). It is Chapter 4 where you get your first Shinpachi CG, which is a chibi CG (compare this to the Original Six who get a standard looking character CG scenario for Chapter 4). So, it isn’t until Chapter 4.5, that Shinpachi gets the full standard looking character CG scenario treatment that the Original Six get in every chapter.
This route is the very definition of a “friendship” route. So, while I am still not a fan of how Shinpachi is Chizuru’s teacher, their relationship remains so platonic that it wasn’t a huge issue for me.
If anything, I found it frustrating how juvenile the writers made Shinpachi in this route. He’s a grown man who can’t manage his money and multiple times has to literally beg people for food. And Chizuru spends the first half of the route being his caretaker. She buys food for him and worries over his lack of financial responsibility and his health (because let’s face it, this man doesn’t eat well!). Of course, Shinpachi is very appreciative and emotionally thanks Chizuru for her kindness and consideration. Which is sweet of him! But this is a weird dynamic between two characters that are supposed to be a teacher and a student. And as somebody who loves Shinpachi, I just couldn’t find much attractive about his character in SSL.
Shinpachi and Chizuru’s relationship is so platonic that’s its hard to see any real chemistry between them. And this isn’t helped by the fact that in the Epilogue, Chizuru is interested in a more romantic relationship, but Shinpachi still thinks of her as a younger sister. He can’t process his feelings as anything more than siblings.
It’s the Epilogue! The story is over and Shinpachi still hasn’t realized his romantic feelings for Chizuru! Good grief, Shinpachi!
Thankfully, not everything in the route was frustrating!
There are a few moments I thought were really cute! Like on New Year’s Day, when Shinpachi is trying to gather the courage to ask Chizuru to join him on a trip to the local shrine. Chizuru catches Shinpachi pacing around trying to figure out how to ask her to join him. It’s just adorable to see our usually confident, self-assured man being all flustered!
Also, when they are at the shrine, Shinpachi notices Chizuru jumping next to him. She’s doing it so she can see over the huge crowd. Shinpachi thinks she’s trying to throw her offering towards the shrine altar so they can leave and get out of the crowd, which other people in the crowd were doing. So, what does our impulsive Shinpachi do? He picks Chizuru up and hoists her onto his shoulder (HAHA!)! I was mortified for Chizuru! But Shinpachi is just so darn sweet, that you can’t help but love his oblivious attempt at being helpful!
There was also the Epilogue scene, where Shinpachi takes Chizuru to the arcade and they play a historical samurai game. In the game, the player has to use a game sword to take down white haired, red-eyed furies! And Chizuru wields one of the game swords and covers Shinpachi as he leads the charge against the furies! Chizuru even takes down a few furies herself! Such a cute little addition from the writers!
Shinpachi Nagakura is a big guy, with an even bigger heart! He’s so cheerful and optimistic that he is bound to make you smile! And it was great to witness Chizuru seeing past Shinpachi’s good-natured buffoonery to the heart of gold underneath!
I wish we had had more of this and less emphasis on Shinpachi’s inability to be an adult who can make wise financial decisions. Because reading about Chizuru having to take care of infantilized Shinpachi was a major turn off. There is nothing attractive about a man who needs a high-school student to buy him food because he can’t handle his finances.
This route was okay. I can’t say I cared for it, but I do still love Shinpachi! He’s such a sweet guy, and I can say I don’t regret any time I spend with him as a hero!
Otomes as Novels 