#amagiri kazutake

[queengurako]

Amagiri Kazutake and Yukimura Kazuya From Hakuouki's prequel : Toki no Kizuna.

[nollatooru]

Toki no Kizuna ancestors meeting their Hakuouki descendants.

[impracticaldemon]

🌸 Demon’s Bond ~ Amagiri Kazutake Route ~ Review

So... the top picture kind of says it all. Let’s just call him Amagiri Sanosuke-Kazutake. Which means I loved him, and he was very, very cute 😁   (Note:  These are just my personal opinions, ofc!)   😅

Overall: I’d say 7/10. Enjoyable but I found the ending a little weak and the bad guys a little lame. I had fun and Sano-Kazutake was nicely drawn.  😉

NOTE: The spell “Amagiri Fist... Skybreaker!” was NOT a selling point.  😂 😂 I chose to laugh instead of crying but... seriously?  Seriously?!

First point: the whole “you need to stay/go home and not get hurt” gets old, fast.  Yukina thinks it’s dumb.  When he finally admits that he’s literally pulling his punches when they spar, Yukina demands to know what he would do if a female demon was a real threat to his life or his clan. His response that he’d have to “find another way” (not hitting) is 😑.  Fortunately, Yukina keeps insisting on being treated as a comrade and finds ways around this.  😊

Things I liked:  I am a big fan of both Harada and Amagiri, and this guy is a slightly more mature version of one and a slightly less mature (but still kickass) version of the other. Since Harada and Amagiri don’t appear to have a lot in common in Hakuouki, it’s a little odd it works. But then you remember that the whole “responsible and stuck with being responsible” thing is there, not to mention Amagiri’s own efforts to protect Chizuru and respect Sen. (Also, did I mention that Kazutake’s adorable, especially when looking irritated?)  😉

I also like the fact that Yukina doesn’t let herself get left out.  Ultimately, she gets herself signed on as a bodyguard, despite being a woman and despite Sano-Kazutake’s protests. She also has some good, logical lines.  ⚔️  (On the flip side, unlike Chizuru in Hakuouki, Yukina does have an actual responsibility that she’s avoiding, being the Princess’ bodyguard and head of her clan.  But hey, the Princess has three senior demons with her and she’s in a coma.)

[AND:  Yukina gets a full demon form in this route, which is great!]

Thirdly, Kazutake’s “human” (they all have one!), is Ishida Mitsunari (the overall commander of the western forces at the Battle of Sekhigara). Mitsunari (the use of first names is painful) is portrayed much as he is described in history: a finicky bureaucrat of rigid character.  This makes him unpleasant to deal with for the demons who work for him.  Basically: Amagiri always gets stuck with an overbearing, self-important boss.  It’s a trope (who knew).

You ask:  what’s to like about this?  Well, two things.  One, his second in command (Shima Sakon) is very cool: looks like a villain, really isn’t.  Second, there is actual character development (not the deepest, but not bad for the genre). Mitsunari remains himself (i.e., difficult), but under stress he does actually show a human side that is both reasonable and slightly endearing.

Things I didn’t like:  Yeah.  The bad guys are even weirder than usual, and I lost count of HOW MANY TIMES they could have (supposedly) killed the good guys and just... left... for no obvious reason.  Let me say now:  Kazama in Hakuouki came by his “I’m here to kill you all and take Chizuru”... “nah, maybe not today” tendencies honestly.  It’s just bizarre.

Which leads to thing I didn’t like TWO. Amagiri Kazutake is supposed to be incredibly tough and a complete badass (who can apparently thump his younger companions of similar rank with impunity).  And on top of that, his “true demon form” is supposed to be pretty much indestructible.  Despite all this, he never gets to just take down the opposition.  His big final battle... like, it should have been Kazama versus Kaoru (i.e., ALL OVER FAST)... it wasn’t.   😣

Finally, I will add that the romantic aspects of the route were really good (again, Hakuouki-style, so very understated), until the ending.  At which point Kazutake heads off on his own for months, never sends a letter or message (why?) and then shows up and they finally kiss.  I just... no, not happy.  Especially since the build-up was rather nice. 😑 It took very little game time, so I can only assume he was off with Chitose (whose route is next for me).

Still good overall!  🤗

[shenanigumi]

What the heck do you think you're doing?

Amagiri Kazutake

> Amagiri Kazutake > what the heck > the heck > h e c k

[ladyshiranui]

Toki no Kizuna: Hakuoki’s “Prequel”

I still can’t believe I didn’t know about this game’s existence until twenty four hours ago. Shoutout to my girl @mizunui for showing it to me. I love you 3000. Also shoutout to my peeps @girl-weeb-stuff , @hareyakana-rin and @kanaryia who’re like me and left out of the loop.

This is a real brief rundown of literally what i have just discovered (if there is anyone else out there that didn't know this was a thing until now), but there's definitely stuff online, even gameplay on youtube you can take a look at yourself.

"Toki no Kizuna", or "Demon's Bond", was made for PSP in 2012 (Hakuoki was first made and released in 2008) but can also be played on Android and IOS as part of the "Shall We Date?" series. You can download it and play the prologue for free, but from that point on you will have to pay for which ever route you want to pursue. The total cost adds up to what you would pay for Hakuoki on Steam anyway. The storyline is set in 1599, so 250+ years before the canonical events of Hakuoki. Sources say "it can be considered as a prequel to Hakuoki", not "is". But, honestly, how can it NOT be a prequel!?

The pursue-able routes of the game are four demon chiefs of their own clans, the Kazama clan, Amagiri clan, Shiranui clan and Yukimura clan, the Princess of the Yase clan leading them all. As the player, you play as Yukina Suzumori, chief of the Suzumori clan. She is quite the contrast to the sweet, timid, oblivious Chizuru we know. This makes it extremely interesting; if we assume that clan leadership is passed down through blood relatives within each respective clan, we can say that each demon we meet in this game is the great-grandparent of Chikage, Kyuju, Kyo, Chizuru and Kaoru, and Sen!

Again, I really know next to nothing about this game, but here's a brief introduction to everyone for those who are in the same boat as me lol.

Heroine/Chief of the Suzumori clan: Yukina

The "Chizuru" of Demon's Bond, the matriarch, the player's eyes. She's the one who gets to choose who she falls in love with, you feel? She also has a white hawk for a companion, named Ginou. She was forced to become chief of her clan when the previous chief was murdered. Thus, she was orphaned at a very young age, raised by three other demon leaders until she was old enough to lead. She has a very serious personality, determined to respect and abide the ways of old.

Chief of the Yase clan: Princess Yase

Frickin omg she's so beautiful she's like Sen and Kimigiku mashed into one goddess. Yase considers herself very close to Yukina and treats her as though she were her little sister. At the beginning of the game, she calls together a meeting with the other demon chiefs. With her power of clairvoyance, she sees into the future and foretells a terrible war taking place among the humans, being the Battle of Sekigahara. It is during this meeting where the demon law to retreat from human interaction and to not associate one's self with them is put into place. If you've played/watched Hakuoki, you would know this rule is reiterated several times by Chikage Kazama.

Chief of the Kazama clan: Chitose

This guy is hella badass. Very Chikage-esque. He constantly tells Yukina that she is a terrible swordsman and often makes fun of her. He also has a close friendship with a human named Tomohisa Shimazu, which proves to be difficult to maintain with the new demon law put into place.

Chief of the Amagiri clan: Kazutake

A quiet, kind, big-brother type demon. He also is friends with a human named Ishida Mitsunari, but is closer to a business deal with the intention of acquiring extra land for his clan. Another VERY familiar trait about him is that he fights with his fists, and has a personal rule of never hitting women and children. If this doesn't sound like an ancestor of Kyuju Amagiri, then I don't know what does. It would've been even cooler if he had the same red-hair rat tail as his descendant.

Chief of the Shiranui clan: Shin

an actual shiranui route holy shit.

What a HUNK. Look at those MAJESTIC EYES. Literally all the wiki says about him is that he's arrogant and flirty. Definitely Kyo's ancestor. He also has long, tied up hair, which is a nice similarity to the bluenette. A contrast to him through would be the way he dresses. I mean, obviously because it's 250+ years prior to the westernization that inspired Kyo's attire, but he just looks like Sesshomaru mashed with some red-hair gene and Kyo's personality.

Chief of the Yukimura clan: Kazuya

This soft boy has a very quiet and serious nature, similar to Kaoru Yukimura I dare say. He used to work for Ieyasu Tokugawa for sometime, the Shogunate, until he split ties due to his belief the man was no longer what he used to be. Dare I come up with a little theory-- this could be how the shogunate was first introduced to the oni race, which inevitably leads to the introduction of Kodo Yukimura and the secret research and development of the Water of Life under the Shogunate's orders.

I am absolutely going to buy this game, and so I'd love to make a more detailed description of each demon, connecting the dots with the Hakuoki events and such. I'm honestly just stoked. Again, if you'd like to play the game yourself, you can find it on the app store for Android and IOS as "Shall We Date?: Demon's Bond". There are also existing gameplays of routes on youtube, as well as a tonne of official art online!

To get you started and all hyped, check out the opening. It’s a head-banger. Also, the vocals are sung by the same girl who sings the opening to Hakuoki: Reimeiroku!

You can absolutely expect to see this as part of the blog. I am deeming this canon and 100% relevant to Hakuoki and the demon clans (*´∀｀*)

[harcove]

Hakuouki & Demons Bond/Toki No Kizuna

If you guys haven’t played Demons Bond/Toki No Kizuna, I really think you should. Especially if you like Hakuouki.

It can be assumed to be (I mean come on it is-) a bit of a prequel to Hakuouki, 200-some-odd years before the events of Hakuouki. You play as a demon, like Chizuru, Kazama, etc. are, and you are a Chieftan of a demon clan called the Suzumori clan.

It is interesting to see things you can relate back to Hakuouki - each romance option is a Demon Chieftan and all are related to the demon clans we see in Hakuouki. One named Kazutake, is the Chieftan of the Amagiri demon clan, and he is often seen using his fists to fight. Something assumedly passed down through the Amagiri clan line as seen in Kyuujyu in Hakuouki. Then, Chitose, a demon chieftain of the Kazama clan. And Shin, Chieftan of the Shiranui clan. 

There is also a romance option who is literally distantly related to Chizuru - Kazuya, demon chieftain of the Yukimura clan. 

Just, if you like Hakuouki I’d suggest trying this game out. It is very interesting and well written, and it very interesting to see these demon clans we know about in Hakuouki hundreds of years before they are seen now in Hakuouki.

[queengurako]

Toki no Kizuna (2012), Hakuouki's prequel.

[shenanigumi]

If you've got some pent-up energy, that's perfect, though. I'll beat it out of you later. Look forward to it.

Amagiri Kazutake to Kazama Chitose, which are words his descendant only wishes he could have said

[shenanigumi]

Okay, so Amagiri’s clan apparently used to be nomads. I cannot for the life of me imagine Kyuju as a wanderer, but seriously, his ancestor even had the epithet ‘the Wayfarer’. Maybe that’s part of why his people eventually settled down in the Kazama clan’s territory instead of having lands of their own…?

[impracticaldemon]

Demon’s Bond (Toki no Kizuna) Yukimura Kazuya & Amagiri Kazutake

While there are flaws with how this Otomate prequel to Hakuouki (260 years earlier, Sengoku period, Battle of Sekigahara) fits into the original Hakuouki-verse, I did enjoy a number of aspects of the game.

I liked the fact that Kazuya (who is, admittedly, my Saitou-equivalent) is carrying and double-wields Shotsuren and Daitsuren (i.e., Chizuru’s kodachi and Kaoru’s katana, which are a matched set).

For those who have played Kyoto Winds, that’s Sen’s Yase home behind Kazutake in the last image.  As has been mentioned before, Otomate seems to have tried to draw a much closer connection between TnK and Hakuouki with Kyoto Winds (how successfully depends on perspective and willingness to overlook some definite changes, arguably not all for the better).  In any event, images for the exterior and interior of the home of the Princess of Yase were obviously deliberately kept the same.

~ImpracticalOni

[shenanigumi]

ok so what if I wrote a Hakuōki AU loosely based on the plot of Demons’ Bond, but with Chizuru as the protagonist?? hear me out here: I don’t hate DB half as much as I hate its unnecessary association with Hakuōki. but if it was an established AU, I’d be fine with it—so if I were to combine the two, specifically the Shinkai continuity since that has more similarities anyway, it could turn out to be something totally interesting…

what if Chizuru knew she was a pureblooded demon, destined to become the leader of the Yukimura clan someday? Kodo would still raise her, maybe as her father and maybe as her guardian, and though he’d keep the Water of Life a secret, he’d still ensure she understood her heritage and what happened to her village (possibly leaving out Kaoru’s existence). although Chizuru keeps her powers secret, she is at least aware of her abilities.

anyway, the last letter Kodo sends Chizuru is a message stating that the Princess has sent out a general summons regarding the humans’ increasingly more violent conflicts, with the meeting date set for about a month to ensure that all the chieftains’ schedules are clear. he adds that Chizuru should take the opportunity to get confirmed as the Yukimura heir—Kodo hasn’t let her go earlier, since he’s an Overprotective Father and she is pretty young (16 or so). Chizuru doesn’t know much about demon politics, but she’s willing to give it a shot, so she packs up and makes her way to Kyoto at the appointed time. since she also hasn’t heard from her father since then, she figures she’ll kill two birds with one stone and look for him after the meeting.

since it’s a new year and all, Princess Kazuha wants to straighten out the demons’ debts and their role in the humans’ war so they don’t end up killing each other since things have been getting more and more heated lately… and she also wants everyone’s word that nobody is genuinely taking sides. present at the meeting are herself; her daughter Sen (the math could check out if she married young); Kimigiku, of the Suzumori clan; her younger sister Yukina; Chikage, of the Kazama clan; Kyo, of the Shiranui clan; Kyuju, of the Amagiri clan; Chitose, of the Kotoura clan; Kazutake, of the Tsukishima clan; Kazuya, of the Shiomi clan; Shin, of another clan; and and Chizuru, of the Yukimura clan. Yeah, I’m taking the elders out and giving their surnames to the DB characters because they really wouldn’t contribute much to this story anyway.

so, through deep and sudden immersion, Chizuru is initiated more fully into the world of demons. she’s heard the basics of the Yukimura clan’s destruction from Kodo, of course, but it’s a bit of a sensitive subject for him, so the others explain the overarching situation to her. even though the shogunate technically killed her people for refusing to repay the debt and get involved with humans, Chizuru has grown up among humans; these are the first demons she has ever met, apart from her father. and though it takes the rest of the evening to come to a solid conclusion, the way she sees it, it’s her responsibility to repay the debt her village refused, if only to ensure the safety of demonkind.

the chieftains eat all together that evening, and Kazama expresses his interest in Chizuru, whereupon Sen interrupts in a rather familiar way. he and the others have clearly been here before for various other meetings, so Chizuru feels like the odd one out, but Sen reassures her that not all demons are demonic and makes her feel just a little bit more at home. and the next day, Chizuru makes her way down to Kyoto with the intention of finding her father, assuring the others that she has a contact (Matsumoto) who will help her. however, by the time she gets there, night has fallen, and she runs into those ronin…

(and oh, what if she knows how to use her demon form? what if that’s the first time it comes out, in self-defense? what if the Shinsengumi sees her as an enemy at first, and restrain her accordingly? what if they then come to understand that she is a demon and intends to work with them, just as the Satsuma know Kazama is a demon? how on earth would this play out…?)

tbh if I could just average out the magic and the code to create a consistent world everything would be fine

[shenanigumi]

’Kay, so… I need your help.

Since you’re the ones who have to have to put up with all my rambling and quotations, I’m leaving it up to you guys which path I tread first:

Chitose (Kazama’s ancestor)

Kazuya (Kaoru and Chizuru’s ancestor)

Kazutake (Amagiri’s ancestor)

Shin (Shiranui’s ancestor)

Senkimaru (some random OC)

I legitimately have no preference, since I’m going to play them all at some point anyway. Nor is there any sense of urgency here; I’m content to wait until a few of you have responded, since I’ve got some other equally frivolous things to do in the meantime.

[shenanigumi]

soooo evidently Chitose doesn’t get along with Kazutake, which is hilarious because a.) their descendants don’t get along any better; and b.) their bloodlines get integrated, since the Amagiri clan is eventually considered an offshoot of the Kazama clan.