| Heisuke Toudou 藤堂平助 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Characteristics | |||
| Gender | Male | ||
| Race | Human Rasetsu | ||
| Eye Color | Blue-Green | ||
| Hair Color | Brown | ||
| Age | 18-19 | ||
| Height | 160 cm (5'3") | ||
| Professional Attributes | |||
| Faction | Shinsengumi | ||
| Rank | 8th Division Captain | ||
| Voice Actors | |||
| Japanese | Yoshino Hiroyuki | ||
| English | Greg Ayres | ||
| Gallery Link | |||
Heisuke Toudou (藤堂平助 Tōdō Heisuke) is one of the heroes in Hakuouki Shinsengumi Kitan and the team leader of the eighth division. He is the youngest among the Shinsengumi, who loves festivals and comes from Edo. He is voiced by Hiroyuki Yoshino in the Japanese version and Greg Ayres in the English dub. He is based off of the historical Heisuke Todo.
Appearance
Heisuke is a cheerful young man closest to Chizuru in age, Heisuke looks to be about 15 or 16, but he is really 19. Short in stature, Heisuke stands at only 163cm or roughly 5'3" (5'2.4"), making him the shortest amongst the Shinsengumi next to Chizuru and the shortest captain. He has long brown hair which he keeps up in a ponytail, and blue-green eyes. In the second season, he cuts his hair short to adopt a more Western appearance along with the rest of the Shinsengumi. His clothes initially consist of a yellow sleeveless shirt over a purple one that has the shoulders cut, but not disconnected, a red sash and black sash around his waist, black pants that go down to his knees, leg warmers that wrap around his feet, arm and leg pads, and straw sandals. His Western appearance is a white button down shirt, a black button down vest, black pants that go to his knees, brown boots that cover the remainder of his legs, a purple shawl around his waist, a yellow sash above the purple shawl, and black gloves that have the pinky and ring fingers covered and his index, middle, and thumb not covered. In his Rasetsu form, like all Rasetsu, his eyes become crimson red and his hair becomes snow white, his canine teeth also become more profound.
Plot
Season 1: Shinsengumi Kitan
Heisuke is first seen with all of the captains and commanders during Chizuru's interrogation, believing Chizuru to be a boy, Heisuke comments on her appearance, saying he's (she's) small and thin; not much of a warrior. Shinpachi then proceeds to tease the boy as he is not much taller or bulkier than Chizuru and calls him and the others "old men", to which Sano teases Shinpachi about being old. Heisuke is later seen to be shocked to discover that Chizuru is a girl and agrees to her being Hijikata's servant. Later, Heisuke tells Chizuru to eat with him and others since the commanders are away in Osaka, at dinner, he and the others are informed of Sannan's injuries and upon the mention of "the medicine" Chizuru asks what it is. Heisuke was about to tell her the inner secrets of the Shinsengumi, but is stopped by Sano, who punches the boy in the face; to which Shinpachi reprimands the man about. When the commanders return, Heisuke is seen worrying about Sannan's condition as the man is now locking himself in his room.
Heisuke and Okita infiltrate Ikedaya Inn with Kondou's group and encounter Chikage Kazama and Kyuujuu Amagiri inside. While Okita faces off against Kazama, Heisuke fights Amagiri. The oni deals a severe blow to his head and Heisuke begins to bleed from his forehead wound despite the protective headband in place. Heisuke is later seen being supported by the other Shinsengumi, vowing to win the next time. Shortly after the Ikedaya Inn incident, the Shinsengumi is asked to assist the Aizu with dealing with the Choushu, at first Heisuke is thrilled, excited to fight the Choushu again, but Shinpachi points out he's still injured and has to stay behind, along with Souji and Sannan.
After the events of the Kinmon Rebellion, Heisuke is asked to see if his mentor, Itou, will join the Shinsengumi; saying he'd be happy to do it. Immediately following, he is sent to Edo to do recruitment scouting since the Shinsengumi's territory expanded, staying at Chizuru's home and asking the villagers if they have seen her father. He stays in Edo for six months and finally returns to Kyoto, noticing the people of the town are acting differently while patrolling with Chizuru and Souji and the three encounter a girl named Kaoru who, Souji says, looks exactly like Chizuru, but Heisuke doesn't agree. Later, when the Shinsengumi is asked to protect the Shogun, Heisuke says he isn't feeling well and is given permission to not protect the Shogun for the time being (along with Souji), he later tells Chizuru during the cleaning of the new headquarters that he was perfectly healthy, he just said he wasn't feeling well because he didn't want to protect the Shogun because he's uncertain with how the Shinsengumi isn't like how it used to be before the Bakufu came into power and questions what he truly wants to do.
Later, he leaves the Shinsengumi with his mentor, Itou, and Saitou (who was going due to being asked to gather information by Kondou and Hijikata) and a little later, Saitou and Chizuru try to persuade Heisuke to rejoin the Shinsengumi. Right before making a decision, members of Itou's party inform Heisuke that Itou had been assassinated by members of the Shinsengumi and rushes to the scene with Chizuru following him. He arrives at the scene and joins Shinpachi and Sano in battle against Amagiri, Shiranui, and Satsuma warriors, Heisuke engages with Amagiri, but is wounded, he then throws his sword to protect Chizuru from an attack and is grabbed by Amagiri, who punches him in his stomach, critically injuring him. This knocks out the young man and he is cradled in Shinpachi's arms for a moment and then Chizuru's when his friend rejoins the fight. After the fight, Heisuke is seen still unconscious and being cared for by Chizuru, Shinpachi talks to Sano about his discomfort with Heisuke becoming a Rasetsu; saying he doesn't want his friend to die, but would rather he die in peace. Sano then states that Heisuke was the one who made the decision to become a Rasetsu and wasn't pressured into it. Later, Heisuke has regained consciousness and fully recovered from his wounds. Despite now being a Rasetsu, Heisuke's personality didn't change due to his transformation, like how it did for Sannan, and he actually clings to what little humanity he has left by refusing to drink blood, saying humans don't drink blood and takes a medicine from Sannan that offsets his blood lust.
Later, Heisuke along with Chizuru, goes after Souji when he goes off to find Kondou's near killers and witness Souji getting shot, Heisuke cradles the older man and assists him back to headquarters. Heisuke is seen later with Sannan informing the other members of the Shinsengumi that the Rasetsu corp. staged an attack during the final battle of the first season, but most were wiped out due to the Choushu-Satsuma Army having silver bullets, and upon Sannan's suggestion; the Shinsengumi head to Edo, where the Shogun had fled to. Heisuke's last appearance of the first season is during Yamazaki's funeral, he's seen supporting the still recovering Souji to stand and watches remorsefully as Sano and Shinpachi dump Yamazaki's body into the ocean.
Official Art book Costume design for Heisuke in Season 2 of the anime
Season 2: Hekketsuroku
Heisuke is first seen following Sannan, due to Sannan going on night patrol more often and loses him after awhile. He then returns to headquarters, he first teases Hijikata about him being soft around Chizuru, and then offers him the medicine he took that offsets bloodlust; knowing Hijikata is now a Rasetsu. Hijikata declines and then Heisuke voices his suspicions of Sannan to the vice-commander. Heisuke is later seen at the briefing of the upcoming siege at Koufu Castle, where Hijikata makes Sannan and the Rasetsu stay behind in Edo, Hijikata looks to Heisuke and he nods in agreement. Before the members of the Shinsengumi depart for Koufu Castle, everyone changes into Western attire, Heisuke steps out, showing off his new outfit and new haircut, saying that his shirt is a little tight, he is then shown being teased by Shinpachi, who comments on how he can no longer grab Heisuke's ponytail.
Heisuke is next seen when the members of the Shinsengumi returned from the siege of Koufu Castle, commenting on how Shinpachi and Sano are drinking earlier than normal, the two men then offer Sannan to join them in drinking and Heisuke asks if they aren't going to invite him to drink; to which Sano replied with Heisuke is still a bit too young to drink. He then tries to comfort Chizuru when she hears the others talk about Koudou and his new day-time operative Rasetsu and Heisuke tells her that what happened has nothing to do with her and not to worry. Right before Shinpachi and Sano leave, Chizuru says she'll get Heisuke for them, to which the men told her that they already said good-bye to their other best friend, Shinpachi said by then Heisuke would either be sulking or sleeping, there is a quick transition showing Heisuke drinking a large amount of sake; both spiting the earlier comment about being too young to drink and "showing he cares" that his two best friends are leaving the Shinsengumi.
Heisuke is next seen at a meeting with Hijiikata, Sannan, and Saitou where Hijikata instructs no more Rasetsu to be created and he and the others discover that a Rasetsu get their powers from their life force and the more they use their power, they shorten their lives. Hijikata instructs Heisuke and the other Rasetsu to leave for their next location sooner than the others due to being Rasetsu, to which he agrees to with no issue. He's next seen trying to break up a fight between Hijikata and Saitou, but the two fight anyway and Heisuke watches from the sidelines with Chizuru, he then helps Hijikata come to grips that he's the commander now that Kondou has died and tells Chizuru to keep an eye on him because he'll over work himself if she doesn't.
He soon finds out that Sannan had most likely joined forces with Koudou who may be still alive. His suspicions were true when a Rasetsu unit appeared with Koudou and kidnapped Chizuru leaving Heisuke to fight them on his own. Heisuke is later seen in the castle where Chizuru was held captive finding out that Sannan had indeed joined forces with Koudou but Sannan killed a Rasetsu soldier revealing that he had not joined forces with Koudou after all. Hijikata, Heisuke and Sannan defeated all the Rasetsu soldiers in the castle, but Heisuke and Sannan had used up their lifespan, holding Hijikata's hand and Chizuru resting hers on top of his, Heisuke asks Chizuru to look after Hijikata, like how everyone else had before him, and dies with a smile on his face as he and Sannan disintegrated to ashes.
He is seen again in Hijikata's flashbacks and once more at the end of the second season but sporting the ponytail and the clothes he wore in the first season.
Promotional Chibi Adaptation for SSL
Hakuouki SSL
In Hakuouki SSL, He is a Second Year, Form One student who belongs to the Kendo Club. He lives as a neighbour of the Yukimuras and grew up with Chizuru as a childhood friend since young. He likes games but above all, he loves kendo.
Trivia, Differences & Possible garble
- Heisuke is bar-none the shortest of all the captains, standing at only 5' 3", and is the second shortest member of the Shinsengumi, the shortest being Chizuru; who is two inches shorter than Heisuke.
- Heisuke is the second shortest male character in the series, the shortest being Kaoru, Heisuke being taller only by an inch.
- Not only is Heisuke the shortest captain, he is also the youngest, being about 18-19 when meeting Chizuru and in his early 20's when he died, the real life Heisuke died at the age of 22-23.
- Heisuke's death in Hakuouki is similar to the real life Heisuke's death, the real life Heisuke did leave the Shinsengumi and later returned after the events at the tomb, Kondou was deciding on whether or not he should be able to rejoin or be killed. According to the real life Shinpachi's journals, Kondou decided on sparing Heisuke and let him rejoin, but a new member of the Shinsengumi wasn't aware of this and killed Heisuke by accident; in Hakuouki, Heisuke dies by using up his life span in his Rasetsu form accidentally.
- It was rumored that Heisuke was the bastard-child of The Head of the Toudou house. In the game, it was a fact that Heisuke was illegitimate & thus, had to keep his true identity secret. This was also pondered by the real-life Shinpachi, who wrote down all his suspicions in his diaries.
- According to the audio CD's, Heisuke wields a rather famous sword named Kazusanosuke Kaneshige, which rather angered Hajime, when he found out that Heisuke had mistreated it and wanted to replace it. In real life, Heisuke owned the same sword, though rather than Kazusa no suke Kaneshige being the name of the sword, it was the name of the smith who crafted it. The sword was a wakizashi (a short sword that is even shorter than a kodachi) and the fact Heisuke had it in his possession was a reason why he was assumed to be the Head of the Toudou House's illegitimate son because the sword was owned by the head of the family and it was hard to obtain even through heritage.
- Heisuke's wakizashi in real life, is 48.8 cm or 19.2 inches in length and is worth 5 million yen or 51,093.50 in US dollars.
- Even though his bangs hide it, Heisuke recieved a terrible scar on his forehead from the Ikedaya incident.
- Heisuke, Sano & Shinpachi are all part of what they call the "Baka trio," a name which they use to describe themselves when they're all joking around.
- Heisuke has theme music in the anime.
- Heisuke has a weak spot in his arm.
- Heisuke's eye color is debated, as in the games the color is either blue in some instances and green in others, in the anime, his eyes are a mix of the two colors in a lighter shade.
- Heisuke was the first character who became a Rasetsu that refused to drink blood.
- If the Shinsengumi had designated partners for patrols, Heisuke's partner was Souji as shown throughout the first season.
- Heisuke has a character song that is sung by his seiyuu, which is called, "Hokushin no Hoshi", "hokushin" means "proceeding north" or "north-star", "hoshi" means "star" or "cured" and "no" means "field" or "possessive particle", the song's title could possibly mean "Field of Stars" in English.
- Around the time Heisuke took the Ochimizu was around the time his real-life counterpart died.
- Today, the average height for males in Japan is 170-172 cm or roughly 5 feet 7 inches to 5 feet 8 inches, this being said, Heisuke is 10-12 cm or 5-6 inches under average height by today's standards. Though, the average height of males was unknown in the time Hakuouki took place in, based on how much smaller Heisuke was to others and others making fun of him because he was so short may show that Heisuke was under average height even back then.
- Heisuke's full name is "Toudou Heisuke Fujiwara no Yoshitora".
- He and Chizuru both share the same hometown, Edo.
- His status right now is 'deceased'.
- Despite being the youngest in the Shinsengumi in series, the historical figure was the same age as Saito and Souji.
<a href="./File:Heisuke's_Character_Song">File:Heisuke's Character Song</a>
<a href="./File:Toudou_Heisuke_no_Theme_-_Ootani_Kou_Hakuouki_Original_Soundtrack">File:Toudou Heisuke no Theme - Ootani Kou Hakuouki Original Soundtrack</a>
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