Hakuouki Reimeiroku (Season 3/Prequel)

Animation production: Studio DEEN
Episodes: 12

Genre: Historical, Drama

Release: July 9, 2012

OP Theme: "reimei (黎鳴-reimei-)" by Maon Kurosaki

End Theme: "Hana no Atosaki (花のあとさき)" by mao
Adaptation: Visual Novel by Idea Factory
Official Site

Story
The year is 1863 and as Japan's long festering wounds of political discord erupt into violent waves of street clashes and murder, the Tokugawa Shogunate sends a new force of masterless samurai called the Roshigumi to the aid of the Aizu forces in Kyoto. However the new "police" are anything but a cohesive force and assassination has already split them into two opposing factions. The stronger is led by the brutal Serizawa Kamo and the lesser by the more honorable but less assertive Isami Kondo. It is into this pack of wolves that Ryunosuke Ibuki is dragged by the rabid Serizawa. Forced to be a virtual slave by blood debt, he hates the samurai and everything they stand for. But as he sees how the other half of the samurai live, he begins to believe that there may still be a chance, for both himself and Japan, if only Kondo will step up and take down the mad dog Serizawa! -MAL


Thoughts: Sometimes I forget that this is a otome genre. It just seems like I'm watching a period drama animation with lots of great looking men. But I would recommend to watch this season only if you are interested in learning some of the Shinsengumi's backstory of how this group came to be, and a little introduction to the Rasetsu. If you want to get something more exciting and interesting out of this series, then I'd suggest watching seasons 1 and 2. Because in this prequel, you are really going to need a lot patience for this. There are a lot of dialogues in it and some of them can be dull. Overall, I didn't expect much from the 3rd season, but I mostly came here to see some of my favorite Shinsengumi's faces once again.  

 After learning about his past, I have a great respect for him.

 perfect